A young Charlotte Sasha "Carly" Vanders is playing baseball when she's hit on the head by an errant pitch from her classmate Sigmund "Siggy" Steyer. Her father Charles takes her home and treats her bump while she complains about her teacher Cynthia Wormwood, who insists that Carly sets a bad example for other girls by caring more about feminine things like making dresses than about traditionally masculine activities like sports. Charles tells Carly that she should ignore the people telling her to be something she's not and instead focus on being the person she truly is.
Eleven years later, Carly and a few other girls do a USO dance routine for American soldiers serving abroad, but Carly becomes disheartened when she realizes the troops liked the routine itself but didn't care for the girls' outfits (which she designed). She leaves but is blasted by something and knocked out. Three weeks later, she awakens at Area 51 and is told by the scientist Dr. Gracey that she was hit by debris from a falling NASA probe. The debris was irradiated, and Carly's body now has an abnormally large amount of bioelectricity as well as chimeratons, particles which are a byproduct of radiation. Gracey and a military officer named Abernathy offer Carly a job as a soldier, since her new biology should give her abilities others lack, but Carly says she just wants to design outfits and wear them in shows. She declines their offer and leaves.
Carly's friend Vicki Kaminski picks her up from Area 51. Carly notes that she's unsatisfied with her current work but, unlike Vicki, she doesn't know what else to do with her life. She further gripes that authority figures like Miss Wormwood always accepted Vicki's life plans. Vicki says Wormwood only accepted her because she, Vicki, wanted to be a geologist and Wormwood thought that science-based careers, unlike fashion-based ones, were appropriate for women. They are followed by a thundercloud as they return to Carly's home in Indiana, which is also the headquarters of her fashion design business 'Visions by Vanders.' A lightning bolt from the cloud blasts Carly and turns her hair blond while causing her to fly. Carly, excited, realizes that she can use this to rebrand.
Carly visits the agency of Lansky and Schultz and talks with her agent Niro Lansky, who gives her the new superhero name of 'Warhen' (on the grounds that chickens are popular with consumers) and begins working out a fictitious and marketable origin story. Carly agrees to go along with Lansky's ideas as long as she can design her own superhero outfit. Lansky reveals that monsters have been attacking civilians ever since the NASA probe crashed and he sends her out to fight one; Carly struggles at first but is able to use her enhanced strength to survive the creature's attacks, as well as draw upon her bioelectricity to blast the monster apart. It dissolves into mud, confusing Carly, but Lansky insists she ignore the mystery and get back to work. She does so, defeating several more monsters over the next few months while Lansky handles merchandising and press, but their relationship collapses after Carly gives an old homeless women her scarf and is pilloried in the press for it. Lansky says that this will damage Carly's fashion brand, since it's now associated with a decrepit beggar, and that the scarf itself will be expensive to replace because Carly made it out of a specialty fabric called polyradex. He then sends Carly away while he tries to rescue her brand.
Carly goes to talk to Siggy as he works in his family's gun store, which he is running while his father Barrett serves as a missionary abroad. She says that she failed at serving the government and at serving Lansky's agency, so she doesn't know what to do. Siggy tells her to be true to herself and then uses himself as an example; people told him he 'had to' take out student loans and get an MBA, but he just wanted to work in the gun store and didn't need degrees for that, so he ignored those people. Ultimately, Siggy convinced Carly to stand up to Lansky and insist on being true to her ideals. When she returns to Lansky and he proposes not only hiring a sidekick to add sex appeal to her brand but also having Carly get sponsorships and put logos on her outfit, she fires him. He insists that the name 'Warhen' is his IP, and Carly agrees to cede it to him so that she can use the name she wanted in the first place: Kamen America.
Carly goes home to tell Vicki and Siggy what happened, and Siggy asks how Carly picked her new name, but before they can talk more, they learn that a ceasefire has broken down and Russian mercenaries have invaded a demilitarized zone. Missionaries, including Barrett, have been captured and are being held hostage; additionally, the Russians appear to have a supervillain who fights by summoning massive blasts of fire. The news footage, reported by a woman named Karat Enshtick, cuts off when the Russian supervillain approaches the camera. Carly then realizes what it is she wants to do.
— Carly Vanders
She leaves to rescue the missionaries.
After almost three hours, Carly arrives on the battlefield and is immediately attacked by the Russian mercenaries, including the supervillain Misha "Meteor" Lovacova. The two battle, with Misha revealing that she got her powers after being hit by debris from the same space probe which empowered Carly, and she also boasts that she sacrificed everything to train while Carly wasted time on PR and fashion. The fight ends when Carly's powers abruptly deactivate, and Misha triumphantly reveals that their powers have a three hour time limit.
Misha blasts Carly, who falls prone and just barely manages to grab Misha's tie when Misha comes over to check her body. Carly then realizes that the tie was made with polyradex and has a signature reading 'made by Misha,' despite Misha's protestations that her uniform is government-issued. Misha admits that she made her outfit herself but had to hide that fact because soldiers aren't supposed to waste time sewing. She powers down and further admits that she was always big and strong, and so her schools and family pushed her first into sports and then into working for a private military contractor, but that while she likes being a soldier, she wishes she could help instead of hurt. Carly says she can be that kind of soldier and can even sew too if she likes, then tells her that she should be herself instead of living according to other people's wishes. Misha finally agrees to stop fighting and releases the hostages. The other mercenaries protest but Misha intimidates them into backing off, and when she frets about being court-martialed or fired by her PMC, Carly offers to partner with her as they fight to protect people from evil.
Back at home, Carly and Siggy watch a televised interview where Lansky denounces Carly and blames her for 'betraying' him. Siggy commiserates with Carly over her loss of popularity and her six-figure deal, but Carly says she'd rather have her integrity, and she's happy to have befriended Misha. Vicki arrives and reveals that Carly asked her to analyze samples of mud taken from the various defeated monsters, Siggy thanks Carly for saving his father and the other missionaries, and Carly tells Siggy that she'll continue to be a superhero.
A flashback reveals a building in Japan being hit by the same space debris that gave Carly and Misha their powers.
In an epilogue, Carly returns to Area 51, where Gracey offers to run some tests on her so they can learn more about her powers, thus helping avoid situations where Carly is caught flat-footed by unknown weaknesses such as the three-hour limit. She's also introduced to Black Hops, a special operations unit involving some enhanced animals and their human handlers. Carly thinks the animals are extremely cute and agrees to assist Black Hops.
This comic contains examples of the following tropes:
- An Aesop: Be true to yourself.
- Calling Your Attacks: Both Carly and Misha do this.
- Family Business: Siggy's gun store has been a family enterprise for generations.
- Playing with Fire: Misha's powers enable her to do this.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Carly's red hair turns blonde when she uses her powers, and Misha's blue hair turns red when she does the same.
- Private Military Contractor: Misha works for one of these, though her future with them is uncertain by the end of the comic.
