Creation
The Pre Crisis and current Rebirth incarnation of Doctor Poison first appeared in Sensation Comics #2 and was created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter.
The Post Crisis version of Doctor Poison first appeared in Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #151 and was created by Eric Luke and Matthew Clark. This version of the character was reinvented for DC’s New 52 iniative but as of Rebirth has been reconned out of existence.
Character Evolution
Pre-Crisis
In 1942 Princess Maru became Doctor Poison, who disguises her gender via a bulky hooded costume and mask. Dr. Poison was a Japanese “princess”, spy, chief of the Nazi Poison Division, and Chemical Research Chief of the Japanese Army. She was the leader of a Nazi spy ring, whose ultimate goal was to wreak havoc in the US Army by contaminating the army’s water with “reverso,” a drug that confuses the brain center,.
This plan is foiled by the Amazon heroine Wonder Woman who imprisons Doctor Poison. She later escapes and, in 1943, now working for , grounds all planes along the front of via a “green gas” which “enters the carburetor and stops the engine.” Wonder Woman halts this scheme as well, and Doctor Poison is imprisoned on , the Amazon penal colony. She is not seen again until 1948, when she and seven other female super-villains escape and pool their talents as Villainy Inc. Led by the Saturnian slaver Eviless, the evil eight are again defeated by Wonder Woman. Throughout most of her first appearance Doctor Poison was believed to be a male due to her disguise, and she retained this mannish garb in her later appearances. [Whether this guise was simply a necessity of assuming power within the male-dominated Axis governments or indicative of something else is difficult to say at this late date.
Post- Crisis
In recent years, an unnamed grandchild of the original Doctor Poison appears in league with the demi-goddess Devastation. Doctor Poison’s gender remains ambiguous, the only clues being long fingernails and a lipstick grimace. She also joined the latest incarnation of Villainy Inc. and once again battled Wonder Woman. This incarnation of Doctor Poison confirmed that her grandmother did battle Queen Hippolyta as Wonder Woman during WWII. She also explains that her grandmother met her own demise by the creation of the drug called “Reverso”. The original Doctor Poison accidentally reversed her own growth patterns and had forgotten the antidote by becoming too young too fast.
Doctor Poison was later asked to be a part of the Secret Society of Super Villains, which she accepted. Joining the other scientists on the team, she was assigned to collect soil samples from . She added her samples with that of other areas on Earth where genocides took place and helped create the new Wonder Woman villain Genocide
New 52
In The New 52, Doctor Maru is the Caucasian daughter of a Russian pair of scientists renowned for their knowledge of poisons. American spies had approached her parents as they thought the doctors’ expertise could lead to the United States’ domination in biological weaponry. When they refused, the Russian government discovered their practices. Her parents were branded terrorists by Russia, and imprisoned near Siberia where they died during interrogations. Doctor Poison blamed the United States for her parents’ deaths and planned to take revenge through chemical attacks
Rebirth
The events of DC Rebirth have altered Doctor Poison’s history. In the current continuity, she is Colonel Marina Maru, a Japanese soldier working for the organization called Poison which had been founded by her family. During Wonder Woman’s first few months in the United States, the amazon discovered a group of men infected with the Maru Virus, a poison that drives its victims to rage-induced murder. Ten years later after Wonder Woman had discovered she had been living a lie for several years, Veronica Cale sends Doctor Poison to attack the Amazing Amazon.
Powers and Abilities
- Gifted Intelligence: She is highly intelligent as shown by her capabilities to create several different toxins and chemical substances.
- Expert Chemist: She is shown to be an expert at creating and deploying several different toxins and chemicals.
- Armed Combat: She is able to hold her own in an armed gun fight due to her military training.
- Multilingualism: Maru is able to speak several different languages including Turkish, English, German and the dead Sumerian language.
Other Media
Animation
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Doctor Poison appears in the episode “Joker: The Vile and the Villainous.” She works as a bartender at a bar for costumed super-villains. The Joker orders a “John Wilkes Booth” from her.
Film
Wonder Woman
Dr. Poison is one of the antagonist in the film, portrayed by Elena Anaya.
In the dying days of World War I, Ludendorff visited Dr. Poison in her research facility located in the Ottoman Empire to inspect progress on an even deadlier form of mustard gas (containing a hydrogen base instead of sulfur) capable of defeating conventional gas masks, which he hoped could still salvage a German victory in the war. Unbeknownst to the pair, one of Ludendorff’s bodyguards was actually Steve Trevor, an Allied spy. He stole Dr. Poison’s notebook containing her research and escaped by plane, thereby informing the Allies of her gas formula and plans to use it.
Ludendorff believed that deployment of Maru’s new gas could win Germany the war, and tried to convince German military command to not sign the proposed armistice. They refused, and so Ludendorff and Dr. Maru used her latest gas on them, killing many high ranking commanders.
Ludendorff then organized a Gala, where he planned to demonstrate Maru’s gas on the nearby town of Veld, as a show of power to the rich and influential guests who would be present, including Kaiser Wilhelm himself. They planned to deploy a huge amount of the gas via a prototype Zeppelin-Staaken long-range bomber over London, which Chief estimated would kill 7 million people.
Her gas was successfully deployed against the people of Veld, killing them all. At the airbase, Maru and Ludendorff oversaw the bomber’s preparation. When Ares and Diana began fighting, Maru believed the base was under attack, and began destroying her lab and research so that it could not fall into enemy hands. Due to Chief also planting dynamite around the airbase, little to none of Maru’s research is likely to have survived.
Dr. Maru tried to flee the base via car as it continued to sustain damage from the fighting of both Diana and Ares, as well as Steve’s team and the local German forces. Ares used his telekinesis to summon her car as she fled and bring her before a furious Diana, who has just witnessed Steve’s sacrifice. Diana lifted a German tank above her head and was going to drop it on Maru, but spared her, remembering her ordinance as an Amazon, and turning her heart back to love and compassion. Maru fled the base, and her ultimate fate is unknown.
Games
DC Legends
Doctor Poison: Master of the Toxic is a playable character. She is a villain with Physical affinity.
Her bio in the game says: Thanks to an obsession with the toxic and noxious the mysterious Maru earns her nickname as Doctor Poison.
A mysterious mercenary scientist and expert in all toxins and poisons Maru is known as Doctor Poison thanks to her devotion to toxic chemicals. Though terribly scarred by her own twisted experiments this has not stopped her from pursuing the most deadly and corrosive compound ever used on the battlefield. Partnering with dark and dangerous forces to pursue her poisonous perfection she is truly a mad scientist.