Menace (Marvel Comics)

Menace (Lily Hollister) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics villainess and enemy of Spider-Man. Her first appearance as Lily Hollister is in The Amazing Spider-Man #545, and her first appearance as Menace is in The Amazing Spider-Man #550, which is the start of the second story arc in the "Brand New Day" overarching storyline that followed the events of "One More Day".

Publication history

Lily Hollister was created by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #545 . Her alter-ego "Menace" was created by Marc Guggenheim and Salvador Larroca and first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #550.

Fictional character biography

Lily Hollister is the biracial daughter of Bill Hollister, an African-American candidate for the position of mayor of New York. While dating Harry Osborn, she finds a hidden door in his closet and finds an old former journal of his, which detailed the location of one of Green Goblin's secret hideouts. When she enters the hideout, she accidentally shatters vials full of a new type of Goblin Formula that made contact with her skin, mutating her.^[1] Using weapons from the hideout and calling herself "Menace", she targets her father's campaign intending for him to gain the public's sympathy due to her attacks. Menace kidnaps Councilwoman Lisa Parfrey. Spider-Man and Jackpot attempt to rescue the Councilwoman, but Menace's glider slams into the Councilwoman and kills her. Menace escapes the crime scene but not before accusing Spider-Man of being responsible for the woman's death.^[2]

Menace then proceeds to threaten the supposedly redeemed Norman Osborn, even attempting to recreate Osborn's original death by ramming him with his glider.^[3] However, Osborn survives the attack and Menace spares him after accusing Osborn of being a fool for devoting all his time and assets to Spider-Man's destruction.^[4]

Menace next appears in the Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man miniseries. She kills one of the invading Skrulls and then attacks Jackpot.^[5] Their fight takes her into the path of one of the Skrulls with Menace's glider exploding on contact. Menace survives badly injured and limps away from the scene.^[6]

When Menace attacks a Hollister Rally, she manages to badly beat Spider-Man (who had earlier been shot through the arm) and claims a "citizen's arrest" to the arriving police. Menace then flies into the Hollister party headquarters and changes back to her real self, just before Harry walks in on her.^[7] She reveals to Harry the truth, and explains that she orchestrated Menace's attacks against her father to give him more public support in the mayoral election. She then told Harry that she accepts his earlier marriage proposal.^[1]

Lily Hollister (Menace's human form) debuts in the finale of "Spider-Man: One More Day". Art by Joe Quesada.

On Election Day, Menace attacks two police officers for arresting Carlie Cooper for a crime she did not commit, then attacks Spider-Man when he appears. Menace was about to kill him until Harry, as the Green Goblin, arrives and shoots Menace with a serum causing Menace to change back into Lily, seen in a live broadcast, with her father watching in shock and in tears at this revelation. A few days after the event with Bill Hollister as the new Mayor of New York, Lily is visited in prison by Norman Osborn as he discovered the engagement ring given to her by Harry among his belongings and says to her "Welcome to the Family".^[8] She is later seen released from prison and approaches Harry in her Menace form; telling him that she's "moved on". Harry believes that she has started a relationship with Norman and warns her that she will be disposed of once Norman's done with her.^[9]

During the Dark Reign storyline, Lily reappears in her Menace form to Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man #595 threatening Harry's life at first, but then showing Harry that she is pregnant. After this, Harry calls Norman Osborn to inform him that he will be accepting his invitation to work for the Dark Avengers, which highly upsets Peter Parker. Harry's real reason for joining is to steal a cure for the serum to use on Lily and the baby so they can be healthy. However she pushes him away, and reveals that it was all a ruse to make Harry become American Son so he could be used to die in a tragedy to engender sympathy and support for Norman. She also shows a new goblin form, with a decidedly more feminine figure, large full horns, and a green complexion. Lily reveals to Harry that Norman is actually the father of the baby.^[10] She then goes to work for Norman's Dark Avengers in an unknown capacity.^[11] After Norman's fall from power, Lily is on the run from the law. It is also revealed that due to the time of conception there is a possibility that Harry is the father of her unborn child.^[12]

In the Origin of the Species storyline, Lily crashes into Harry Osborn's coffee shop and gives birth to a baby boy. Then a group of supervillains, hired by Doctor Octopus, attack her and kidnap the baby.^[13] Spider-Man manages to rescue the baby, but he is stolen again by Lizard.^[14] Spider-Man manages to track him down only to have The Lizard willingly give the baby back to Spider-Man, because his tests to determine paternity prove that Norman is not the father. Word of her child's safety (but not the paternity) gets back to Lily, who is relieved. She runs away because she feels she is unfit to raise the child.^[14] Spider-Man later tests Harry's blood revealing that he is in fact the father and leaves the child in his care.^[15]

As part of the Marvel NOW! event, Menace returns showing her allegiance to the Goblin King as part of his underground Goblin Nation when it comes to preparing for the fight against Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body). Menace is ordered to disarm the prison truck that captured Phil Urich (the former Hobgoblin) before taking him to the underground and christening him as the Goblin Knight.^[16] Menace later kidnaps Carlie Cooper from Potter's Field after she finds that Doctor Octopus' grave is empty and brings her to the Goblin King. Menace then gives the Goblin King the journal learning the secret about Superior Spider-Man.^[17] During the Green Goblin's take over of Manhattan, the real Spider-Man returned, and defeated the Goblin Nation. In the process, he used an antidote for the Goblin Serum on Menace turning her back to a normal human.^[18]

During the AXIS storyline, Phil Urich tried to free Lily Hollister from police custody for which he exploded the police car where she was being transferred. Lily's body dropped on the river and couldn't be found by the police or Urich. Lily had survived the explosion and lived on the streets with no memory of who she was. She found one of Roderick Kingsley's ads in a newspaper who was now in the business of reinventing people into super heroes and went to his base.^[19] Over the next month, Roderick Kingsley turned Lily into the Queen Cat, a Black Cat-like hero. When Phil Urich confronted Roderick Kinglsey in his base, Queen Cat protected him. Phil Urich recognized Lily Hollister as Queen Cat, but she didn't know who he was.^[20]

Powers and abilities

Menace is able to change from her human form to her enhanced form at will. However, it takes a visible effort and is uncomfortable for Lily to do. Exposure to an experimental version of the Goblin Formula has given Menace great physical strength. She was capable of overcoming Norman Osborn in a physical struggle, indicating that she has gained even greater strength than he had. This is further reinforced when Menace nearly beats an injured Spider-Man to death (although Spider-Man was not fighting at full capacity due to a bullet wound which he acquired shortly before the encounter).

Equipment

She is armed with a variety of bizarre portable incendiary devices in her shoulder bag and uses a Mark 7 Goblin Glider^[4] as a personal transport, until it was destroyed by Norman Osborn. She also uses concussion and incendiary Pumpkin Bombs. She originally wore bulletproof mail with an overlapping tunic and cap. With her new form, debuted in American Son, she now wears a form-fitting bodysuit of an unknown material, with a helmet that has holes cut out for her horns.^[10]

In other media

Video Games

• Menace appears in the Nintendo DS version of Spider-Man: Edge of Time voiced by Tara Strong. She ends up in the 2099 timeline after an incident causes time-drifts to form between times. She attempts to steal weaponry from 2099 to bring back to present-day New York, but is stopped by Spider-Man 2099 and returned to her time.
• Menace appears in Spider-Man Unlimited. This version differs from the comics to the point of being male as he is an alternate version of Green Goblin.

References

External links

• Menace at Marvel.com
• Menace at Marvel Wiki