TYPHOID MARY: Page 2 of 4

Publication Date: 12th Jan 2019
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - part 2

Typhoid Mary remained at Kingpin's side for months as his lover and top enforcer, while Matt Murdock left town a broken man. During the Acts of Vengeance, Kingpin lent Typhoid's services out to Doctor Doom, who was interested in acquiring information about Power Pack and the Kymellian technology they used. Typhoid once again used Mary to pose as a social worker for the blind while getting close to the Power kids and their blind friend, Dagger. However, Typhoid's true goal was to get some leverage on Doom and her mission reports allowed her to get under the doctor's skin. She coerced Doctor Doom into eventually revealing the tragic loss of his father as a child and left content that she had found a chink in Doom's armored facade. [Power Pack (1st series) #53, Mutant Misadventures of Cloak & Dagger #9]

Daredevil eventually returned to New York determined to finally bring down the Kingpin. One of his first moves was removing Typhoid from the equation. Daredevil engaged Typhoid as she was shaking down one of Kingpin's unruly lieutenants. Instead of fighting her, however, Daredevil played Typhoid's game by making aggressive advances on her romantically. Typhoid was used to being the seductress, taking pleasure from presenting herself to men as a bad idea and nevertheless getting them to stop resisting. By giving in completely, Daredevil threw Typhoid off her game. They embraced passionately on a rooftop and got lost in each other, before moving on to a motel room.

Unfortunately for Typhoid, their night together was still a part of Daredevil's larger scheme. Murdock used his knowledge of the law to doctor up commitment papers for Typhoid under the name "Mary Mezinis." When she woke up alone in the motel the next morning as Mary, she was met by agents of the state with a court order to take her into custody for psychiatric treatment. Too flustered and confused to resist, Mary was committed against her will and taken out of play before Daredevil's final assault on the Kingpin. [Daredevil (1st series) #297]

Mary Walker was in and out of psychiatric facilities for some time after that. Typhoid would inevitably try to escape whenever she became dominant and Mary's tendency to block out unpleasant memories meant she often forgot about her alter ego or the institutions even when she regained dominance. Mary was soon drawn into the orbit of a man named Roberts, a soldier who was psycho-pharmaceutically programmed to be an assassin by a group known only as The Project. Mary became convinced she was another possible Project agent, attributing her blackouts and lost time to outside programming instead of remembering the truth about her Typhoid persona. She became Roberts' contact as they tried to dig up information about The Project and their past.

Roberts eventually succumbed to the voices in his head (literally, a radio implant) and became a serial killer. In his more lucid moments, he also sought out Wolverine, due to his similar experiences in the Weapon X Program. Logan restrained Roberts before he could kill again, but this encounter brought Mary and Logan together. As often happened, Logan developed strong feelings towards the delicate Mary, feeling empathy for her blackouts and lost memories. As they investigated the Project, films they watched of the tortuous experiments done to victims disturbed Mary and brought Typhoid to the surface. Typhoid lashed out at Logan and began hunting down and killing Project personnel their investigation had found.

Mary regained her lucidity after fighting Wolverine and fully realized what she had done. Mary located the mastermind behind the Project, a man known as Sid, and tried to force him into removing her Typhoid persona permanently. Sid attempted to have her killed during the procedure instead, though Wolverine arrived just in time to stop him. Typhoid Mary awakened and broke free from the operating table, killing Sid's support staff and setting Logan on fire. Typhoid escaped before Wolverine could decide whether she needed a hospital or a prison. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #109-116]

After returning to the institution for a time, Typhoid pushed Mary to stop taking her mood stabilizer pills, allowing Typhoid to escape again. Mary began working for the Women's Action Movement, a feminist organization trying to spread the word about female empowerment. An encounter with Dan Ketch stirred Mary's emotions, bringing Typhoid near the surface. When a trio of security guards at the mall where she was campaigning tried to rape Mary, Typhoid came forth and killed two of her attackers. Ketch released his own second self as Ghost Rider, who attempted to use his penance stare on Typhoid. The contradiction of trying to punish Typhoid but also harming the innocent Mary for actions "she" had not committed was a paradox that nearly drove Ghost Rider mad.

A demon of madness known as Dusk stepped in during this encounter, trying to induce madness and hopelessness in Ghost Rider and Typhoid. At one point, he promised to cure Typhoid of her other personality, but Typhoid realized the demon was lying. She helped save a priest and his family from Dusk's machinations, as well as several other innocents caught in the crossfire. Still, drifting so close to true madness was too much for Typhoid and she retreated into Mary's persona by taking the mood pills she had stockpiled before. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #123-130]

Mary was institutionalized again and came under the care of Doctor Hunt. Hunt was fascinated by her case and began preparing a revolutionary new integration therapy that would leave only a single personality inhabiting Mary. However, Hunt quickly lost his objectivity when dealing with his patient. He enjoyed godlike control over the submissive Mary while also reveling in Typhoid's seductive attentions. Typhoid escaped under his watch and took to "playing house" with a judge susceptible to her desires. Even though Typhoid nearly seduced and killed Hunt when he came to fetch her, the doctor was still addicted to her attention and was planning to eliminate Mary instead of Typhoid when the integration therapy was enacted.

Meanwhile, Wolverine found a reason to renew his association with Mary. The X-Men had detected a powerful mutant empath named Jessie who was being held in the Fortress, a research facility known for invasive experiments on adults and children alike. As a security measure, the Fortress recorded the psi-patterns of anyone who entered the facility. Mary and Typhoid, however, had completely different psi-patterns and could therefore infiltrate the facility and bypass its security. For the sake of the mutant child, Logan approached Mary in the institution and explained the purpose of the "day trip" to her.

Mary succeeded in entering the Fortress as a "psi-negative" tech support before switching to Typhoid. Before Typhoid could escape with Jessie, however, she was captured and subjected to sensory deprivation and a psychic probe. Jessie had linked to Mary and Jessie's own empathic abilities amplified the pain involved in the procedure. Mary ended up crafting a new personality to handle the load of her pain and Bloody Mary was formed. A no-nonsense, militant feminist, Bloody Mary saw men as responsible for all the suffering she had gone through in life. She killed every man in the laboratory, leaving the women alive before escaping with Jessie. Bloody and Jessie sought refuge at a battered women's shelter and Mary fixated on the idea that the shelter kept files on all the women who came for help, complete with police reports that detailed the abuse they suffered. When Bloody Mary learned the chameleonic Jessie was actually a male, she abandoned the boy and stole the shelter's files, planning to enact karmic retribution on all the men who had ever harmed women.

Bloody Mary went on a rampage through New York, continuing to fluctuate into Mary or Typhoid in her downtime as her personalities fought to stabilize. She had confrontations with Daredevil, Steel Wind, Vengeance and finally Wolverine. Logan apologized for getting her involved in the Fortress, but tried to push through Bloody's rhetoric to make her confront her true self, deep down. Bloody fled from the fight and found Jessie again. Jessie's empathy reflected Mary's own mind back at her and she finally unearthed a fourth, stable personality. Referring to herself as Walker, Mary was now centered and self-confident, able to pursue her own goals without blaming or relying upon men like her other personas. She returned to the institution and confronted Doctor Hunt for his psychological abuse. She outted his ethical violations to the hospital and the police to make sure he faced justice for what he had done. Walker and Jessie intended to pursue Bloody's crusade through less lethal, more legal means from that point onwards. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #150-151]