She-Hulk has an arch-enemy whose main aim in life is to fight and defeat her in Marvel’s She-Hulk. Titania is her given name, which she came up with when imagining a Titan. This criminal has been enamored with comic books and superheroes since she was a child, to the point where she cooked up a story about being the real Spider-Woman. However, it can also be viewed as a falsehood that has had a significant impact on her life.
This is how she ended up on the path to becoming Titania, one of the most powerful villains of all time. She has delivered dirt to a number of well-known superheroes on various occasions. She even managed to defeat She-Hulk at one point. But it was not always as idyllic as it appears. So, without further ado, let us dive into the film and learn about Titania’s origins and obsession with She-Hulk.
First comic book appearance and origins explored
Titania made her first comic book appearance in the limited crossover series Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, Volume 1, Issue #3 which was published in July 1989. Her character was created by Jim Shooter. The issue is titled “Tempest Without, Crisis Within!” Before getting into the story, let us give you a bit of a recap of the Secret Wars series.
There exists a cosmic entity called the Beyonder, who is the beyond all and end-all of all things. This entity transported a group of Marvel superheroes and supervillains to a planet in a distant galaxy called “Battleworld,” which is made up of pieces of other worlds. Pitting the two groups against each other, the Beyonder has also provided alien technology and weapons to them.
Magneto, initially seen as a hero, leaves their side when his presence is questioned by the Avengers. The first round of battle has already taken place and the heroes have successfully captured a few of the villains. Currently occupying three different space stations on this planet are the heroes, that is, Avengers and the X-Men, supervillains, and Magneto.
Now, issue #3 begins with a dangerous storm and a look at Magneto’s fortress. He has captured Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp as his prisoner. The weather outside has them both trapped at Magneto’s lair but it looks like he captured her only to talk to her. Now, hundreds of miles away, there is another enormous citadel that serves as the headquarters of the superheroes. Ben Grimm and Human Torch are keeping an eye on their surroundings when a massive rock seems to be approaching their fortress.
The crisis is soon averted by the Thunder God, Thor, and his mighty hammer Mjolnir. Inside, at another end of the fortress, She-Hulk is moving a 30-tonne particle accelerator and Hawkeye gives her company. The previous battle with the villains was quite drastic, so now, the heroes are hard at work in order to fix a few things before the arrival of another battle. Iron Man and Captain Marvel are also checking for damage at yet another level in the fortress.
In the complex’s vast central communications chamber, Hulk, Captain America, and Mister Fantastic are repairing the damage done by Magneto in the last battle. It is clear that the heroes have still not been able to study the entirety of the alien technology present at their fortress. They are also keeping an eye on the citadel of the villains, which is far away but still in their view.
Hawkeye, Reed Richards, and the Hulk welcome us to simp-nation because all three of them seem to be missing their women a little too much and wish they were home. They have successfully captured five of their foes from the last battle and suspect an all-out attack from the villains. As Richards takes his leave from them to rest, Spiderman appears crawling from the ceiling.
As Spiderman explores the giant rooms of the fortress, he stumbles upon what looks like a meeting between the X-Men, Wolverine, and Professor Xavier, who is no longer in a wheelchair, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Colossus, and Storm. Spiderman ends up eavesdropping on their conversation and it looks like the X-Men are planning on joining Magneto because they feel they do not belong with the Avengers due to their constant suspicions of them.
Professor Xavier soon senses Spiderman’s presence and tries to stop him from telling their plan to the Avengers. It looks like all the X-Men are having quite a bit of trouble in getting a hold of Spiderman as he continues to escape their grips. With his spider-sense tingling, he even sends Wolverine flying in another direction. Immediately, Spiderman gets hold of Richards to tell him the information he has just acquired.
But the moment he opens his mouth, his mind feels empty as though it was wiped out, and he has completely forgotten what just happened between him and the X-Men. This is the genius of the psionic abilities that Professor Xavier possesses. Now, in order to execute their departure, Professor Xavier has learned how to operate a vessel that they can use to travel. It responds to thought commands of sufficient power. Clearly, a vessel that a telepath like Professor Xavier can easily handle.
Despite the raging storm, the X-Men immediately decided to leave for Magneto’s fortress. Now, at his fortress, Magneto has been contacted by Doctor Doom for an alliance. When he refuses, Doctor Doom threatens him by saying, “If you do not serve me, I must consider you an enemy.” Magneto goes back to the Wasp and confesses his emotions toward her, and the two kiss.
At the same time, at Doctor Doom’s massive fortress which he named Doombase, we come across two female human bodies locked inside a chamber. These women are Marsha Rosenberg and Mary MacPherran, who will soon become Titania. But how did they end up with Doctor Doom? Well, Mary was born into a family in Denver, Colorado, and did not exactly have the most amazing childhood.
Due to being short and bony, she would always get bullied at her school. A girl named Vanessa Ashwood even gave Mary the nickname “Skeeter,” which is short for mosquito. Growing up, she found solace in comic books and superheroes and would daydream about becoming one. After joining a job at the local grocery store, another outcast, Marsha Rosenberg became friends with Mary in her senior year at high school.
In order to appear likable, Mary told Marsha that she was the Spider Woman. Now, while attending a party thrown by Vanessa, Mary suddenly noticed that her former bullies were acting sweet towards her. In the midst of this, the Beyonder makes this section of Denver a part of Battleworld, and the real Spider-Woman makes an appearance in order to save the people. After her arrival, Vanessa and the rest of them turned against Mary and Marsha because apparently, Marsha had told them that Mary was the Spider Woman and that was why she was getting popular out of the blue.
After the bullies push Mary and Marsha into a forest, they are visited by Doctor Doom, who is looking for new allies. Doom promised the duo immense power and asked for their service in return. Both the girls accepted his offer and were taken to Doombase, Doctor Doom’s headquarters. Now, coming back to the Secret Wars, Doom’s evil plans are already in motion as he makes use of the alien technology and taps the energy from the raging Tempest in order to grant an individual set of powers to these two mortal subjects.
As Doctor Doom activates the equipment, two new villains are formed. Marsha Rosenberg has received the power to radiate thermal energy from her skin and can now shoot blasts of heat waves from her hands. She gives herself a new name, Volcana. And as for Mary MacPherran, she notices that she is no longer skinny and weak and has grown a foot and a half taller, and feels more robust than she has ever felt before.
Finally, we see the evolution of Mary MacPherran into Titania, who showcases her strength by picking up the molten hot mountain of destruction caused by Volcana with her bare hands. But this was like a child’s play for her. She is desperate to test her new abilities and asks the Absorbing Man to fight her. But he denies it. So, she must wait to try them against her enemies.
Back at the headquarters of the superheroes, Thor is walking past the block of cells that holds four of their enemies. In a special cell regenerative healing capsule lies the beautiful Asgardian goddess known as the Enchantress, the fifth prisoner. Reed Richards made sure that her injuries were healed. Thor and Enchantress leave the place to go elsewhere to discuss some God business. In the meantime, Captain America appears to have long been asleep while keeping a watch on the weather and Hulk did not notice that the storm had subsided.
Doctor Doom has arrived with the rest of the villains to attack the headquarters of the superheroes and they are none the wiser. They catch the heroes off guard, and another battle begins as Titania pretty much destroys Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and The Thing. On the other hand, Volcana injures She-Hulk, Doctor Octopus attacks Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Spiderman are crushed by Ultron, and Hulk decides to attack the Molecule Man and Doctor Doom alone. However, Captain America decides it is best for them to retreat to a defensible position for now. The issue ends with the scales tipping in favor of the supervillains.
What makes Titania such a formidable force?
After Doctor Doom’s experiments, Titania’s physical strength grew immensely. She also increased it through constant heavy weight training. Her sheer dedication to reaching higher levels of strength eventually brought her at par with even the She Hulk. This tells us that she has the capability of easily lifting more than 100 tonnes.
Titania also has incredible stamina and tolerance. Even though she can be injured, it is not easy to do so. She can withstand extreme temperature fluctuations, crash onto the earth from low Earth orbit, and can sustain significant physical damage before actually being injured. However, there is still some speculation about whether or not she has any regenerative abilities.
Being bullied as a child had a great mental impact on Titania and it gave her an intense inferiority complex. So much so that during her fights in the Secret Wars, she was obsessed with proving to every villain and hero that she was far more powerful than they could imagine. During her first encounter with Spider-Man, her pride and obsession drove her to do anything in order to defeat him.
But she failed to do so because his speed and cunning surpassed her strength and the failure left her humiliated. It had a huge mental impact on her to the point where she would be scared of any confrontation with Spider-Man. The extent of this was so great that Doctor Doom had to use a chip to help her overcome her fear so that she could battle him. In the end, her phobia was gone, and she was able to fight Spider-Man head-on.
Titania and her tale of romance
After she was introduced to Doctor Doom’s party of villains, Titania came across a villain on whom she wanted to test her new physical abilities. This boxer turned supervillain was Carl Creel, more famously known as the Absorbing Man. He is able to absorb anything and then use it as his own power through his skin. When Titania asked him to fight her, he straight away refused by saying “I got nothing to prove to a dame.”
This led to a somewhat rocky start between the two, but they would go on to fight a lot of battles together. Fighting side by side against the enemy helped the two slowly get along and get to know each other. Eventually, their romance grew more than any villain could have thought it would. We see them getting married in 1996’s Avengers Unplugged Issue #4. But their wedding was also not an easy task.
The Avengers sensed danger since each and every villain was attending their wedding. So, they arrived at their wedding fully equipped and ready to fight. But after realizing that the Absorbing Man and Titania had nothing else planned other than getting married, they left them alone. And soon, the most impressive Marvel villain couple began their new journey of married life.
Titania’s life would still not be an easy ride as she was later got diagnosed with cancer. She had no health insurance, just a loving husband. The Absorbing Man was ready to do anything in order to save her life. So, he kidnapped nurse Jane Foster, who is seen as Thor’s love interest. Although it was a sweet gesture, Thor clearly did not think so. He came down to battle the couple in order to rescue Jane.
During the battle, an entire building was about to fall on Jane. But even in her sick body, Titania held the building preventing it from crushing Jane and saving her life. After many years when Titania’s cancer came back, she met Jane Foster again. But this time, Foster had already become the newest hammer wielder, and nothing stopped her from fighting her former kidnapper.
The time when she possessed the Power Stone
Before the Power Stone came into the possession of Titania, it was with the Champion, one of the oldest living beings in the universe. He used the Power Stone to conquer a planet called Skardon. As a result of this, the Magistrati, the enforcers of Universal Law, made She Hulk challenge the Champion. The terms of the fight were that he was not allowed to use the Power Stone as it would give him an unfair advantage. Also, if he lost the match, he would be forced to give up control over Skardon and could never wear the Power Stone again.
Clearly, She Hulk managed to defeat the Champion which drove him on a path of revenge. So, he searched for She Hulk’s biggest enemy, Titania. He promised the Power Stone to her and trained her to use and harness its strength. Soon after, Titania attacked She Hulk while she was still in her civilian form, that is, Jennifer Walters. Her powers grew immensely while using the Power Stone and she was able to defeat She Hulk.
The Infinity Stones, on the other hand, are drawn to those who have the strongest singular desire for their needs. And after defeating She Hulk, her long-time enemy, Titania felt a loss of purpose. She now had no goal to pursue because she had already achieved her primary objective. Due to Titania having a crisis moment, She Hulk was eventually able to take away the Power Stone from her grasp. While in the form of Jennifer Walters, She Hulk defeated Titania in one big hit and gave the stone to Reed Richards for safekeeping.
The new She-Hulk trailer offers a glimpse of Titania
Every Marvel fan has been excited about the release of the new trailer of the Disney plus original series, She Hulk: Attorney at Law. This nine-episode series is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia with the head writer being Jessica Gao. As the arch-nemesis of She Hulk, Titania is also seen in the new trailer in what looks like a wrestling outfit. Her character is set to be played by the actor Jameela Jamil who was cast for the role in June 2021.
Before Mary MacPherran, another character in the Marvel comic book universe was the original Titania. Davida DaVito was a wrestler and a supervillain who first used the name Titania. Later on, as her powers changed and grew, she took on the name Lascivious. So, it is safe to say Mary MacPherran is the only Titania, and Jameela Jamil will indeed be portraying her story. The show is set to premiere on Disney plus on Wednesday, August 17th. So, make sure to mark your calendars!
Her presence in the animated universe
Titania has previously appeared in the animated series the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Her character is voiced by Clare Grant. In this series, she is often seen fighting beside the Absorbing Man and the two make quite the troublesome pair, posing quite the challenge for the heroes. In an episode titled “The Big Green Mile,” she is also seen bonding with She Hulk due to both of them being held as captives. We see a rather softer side of her towards the end.
She later also appeared in the animated series called Avengers Assemble in the episode titled “Small Time Heroes.” Here, her character is once again voiced by Clare Grant herself. She is seen being transported in a S.H.I.E.L.D. convoy in the series and the Absorbing Man comes to her rescue. However, the couple is defeated by Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Thor.
Tatiana, despite not being the most complex supervillain in the Marvel universe, has repeatedly proven herself to be the best opponent for She-Hulk. Her difficult childhood certainly left a mental scar on her perception. Still, it is evident that she also became more confident in herself after gaining the powers that she had longed for. That confidence is reflected every time she enters a battlefield and gives her opponents a really hard time with all her strength and might.
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