| Sunflower | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Real Name | Kimberly Anne Cordayne Meadows Gooding |
| Aliases | Sunflower, Marshal Pasionara |
| Gender | Female |
| Class | Nat |
| Social Information | |
| Citizenship | Citizen of the United States |
| Affiliations | Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) |
| Relatives | Mark Meadows (ex-husband), Cornelius Gooding (husband), Sprout (daughter) |
| Origin | |
| First Appearance | Wild Cards |
| Creator | Victor Milán |
Sunflower is a fictional character from the Wild Cards series of books.
History
Born Kimberly Anne Cordayne, the only daughter of a Bank of America executive, she and Mark Meadows have known each other since they were children. At Rexford Tugwell High, she was one of the popular people, while Mark was not.
After high school, Kimberly went to Whittier College, but dropped out midway through her senior year, changed her name to Sunflower and moved to the Bay Area, the center of the peace movement. There she became involved with drugs, and a series of meaningless relationships with wannabe poets, artists, musicians and young revolutionaries.
Sunflower reconnected with Mark Meadows and gave him his first tab of LSD, which resulted in his transformation into the Radical during the near riot at People’s Park.
Soon after, Sunflower decided that the movement was not doing enough for the cause. She changed her name again, this time to Marshal Pasionara, and joined the Symbionese Liberation Army. It was not a happy time for her. Although the SLA’s harsh discipline had brought her recreational drug use to an end, Pasionara did not fit in with the SLA members who thought she was too bourgeois.
A dental emergency coincided with the SLA’s hideout in Watts being burned out in a stand-off with police. Rejected by the Movement, the SLA destroyed and disowned by her parents, Pasionara was also a fugitive wanted by the authorities. She returned to Mark, at first to hide out, but eventually they became lovers and soon married. Their daughter, Sprout was born in 1977, but their marriage began to fall apart by 1978 and was officially dissolved in 1981.
Sunflower had a break-down during the custody battle and had to be institutionalized in Camarillo. Mark left with Sprout for New York City.
Kimberly Anne spent the next few years in heavy therapy and then turned her life away from protest and rebellion. She became a businesswoman and a very good one. She met and married Cornelius Gooding and decided she wanted a normal life like in a Norman Rockwell painting. Already in her forties, she could no longer safely have children and so she contested Mark Meadows' custody of their daughter.
The trial was long and St. John Latham of Latham-Strauss used it to damage Mark's public image as well as representing Mrs. Gooding. Frustrated by Mark's inability to make gains during the trial, Jumpin' Jack Flash paid Kimberly Anne a visit, which turned into a liaison.
In order to discredit Mark's "friends" Latham engineered a house fire in Mark's neighborhood. Mark transformed into J.J. Flash to save the building's residents in Kimberly Anne's presence. The realization that her lawyer had put her family in danger, and that Mark had seduced her in an alternate identity caused her to relapse into the same condition that she suffered during the first custody hearing and she was taken away by paramedics.
Appearance
Sunflower is tall and willowy with long black hair and pale blue eyes. She is quite lovely and not too full-bodied even into her forties.
Selected Reading
- Wild Cards Volume I: Wild Cards - "Transfigurations"