Lily Hollister
Lily Hollister is a female comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Lily Hollister was a female human born the daughter of Bill Hollister and Lucy Hollister. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586) Her father was noted for being a District Attorney in New York. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #546) During high school, she came to meet Carlie Cooper with the two becoming best friends. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #545) Her father was noted as a public crusader who moved in the same circles as Norman Osborn. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #546)
One day, she saw Harry being stressed and worried for him where she thought he might have started drugs again. Looking through his place, she found a hidden compartment holding a journal that included Harry's thoughts. This information allowed her to find Norman Osborn's hidden laboratory where initially she considered using it to expose the man as the Green Goblin in an effort to raise her own father's status. Whilst in the lair, she accidentally cause a vial of Goblin Serum to fall where it was absorbed into her skin and gave her superhuman powers. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
She was said to had convinced her boyfriend Harry into funding an exploratory committee into seeing whether her father could run for Mayor of New York. Lily later brought Harry to meet her father who was strict on the man and made it clear that he would not tolerate him using his daughter as a means of securing political power. She later assured Harry that her father was always strict on her boyfriends especially when they asked him for favours. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #546)
Menace
Spider-Man and Jackpot were both independently attempting to track the mysterious goblin menace. Upon finding their foe, Menace managed to leave a wound on Spider-Man and departed but not before warning not to track them again. The goblin then struck at the mayor candidate debate where the supervillain caused an explosion as they targeted the various contenders at the site. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #550) In the attack, Menace kidnapped Councilwoman Parfrey with Spider-Man and Jackpot in pursuit where they initially saved the politician. However, in the battle, the goblin glider was sent spiralling and it slammed into the freed Parfrey who was killed as a result. Menace blamed the heroes for the death and disappeared before the supervillain could be arrested. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #551) In her civilian guise, Hollister attended the funeral of Councilwoman Parfrey with her father where she attempted to convince her dad to run for mayor in opposition to the lead candidate Randall Crowne but he brushed the talk aside. Afterwards, she attended a party at the King Class Club with her friends and attempted to get financial support to convince her father to make a run for mayor with her boyfriend Harry Osborn pledging a large sum of money. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #552) This convinced him to go into the running against Crowne where he held the Hollister press conference to make his campaign under a platform of 'Uplifting People' with his daughter by his side. Dexter Bennett of the rebranded DB! had Peter Parker present at the conference to get bad photographs of Lily's father as he supported Crowne with these being published in the paper the next day. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #553) Lily later called her and Harry's close friends for a party at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Plaza with this being done in celebration for her fathers bid for the position of Mayor. During the party, she was by her fathers side to pose with photographs as part of the publicity campaign. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #554)
She accompanied Harry at the Coffee Bean when Norman Osborn was in the city to lead the Thunderbolts in arresting Spider-Man now that he was an enemy of the state. During this time, Osborn went to meet his son at the Coffee Bean leading to Lily first meeting him. However, the encounter was not cordial as Norman was disappointed in his son Harry at having abandoned his family business to serve coffee in that establishment. Lily attempted to console Harry who shrugged her aside and revealed a dark side to his nature as he stormed away. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #570) Menace then proceeded to threaten the supposedly 'redeemed' Norman Osborn who had come to town when her actions inadvertently revealed that Crowne had been operating an illegal sweatshop in the city and Crowne asked him for help. Menace recreated Osborn's original death by ramming him with her glider, however, Osborn survived the attack and Menace spared him, after accusing Osborn of being a fool for devoting all his time and assets to Spider-Man's destruction. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #571)
Menace later tried to threaten Bill Hollister, her father and one of the candidates for the election, into dropping out of the race for mayor while she continued supporting him in her public identity. She was sabotaging his campaign for his own good against Randall Crowne, his opponent, and began destroying her fathers advertisements. She also broke into their home and tried to threaten him into backing out of the running. Menace then proceeded to threaten the supposedly 'redeemed' Norman Osborn who had come to town when her actions inadvertently revealed that Crowne had been operating an illegal sweatshop in the city and Crowne asked him for help. Menace recreated Osborn's original death by ramming him with her glider, however, Osborn survived the attack and Menace spared him, after accusing Osborn of being a fool for devoting all his time and assets to Spider-Man's destruction. During the Skrull Invasion, Lily and Harry Osborn were attacked on the street, after getting away from Harry and changing into Menace she killed one of the invading Skrulls, and then set her sights on Jackpot, believing her to be 'Spider-Man's girlfriend'. Their fight took her into the path of one of the Skrull's, with Menace's glider exploding on contact. Menace survived, though badly injured, and limped away from the scene. When Menace attacked a Hollister Rally, she managed to badly beat an injured Spider-Man and claimed a 'citizen's arrest' to the arriving police. Menace then flew into the Hollister party headquarters, and changed back into Lily Hollister, just before Harry walked in on her. She revealed to Harry that she was Menace and told him that she accepted his earlier marriage proposal. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #586) On Election Day, Menace attacked two police officers for arresting Carlie Cooper for a crime she didn't commit, then attacked Spider-Man when he appeared. Menace was about to finish him until Harry, as the Green Goblin, appeared and shot Menace with a serum, with Spider-Man giving her the full injection. This caused Menace to change back into Lily and was seen in a live broadcast, with her father watching in shock and in tears of this revelation. A few days after the event, with Bill Hollister as the new Mayor of New York, Lily was now in prison and was visited by Norman Osborn, who discovered the engagement ring given to her by Harry and welcomed her to the family. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #588)
Goblin Nation
Lily was released from prison and approached Harry in her Menace form; telling him that she had 'moved on'. Harry believed that she had started a relationship with Norman and warned her that she would be disposed of once Norman was done with her. (Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! v1 #3)
After the Siege of Asgard, Norman Osborn came to be imprisoned at the Raft leaving Lily in a vulnerable state. Frantically, she came to give birth to a boy with Doctor Octopus having delivered the child. However, she had to go on the run when Octavius had placed a bounty on the newborn in order to acquire the Goblin Formula within him where numerous superpowered supervillains pursued Menace. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #642)
Spider-Man quickly rescued the baby and struggled to get him to safety. Spider-Man inadvertently handed the baby over to the Chameleon, who was disguised as Harry. Meanwhile, Carlie took Lily to their apartment where they were followed by Tombstone, who hoped that the baby would eventually end up back with Lily. After it was returned, he would take it to Octavius. He was stopped by Lily, who impaled him with her goblin glider. After Spider-Man rescued the baby from the Lizard and Octavius, he let Mary Jane know that the kid was safe and she passed the information on to Lily. Lily left on her glider, saying that Osborn's men would be hunting for her and that she would be a danger to her son. She wanted Mary Jane to tell her baby that she loved him just as she departed from the scene. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #645)
Menace later returned showing her allegiance to the Goblin King as part of his underground Goblin Cult to prepare for the fight against the Superior Spider-Man. Menace was ordered to disarm the prison truck that captured Phil Urich before taking him to the underground and was christened as the Goblin Knight. (Superior Spider-Man v1 #16) Menace later kidnapped Carlie Cooper from Potter's Field after she found out that Doctor Octopus' grave was empty and brought her to the Goblin King. Menace then gave the Goblin King her journal revealing that they knew Spider-Man was indeed Doctor Octopus occupying the hero's body. (Superior Spider-Man v1 #21) During the Green Goblin's takeover of Manhattan, the real Spider-Man returned, and defeated the Goblin Nation. In the process, he used an antidote for the Goblin Serum on Menace, turning her back to a normal human. (Superior Spider-Man v1 #31)
Queen Cat
Holliter after having the Goblin Formula removed from her was being transported by the police to prison when the convoy came under attack from the new Goblin King. This was Phil Urich who had made a deal with Lily where he would rescue her if she was ever caught by the authorities. However, he was unaware that the Goblin Formula was removed from her and an explosion from one of his pumpkin bombs caused the police car to overturn by the bridge and sent Hollister falling into the river. Lily managed to survive and pulled herself from the river but suffered amnesia from the trauma where she wandered the streets until she found a flier for Roderick Kingsley. At the time, Kingsley had re-invented himself to be a superhero manager and ran it as a business where he helped people promote a brand with Hollister approaching them for help. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #1) She then became part of the Kingsley Program where she was one of the Hob-Heroes that were people who were re-branded and re-imagined to be superheroes with Lily becoming the Queen Cat. Queen Cat was at Hob-Quarters when Phil Urich arrived to speak to Kingsley and protected her benefactor when the Goblin King tried to kill Roderick. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #2) She came to his meeting and pretended to join him. When Goblin King attacked Kingsley again, Queen Cat again showed that she had no loyalty to Goblin King and wanted a fresh start in life. (XIS: Hobgoblin v1 #3)
She found a job working security in a museum, which was burglarized by the Black Cat. Queen Cat was embarrassed to have 'allowed' Black Cat and her crew escape and made it her job to capture Hardy. She stole some loot that Black Cat herself had stolen, hoping to lure her into a trap. She then resolved herself in trying to find and apprehend the legendary Black Cat who continued her life as a thief. This was partly because she believed that doing so would secure her new identity as the superhero Queen Cat. Queen Cat spent weeks attempting to follow Felicia Hardy's crime sprees and eventually succeeded in stealing an item from her associate the Black Fox Raul Chalmers. This led to Black Cat tracking her down where the two ended up in a fight but Hollister lost. Upon learning her reasons, Black Cat decided that the two could share the name where the two could be their respective nemesis. Felicia then knocked out Lily for stealing for her but made a challenge for Queen Cat to try and capture her. (Black Cat v2 #4)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Lily was a young dark-skinned blonde haired beautiful woman. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #545) She was noted for being gorgeous and nearly impossible to make a bad photograph of her. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #552) After suffering from amnesia, she was taken in by Roderick Kingsley who helped re-brand her as a hero named Queen Cat. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #2)
Hollister had said that curiosity was her one vice. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
She was shown to be flirting with Peter Parker. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #554) It was shown that she was not above kissing him in order to distract him. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
As with the other goblins, Menace was known to make a powerful loud laugh. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #550)
As Menace, she looked to help support her fathers mayoral campaign and planned to expose Spider-Man's true identity. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
She and Phil Urich had a pact whereby if either one of them was caught by the authorities then the other would work to free them. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #1)
After her amnesia, she had forgotten her entire past and resolved to start a new life for herself. This saw her distancing herself from her old life and wanting to become a superhero. However, she felt her new identity was threatened by the Black Cat. To that end, she sought to take down the master thief in the hope that this would secure herself as Queen Cat. Her initial attempt had failed but Black Cat stated that the could be work as(Black Cat v2 #4)
Her father was shown to had been strict on her and berated her for not gaining a single honors class. It was said that her father had wanted a son instead of a daughter with Lily saying that he never cared much for her. In fact, she came to note that her father seemed to love Carly Cooper more than her. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
Powers and abilities
Hollister came to be exposed to an experimental batch of Goblin Serum that gave her superhuman abilities. She had a superhuman level of strength allowing her to overpower an adult man. An element of the formula was it allowed her to transform into a grey-skinned humanoid goblin-like creature. (Amazing Spier-Man v1 #586)
As Menace, she was equipped with a goblin suit that had arm blades by the sides allowing her to slash at enemies. She could also trigger a device in the costume that shocked enemies that grabbed onto her or attempted to unmask her. Similar to the other goblins, she made use of a goblin glider that allowed her to travel quickly over great distances. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #550) These could be tracked by the exhaust trail that they left behind. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #549)
The loss of the Goblin Formula only undid the physical attributes caused by it and did not affect her mind. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #1)
After suffering from amnesia, she was taken in by the Kingsley Program where she was re-branded as one of the Hob-Heroes named Queen Cat. (AXIS: Hobgoblin v1 #2)
Notes
- Lily Hollister was created by Marc Guggenheim, Salvador Larroca, Joe Quesada and J. Michael Straczynski where she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #545 (January, 2008) before being revealed as Menace in The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #550 (April, 2008).
Alternate Versions
- In Amazing Spider-Man v3 #13 (2015), an alternate version of Menace appeared as an inhabitant of Earth-001 in the Multiverse. This version was shown as being one of the Hounds of the Inheritors who were sent in their hunts for Spider-Totems.
In other media
Video games
- In Marvel: War of Heroes, Lily Hollister as Menace appeared as a playable card in the setting of the video game.
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v1: (2008)
- AXIS: Hob-Goblin v1:
- Black Cat v2: (2021)
- Cult of Carnage: Misery v1:
External Links
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