elijah pope had never really planned on having children. in fact, the idea was so far from his mind that when his new wife announced that they would be expecting a bouncing baby, he actually took her back to the hospital to have her tested a second time just to be absolutely positive that she wasn't just delirious. once the second (and the third) pregnancy test came back positive, however, the young, prodigal software mogul was beginning to cope with the idea of fatherhood and everything the future held on the horizon for his family. what he never planned on, however, was having to do it all on his own.
in the beginning, everything was good, everything was great. smart, caring and well enough off that the family had the whole the world at their disposal, maxine eloise was born with the proverbial silver spoon sticking out of her mouth; she went to all the best schools, knew all the right people, she was invited to all the best parties, had the newest gadgets and toys before anyone else and never, ever wanted for anything. more than anything, though, even as a child, max was bright and clever and her parents saw to it that, despite the fact that she could have these things, that she knew that they came only with hard work, courage and determination. she had the stars in her eyes and the sky was the limit for her. or at least, that was what it may have seemed like to the outside observer and for a while, it was just that. the popes were the stereotypical, all american family... who just happened to be ridiculously rich.
that's the thing, though, about the ridiculously rich: they find themselves in the spotlight more often than they might like and sometimes, they wind up on the losing side of things. that was exactly how the dream life the popes were living came crashing down at their feet. and while she may not like talking about it, about the night her life started to come undone max still remembers it like it was yesterday. she can remember her mother's screams, the way that katherine had thrown herself in front of her daughter, sacrificing herself to try and save her little girl. she can still remember the voices of the men and the way that their hands had felt and the smell of their breath and the way their screams had pierced the night as she, only thirteen years old, angry and sad and scared, had struggled out of their grasp and done all she could to protect herself and get away. and she can still remember waking up the next morning, cold and dirty and covered in blood in the arms of a police officer.
nothing was ever the same after that night. elijah, distraught over the loss of his wife and worried for his daughter's safety, found max the best therapist that money could buy and enrolled her in, what she's next to positive, was every self defense class and camp that he could possibly find and she spent her days behind the ivy covered walls of choate rosemary hall, studying everything from the classics to ancient greek and comparative religion and competing on the school's renowned junior olympic archery team. it may have seemed like she had it all together, like she was making the most out of the questionably shitty situation. but the truth was that she could hear the whispers of the other children, the stories about her mother's death and her father all but abandoning his daughter. but no one knew the truth, no one knew the real story but her and her therapist and her guilt weighed heavy on her every day. all she could do was throw herself into her studies, into the rigorous training regimen that had become her therapy and promise herself that she would never ever be put in that position ever again.
graduating top of your class from what was inarguably one of the most prestigious boarding schools in america meant being accepted to all the best colleges. the students were expected to go on and do great things with their lives and while max was no exception from this expectation and had been accepted to cambridge and yale and five of the seven sisters, she had absolutely no intention of following her classmates into the wild unknown. instead, she spent the the months follwing her graduation in the spring of 2007 wandering the world, aimless and without purpose, looking only for clarity and self reflection. she backpacked through europe, shopped the markets in morroco, and prayed in the temples of sri lanka, she trained with some of the best masters in the world and then spent nearly a month sunbathing all but naked on a beach off the isle of crete in greece.
nearly six months passed before max found herself stateside again. though it pained her, slightly, to go back to the grind of real life and to enroll at amherst and start the process of making something, anything, of her life, she took solace and reprive in her continued training, moreso than ever when she was chosen as a member of the 2008 team usa women's achery team. it was an honor, even if she was only there as a reserve member, to be one of the youngest female archers the team had ever know.
soon after she returned from beijing, with a renewed sense of self and accomplishment, she resumed her training, went back to school as normal and put her nose back to the metaphorical grind, but what was more, she reconnected with her father and began steadily working toward mending their relationship. max, never one to do things half-way, majored in physics and minored in astronomy, competed with the school's archery club and continued to shoot competitively both independantly, as well as with team usa and somehow managed to balance a training schedule as well as a social life on top of all of it.
after graduating with her bachelor's degree, max went on to make plans for grad school while actively training for the 2012 olympic games. however, life seemed to have other plans for her, and a massive panic attack during the games led her to bowing out half way through her time in london. it was this experience that was the main catalyst in her retiring from competitive shooting. it wasn't a decision she took lightly and served as a major disappointment to fans and herself. she went back to boston filled with more shame than she admits and turned to teaching.
Kate Bishop grew up as the youngest daughter of a rich Manhattanite family. Although her father was emotionally distant publishing magnate with ties to organized crime, but before this was known to Kate, she tried to in vain to gain in attention and approval. Meanwhile, her mother was frequently absent on vacations until she died while during a skiing trip in Boulder, Colorado when Kate was still young. Kate was close to her older sister, Susan, but she developed a very independent, blunt, and stubborn personality.
A few months prior to her sister's wedding, Kate was assaulted while walking in Central Park. The event initially left Kate traumatized and isolated. However, the ordeal eventually motivated her to learn several forms of combat fighting and self-defense. She quickly became proficient in swordplay, archery, and martial arts. She also met with a therapist during this time to work through some of her issues.
find out more about this precious little cupcake right over here.
• past victimization
• weapons expert
• name similarities
• personality
• family issues
• et cetera
🔓 * steel alloy battlestaves
🔓 kree composite soul bow
🔓 2nd hawkeye costume
🔓 * weapons expert
🔓 * master marksmen
🔓 skilled acrobat
🔓 avenger's mansion
🔓 memories of the avengers
🔓 memories of the hawkeyes
• investigation
• tactical analysis
• classical cellist
• replica of swordman's sword
• utility belt
• young avengers costume
• memories of s.h.i.e.l.d.
• memories of california
Kate is pulled from Marvel Earth-616.
major in applied physics, minor in astronomy. graduated cum laude
mother: katherine bradley-pope
actress, model, philanthropist. deceased, 2003.
father: elijah pope
47 years old. president & ceo of pope technologies. he's okayish.
step mother: whitney briggs-pope
27 years old. no good gold digging whore. dead to max.
• can't cook (at all) and basically runs on coffee and take out. she craves it, needs it to live and breathe. really, she's basically loreli gilmore, but less functional.
• max's life changed drastically in the wake of her mother's death; she steadily grew distant from her peers and absorbed herself instead in her studies and in martial arts and weapons training instead. it's taken her a great deal of soul searching, counseling and introspection to become the person she is today.
• she still suffers from sever post traumatic stress disorder and though she keeps it together fairly well, she is prone to bouts of moodiness, depression, insomnia and the occasional night terror.
• has a natural penchant for languages and speaks german, italian and french fluently. she also has a rudimentary grasp on romanian, greek and american sign language, among others.
• claims to be technologically impaired, but is in fact, very proficent. this is a concious effort to distance herself from her father. she also is a terrible dancer and has some of the worst luck ever. it should also be noted that her foot-in-mouth disease is strong.
• various scars all over her body, most of which have interesting stories behind them that she can recall at a moments notice, especially when drunk... woops.
• though her intentions good and her heart is always always in the right place, her execution isn't always the most stellar. she has gotten herself into trouble more times than she can count and learned a lot through trial and error. still, she has her moments and is eternally grateful for the people in her life who are basically always saving her from herself.
• founded in 1983 in the wake of then fifteen year old elijah's accidental development of the world's first computer virus (and the subsequent virus protection), pope technologies has become the world's leader in technological innovation. max, though completely disinterested, is the sole heir to the company. she hopes (not so secretly) that her father never dies so she will never have to try and fill his shoes.
• drives a 2015 audi q5 and a 2012 ducati multistrada 1200.