Ying Liu (Earth-616)

At some unknown time after Ying Liu's birth she was delivered to the Black Widow Ops Program as an orphan.^[2] It is unknown who delivered her there, but she had met, and later recognized, Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier.^[3]

At a young age, it was discovered that Ying had an affinity for science and specialized in chemistry, specifically biochemistry. At some point she was stationed in Siberia and became Nadia's lab partner, but when the two began to form a bond, Mother had them separated.^[4]

After Nadia's escape, Ying was sent to retrieve Nadia and return her to the Red Room. To assure Ying and Nadia's compliance, Mother placed a bomb at the base of Ying's skull which could be detonated remotely. Ying attempted to capture Nadia first by using a Pym Particle device she had fashioned to enlarge a rat to monstrous size.^[5]

The rat was defeated by Devil Dinosaur and Nadia found the device in the rat, at which point she was able to use the signal to track and corner Ying. This was their first meeting since Russia and was how Nadia became aware of Ying's continued survival.^[4] Ying escaped, but later made another attempt to capture Nadia, this time using a device which stimulated the Pym Particles in Nadia's body to immobilize her. Due to the timely interference of Jarvis, and Ying's emotional connection to Nadia, Ying released her. When Nadia attempted to recruit Ying to join G.I.R.L., Ying revealed the presence of the bomb in her skull and her seemingly imminent demise.^[6]

Nadia called together all the scientists in G.I.R.L. for their first mission: to remove the bomb from Ying's head. As they attempt to find a way to save Ying, Mother gives them an ultimatum: either Nadia turns herself over to Mother by the end of day or Mother will detonate the bomb, killing Ying and any others nearby.^[7] Nadia decided to turn herself over to save her friend, but Ying spearheaded a desperate attempt to remove the bomb before Nadia was beyond retrieval. During this time, Ying was shown to be developing a bond with Shay Smith, one of the other girls in the group. The girls develop a method to remove the bomb by creating a pair of Vision Gloves, which mimicked the phasing powers of the Vision. Shay ultimately removed the bomb from Ying's skull and disposed of it. Shortly afterwards, Ying was seen bleeding from her nose and collapsed.^[8]

She was taken to the New Jersey Medical Center, where the injury proved to be superficial and she saved Nadia and Janet Van Dyne from an attack by Whirlwind.^[9] The day after the assault at the hospital, Ying attended the opening reception for the new G.I.R.L. facilities within Pym Labs in Cresskill, New Jersey. Janet also presented Ying with her living quarters at Pym Labs. During the reception, Ying openly flirted with Shay and asked her to dance, beginning their romantic relationship. Sometime later, Ying was shown assisting Shay in the first successful trial for Shay's Teleporter.^[10]

Some months passed and while they were still flirtatious, Shay was unsure of the status of her relationship with Ying.^[11] Ying became closer to G.I.R.L.'s mentor and fellow biochemist, Bobbi Morse. Bobbi promised she would help Ying find out where she was from.^[12] When Ying and Bobbi returned to the lab from an outing with Nadia and Janet, they found it under attack. Ying's abilities as an assassin and hand-to-hand combatant were fully shown for the first time, as she incapacitated several A.I.M. agents to reach and protect Shay, whom she referred to as her "girlfriend." Once the threat was neutralized, Shay kissed Ying on the cheek and they make their relationship official.^[13]

In the days that followed, Nadia had a manic episode as a result of her bipolar disorder and Ying was injured attempting to subdue Nadia to protect Shay.^[14] After that incident, Ying requested assistance from Janet in preparing to meet Shay's mother. Shay's mother expressed disappointment when Shay came out to her as a lesbian and introduced Ying as her girlfriend. Ying told off Shay's mother, which Shay inadvertently overheard. When Ying attempted to apologize, Shay told her that she didn't want an apology, she wanted Shay to kiss her. They kissed and returned to Pym Labs to attend Nadia's birthday party.^[15]

During the G.I.R.L. Expo, Ying demonstrated the project she has been working on, which involved using Pym Particles to treat cancer.^[2] She was then taken captive along with fellow G.I.R.L. scientists Shay Smith and Priya Aggarlwaal by A.I.M. Labs, before assisting Nadia in A.I.M.'s defeat and knocking Finesse unconscious. She was saved from being sucked through a black hole by Nadia.^[1]

In the days following the G.I.R.L. Expo, Ying learned that Mockingbird and The Winter Soldier had recovered information about her from the Red Room. The information included her last name "Liu" and the area from which she was recovered by the Red Room near the Amur River, which marks the border between China and Russia. She asked The Winter Soldier to tell her about the area and he stated that he would.^[1]

Ying and Nadia have also begun a book club to catch up on parts of pop culture that they missed while growing up in the Red Room. They call it the "Bunker Girl Book Club."^[1]

Martial Arts: Ying, like all the students of the Red Room Academy, is trained in multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat.^[13]

Bio-Chemistry: Ying is a gifted biochemist, having been groomed from a young age in the Red Room as part of "The Science Class." She demonstrates this skill by modifying Pym Particles to recognize cancerous cells.^[2]

• Ying is in a relationship with Shay Smith.^[10]

• Ying is bad at coming up with "one-liners" to punctuate fight scenes.^[13]