Maria Vásquez joins Misty Knight‘s team after the Superhuman Registration Act is passed. With a bad attitude and a veiled history, Maria is valued for her combat skills. If she isn’t ordered not to kill, she will gladly inflict pain on her opponents to the chagrin of her teammates. In a conversation with her father, Maria confesses to becoming a hero to avenge her sister who was killed in explosion in Stamford Connecticut. Shortly after this revelation, her father is killed by ninjas, who were acting on a hit placed by Ricadonna to kill Maria and the rest of the team. Avenging her father, Tarántula kills the team of ninjas herself.
Tarántula and Collen Wing are captured and tortured by the Brood thanks to Humbugs betrayal. The rest of the team came to their rescue and Shang-Chi kills Humbug to avenge Tarántula’s torture. Shang-Chi departs the group carrying the still injured and unconscious Tarántula in his arms
Not too long after ShangiChi breaks up with Maria and she finds herself on her own.
Six Guns
Out and about on her own Maria soon finds herself in more trouble, now being extradited from San Diablo for a double murder. She also finds herself being hunted by a mysterious group by the name of Roxxon for discovering the dealing of a priceless vibranium mine, hidden deep in the jungle. She eventually gets rescued by the Black Riders Biker gang who turned her over to Roxxon, but were betrayed and all but the leader was killed. Tarantula managed to get away briefly but was being followed by Tex Dawson, one of the of the police officers who were trying to detain her and Matt Slade who wanted the bounty on her head.
Fearless Defenders
Tarantula is one the possible candidates for Valkyrie‘s team of Shield Maidens.
Powers & Abilities
Maris highly skilled in martial arts and hand to hand combat. She usually employs blades on her wrists to do battle with enemies and has no issues killing or maiming her foes.
She has also been shown to have a high degree of knowledge in the areas of biology and engineering. Her full level of these studies are unknown and she has proved to be a skilled detective, capable of observation, forensic investigation, and inductive and deductive reasoning of the highest caliber.