Who Is Empress? Origin, Powers and Key Facts

Empress is a DC Comics comic book character, the alter ego of Anita Fite, with over 92 comic issue appearances. Inspired by the superheroine Arrowette, Anita Fite vowed to use her considerable fighting skills and proficiency in the mystic art of vodoun to save lives as Empress.

Who is Empress?

Origin The daughter of Donald Fite , of the All Purpose Enforcement Squad (APES.), and his wife Oshi, Anita Fite was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, just before her parents both finished college. Oshi was the daughter of a powerful "mambo," a priestess of the mystical art of Vodun (more commonly referred to as "voodoo"), and though she had her reservations about Don, her mother allowed Oshi to marry him once it was known that Anita would be born. However, before that time, she convinced Oshi to allow her to perform a ritual that would ask Oya, vodun goddess of the wind, fire, and thunderbolt (who represented female power and guarded the gates of death), to "sponsor" Anita and serve as her "Gros Bon Ange" (Big Guardian Angel). When Anita was born, she grew up in her grandmother's home before the Fite family moved to a small apartment along Bourbon Streen in New Orleans. Though she was only five at the time, Anita displayed considerable athletic abilities, able to do a handstand on their apartment's railing two-stories up with no visible effort, something her grandmother chalked up to the influence of Oya. Because of her imperious, somewhat bossy attitude, her mother called her "Empr.

Key facts

Empress is of human origin and first appeared in "Aftermath". The character is published by DC Comics. With 92 recorded issue appearances, Empress ranks among the most featured characters in comics.