Origin

Not much is known of Big Bertha before she responded to Mr. Immortal's advertisement for a superhero team, the team that would become the Great Lakes Avengers. When not using her powers, she is the most recognizable super model in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In fact, it is Bertha's earnings from modeling that fund her team. Although offers have come her way to leave her town for more lucrative endeavors, Big Bertha has repeatedly expressed that she desires to stay with her team and considers them her surrogate family.

Creation

Big Bertha first appears in West Coast Avengers (1985) #49 by John Byrne

Major Story Arcs

Great Lakes Avengers

Ashley answered a personal ad placed by Mr. Immortal for a new superhero team. After the Vision appeared on The David Letterman Show to introduce his new look to the public, the team decided to call themselves the Great Lakes Avengers and act as the team's Midwest branch. Hawkeye and Mockingbird, who had only recently quit the Avengers, were curious and investigated the team. Hawkeye decided to take the young heroes under his tutelage and shape them into a real team.

When the team detected an emergency summons from the real Avengers, Hawkeye led the team in a battle against the threat of That Which Endures which had already possessed The Avengers' Scarlet Witch and She-Hulk in a bid to push evolution forward. As Ashley and the team battled against the possessed Avengers, Mr. Immortal saved the day by destroying the Assimilator, which freed everyone from its influence.

Lightning Rods

After the Avengers seemingly perished after battling Onslaught, the Thunderbolts took their place as the premier superhero team. The Great Lakes Avengers decided to abandon the Avengers name and attempt to become the West Coast equivalent of the Thunderbolts, taking the name The Lightning Rods.

Eventually, The Lightning Rods were frustrated to learn that the Thunderbolts were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise. The team decided to try and arrest the Thunderbolts, but they were humiliatingly defeated by them and had their costumes stolen. The Lightning Rods tried again to get even with the Thunderbolts, only to be defeated once again. They eventually just gave up trying.

Misassembled

The Great Lakes Avengers were trying to save their reputation after a number of setbacks. They had become a laughingstock but were still well-funded thanks to Ashley’s modeling career. Most of her money was spent upgrading costumes and renting headquarter space. She was spending so much money that she also ended up spending more time on her modeling career than her superhero career, which made her feel empty.

She was starting to question if her GLA membership was even worth it when they came across the villain Maelstrom, who sought to destroy the universe. The team was led there by Mr. Immortal’s invisible friend, The Deathurge, who had been preparing him his whole life for this moment. Maelstrom created a black hole that was going to wipe out all of existence, while Doorman and Mr. Immortal combined their powers to take on Maelstrom, Ashley desperately held on to Flatman, who was being sucked into the portal.

She thought she failed, but luckily what she saw was just his costume.

50-State Initiative

After the New Warriors took on villains that they were ill-equipped to handle, Standford, CT was destroyed in a nuclear-like explosion. To get the superheroes a semblance of checks and balances, Tony Stark sponsored the Super-Hero Registration Act, which would require all superheroes to work for the government. After a mix-up with their registration, Deadpool was sent to force them to register, which they already had. Deadpool was granted. Mr. Immortal decided to offer him reserve status.

Bertha agreed to one date with Deadpool in an attempt to evict the mercenary from her headquarters. Deadpool is shocked when she appears before him in her slim form. Following a rescue at an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, Bertha realizes that Deadpool was only attracted to her in her obese form. She lectures him about others only placing value on her slim form, and the mercenary removes his mask, revealing his severely scarred face. Bertha promptly vomits in the parking lot, much to Deadpool's disquietude

Part of the act was the establishment of the 50-State Initiative, where each of the U.S. states would receive their own version of the Avengers, with heroes trained by former and active Avengers. The Great Lakes Avengers (renamed the Great Lakes Initiative) were assigned to Wisconsin.

GLA Again

Due to legal issues with Stark Holdings, they had lost the trademark to the Avengers name, which then went to the only other person who attempted to trademark it: Flatman. Avengers legal counsel, Connie Ferrari, offers Flatman the legal rights to the Great Lakes Avengers for the return of the Avengers trademark, which was good enough for Flatman, so he got the gang back together, except Squirrel Girl, who had become too popular for them. They even got a defunct Detroit Stark factory for their new headquarters; however, they got into a feud with a masked supervillain named Nain Rouge, who owns a neighboring club.

After causing chaos at this club, the group was arrested and ran into Goodness (aka Good Boy), a female blue-haired humanoid wolf shapeshifter who threw a bottle at the Detroit councilman, Dick Snerd, who is also secretly Nain Rouge. He continued to spout propaganda regarding poor communities being breeding grounds for crime while sending in his own superhuman goon squad to tear them up. To keep them out of the way, Snerd used the GLA and Good Boy’s recent arrests to have them barred from acting as heroes.

Bertha and Goodness did not care about the injunction and went to confront Nain Rouge again. They found him, drunk and passed out without his mask, revealing he was Snerd. The duo decided to kidnap, and, in a fit of rage, Goodness attacked and injured him. The team had to ditch him after Connie found out about it, dropping Snerd off at a hospital with his mask pinned to him. The city appreciated what the GLA did, as well as their other acts of heroism, however, a court ruling did not rule in favor of Flatman’s trademark, so the Avengers sent Deadpool, active member of the Avengers Unity Squad at the time, to fire them.

Personal Data

Characteristics

• Height: Variable (6'1" to 7'4")
• Weight: Variable (120 - 750 lbs.)
• Eye Color: Blue
• Hair Color: Brown
• Citizenship: USA
• Birthplace: Marshfield, WI
• Education: Three years of graduate work and a four-year undergraduate degree
• Occupation: Adventurer, plus-sized model; formerly supermodel

Powers And Abilities

Body Transformation: Bertha has the power to alter her mass by increasing or decreasing the fat content of her body at will. She can increase her mass to the point where she is as large as the Blob. Bertha can purge the excess of her body fat through regurgitation of the collected fat masses in order to retain her original figure.

• Superhuman: In her Big Bertha form she has super-strength, stamina, and invulnerability.

Wealth: She is also extremely wealthy having made a fortune as a super-model. This has allowed her to fund the Great Lakes team.

Pilot: Big Bertha is a skilled pilot of conventional jet aircraft.