Malice (comics)

Malice is the name of four separate fictional comic book supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The original Malice was a minion of Killmonger, an enemy of Black Panther. The second was a short-lived Ghost Rider villain. The last two villains bearing the name Malice are disembodied entities, the first of which possesses Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four, and the second is an evil mutant appearing in X-Men comics.

Malice (Killmonger minion)

The first Malice was one of Killmonger's mutated allies during his vie for the throne of Wakanda. Her first appearance was in Jungle Action, Vol. 2, #8 (Jan 1974). She fought Black Panther alongside Venomm, Lord Karnaj, Baron Macabre, and others. She was a Wakandan mutate with superhuman strength, speed, and agility and was eventually defeated along with the rest of the villains attempting the coup.^[1]

Malice (Ghost Rider villain)

The second villain to bear the name Malice first appeared in Ghost Rider #25 (August 1977). A showboater by nature, Malice made sure that his emergence was well televised. He burned a wax museum and left a woman to die as well as robbing a bank with his Vault Puller, one of the many devices he used to terrorize the police. While his secret identity is not known, there are suggestions that Malice is a wealthy individual, as he drives an AC Cobra and refers to hiding the money in the woods on his "estate." He was arrested after being defeated by the Ghost Rider using an early predecessor to his penance stare.

Malice (Sue Storm)

Malice is an evil psionic entity that resides in the mind of the Invisible Woman and sometimes possesses her. It was originally believed to be a negative aspect of her own personality, awakened by the manipulations of the villain Psycho-Man. Malice retained the powers of the Invisible Woman, but she used them more aggressively, creating explosions and deadly force field spikes. During her first appearance, she was able to use her powers to withstand a direct punch from She-Hulk- who was unaware of her identity at the time- without even flinching without She-Hulk realizing that she had just struck a force field,^[2] with Reed and Johnny only learning who she really was thanks to Daredevil's heightened senses causing him to perceive her as an amorphous blob due to the force field around her.^[3] She briefly assumed corporeal form when Adam Warlock's evil persona Magus attempted to conquer the universe during the Infinity War.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Eventually, the Invisible Woman's son Franklin Richards expelled Malice from her mind, and into the mind of the Dark Raider, an insane alternate universe counterpart of Mister Fantastic. Malice was destroyed when the Dark Raider died shortly thereafter in the Negative Zone.^{[volume & issue needed]}

In other media

Susan Richards appears as Malice in the 1994 Fantastic Four episode "Worlds Within Worlds". Malice's appearance is the result of Psycho-Man using his powers to make Susan turn against her Fantastic Four teammates. Eventually, Susan is freed of Psycho-Man's influence and defeats him.

Malice (Marauder)

Malice
A Malice-possessed Karima Shapandar
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #214 (Feb 1987)
Created by	Chris Claremont and Rick Leonardi
In-story information
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Marauders
Abilities	Possession

The supervillain Malice was created by Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont. She is an evil mutant who is a member of Mister Sinister's Marauders. Being incorporeal, she has no physical body of her own and has to possess the body of others. Those she possesses manifest a cameo-like choker around their neck. It is unknown whether this is a physical artifact or an illusionary one. Malice at one point became stuck in the body of Lorna Dane, an ally of the X-Men also known as Polaris (this affinity may suggest that Malice's true physical nature is that of an electromagnetic field). While possessing the body of Polaris, Malice acted as the field leader of the Marauders.^{[volume & issue needed]}

After Mister Sinister was seemingly killed during Inferno, Malice's hold over Polaris weakened. After Polaris' alleged half-sister Zaladane, a priestess for the Savage Land's Sun People, used the High Evolutionary's machinery to strip Polaris of her magnetic powers and take them as her own, the process also managed to finally separate Lorna and Malice.^{[volume & issue needed]}

What happened to Malice after that remains unknown but she resurfaced years later to bother Polaris once more. She possessed Havok and tried to kill Polaris to get her revenge against Sinister, from whom she was trying to break free. In the end, Sinister asked Malice to possess Polaris once again, knowing that Lorna would not object to the possession in order to save Havok. However, out of their love for each other, Havok and Polaris each tried to absorb Malice, preventing the other from being possessed. Malice was then apparently destroyed by Sinister himself.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Malice later returns as a digital entity instead of a psionic one, taking possession of Karima Shapandar (Omega Sentinel) by a computer virus via e-mail.^[4] Emma Frost soon became aware of another being within Omega Sentinel but was nevertheless taken by surprise when Malice attacks and sedates her. The other X-Men continued to be unaware of Malice possessing Karima until they were attacked by her along with the rest of the new Marauders, including the traitorous Mystique and Lady Mastermind. Later, she fights alongside the other Marauders in Flint, Michigan, against Iceman and Cannonball, as both sides try to obtain the Diaries of Destiny.^[5]

In X-Men: Messiah Complex, Malice travels to Cooperstown, Alaska along with fellow Marauders Sunfire, Gambit, Prism, Blockbuster, Lady Mastermind, and Scalphunter. They try to find the baby but instead come across a small army of Purifiers and they come to blows, devastating the town.^{[volume & issue needed]}

The next time she is seen, the five member assault task force of X-Men invaded the Marauders base, and was forced to fight Colossus along with Arclight, Frenzy, and Unuscione. She then teams up with Lady Mastermind in taking out Wolverine by throwing an unconscious Scrambler disguised as Angel at him. After he realizes the deception, she hits him with a powerful microwave energy blast. While asking him about how he wants to die, Nightcrawler teleports in and knocks her out along with Lady Mastermind.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Malice is later part of a squad consisting of herself, Gambit, Sunfire, and Vertigo to confront Bishop who is about to kill the baby. The Marauder team manage to defeat Bishop and Malice seems to show a lot of affection towards the baby and finds it extraordinary that the baby girl isn’t scared at all when she picks her up, going so far to look up to her inquistively.^{[volume & issue needed]}

During the final battle on Muir Island, Malice along with all of Sinister's army excluding Gambit and Mystique ambushed X-Force. When X-Force is soon joined by the X-Men, Predator X, and the New X-Men, Cyclops allows the New X-Men to tackle the Marauders. Malice is skeptical when it comes to fighting children but is unpleasantly surprised. She went on to battle Pixie, beating her with her bare fists. Malice was gutted by Pixie's Souldagger when she least expected it. It appears that the dagger exorcised Malice from Omega Sentinel, but Karima has no memory of the events that took place in the last two and a half weeks, apparently a side effect of being possessed by Malice. What happens to Malice remains to be revealed.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Other versions

In an issue of the speculative comic book What If?, a version of Malice appears, possessing Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey) as a member of Mister Sinister's X-Men. She appears in the form of a neck choker.^{[volume & issue needed]}

References

1. ^ Jungle Action Vol.2, #17
2. ^ Fantastic Four #280
3. ^ Fantastic Four #281
4. ^ X-Men #200
5. ^ X-Men #203

External links

• Malice's Profile at Women of Marvel Comics (dead link)