Doctor Poison

Doctor Poison is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman. A sadistic bioterrorist with a ghoulish face, she first appeared in 1942’s Sensation Comics #2, written by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, and holds a distinction as Wonder Woman’s first costumed supervillain.

As the narrative continuity of Wonder Woman comics has been adjusted by different writers and artists throughout the years, various versions of Doctor Poison have been presented, usually as perversely cruel toxicologists of Japanese descent. There have been at least four different incarnations of the character since her debut: (1) the Golden Age Doctor Poison Princess Maru; (2) the unnamed Post-Crisis Doctor Poison and Maru’s granddaughter, first appearing in 1999’s Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #151; (3) the short-lived New 52 Doctor Poison, a Russian scientist known only as Dr. Maru, first appearing in 2016’s Wonder Woman (vol. 4) #48; and (4) Colonel Marina Maru, a Post-Rebirth reformulation of the character who heads an elite team of mercenaries known as "Poison", first appearing in 2017’s Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #13.

Elena Anaya portrayed the character in the 2017 DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman.

In her first appearance, Doctor Poison is presented as an ostensibly male figure in a hooded green surgical gown and black domino mask. Depicted with an eerie wide-eyed gaze and unsettling grimace, the character was an Axis scientist and mastermind who headed both the fictional Nazi Poison Division and the chemical research branch of the Japanese army. Apprehended by Wonder Woman after commanding a bio-attack on an Allied military base, Doctor Poison is unmasked as a young woman named Princess Maru, a Japanese royal who disguised herself as a male supervillain to better protect her identity – a genderplay trope her creator William Moulton Marston incorporated into several other foes he conceived to battle Wonder Woman, including the Blue Snowman and Hypnota. Princess Maru made subsequent Golden Age appearances disguised as Doctor Poison even after her true identity had been revealed. After several clashes with Wonder Woman, she became a member of Villainy Inc., a team of supervillains consisting of several of Wonder Woman's foes, including the Cheetah, Giganta and Queen Clea.

After DC Comics rebooted its continuity in 1985 (in a publication event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths), Wonder Woman, her supporting characters and many of her foes were re-imagined and reintroduced. A retooled Doctor Poison made her first appearance in this continuity in 1999. Now the unstable granddaughter of the original Princess Maru, she is attired in a still-androgynous dark green leather trench and cowl, paying homage to her grandmother's Golden Age surgical gown. "[The Post-Crisis] Dr. Poison presents a deliberately ghoulish face to the world. Molecularly bonded appliqués peel back her eyelids to achieve a permanent stare. Dental hooks pull her lips into a rictus of revulsion". After several clashes with Wonder Woman, Doctor Poison joined Villainy Inc. and attempted to abet Queen Clea, and later the sentient computer virus Trinity, in taking over the other-dimensional realm of Skartaris. She subsequently joined the Secret Society of Super Villains and, under the guidance of Ares and in collaboration with fellow Society members the Cheetah, Felix Faust and T.O. Morrow, created the powerful golem Genocide as part of a plot to kill Wonder Woman.

In 2016, a new version of Doctor Poison, a vengeful Russian scientist known only as Dr. Maru, was introduced and briefly battled Wonder Woman before being apprehended. A year later, as part of DC Comics' Rebirth continuity reboot, yet another version of the character was introduced, this time as the Japanese-American mercenary Colonel Marina Maru, a for-hire operative of Veronica Cale.

Doctor Poison first appeared as the chief of the poison division for a Nazi spy band who had planned to contaminate the United States Army's water with "Reverso", a drug that compels whoever takes 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. She was later taken into police custody.

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.