In the Marvel Universe, villains with severe abilities and mental illnesses are widespread. Typhoid Mary is one such supervillain, and she was developed by the legendary John Romita Jr. and Ann Nocenti. She is a dangerous and extremely talented assassin who has been one of Daredevil’s main adversaries.
Each of Mary’s identities, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is more lethal than the previous one. One personality was dispatched to assassinate Daredevil, while the other was Daredevil’s romantic interest. Then how did Mary, with her many personalities, come to be regarded as one of the most horrible Daredevil Villains? This is Typhoid Mary: Origins investigated, so let us get started.
Typhoid Mary: Origins
In March 1988, Mary Walker made her comic book debut in Daredevil #252. Although Typhoid Mary, her alter persona, made her debut in issue #254 in May of that same year. Mary was raised in a violent home. She was severely traumatized by her parents’ ongoing disagreements and her father’s ongoing assault, both of which may have been the primary causes of her mental condition. When her father attempted to harm her one day while she was in her crib, one of her personalities showed up for the first time and attacked him.
Mary was then taken away and locked up in a mental institution. Eventually, she escapes, finds herself in New York City, and tries to become an actress. But the stint didn’t last very long, and she disappeared into the shadows. Finally, she started working in a brothel as a prostitute and adopted the name, Lyla. She has a run-in with Matt Murdock (Before he came to be known as Daredevil) when he’s at the brothel on the lookout for one of The Fixer’s associates.
Mary and the other prostitutes come to the aid of the bad guy and attack Matt when Mary is thrown out of the window in the chaos. At this moment, Typhoid, Mary’s other personality, takes control, saving her from the deathly fall and vowing never to let a man hurt her again, and begins her criminal journey. Although it was assumed that her personality disorder was caused due to her fall, she later reveals the details of her abuse.
Daredevil #254 starts with Typhoid Mary recruiting a criminal named Rip and ripping through a group of drug dealers for money, but primarily for her twisted amusement. She then does the same to various gangs and criminals throughout New York City. She even asks Rip to toss the bodies into the streets in the garbage can, as no one would be able to distinguish them because of the amount of trash throughout New York City because of the ongoing garbage strike.
But ironically, she is praised for her activities, and no one stops her, as all her targets had been criminals, and she was making the police’s job easier. She catches the eye of Kingpin, the organized crime boss whose business she was wreaking havoc on. He devises a plan to use Mary to destroy Matt Murdock and Typhoid to defeat Daredevil. He pays her a million dollars to manipulate Matt into falling in love with her, which was quite an easy task for Mary and Typhoid, with her seductive abilities and beautiful looks.
Mary has three distinctive personalities, the first one being ‘Mary,’ a shy and timid girl. Her ‘Typhoid’ personality is lustful, violent, and crazy. Her third personality of ‘Bloody Mary’ is the most dangerous and sadistic of them all. Mary mentions the 4th personality once, but it was never explored.
Her name is based on an early 20th-century cook, the carrier of the typhoid fever dubbed “Typhoid Mary” Mallon.
Mary has rebirth in Avengers: The Initiative #4 when Henry Peter Gyrich finds her and is recruited to be a part of the Shadow Initiative Program. Her sole reason for joining the program was that she had no control over her dissociative identity disorder. The initiative program allowed her to receive a pardon for her past crimes and help integrate her mind. Her previous records are sealed, and she adopts the persona of Mutant Zero, a fifth personality who was able to use all of Mary’s psychic powers. Everyone was prohibited from referencing any of her other characters due to fear of instability.
Mind-blowing story of Typhoid Mary from Netflix’s Iron Fist
Alice Eve plays the role of Mary Walker in the show Iron Fist. Mary Walker is a private investigator suffering from dissociative identity disorder and has 2 distinct personalities, the simple Mary and the ruthless Walker. Mary was a sergeant in the United States Army stationed in Sokovia, captured by the Sokovian Armed Forces, and tortured and molested. To cope with the trauma, she created a split identity. Just before she is executed, Mary unlocks a different identity, i.e., Walker, and slaughters all the soldiers, with her being the only one remaining. She was discovered by the United States Army soldiers and diagnosed with DID as she had no recollection of the previous events or her murder spree.
Joy Meachum and Davos hire Walker to watch Danny Rand (Iron Fist) capture, Rand. Although, her investigation is often hindered because of her multiple personalities and her inability to control them. She usually leaves notes for herself when in her alternate personality, which frees Mary out substantially.
One of the biggest hindrances with her mission was that Mary refused to be a part of Walker’s mission and had become friends with Danny. She also provided him with photos Walker had taken of him and Colleen Wing and warned him of Walker.
Although Walker can accomplish her mission of capturing Danny and delivering him to Davos, who then steals the power of Iron Fist as Walker looks on while listening to music. She then dumps him out in the street and goes to Joy to show her the video and collect her payment.
Later, Walker is captured by Misty Knight and interrogated in the Chikara Dojo, where she then tells them everything about her mission and her personality disorder. They then formulate a plan to defeat Davos and reclaim the Iron Fist. Alas, while fighting with Davos, as Walker assisted a heavily injured Danny, the falling rain and strobe lights outside act as a trigger. Walker transitions into her Mary persona, who has no recollection of Walker’s memories. Even as Rand begs Mary to let Walker come back and complete the mission, he is unsuccessful, and Mary walks away as Rand looks on, and their mission is a complete failure.
Mary finally discovers the truth about her third personality when she realizes that it wasn’t Walker that got them out of the cell. Still, her third personality, which only appeared once then, and hence neither Mary nor Walker has any recollection of the memories of what happened that night. However, Walker fears what this third personality could be capable of.
Walker and Ward Meachum (Joy’s brother) attempt to rescue Joy from Davos and enter Eden Towers, where Walker actively tries to assassinate Davos. This is where Danny Rand and Walker have reunited yet again, although Rand ruins Walker’s attempt to take the shot to kill Davos as he believes Walker was much more than being a killer, which goes to show how much he cared for his friend Mary, and in turn, she alters ego too.
Towards the end of the series, Walker visits Joy Meachum after Davos has been arrested and leaves the money, she had received from her and tells her that as Joy was one of the few people who was aware of Walker’s condition, she could use Meachum’s influence and connections to her advantage. Asked if Joy had a say in any of this, Walker mocks her sense of humor and leaves.
In the show, Walker has heterochromia, which causes the two eyes to have two different colors, signifying her two personalities. According to Erik Oleson, the executive producer of the third season of Daredevil, Typhoid was supposed to be the main villain of the series. Still, the show had been canceled, and we never got the fourth season.
What makes Typhoid Mary such a Challenging Opponent?
Due to her dissociative personality disorder, she developed three personalities, all significantly different, which rendered highly sensitive individuals like Daredevil and Wolverine useless. They could not figure out that they were the same person.
Mary is the most simple and harmless personality. She is a shy girl and can rarely manifest any of her abilities. Although she can call upon her other personalities subconsciously, she has no recollection of the memories of her time as either Bloody or Typhoid Mary.
During her time as Typhoid Mary, Mary gets an extremely high fever. However, she sports much more agility than average. Typhoid Mary is absolutely crazy and very lustful but very skilled at the same time.
Bloody Mary is the most bloodthirsty and violent personality. She claims to be a feminist fighter who hurts men who hurt women. She is extremely unstable and kills without mercy.
All the personalities have different voices, heart rates, and fashion senses, so it works in Mary’s favor as Matt Murdock/Daredevil cannot distinguish the differences.
She possesses many psionic powers. She can use telekinesis to levitate small objects, which can often be used in battle, as she can throw weapons at her targets from a distance and never even have to get close. She is also pyrokinetic and sets anything in her vicinity on flame. She can manipulate minds and even induce sleep in weak-minded individuals. So, if you’re strong-headed, you’re probably safe from her hypnotic powers.
She is trained in various martial arts like Judo and has exceptional agility. She can also wield almost every weapon, although her favorite are machetes.
Her personality ‘Mutant Zero’ is able to use all her psychic abilities but has to meditate to keep her mind integrated constantly. She is also equipped with an enhanced bodysuit that enhances her body strength and is equipped with an arsenal of weapons. In contrast, Walker can’t use any of the psychic powers but is an expert tactician and skilled assassin.
In the show, she often wields a set of twin machetes and is highly skilled in using them, showing years of training and prowess. She also indicates expertise in gun handling when she uses an M4A1 Carbine during her rescue of Joy Meachum from Eden Towers. She often carries a flexible wire to save herself from the effects of the Iron Fist if she comes in contact with it.
Typhoid Mary in Other Media
Other than her exceptional portrayal in the Iron Fist series, Typhoid Mary appeared in the movie Elektra (2005), where she is only referred to as Typhoid. She is played by Natassia Malthe and can poison people through a kiss.
She also makes a minor appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series as one of Apocalypse’s captured psychics.
Another animated appearance comes in an episode of Avengers Assemble titled ‘Prison Break.’ Voiced by Tara Strong, Typhoid Mary is shown as an inmate who partners with Crimson Widow and Zarda during a breakout and is defeated by Wasp and Captain Marvel.
Typhoid Mary remains one of the most unhinged characters in the Marvel Universe. She has continued to spread havoc and cause many problems for the Daredevil. There is no doubt that is much more to come from this crazy supervillain, and indeed the fans can’t wait for more. With so many unique adaptations of Mary already out there, one can hope for the future of Typhoid Mary to flourish and establish her legacy as an insane and charming assassin who is always out for blood and money.