Who Are the Wrens?

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Who Are the Wrens?

Reporting by Kimberly Sparrow


As superheroes and villains have lifted out of comic books and onto the world stage in the past few decades, a number of groups have risen and fallen, but none quite like the unit calling themselves the Wrens. A collection of heroes of apparently varied ages, including a few minors according to some accounts, the Wrens are most active in New York City and the tri-state area and occasionally expand their sphere of influence to assist with larger threats. While their powers have little to do with birds or each other, they all share the suffix of Wren to their hero names, such as Silo Wren, who can move a large amount of material with him when he travels, often times with a destructive aftermath.

Unlike most heroes, the Wrens have chosen not to reveal their civilian identities, stating “We don’t want to make our families potential targets, and the kids deserve some privacy.” The latter part of the statement by Lilac Wren was met with protests by some of the younger Wrens, although their exact ages are still unknown. The NYPD has declined to comment on the heroes’ lack of transparency, but our sources say even they don’t know the faces behind the group. This has had mixed reception by the public, especially given the nature of how people attain powers.

The Wren moniker first cropped up in 15 AE, as Silo, Lilac, and Night entered the hero scene. A fourth was rumored to be seen with them on occasion, but they were never named and their powers unknown. Sources claim Lilac to have some degree of empathic abilities, although she often works with Uni, who has demonstrated quite literally crowd control, so sources conflict on whether her abilities are independent or additive. A few years later, Uni started patrolling with them with the ability to turn into nightmarish creatures that have a different appearance depending on who you ask. Some examples are a swarm of bees, a horse, Satan, and a family member. Shortly after Uni’s appearance, in 20 AE, Lilac and Night weren’t seen for a few months before returning. Around that time, a few young Wrens also made brief appearances for low-level threats, but they didn’t join big fights until around 25 AE. Early interactions with civilians, although few and far between, left impressions of the new heroes being young, possibly even minors. Cipher has displayed a number of powers over the years, confusing many until she clarified in an interview that she could siphon other people’s powers: “I chose the name Siphon Wren, but everyone kept mishearing it, so after a while, I stopped trying to correct them.” Terror has a strikingly similar power to Night with the ability to give people around her a form of waking nightmares, although whether her ability is inherently weaker or just not as developed as Night’s is yet to be seen.

With the second generation after the Eclipse rolling in, very little data is available on whether abilities are inherited, increase or decrease in power over generations, or are entirely independent of relatives. This similarity between Terror and Night might give us some insight if they were to reveal their identities or DNA for testing purposes. Several research groups have already sent out calls for widespread testing and documenting for this very purpose.

In the past couple months, we’ve seen Warp and Ghost emerge as young Wrens with Ghost being invisible most of the time and Warp being enveloped in an ooze that he can use to restrain others. Shockingly, with what little we’ve been able to glean about the new heroes, they both seem even younger than Cipher and Terror were when they first appeared. The two civilians they’ve briefly spoken to place them at around 10-12 years old by their voices and builds. This is a concerning pattern among the heroes as the question arises: where are they acquiring people who have experienced such high levels of trauma at such a young age?

Editor’s Note: The rise in orphans and families living through attacks by supers is increasing, thereby increasing the number of children with potentially power-activating traumatic events. The Eclipse Star is not accusing the Wrens of child abuse.

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