Typhoid Mary (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This comics-related article or section describes an element of the series in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
| Typhoid Mary | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Typhoid Mary (real name Mary Walker), also known as Typhoid and Bloody Mary, is a fictional mutant character in the Marvel Comics universe, most commonly associated with Daredevil as a supervillain. She first appeared in Daredevil #254, and was created by Ann Nocenti and John Romita, Jr.
Contents |
Typhoid Mary is an enemy and former lover of Daredevil with low level psionic powers, including telekinesis. She has been employed by organized crime syndicates as an assassin in the past. She is also truly and gravely mentally ill.
Her condition was revealed to have been accidentally caused by a pre-Daredevil Matt Murdock. He had tracked a villain down to the brothel where Mary worked. He attacked the man, but to his surprise, the girls working there came at him. Panicking, he lashed out, knocking Mary out the window. It was at this moment Mary became Typhoid Mary, vowing no man would ever hurt her again.
Suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Mary Walker has two other abnormal personalities in addition to her seemingly healthy one. Her "Mary" personality is a timid, quiet, pacifist; her "Typhoid" personality is adventurous, lustful, and violent; and her "Bloody Mary" persona is brutal, sadistic, and hates all men. Mary once claimed that there was a fourth personality, who is 'lost,' but it has not since been mentioned. Aside from highly developed martial arts skills, Walker also possesses telekinetic powers and, more dangerously, pyrokinesis, the ability to set people or objects in her immediate vicinity aflame.
A favorite pawn of the Kingpin, Typhoid frequently battled and had a love-hate relationship with Daredevil before disappearing. Through hypnosis, the abnormal and psychotic personalities (Mary: the pathological victim, Typhoid: the adventurous sociopath, and Bloody Mary: the homicidal psychopath) were suppressed from Mary Walker's consciousness, and she began to lead a normal life, becoming a soap opera star. The Kingpin sent her to defeat Power Pack during the Acts of Vengeance.
At one point Mary was confined to a mental institution where each personality hired a mercenary. Mary Walker hired Deadpool to kill her, Typhoid Mary hired Deadpool to break her out, and Bloody Mary hired The Vamp/Animus to break her out to resume a killing spree. Deadpool defeated the Vamp/Animus but refused to kill Mary Walker, allowing the Typhoid personality to become dominant. Typhoid and Deadpool had a few adventures together, including travelling to New York City to confront Daredevil for accidentally kicking her out of the brothel some years ago (Typhoid regained the memories of this incident when Deadpool pushed her out of a window), before Deadpool attempted to reform Typhoid. This did not go well and the two eventually separated.
However, following the Kingpin's fall from power and being left in a coma near death, he recovered and started rising back to power, taking out his enemies. To distract Daredevil while he retook his criminal empire, the Kingpin paid a visit to Walker at her show and with a blunt slap released the abnormal personalities. After confronting Daredevil in his secret identity (Matt Murdock) and setting him on fire, his bodyguards Luke Cage and Jessica Jones managed to take her down. Mary was imprisoned on the 'Raft', a maximum security prison for superpowered criminals.
Electro later led an attack on the Raft, helping the prisoners break out. While the Avengers arrived and managed to stop some of the prisoners, Mary managed to escape. Mary retained her mutant powers during the M-Day and was briefly mentioned in Civil War: War Crimes as once more working for the Kingpin.
Typhoid Mary possesses a number of limited psionic powers. She can levitate small objects over short distances (such as weapons of under 10 pounds; knives, razors, etc.). She has limited pyrokinesis, meaning she can set objects in her immediate vicinity aflame. She can implant mental suggestions in the minds of others. She can induce sleep in weak-minded individuals and most animals.
However, she has three separate personalities as a result of her mental illness. The timid, pacifist "Mary" personality has no psionic abilities. The "Typhoid" and "Bloody Mary" personalities have the full range of these psionic powers and they are strongest in "Bloody Mary". Her original "Mary Walker" personality is supposed to be a balanced amalgam of all of these, but is seldom dominant. Because of the different heartrates and voice patterns of her different personas, not to mention the different ways of dress, even Daredevil's super-senses were long unable to tell the different personas all belonged to the same woman, and Typhoid Mary took advantage of this situation to hide from Daredevil/Matt Murdock "in plain sight" (she was aware of Daredevil's secret identity almost from the first time she encountered him).
Typhoid Mary is in excellent physical condition. She has peak human reflexes and agility, and is highly athletic. She is also trained in the martial arts, particularly Judo and Zen-Sword. She is a master in the use of edged weapons.
A villain named Typhoid (portrayed by Natassia Malthe) appeared in the Elektra film, but the only real similarity she had to the comic book character was the name. In the movie, she was an assassin for the Hand whose breath or touch could kill whatever they came into contact with. Her poison touch would spread vastly throughout an area at will, killing life, and she could poison her weapons by breathing on them. The precise limitations to the poison that leaves her body is unknown, nor to how quickly and wide she can spread it. She was once a skilled ninja called the Treasure, but that position was taken from her and given to a little girl named Abby. Typhoid gives Elektra a poisonous kiss, which almost kills her. She succeeded in killing Abby with her breath-poisoned weapons, although Elektra later resurrected Abby with the same method that her master, Stick, had used to revive her after she was killed by Bullseye in the Daredevil movie. After Elektra killed Kirigi in a final battle, Elektra threw a sai through the hedges of a maze and straight into Typhoid's face. Typhoid fell to the ground on her back and disintegrated.
Categories: Comics articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction | American comics characters | Fictional actors | Fictional characters with mental illness | Fictional characters with multiple personalities | Fictional courtesans and prostitutes | Marvel Comics martial artists | Marvel Comics mutants | Marvel Comics supervillains | Marvel Comics supporting characters | Marvel Comics titles