Trauma (comics)

Trauma (Terrence Ward) is a fictional comic book character. He is a teenage superhero in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe. Created by writer Dan Slott and artist Stefano Caselli, he first appeared in Avengers: The Initiative #1 (April 2007).

Fictional character biography
Terrence Ward's powers drove him away from his family, and sent his mother to an insane asylum. He is first introduced giving his codename as he receives his first costume. The team's drill-sergeant, The Gauntlet, refers to Trauma as "emo-boy." Trauma wears a black tee with a block "T" for his codename, a black foppish fringe, and tight black jeans.

Trauma's powers are first introduced in a Danger Room-like simulation overseen by Gauntlet and Henry Peter Gyrich. A scientist states that the powers-that-be are very interested in his "power set." Trauma's powers exploit the deepest fears in others, causing him to morph into a physical representation of that deep-seated fear. He must be within proximity to another person for these powers to work. During a training exercise with the other new heroes, Trauma morphs into a giant spider to exploit Armory's fear. Armory loses her senses and begins firing blindly. She blasts off Komodo's arm and shoots MVP in the head while he attempts to protect Cloud 9 from harm. Armory is "grounded" and expelled from Camp Hammond. Gyrich, who is overseeing the entire project, informs Trauma and Cloud 9 that the mishap "never happened."

Since it appears that Trauma can't control his powers, Gyrich takes him away to receive private tutoring on how to control his powers. Gyrich also tells Trauma that as he is a "shape changer who can read minds", his power set is one of those considered a "Holy Grail". The instructor was revealed to be Dani Moonstar. At first Trauma tried to reject her (since he really wanted his powers to be neutralized instead); first by using his powers on Hank McCoy, then by attacking Dani by summoning the Demon Bear. However, Dani facing her fears against the creature years ago plus her training in self-defense allows her to easily force Trauma to reluctantly accept her help in controlling his powers.

Trauma is part of the Initiative's black-ops team.

World War Hulk
As a part of the Initiative's Black-Ops team, he joins fellow team members Bengal, Constrictor, The Scarlet Spiders, and Mutant Zero into the Hulk-controlled Manhattan to rescue his fellow members of the Initiative that rushed into battle with the Hulk. Trauma does battle with Korg, a member of Hulk's Warbound, transforming into Thor, Korg's greatest fear, and defeating him.

He then engages the Hulk, transforming into the Abomination, Juggernaut, Brian Banner, and then Bruce Banner himself until Hulk reveals that he has no fear. Stuck in human form, Trauma is thrown aside into a car, and is left alive to carry on the message that Hulk has no fear. While recovering at Camp Hammond, he makes peace with the other Initiative members, particularly Hardball and Cloud 9. When Dani Moonstar teases Secretary Gyrich about Trauma not being the "Big Gun" he expected, Gyrich then decreases Trauma's power ranking from Class Omega to Class 50.

K.I.A.
A psychotic clone of MVP, wielding Armory's Tactigon and calling himself "Killed in Action" went after Trauma for the hand he played in his "death". Trauma transformed himself into what the Tactigon feared most, an armored alien creature. This did not faze KIA, who rammed a bladed weapon into Trauma's chest, killing him. In the aftermath of KIA's rampage, his fellow trainees visit his open casket. To the surprise of the group, Trauma suddenly rises from his coffin. With no knowledge of how he has returned to the living, Trauma chooses to remain in Camp Hammond as a counselor in order to get answers.

Secret Invasion
During the Secret Invasion, Bengal discovers that the Skrulls have taken over Camp Hammond and summons the rest of the Shadow Initiative to deal with them. They decide to assassinate Queen Veranke, but the attempt fails when Queen Veranke suggests that one of them is a Skrull. This interacts with Trauma's powers, causing him to shape change into a Skrull; the very thing his allies fear he is. The team is defeated and taken captive.

In the Avengers: The Initiative Special, it is revealed that Trauma's biological father is the demon Nightmare, which explains Trauma's fear powers.

Dark Reign
After the invasion, Trauma is in a therapy session with Thor Girl when the Thor clone attacks Camp Hammond. After the clone beats Thor Girl badly, Trauma takes on the clone by assuming the form of the real Thor. However, the clone discovers the ruse and beats Trauma badly until Gorilla Girl intervenes. After the battle, Trauma realizes that the real Thor Girl does not have a crush on him, unlike Thor Girl's Skrull impostor.

Norman Osborn persuades Trauma to remain in his employ, training criminals to behave, by promising to cure his mother's insanity.

Trauma began sleeping more and more even becoming depressed over his treatment of Penance. He does try to help Penance by tracking down his old cat, Niels. As Trauma attempts to fall asleep his mind and body are taken over by his father Nightmare. Nightmare uses Terry's body to attack the Initiative members, Hood's gang, and the "Avengers Resistance", until Penance helps Terry regain control of himself causing Nightmare to release him and disappear. Justice offers to let Trauma join the Avengers Resistance but Trauma instead has decided to leave the Initiative and go on his own to figure how to prevent Nightmare from taking over again. However, he did tell Justice that the offer helped.

Powers and abilities
Trauma has the ability to shape-shift into his opponent's worst fear. At first, he could not fully control the power, causing him to become a gigantic version of Armory's fear (a spider). After receiving training from Dani Moonstar, Terrence is now able to "fine-tune" his transformations, and actually use them to calm people, as shown when he became Gyrich's father, who died from Alzheimer's disease, and telling him "you're clean, son." Dani believes Trauma could use this power to become one of the greatest psychiatrists in the world, helping patients to face their fears, one at a time. Terrence's powers do not work on those without emotions (robots, for example), and were eventually ineffective on the Hulk, who declared that he feared nothing. Trauma has even been able to assume the forms of Thor, Abomination, and the Juggernaut. His powers also enable him to duplicate weapons, as demonstrated when he became Thor to battle the Thor-Clone. However, the weapons, being a part of him, cannot leave his hands. This caused the clone to no longer fear him as he realized Trauma was not the true Thor.