Kostiy the Deathless (Valiant Entertainment)

Kostiy the Deathless is a Russian legend-turned-superhero and member of the Red Brigade during the Stalinverse. Kostiy is an unkillable warrior whose power waxes and wanes with the cycles of the moon.

After the end of the Stalinverse, Divinity allowed Kostiy to become a part of reality.

History[]

In the year 1628 of the alternate timeline called the Stalinverse, General Kostiy of the Russian Army led troops into the wilds of Siberia to conquer the nomadic tribes that lived there. One tribe guarded a strange, massive object, believed to be a meteor, yet perfectly spherical. The general made contact with the orb, and soon became terribly ill. Her skin and muscle began rotting away, and her soldiers feared she would start an epidemic. They forcibly sealed her in a casket and buried her alive, where she remained for 300 years.

In 1908, a Russian expeditionary group accidentally dug up Kostiy's grave, unleashing a powerful explosion, destroying anything and anyone nearby except the living skeleton of Kostiy. Taken in by the Russian government, the undead woman was experimented on, and determined to be effectively immortal. Her skin and muscle would deteriorate or regenerate with the cycles of the moon, with Kostiy being passable as human at the full moon but a skeleton during the new moon. When she is in her skeletal form, she becomes "energized", with incredible levels of strength and durability. ^[1]

Seeing her potential, the Russian government brainwashed Kostiy into a loyal Soviet, and recruited her into their state-run superhuman force, the Red Brigade. She participated in the final battle of the Stalinverse, fighting the world's heroes alongside the rest of the Brigade. When Divinity returned the world to it's normal state, he could not bring himself to take freedom away from a woman who had been buried alive for 300 years, so he allowed her to become integrated into the main timeline. ^[2]

She eventually joined the Coalition, a group of immortals bent on world domination. ^[3]

Personality[]

Due to her Soviet brainwashing, Kostiy has immense pride for Russia and the ideals of communism, despite no longer living in a Russia-controlled world.

Powers and Abilities[]

Lunar-Based Rebirth Cycle: Contact with a strange alien meteor granted Kostiy a form of immortality. Every month, her body deteriorates and rots until it is only a skeleton, at which point she is at her most powerful. Her body seems to build up incredible energy during this process.^[1]
- Immortality: Kostiy is seemingly immortal, having survived in a coffin for centuries, and being able to operate as merely a skeleton.
- Superhuman Strength: While her strength is evidently always post-human, she is at her strongest once a month in her skeleton form.

Equipment[]

Kostiy's Hammer: Supposedly forged from the same stone that granted Kostiy her immortality. ^[4]

Notes[]

The character is based on "Koschei the Deathless" from Slavic folklore; see Wikipedia link below.
The force unleashed upon Kostiy's unearthing is Valiant's fictionalization of the Tunguska Explosion, a mysterious explosion that occurred in Russian woodlands in 1908, that is currently believed to have been a meteor that exploded in midair; see Wikipedia link below