While she wasn't a founding member of the New Warriors, the character of Silhouette joined the team shortly after they were formed and had a mysterious origin that tied her to the creation of the New Warriors and a powerful source of energy that has continued to cause problems in the Marvel Universe.
Silhouette will be rejoining with most of the original team of New Warriors when they return after the Outlawed event to help train the next generation of heroes, so it's a good time to get to know why Silhouette is so important to the New Warriors.
10 SILHOUETTE IS HER REAL NAME
While she is more affectionately known by her New Warriors friends and teammates as Sil, her real name is actually Silhouette, an English translation of her original name from Cambodia, រូបភាពស្រមោល/Roubpheap Sramol.
She is the daughter of Andrew Chord, who helped mentor the New Warriors during their early days. However, Sil was hidden from her father at a young age and their familial connection wasn't known to either of them until the origins of her family were later revealed.
9 MIDNIGHT'S FIRE IS HER BROTHER
While she didn't learn of her true parentage until she was an adult, she was raised alongside her brother, who would become the dangerous mercenary known as Midnight's Fire who recently reappeared in the pages of Ironheart.
Midnight's Fire was initially introduced as Night Thrasher's enemy before he was added to the Folding Circle, and he and Sil learned about their connection to Andrew Chord and the mystical source of energy known as the Well of All Things.
8 FORMERLY INVOLVED WITH NIGHT THRASHER
Dwayne Taylor tried to find his place as a vigilante before he became Night Thrasher, and he found a pair of kindred souls in Midnight's Fire and his sister Silhouette, who were also fighting against the gang warfare in the city.
Dwayne and Sil grew closer as the team worked together more and they eventually fell in love, though their relationship would have many ups and downs over the years before Dwayne's death, and Sil would ultimately find happiness for a bit in the arms of his brother Donyell (who had become the new Night Thrasher).
7 PARALYZED DURING AN UNDERCOVER OPERATION
It was during this period of time that Silhouette was working with Dwayne Taylor and her brother Midnight's Fire that they found themselves in a situation that would forever alter the course of Sil's life.
She had gone undercover with a gang when they encountered a police officer, and in the ensuing confrontation, Sil took a number of bullets to the spine that ultimately left her paralyzed and the friendship between Dwayne and Midnight's Fire irreparably damaged as they each blamed Dwayne for Sil's injury.
6 USES WEAPONIZED CRUTCHES
Sil would eventually return, looking for help from Night Thrasher and the New Warriors, exhibiting previously unknown abilities while remaining an agile and capable fighter, though she was forced to use crutches after her accident.
When Sil began working closely with the New Warriors, Night Thrasher upgraded her crutches and leg-braces to work better in battle and included hidden weaponry like an electric taser, paralytic needle, metal projectiles and gas bombs.
5 CAN MELT INTO THE SHADOWS
Silhouette's new abilities became known as shadow-melting, as she was able to slip into the shadows and reappear out of the shadows in another place using a form of teleportation that she would eventually be able to evolve to include others.
When she first revealed her abilities to Night Thrasher it was in a life-or-death situation and she shadow-melted right out of her clothes, though she later gained a costume made of unstable molecules that traveled through the shadows with her.
4 CONNECTED TO THE DARKFORCE DIMENSION
When Silhouette was in control of her shadow-melting abilities, she faded in and out of the shadows effortlessly, but occasionally she would be forced to escape into the shadows while injured or distressed, to reappear covered in shadowy remnants.
This was a tease into her abilities and their connection to the Darkforce Dimension, which other characters like Cloak and The Shroud are able to use in similar ways, though the Darkforce Dimension does have a negative effect that has driven characters like Shriek and Blackout insane.
3 MUTANT CREATED BY MYSTICAL ENERGIES
Silhouette and her brother Midnight's Fire were technically born with their abilities like other mutants, however, their birth was infused with magical energies and a deep connection to the Well of All Things.
The Well was actually a breach to another dimension that could access cosmic levels of energy which was discovered in Cambodia by a group of nomads who selectively bred themselves over generations to be able to better access the energy. Silhouette, her brother and others were born due to an ancient pact to rule the world using the power of the Well.
2 TAKEN SIDES IN KEY MARVEL EVENTS
While Silhouette didn't appear much on her own after the disbandment of the original New Warriors, she did feature in a couple of key Marvel events on her own that date back to the Infinity Crusade crossover.
Silhouette chose/was manipulated into choosing the side of The Goddess alongside other heroes of faith during the reality-threatening event, and she later sided with Captain America against the Superhuman Registration Act that tore the heroes apart during Civil War.
1 PROTECTOR OF THE WELLSPRING
Due to her origins and connection to the Well of All Things, which was revealed to be only of many access points to the Wellspring of Power, Silhouette has found herself working as a protector of the mystical energy source.
When Midnight's Fire and the Ten Rings organization attempted to exploit the energies of Wakanda's Wellspring of Power, Silhouette worked alongside Ironheart with Shuri and Okoye of Wakanda to protect the Well and stop Midnight's Fire.