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Inque is a female shape shifter originally created for the animated series Batman Beyond. Appearing as a normal woman she can change into a featureless liquid black form. She has total control of her liquidized body, which is extremely handy whenever she needs to slide under a door or ooze into a secured area. This is why she is a corporate saboteur with an extreme high salary. Water will weaken her, but not kill her.

History[]

2017007-260px inque new earth 002

Inque in human form.

Inque's origins and background remain largely undisclosed, but it is known that she was born into extreme poverty. Her precarious lifestyle eventually instilled in her an obsession with money, which ultimately became her raison d'être. Because of her trauma, she turned to the life of crime.

Early in her youth, she had a daughter, Deanna Clay. The identity of her child's father is not known nor are the circumstances of the child's birth. Because she was being chased by the police, Inque was compelled to remand Deanna to the care of unnamed guardians.

At some point after that, she allowed herself to become a biogenic mutant, allegedly for a substantial amount of money. The details of the experiment, who conducted it or if creating a shape shifter was the true goal remain undisclosed. From that point on, Inque put her talents up for hire and became a corporate saboteur and assassin for very large fees. Her activities before clashing with Batman are unknown, but by then she had become one of Interpol's most wanted. Even though she never returned to reclaim her daughter, she continually provided her with money, which she transferred to her trust fund on a monthly basis.

In #6 of the first mini-series, Inque appears in Permanent Inque Stains, where she and Batman ally against a cyborg scientist who had enslaved Inque using bio-implants. Though she seemingly sacrificed herself to save Batman's life, somehow, she once again managed to survive. She later appears in #2 of the 2000 series, Ebony Tears, where she learns she can control people by wrapping herself around them, a talent she uses on Batman for her latest crime spree.

In #8 of the 2011 series, Inque recounts her backstory to herself as she proceeds to escape with a small wireless trigger from a military base, despite her body constantly losing cohesion from her mutations. Having grown up in a war-torn country and having nearly died from disease, Inque was smuggled into America and was forced to grow up on the streets of Gotham City. While still pregnant with her daughter, Inque agreed to undergo mutagenic experiments in exchange for food and shelter, only to later be cast back out onto the streets when the scientist no longer deemed her useful. As her body began to mutate, Inque left an infant Deanna in front of a church then returning to the shelter and waiting to die, only to find herself mutated into her current form. She began a mercenary career with her new powers to earn money for her daughter, in hopes that she can live the life Inque herself could only dream of.

The story concludes with Inque giving the trigger to her employer, who pays her with a dosage of mutagen to hold her unstable body together and tells her that she will continue to work for him in exchange for more. She then proceeds to visit Deanna, who is currently hospitalized from the same disease that her mother once had. Despite her daughter's betrayal, Inque desires nothing more than Deanna's well-being, pausing only to feed a small droplet of herself into Deanna's IV cord before leaving into the shadows again.

Powers and abilities[]

  • Metamorphosis

Notes[]

Gallery[]

In Other Media[]

Batman Beyond[]

See: Inque (DC Animated Universe)
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