Coagula
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Real Name
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Kate Godwin
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First Appearance
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Doom Patrol (Vol. 2) #70 (September, 1993)
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Creators
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Rachel Pollack, Scot Eaton
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Team Affliations
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Doom Patrol
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Aliases
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None
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Base of Operations
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Doom Patrol HQ
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Powers
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Liquidify solids and solidify liquids
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Skills and Abilities
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No information
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Tools and Weapons
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None
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Coagula (real name Kate Godwin, dead name Clark Godwin) is a superheroine in the DC Universe and a former member of the Doom Patrol. Kate is a transgender woman, one of the first transgender characters in comics, and remains one of the only transgender superheroines. The character was created by transgender science fiction writer Rachel Pollack.
Origin[]
Kate Godwin was a prostitute who ended up sleeping with the mutated half-human/half-alien intersex Rebis and later discovered that she had the ability to turn liquids into solids and vice versa and decided to help the Doom Patrol solve problems and come to grips with their outcast status.
Biography[]
Kate Goodwin's early life is largely unexplored. What is known is that she is a trans woman who became a prostitute.
Kate gained her powers while working as a prostitute. One of her customers was Rebis, a radioactive intersex person. After Kate had sex with them, she discovered she could coagulate liquids and dissolve solids at will. She first tried out for the Justice League, but was rejected by them. Later she said that they were likely impressed by her powers, but couldn't "handle" her. She met the Doom Patrol while battling a villain called the Codpiece, who had devices such as a gun, a drill, and a spring-loaded boxing glove built into a special codpiece he designed and built. Coagula dissolved the device. Two of the Doom Patrol's new recruits, George and Marion, invited her to join.
Early on Kate was identified as a lesbian, but as the series progressed it became clear she was bisexual. She developed a romantic attraction to her fellow teammate Cliff Steele. This relationship was deepened during The Teiresias Wars when the two were joined in order to enter the Teiresias' plane of reality.
A while after the Doom Patrol split, Kate and Cliff took fellow teammate Dorothy Spinner on a camping trip with the intention of telling her she was adopted. However, after hearing this, Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. This caused her to generate a powerful psychic explosion, killing Kate and supposedly killing Cliff. Following this, Dorothy fell into a coma.
The name Coagula comes from the alchemical term "Solve et Coagula", meaning "dissolve and coagulate".
Powers and abilities[]
After having sexual contact with Rebis, Coagula gained the power to turn solids into liquids, and to coagulate liquids into solid. She needs to be in touch with the object to make the change occur.