Comics character
Monica Rappaccini is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Fred Van Lente and Leonard Kirk, the character first appeared in Amazing Fantasy vol. 2 #7 (2005).[1] Monica Rappaccini is a genius-level biochemist and the Scientist Supreme of the supervillain organization A.I.M.[2]
Publication history
Monica Rappaccini debuted in Amazing Fantasy vol. 2 #7 (2005),[3] created by Fred Van Lente and Leonard Kirk.[4] She appeared in the 2007 Super-Villain Team-Up MODOK's 11 series.[5] She appeared in the 2017 The Unstoppable Wasp series.[6] She appeared in the 2020 Ravencroft series.[7]
Fictional character biography
Monica Rappaccini went to New Mexico's Desert State University to study and shared a brief relationship with physics student Bruce Banner while enrolled as a biochemistry student at the University of Padua. She used their relationship to exploit Banner's radiation expertise for her own research. Upon attaining her doctorate, Rappaccini quickly became a world-renowned innovator of antitoxins and antidotes for various environmental poisons and nearly won a Nobel Prize.[8]
Recognizing the many environmental and political failings of Western civilization, Rappaccini decided that it was too corrupt to exist. She joined a series of terrorist organizations, such as the pan-European leftist group the Black Orchestra, and then Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), where she had a brief relationship with fellow agent George Tarleton.[9] Making poisons instead of curing them, Rappaccini's expertise with toxins allowed her to rise quickly through A.I.M.'s ranks. She implanted her own daughter and several other newborn children of A.I.M. members with memetic antibodies. She released them into the world as A.I.M. Waker agents with no knowledge of their heritage. They programmed to travel instinctively to the nearest A.I.M. biohaven when their antibodies activated at age 16. Her daughter was raised in Vermont by undercover A.I.M. agents as Carmilla Black.[10]
Monica Rappaccini went underground for nearly two decades and studied potential power sources such as the sentient Uni-Power. She orchestrated attacks on capitalism, such as the dioxin-based gas attack on Hong Kong. When the A.I.M. Scientist Supreme was slain by renegade A.I.M. creation MODOK, Rappaccini became head of a splinter faction of A.I.M. that remained independent from MODOK's control. Following his numerous defeats, Rappaccini's splinter group absorbed more cells into a sizable rival faction. She was made Scientist Supreme of this "true" version of A.I.M.[11] She rarely did field work as A.I.M.'s leader, preferring to act through agents and proxies.
When she led an A.I.M. attack on the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, it was thwarted by her estranged 19-year-old daughter, who had since joined forces with S.H.I.E.L.D. and became the costumed superheroine the Scorpion II. Monica Rappaccini eluded capture and soon attempted to harness the malfunctioning Uni-Power, but her plans were thwarted by the Scorpion II and several superheroes who bonded with the Uni-Power.[volume & issue needed]
Her A.I.M. faction was involved in an A.I.M. civil war against MODOK's faction that drew in several of the Marvel superheroes, prominent among were Ms. Marvel[12] and the Hulk.[13] Following Ms. Marvel's thwarting of a plan to turn MODOK into a bomb, Rappaccini reunited the organization under her control.[14]
She infiltrated the supervillain group MODOK's 11 with A.I.M.'s new robot the Ultra-Adaptoid, which was impersonating the Chameleon. She attempted to prevent MODOK from obtaining a weapon called the Hypernova and using it to erase all life on Earth. She had a stated aim to stop A.I.M. from creating "inventions that turn around and try to destroy us." In the end, MODOK gained the Hypernova, and Monica gave him $1 billion dollars in exchange for it - which, unknown to her, had been MODOK's plan all along, as he had already worked out that the Hypernova would grow unstable and explode anyway. A.I.M.'s base was destroyed in the explosion and MODOK believed Monica was dead.[15]
During the "Dark Reign" storyline, it is revealed that Rappaccini survived and came into conflict with Mockingbird and Ronin.[16] She also hired Deadpool to retrieve a batch of baby M.O.D.O.C.'s enhanced to warp reality from H.A.M.M.E.R. headquarters.[17]
After a failed attempt to persuade Hank Pym to join A.I.M., she and her followers were stranded on Earth-Charnel when the Wasp deactivated her facility's dimensional screen.[18]
Monica and A.I.M. later sided with Norman Osborn after he escaped from prison and reformed H.A.M.M.E.R.[19] Following Osborn's defeat, she and A.I.M. end up retreating.[20]
During the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Noh-Varr located a secret A.I.M. base where Rappaccini and the A.I.M. agents that escaped following Osborn's defeat were hiding out. The Avengers raided the base and arrested Monica and the other A.I.M. members that were present at the time.[21]
She then escaped from prison and fought the new Wasp. Monica Rappaccini was later seen as a member of J.A.N.U.S.[22]
Powers and abilities
Monica Rappaccini is an expert in robotics, chemistry, physics, engineering, biotoxins, and biochemistry.[23] Her inventions include the enhanced lymphatic system of the A.I.M. Waker agents that granted them total immunity to all biological, chemical and radiological weapons, memetic antibodies, synthetic microbes that attack the human psyche and trigger pre-coded memories and impulses, hallucinogenic drugs that deliver programmed hallucinations before being absorbed into the system; and many innovative weapons of mass destruction, from gas attacks to nanobacterial bombs.
Her A.I.M. uniform belt contains a phasing device that allows her to teleport.[24] She keeps many different devices at hand, varying upon her situation and opponent. When facing a captured Hank Pym, she boasts that she kept 157 methods of containing him on hand.[18]
Reception
Melody MacReady of Screen Rant called Monica Rappaccini one of the "most ruthless villains of the Marvel Universe," writing, "Monica is manipulative, prejudiced, murderous, and proud of what she does; this was best shown when she was one of the best villains in the game Marvel's Avengers."[25]
Other versions
House of M
An alternate version of Monica Rappaccini appears in the "House of M" storyline.[26] She worked alongside the Scorpion II and the Hulk to overthrow Governor Exodus' fascist mutant government in Australia when Scarlet Witch reality-warped Earth into a mutant-dominated society,. When the Hulk became Australia's new leader, she secret plan to create a cybernetic army to overthrow Earth's mutant rulers was exposed. Denying any knowledge of the army, she promised to restore the cyborgs' humanity. When this warped reality was undone, the disoriented Rappaccini found herself stranded in Australia alongside Bruce Banner. Evading the Scorpion II's attempt to arrest her, Rappaccini returned to A.I.M.
Death's Head 3.0 (Earth-6216)
An alternate version of Monica Rappaccini appears in the alternate future timeline in Death's Head 3.0. She created the Uni-Alias, an artificial variant of Captain Universe's Uni-Power.[27] Decades later her granddaughter Varina Goddard, a Senior Scientist in the future A.I.M., used the Uni-Alias as a power source for the Death's Head robot in her attempt to assassinate the United Nations Secretary General.
Ant-Man: Natural Enemy
An alternate version of Monica Rappaccini appears in the Ant-Man: Natural Enemy. She captures the shrunken Scott Lang and was going to make her pet, but later attempts to kill Lang by flushing the latter down the toilet. It is revealed that Rappaccini murdered animals when she was a child, especially ants.
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