It’s wise to never mess with a livewire – especially for evildoers coming up against a superheroine with control over electronics.

Amanda McKee, aka Livewire, is a Valiant Comics psionic telepath who can interface with and control electronic machines. If those skills weren’t enough, she has energy projection ability, genius level intellect, and is an advanced martial artist and weapons expert. Livewire made her first appearance in Harbinger #15 (March 1993), created by Bob Layton and Joe St. Pierre.

McKee was orphaned as a child and ended up in a group home, before she was found by Toyo Harada, a powerful psionic who wants to control the world. He took her in, rescuing her from abuses she was enduring, fostering her loyalty to Harada. Taking on the name of Livewire, she was a successful student of the Harbinger Foundation, but things changed when Harada recognized the power of new foundation member, Peter Stanchek. Harada became more domineering and when Livewire finally saw his evil tendencies, she helped Peter get free of the Harbinger Foundation. Knowing that her home was no longer safe, Livewire and her boyfriend Edward Sedgewick also left the foundation.

Geomancer Geoff McHenry recruited Livewire and Edward for the Secret Warriors, but they were considered too volatile and were sent back to the Harbinger Foundation. While she was captive there, Amanda was lobotomized, which manipulated her into serving Harada and removed her memory of being in a relationship with Edward.

When X-O Manowar Aric of Dacia returned from space, Harada sent Livewire after him. Using her abilities, she was able to strip Aric of the X-O Manowar armor and wear it herself, planning to give it to Harada. While bonding with the armor, her abilities were opened more than ever and she gained full access to the Harbinger Foundation’s records. After seeing all of the terrible things Harada had been doing, she finally understood how evil he was and she joined Unity and rallied the Eternal Warrior, X-O, and Ninjak to fight him.

After the Armor Hunters’ invasion, Unity made themselves known to the world with Livewire as the public team leader. After the battle, Unity took the alien spacecraft GIN-GR, with which Livewire could communicate – a major benefit for the team. Since then, she joined MI6, working with specialty agents like Ninjak to stop Harada and his goal of using psiots to rule the world.