Very cool. The most direct opposition in terms of powers I'd say.
Well, there goes my previous theory about her, which also encompassed Legacy's counterpart from Thokk. Oh well.
So, it is appearing that the Vengeful Five is full of second-rate villains who aren't necessarily a threat on their own, but try to work together. Individually, they seem like chumps, but together, they may be a threat.
She's a spurned, derivitive, incompetent intern with a stolen speed suit and a Light Cycle-esque heatwave trail. This is awesome! And the fact that she had to AUDITION for Blade's Vengeance team!? Beautiful!
Yeah, it looks like she's the second of them to actually have her weaknesses stated in her backstory. Of course, if we were facing a team of all-powerful villains, there'd be no chance of winning. So they'll probably all have noteable weaknesses or specific ways to dispatch them effectively. Like how we assume the key to beating Proletariat will be through his clones.
The name is a little conductive to one liners but overal it is a nice character and design... looking forward to battling the team.
Hey sugar show me all your love / all you're giving me is Friction?
If she puts out a lot of heat I bet there are interesting interactions between her and AZ...
I was actually thinking of a certain line from Baby Got Back.
Friction's powers all seem to be derived from technological gadgets, so what's the explanation behind her glowing eyes? Is that just her version of Tachyon's Hud Goggles?
I think that's true with most of the names for that team. But it falls in line with the silver-age feel of the game. also, the fact that Baron Blade is manufacturing a team of people who may or may not be vengeful to the Freedom Five is quite humorous to me. Makes Tachyon's quote make all the more sense in context.
It seems like Proletariat is the one with the least motivation to be Absolute Zero's rival. Sure, he's mentioned in the bio, but only because their situations of being locked up were similar. So why does Proletariat have reason to dislike AZ? Not saying every single villain has to have a massive motivation to hate their counterpart, but his story lacks a solid reason to be against AZ. Though, I understand that his backstory doesn't exactly leave much room to be AZ's rival. Proletariat got unfrozen from the Cold War (Ha!), so it's not like he and AZ could have crossed paths before.
At least Friction has motivation to hate Tachyon. And I had always wondered why she chose to have a similar costume. Makes sense now, what with the special suits.
Maybe Proletariat still has a Cold War train of thought going for him? He represents Communism and the fact that Communism said he was a weapon - wouldn't put it past me if Blade told him that AZ suit was made with capitalism in mind. The fact that he roams free, not for the greater good of his communist brothers, but that someone, somewhere will benefit from his suit - like the symbol of capitalism that he is, is the reason he exists. The only way to prove himself, is to prove that Communism is still supreme and that by defeating AZ he would be helping the mother country…etc etc etc.
Failing that, Blade probably told him he said something about his Russian Mother. 
Dude, Absolute Zero, who had been stuck in a cryo chamber himself for years, travelled back in time in order to trap Proletariat inside a cryo chamber. What kind of monster would do something like that?
Where does it say that? I never heard anything like that.
I think it was supposed to be a joke.
No one wants to comment on this? I guess I will!
Ummm… His suit needs to be made of tephlon to avoid chaffing? no no… Hmmm I'll get back on this/…
Oh. I need to learn to detect subtle sarcasm through text.
It doesn't. What it does say is 'He convinced the solider that his old causes mattered not, but that his freedom was taken from him by the opppressive, so-called "Freedom Five"', which I interpreted to mean that Baron Blade convinced Proletariat that the Freedom Five were responsible for him being frozen and stuck in a bunker. Which would almost necessarily involve time travel, but that's hardly an issue in a world with superheroes where time travel is an easily verifiable scientific fact.
It's been a while since I read his update, but I believe that Proletariat was fully aware that he was going to be frozen and thawed out in the future when his country needed him most. Knowing that, I would assume it simple for Baron Blade to be the first person Proletariat saw, and much like a baby chick, beleive everything he says, such as Absolute Zero being a butt-head and needing to be thawed out alive.