Aspen Matthews

Aspen Matthews
Aspen Extended Edition Wizard World Edition by Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald.
Publication information
Publisher	Aspen MLT (2003-present) Top Cow (1998-2002)
First appearance	Fathom Preview (1998)
Created by	Michael Turner
In-story information
Team affiliations	The Blue and The Black, The Four Points
Abilities	Manipulation of Water Energy Manipulation Blast Power Healing Factor Breathes Underwater Transforms into a Being of Water

Aspen Matthews is the main character of Fathom, a comic book series created by Michael Turner. She was ranked 46th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

Aspen Matthews is caught between two worlds. During her early adolescence, she could remember nothing from her early childhood. In her earliest memories she is on the cruise ship Paradise, thought to have been lost for ten years. She was adopted by Captain Matthews, a US Navy captain, and soon developed a passion for water, running to the nearest beach every day to enjoy her favorite recreations of swimming and surfing. She actively pursued this passion and showing tremendous aptitude eventually joined the US Olympic Swimming Team. She trained hard and was chosen to compete in the Olympic Games. However she was eliminated as she tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs despite never having taken any (see Fathom: Prelude #1 for more details). This effectively ended Aspen's professional swimming career, so she chose to study marine biology.

Aspen eventually began to remember bits of her early childhood, including a memory with her mother talking to a member of the mysterious race known as the Black.

Aspen continued to study marine biology, graduating as a marine biologist. Eventually, she was invited to participate in a deep underwater research station called Deep Marine Discovery (DMD). The primary goal of the DMD was to study a strange alien ship that seemed to have a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding water. Aspen also learns that the DMD was holding a strange alien man named Killian, who had voluntarily surrendered himself. However Aspen did not have much time to study him, as the DMD was suddenly torpedoed by mistake. Killian freed himself, and attempted to abduct Aspen. However, a strange figure intervened and saved Aspen.

After the event at the DMD, from which she was one of the few survivors, Aspen's life began to grow much more complicated. Admiral Maylander discovered that while her anatomy was somewhat similar it is not human. Aspen also encountered Chance Calloway, a naval fighter pilot and shooter of the torpedo. Although she scorned him at first, they developed a mutual degree of respect. Later Aspen was abducted and seduced by Killian who told her that she was one of the Blue, a race of underwater people living in the ocean and have been around longer than humans. Aspen was also an Elite Blue, meaning she could not only breathe underwater, but also manipulate it to her will. She was persuaded to help set up a number of battle stations in a plan to conquer the human race. The battle stations eventually activated the Blue Sun, a weapon-satellite capable of sending a massive energy beam. The beam was used to penetrate the ocean floor.