Bumblebee
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Real Identity: Karen Beecher
Affiliation(s): Happy Harbor High School, The Team, and Ivy University
Appearances: Targets, Failsafe, Secrets, Misplaced, Happy New Year, Alienated, Beneath, Depths, Satisfaction, Darkest, Before The Dawn, Cornered, True Colors, War, The Hunt, Intervention, Summit, Endgame, Home Fires, Illusion of Control, Unknown Factors, and Death and Rebirth
Appearances (Comics): Players Chapter One, Players Chapter Two, Players Chapter Three, Players Chapter Four, Players Chapter Five, Players Chapter Six, Foreign Affairs, and Yesterday's Children: Memory Six
Powers/Skills: Size-Changing and Flight
Voiced By: Masasa Moyo
Karen Beecher was a student at Happy Harbor High School and member of the Bumblebee cheerleading squad. At the time, she was 15 years old and was the girlfriend of classmate, Mal Duncan. On October 31st, Beecher dressed as a bumblebee for Halloween. After high school, Beecher became the lab assistant and protege of the Atom. She later joined the Team as Bumblebee and was assigned the designation B-17. She continued to date Duncan. As of February 16th, Team Year Five, Bumblebee and Lagoon Boy were on special assignment.
On December 1st, Team Year Five, Bumblebee was assigned to Beta Squad and watched over Noor Harjavti in Metropolis. Things took an unexpected turn when Kylstar teleported several heroes and villains from Earth. To make matters worse, a space ship appeared above the city and a force field soon enveloped it. Bumblebee determined the field descended into the Earth and there was a slight curvature. She concluded the city was trapped inside a sphere, not a dome. Bumblebee and Beast Boy escorted Noor Harjavti to Bibbo's Diner for asylum then left to help take down the sphere. Bumblebee shrunk down and entered the probe with Beast Boy, transformed as an insect. Under Batgirl's command, they began tampering with the probe. Their actions forced The Collector of Worlds to disengage his reduction beam. After The Collector spoke with the Justice League, it decided to restore Metropolis to normal. At 22:03 EST, Bumblebee and Beast Boy vacated the probe and returned to Bibbo's Diner to check on Harjavti, unaware she and Bibbowski were replaced with two Kroloteans.
On January 1st, Bumblebee was assigned to Delta Squad and participated in a mission to track down Clayface in Gotham City. After the mission, she rushed off to make an appointment with Palmer much to Duncan's dismay. On January 4th, she was assigned to Beta Squad with Batgirl and Wolf. They engaged two Kroloteans in Vlatavastok. On January 5th, 17:09 EST, Bumblebee and Blue Beetle failed to capture a Krolotean posing as Bibbo Bibbowski. She did manage to hit one of its shoudlers before it escaped. On February 19th, Bumblebee was part of an all-female Apha Squad sent to Bialya to search for alien technology matching the one from Malina Island. On March 23rd, Beecher worked with Dr. Palmer in his Ivy University lab for several hours on an experiment testing something against the white dwarf fragment. On April 1st, Bumblebee was present in the Hall of Justice and wasn't so keen on Duncan moving in with her. Despero and L-Ron soon invaded. She was unable to revive Zatanna, breach the alien field or put a dent in Despero. Despero eventually neutralized her with telepathy but one of her stinger blasts inadvertently hit his third eye. Despero almost stomped Bumblebee but Mal Duncan intervened. Miss Martian took custody of Bumblebee and tried to revive her, Billy Batson, and Zatanna.
On April 7th, Bumblebee assisted the Atom in attempting to separate the Scarab from Jaime Reyes. They were forced to abort the mission when the Scarab generated a large amount of antibodies. On May 26th, Bumblebee was assigned to Gamma Squad with Guardian and Super-Cycle and tasked with disabling the Warworld power core. During the mission, she was surprised to hear Guardian gripe about their relationship. Bumblebee was unable to disable the core because the power kept rerouting. Based on Guardian's desperate plea, Bumblebee came up with an idea to use the core to overload the helm. As a result, Mongul was electrocuted and severely weakened. At the end of the mission, Bumblebee admitted to taking Guardian for granted and they reaffirmed their love for each other. On May 30th, after the Team was rescued, Bumblebee confronted Arsenal on his rash choice to open the airlock to stop Blue Beetle. On June 19th, Bumblebee took part in the Santa Prisca mission.
On June 20th, Bumblebee was assigned to Kappa Squad with Guardian in the coordinated strikes on the Magnetic Field Disrupters. She attended Wally West's funeral. On July 4th, she was assigned to Beta Squad with Tigress, Kid Flash, and the Guardian to find proof LexCorp was rereleasing the Reach soft drink under a new name. She resigned from the Team to focus on her scientific studies. For her dissertation, Beecher isolated samples of her own blood and tissue to introduce genetic material into a genome and successfully integrated new genes into her sample's DNA that could have enchanced everything from muscular strength to mental acuity. She concluded it proved that the power of evolution was in the people's hands to cure disease or to enhance nature but she submitted her experiments not as an argument for or against such procedures but to help spark an important ethical debate about how to utilize this science todo the right thing. She stated it was a debate the scientific community had to settle now before nature or other forces in their fast-changing world settled it for them and their children.
On September 29th Team Year Eight, a very pregnant Karen Beecher came to the play date for the children of Justice League members. She joked when you're invited to such an exclusive club, you don't say no. Amistad Ervin observed she had a baby in body. On November 22nd, Beecher and Duncan attended Thanksgiving at Conner Kent and M'gann M'orzz's home. On January 21st, 20:30 EST, Team Year Nine, while on the road, Duncan told Beecher he got tested for the meta-gene. Beecher became concerned but he pointed out she got tested before him. She countered it was for her dissertation and tested her blood sample as a control before she shrunk down to study and alter the genome. Beecher changed her mind several times but then implored Duncan to just say what the results were. Duncan revealed he did not have it. Beecher processed they both did not have the meta-gene and was fine with that. Duncan thought it would be cool if "Karen Junior" was a meta. She stated "Malcolm Junior" did not need a meta-gene to be cool. He agreed but believed they could handle it. Beecher recalled they put a lot of time in babysitting metas.
Duncan stated he would love their child no matter what and just hoped she had a big beautiful brain. She told him his was beautiful, too, and said his son would be blessed to get it but she believed it was the luck of the draw. Duncan wondered if it had to be and thought science could give her the edge, or at least make sure she could keep up. Beecher wanted to leave it to Mother Nature. She suddenly declared her water broke. They arrived at Ivy University Hospital. Evelyn Fox attended to her. Duncan told Beecher she was doing great and mused if she hurried, their baby could still be born on Martin Luther King's birthday. Beecher promptly grabbed him by the collar. He denied he told her to hurry. Fox instructed her to focus on one last push. Fox declared it was a girl. However, she noticed the color in her figures and lips, noting cyanosis, and wanted to get her to x-ray. Beecher became worried. Fox tried to calm them down but admitted there was a problem, their daughter had a hole in her heart.
To make matters more dire, the heart surgeon was stuck in traffic due to the snow. Ryan brought over a "gift" from Dr. Palmer's lab: her Bumblebee suit. Duncan pointed out she just gave birth. Fox assured Duncan repairing a hole in the heart was a common procedure and she assisted in many surgeries. Beecher declared that was why she was the perfect candidate to assist her. Duncan repeated she just gave birth. Fox thought it was crazy she would be putting the mom into the baby. Duncan implored her to be careful. Beecher assured him he wasn't losing anyone. She shrunk and flew into Fox's syringe. Fox injected her and confirmed the video feed was clear. Fox soon sighted the hole and stated the patch would work on it and guided Beecher through the correction. It was a success. Fox confirmed blood flow and pulse were normalizing. She told Beecher her daughter was lucky to have a mother who could fix Mother Nature's mistakes. Beecher thanked her and asked for a minute to rest before she came out then cut off contact. She shrunk further and looked at her daughter's genome then contemplated if she should alter it to have a meta-gene or not.
On January 22nd, 00:16 EST, Beecher laid down next to her daughter and told her everything was all right. Duncan agreed and placed her back on the bed. She returned to normal size. Their daughter was named Rhea Malia Beecher Duncan. Fox excused herself. Duncan noted she spent a long time inside after the procedure and asked what she was doing. Beecher stated she did the right thing for her. Beecher accepted an offer to be in the Justice League's reserve system. She was assigned the designation E-06. On September 16th Team Year Ten, Beecher was a bridesmaid at Kent and M'orzz's wedding. On November 11th, Ray Palmer and Karen Beecher analyzed samples taken by the Team in a mine in Krastmala. After performing the analysis three times, they concluded there was Kryptonite in the mine and informed Oracle at 15:39 EST. Beecher advised her to warn Superboy as soon as possible.