Doctor Poison

Doctor Poison is a female comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Pre-Crisis

Princess Maru was a female Japanese Imperial Princess where she came to disguise herself under the identity of Doctor Poison which hid her true identity as well as her gender. (Sensation Comics v1 #24)

During this time, she came to join the forces of Nazi Germany where she served during World War II. She came to be the chief of the poison division for the Third Reich. (Sensation Comics v1 #2)

She came the leader of a German spy ring whose ultimate goal was to create havoc for the U.S. Army by contaminating their water supply with a drug called Reverso. The drug compelled whoever took it to, "do the exact opposite of what they are told". She disguised her sex by wearing a bulky hooded costume and a mask. Doctor Poison's underlings captured Steve Trevor and brought him to their base in America where he was questioned by Doctor Poison. Wonder Woman, disguised as a nurse, aided Steve Trevor but was forced to flee the scene after a lengthy battle. Meanwhile, the Reverso drug was successful in turning thousands of American soldiers against their superiors. Wonder Woman recruited Etta Candy to help her create a diversion for Doctor Poison's troops, which led to the defeat of the villain. When Wonder Woman pulled her disguise off, she discovered Doctor Poison to be Maru, a Japanese princess. Maru made one more attempt to defeat the amazon, but was tackled by Etta Candy and coerced into giving up the antidote whereupon she was later taken into police custody. (Sensation Comics v1 #2)

Later, Princess Maru escaped imprisonment and disguised herself as Mei Sing, a 'princess' who worked in a Chinese nightclub. She once again captured Steve Trevor, who couldn't see through her disguise. This led to another encounter with Wonder Woman, whom Maru defeated with an anesthetic gas grenade. Maru had been perfecting a green gas which would clog the carburetors of the US planes. This plan was foiled once again by Wonder Woman. (Sensation Comics v1 #24)

Instead of placing Maru back in prison, Wonder Woman sentenced her to Transformation Island, the Amazon penal colony where many female criminals were sent to reform. Although the majority of inmates have reformed with loving submission, Maru and seven other women refused to change their ways. The Saturnian slaver Eviless banded these rebellious super-villains together under the name Villainy Inc. Maru returned to her Doctor Poison disguise and tricked Queen Hippolyta into believing men had invaded Paradise Island. The villains were able to capture Hippolyta's girdle, which they used to defeat Wonder Woman. Doctor Poison then joined Eviless, Blue Snowman, and Cheetah on a boat with the captive Wonder Woman, plotting to imprison the Amazon on Transformation Island for revenge. Wonder Woman attempted to escape by turning over the boat, but the four members of Villainy Inc. defeated her once again. After traveling to Transformation Island, Eviless tortured Wonder Woman until the reformed criminal Irene led a mutiny against Villainy Inc. In the ensuing chaos, Wonder Woman and Hippolyta broke free of their chains and managed to defeat Doctor Poison and her three companions.[ (Wonder Woman v1 #28)

Post-Crisis

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Her grandmother was a mad scientist known as Doctor Poison and was an opponent of the earlier Wonder Woman. Considered insane, one of her creations was Reverso where she accidentally reversed her own growth process. This saw her getting younger and younger where she failed to stop the process before forgetting the antidote leading to her revering to a fetus until she disappeared completely in a horrible end to her life. (Wonder Woman v2 #151)

Taking on the identity of Doctor Poison, she began to experiment on the use of the Pandora Virus. To test its effects, she abducted a civilian named Richard Thomas Agoras who was mutated into a monstrous spider. She then reversed the process and induced amnesia into the subject where he was returned home where an observation was made of his activities. Agoras then went to work where the stress and a desire for power caused his mutation once more where he became a male incarnation of the mythic Arachne. He then attacked everyone at his work place building leading to the intervention of Wonder Woman and Rama who sought to stop him. The entire incident was oserved secretly by Doctor Poison who required more of the secret ingredient to the Pandora Virus to continue her experiments. (Wonder Woman v2 #151)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

Doctor Poison was among the villains who attend an underground meeting held by Riddler that talks about the Superman Theory. Doctor Poison talked about a rumor that the Amazons forcefully took Wonder Woman back to Themyscira. (Doomsday Clock v1 #6)

Overview

Personality and attributes

The second Doctor Poison had her upper and lower eyelids pulled back with molecularly bonded appliques. A timid subcutaneous injection overstimulated the eye ducts to prevent dryness of the eye socket. Hooks were then used to pull back the lips so that no expression was discerned whilst a desiccant was fed into the glands to keep the mouth dry. She was called Doctor Poison but hated the name as it was one given to her grandmother who was a foe of the earlier Wonder Woman. (Wonder Woman v2 #151)

She was shown to experiment on live test subjects and record the outcomes of her work. (Wonder Woman v2 #151)

Powers and abilities

One of her creations was the Pandora Virus that caused a violent transformation and turned a person into a monster. It was said to sit in the brain stem that was sometimes called the lizard part of the brain. Once there, it fed and freed the myths of the subconscious upon the world thus making it real. (Wonder Woman v2 #151)

Her mother had created a new drug called Reverso that was designed to confuse the brain centers to make soldiers do the opposite of what they were told. (Sensation Comics v1 #2)

Notes

• The Princess Maru incarnation of Doctor Poison was created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter where she made her first appearance in Sensation Comics v1 #2 (February, 1942).
• The Marina Maru version appeared in Wonder Woman v2 #151 (December, 1999)

In other media

Television

• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the Doctor Poison Princess Maru appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous".

Films

• In Wonder Woman, Doctor Poison appeared as a supporting antagonist in the 2017 live-action film set in the DC Extended Universe where she was portrayed by actor Elena Anaya. This version was Isabel Maru who was a Spanish chemist who lived during the time of World War I where she was recruited into the German army to develop chemical weapons. An incident led to her facial disfigurement leading to her wearing a ceramic mask over the left side of her face. During the height of the conflict, she was recruited by General Erich Ludendorff for creating a new weapon for use against the Allied forces to turn the tide of the war effort which she did at an Ottoman empire facility and detailed her notes in her journal. Unknown to anyone, the Olympus God Ares had been manifesting secretly to stir the fires of war and whispered secrets of chemical formula for her that she believed were her own designs. During one visit from General Ludendorff, his pilot who was secretly American spy Steve Trevor stole her journal which Maru discovered with German forces sent to retrieve it. However, they failed which stalled the creation of her new gas weapon that was intended to kill Allied forces even when wearing gas masks.
• In Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, Doctor Poison appeared in the setting of the 2019 animated film where she was voiced by actor Courtenay Taylor. This version was one of the two lead operatives of Villainy, Inc. where she worked with Doctor Cyber in acquiring relics of great importance that could be used to achieve technological progress in order to attain profit. She leads the group in resurrecting Medusa to help them find Themyscira and steal their technology, but the Gorgon betrays the group, killing Poison in the process.

Video games

• In DC Legends, Doctor Poison resembling the DCEU version became a playable character in the iOS video game.

Appearances

• Sensation Comics v1: (1942)
• Wonder Woman v1:
• Wonder Woman v2:
• Justice League: Cry for Justice v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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