Voletta Todd was a brilliant nuclear physicist who specialized in hydrogen fusion. One night during an experiment in order to create a cheaper and cleaner source of energy from ionized gas, she was caught in an explosion from her lab experiments. Once the smoke died down she realized that the explosion had turned her into sentient ionized hydrogen. Nearby Machine Man witnessed the explosion and came upon Voletta in her ionic form. She begged him to kill her, but Machine Man would not. So in a fit of rage Ion attacked Machine Man and floated away, seeking help from the Fantastic Four.
As she arrived at the Baxter Building she noticed that the Thing and the Human Torch were there and Reed Richards was nowhere to be found. Enraged again she attacked the two heroes and escaped again as Machine Man arrived on the scene. Ion then took to the streets and fought Machine Man. However during the battle Machine Man locked her in meat locker. The cold temperatures inside caused Ion to revert back to Voletta and she was taken into custody and put into a cryogenic chamber.
Sometime during the years that followed Ion awoke from her cryogenic chamber and made or obtained a suit which granted her the use of her powers, yet still let her stay in a humanoid form. Ion was then approached by Doctor Nightshade and Superia, who offered her the chance to join her Femizons. Ion accepted with false hopes that her two new benefactors would cure her ionic condition. While on a voyage with her other teammates Diamondback crashed the party. Ion was sent to retrieve Diamondback and saved her life. Later that day the Femizons were attacked by Captain America and Paladin, the wise cracking mercinary. During the battle Ion managed to caputre the Captain, but was knocked unconscious when he smacked her with his shield. Even though she was knocked unconscious she managed to escape.
Later Ion preformed various criminal acts and was stopped by the Whizzer and Doctor Spectrum. The two heroes then took her to Project: PEGASUS in order to incarcerate her. When they arrived at PEGASUS a villain calling himself Geometer started tearing PEGASUS apart. Ion offered her assistance to the two heroes during the battle, but they refused and managed to capture Geometer.
