[history]

Tara was the illegitimate child of Viktor Markov, the king of Markovia. Her early years were spent in the country, initially raised by her mother, then taken into the custody of Dr. Helga Jace once her geokinetic powers emerged. Until her tenth year, she lived in a laboratory and was sent away to live with her biological mother in America when she was no longer needed.

Having seen Helga Jace as the closest thing to family she could attain, the feeling of betrayal festered and hindered her adjustment to a new life with her mother. Resentment grew between the two because of Tara's difficulties bonding and her mother's fear of the girl and her unstable powers. After an incident with her powers left her mother dead, she ran away. For years she drifted from place to place, never able to make a home for herself for long as nothing but destruction seemed to follow her.

Slade Wilson was the one to finally see potential in her. Knowing nothing of genuine affection and caring without manipulation, Tara latched onto him as something of a father figure and source of acceptance.