Aisla MacPherson

"It's her, the professor. It's MacPherson."

―Rick Flag, Sr. to Eric Frankenstein^[src]

Doctor Aisla MacPherson was a tenured professor at Terrebone University and the leading scholar on Themyscira. She was murdered by the metahuman shapeshifter Clayface, who assumed her identity.

Biography[]

Interrogation of Circe[]

Flag, Sr. questions Aisla MacPherson's veracity — MacPherson at Belle Reve Correctional Center

While in custody, Circe showed a horrifying vision of an apocalyptic future to Amanda Waller, forcing her to call Aisla MacPherson urgently to confirm the veracity of the witch's power. Shortly after, Aisla confirmed Circe's clairvoyant ability, mentioning the accurate prediction of a tsunami which ravaged Themyscira ten years prior. She also explained that the Amazonian witch was not able to imagine futures, believing her claims to be genuine. Despite Rick Flag Sr.'s concern, Waller believed MacPherson and immediately ordered the Commandos to go back to Pokolistan to kill Ilana Rostovic.^[1]

Murdered by Clayface[]

Aisla MacPherson corpse — MacPherson murdered by Clayface

At some point after, MacPherson was murdered by the shapeshifting metahuman known as Clayface, who then would take her identity and pretend to be her. Her corpse was left to rot in her room, sitting in a chair with her throat cut and with a medieval sword present on the ground, while Clayface occupied her house and even continued to feed her cat.^[2]

Legacy[]

After stealing her identity, Clayface pretended to be MacPherson in order to make Amanda Waller doubt of Circe's ability to predict the future and to manipulate her to cancel her attempt on Princess Ilana Rostovic's life. Clayface would also use her identity to continue her teachings at Terrebone University, but he used a crude demeanor to ruin her reputation at the school. Finding the Professor's demeanor suspicious, Rick Flag, Sr. and Eric Frankenstein infiltrated her house and found her corpse, being successfully tricked by Rostovic after finding out about Clayface, who they fought and defeated.^[2]

Her rotten corpse would later be found by Amanda Waller and John Economos after Flag, Sr. was left badly injured. Immediately coming to the same conclusion about MacPherson being impersonated since the beginning, they made contact with Task Force M and aborted their assessination attempt on Rostovic's life. However, after recalling seeing Clayface in Poko Castle's security tapes, the Bride of Frankenstein would be able to see through the deception, and assassinated Rostovic anyway, averting the dark future and proving that MacPherson's claims about the premonition were true after all.^[3]

Personality[]

As a tenured professor and leading scholar on Themyscira, MacPherson was characterized by a stoic face and serious demeanor along with her vast knowledge of Amazons and their homeland in general. She seemed to take her job very seriously and didn't tolerate any kind of comments about Themyscira being a fake place, or jokes about its nature as an island nation of just women. Her knowledge of Amazonians made her believe in Circe's ability to predict the future, as her power had been reported to be true in the past and there was existing information that a clairvoyant like her could not make up fake visions in order to manipulate people, with her scholarship making her quickly gain the trust of Amanda Waller as an expert on the field.

When she was imitated by Clayface, Rick Flag Sr. was clearly taking aback by how the impostor's more crude portrayal of MacPherson herself was so absurdly different from her actual self, which was the main clue to discovering she was impersonated after her death.

Abilities[]

Scholarship: Her vast knowledge of Themyscira as a whole made her quickly gain the trust of Amanda Waller when dealing with the accuracy of Circe's vision, as MacPherson was right about the documented claimings of Circe being able to predict potential futures and unable to fake visions, even knowing to what extent she could actually predict future events.^[1] As a leading scholar on Themyscira, she was a professor at Terrebone University and was highly respected by others.^[2]