(Amazing Spider-Man I#340, [341], 342, 343) - Employed by the Chameleon (who was posing as Dr. Turner), the Femme Fatales attacked the plane of the ambassador of a newly freed Baltic country. They did this in order to make him question his powers, so he would return to Turner for further studies. They destroyed the ambassador's plane, and then caused a major explosion that Spider-Man narrowly escaped (having already saved the ambassador, of course). Spider-Man, chock full of angst (as always), decided to have Turner remove his powers, so that he would no longer risk his life, so he could be with his family. Turner successfully removed his powers.
Turner then hired the Scorpion and the Tarantula and sent them to draw out the now powerless Spider-Man. Turner and his four female assistants (not to be confused with the Femme Fatales) quickly moved out of Turner's lab/apartment to escape Spider-Man's discovery. The powerless Spider-Man, assisted by the Black Cat, managed to fight off the Scorpion, and tagged him with a Spider-Tracer. Spidey and the Cat, using his old Tracer tracking device, traced the Scorpion (and the Femme Fatales, and Turner) to Turner's new base in the Botanical Gardens. Turner revealed himself to be the Chameleon, and the Black Cat broke in, hoping to cause a distraction so that Spidey could use the machine to regain his powers. The Black Cat accomplished her mission, but took quite a beating in the process. Spidey, back to his old self, rushed in and quickly fought off all seven of the villains, and destroyed the machine to prevent it from ever being used again. The Femme Fatales, and everyone else, escaped capture.
(Captain America I#387-388-BTS, 389-392, [393]) - All four of them were present on the S.S. Superia, and later Femizonia Island, after responding to Superia's invitation to join her army of Femizons. They participated in the initial capture of Captain America and Paladin when the two tried to sneak aboard the ship.
(Captain America I#411-413 - BTS) - Knockout went as representative of the Femme Fatales to the A.I.M. Weapons Expo on Boca Caliente.
(Marvel Knights Spider-Man#6) - The Femme Fatales attended the auction in which the Venom symbiote was sold.
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#4) - The fate of the Femme Fatales after M-Day is unknown. Except for Bloodlust, who lost her powers.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(All-New, All-Different Avengers#8 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Bloodlust and Mindblast got imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Pleasant Hill. Kobik transformed Bloodlust and Mindblast into duplicates of Maria Hill and told them to keep the Avengers away from Pleasant Hill.
(Uncanny Avengers III#7/All-New, All-Different Avengers#7) - Instead both of them posed as Maria Hill, leading individually with the help of Wrecker (for the Unity Squad) and inadvertently the confused Night Phantom (for the Avengers) the Avengers' Unity Squad (Brother Voodoo, Cable, Deadpool, Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Quicksilver, Rogue, Synapse) and the Avengers (Iron Man/Tony Stark, Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Nova/Sam Alexander, Spider-Man/Miles Morales, Thor/Jane Foster, Vision) back to Pleasant Hill. One of them shot from her jet with the Avengers on board at the Unity Squad with the other false Maria Hill on the ground, causing a fight between both teams. Kobik caught both teams, altered them and made them the newest residents of Pleasant Hill.
(All-New, All-Different Avengers#8) - When the villains in Pleasant Hill reverted to their true forms Bloodlust and Mindblast, still in Maria Hill's form, ran to the Avengers team, who had regained their memories as well. They revealed who they actually were and told them how Kobik had transformed them to keep the Avengers away. Before Bloodlust could tell them the reason why Kobik wanted them to be kept away Kobik teleported the two villains away.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#1 (fb) - BTS) - The Femme Fatales became employees of Madripoor crimelord Viper.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#2 (fb) - BTS) - Influenced by Soteira Sapphire Styx joined the team.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#2 (fb) - BTS) - The Femme Fatales and Viper captured Magneto, who was kept in Viper's dungeon where he remained weakened by Mindblast's psychic powers and Sapphire Styx's life-force drainings.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#1) - Mindblast used her powers to create an illusion in the form of Magneto, who greeted the X-Women Kitty Pryde, Domino, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue and Storm in Madripoor. Psylocke believed she couldn't read his mind because of his helmet. The false Magneto set up a meeting with the X-Women at the King's Impresario Restaurant at 10 PM.
Later at the meeting Psylocke realized too late that the Magneto they were talking to was a mere illusion. Viper's trap sprung and the Femme Fatales attacked the X-Women as soon as Mindblast had revealed herself to be behind the Magneto illusion. Knockout knocked out Storm and Rogue, Bloodlust ripped through Domino, Snake Whip tied up Jubilee and Sapphire Styx overpowered Psylocke by draining her life-force. Kitty Pryde phased through Knockout and got hold of Domino and Jubilee to escape with them into the sewers by phasing through the ground. Viper still considered the Femme Fatales assault a success because they had easily defeated half the team were facing.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#2) - At Viper's headquarter Snake Whip stayed with her while Mindblast and Knockout took Storm and Rogue to the dungeon. Mindblast mocked Magneto after which she and Knockout cuffed Rogue and Storm to a wall.
Snake Whip poured Viper a drink while the latter reported to Soteira and revealed her issue with Sapphire Styx's growing hunger. Meanwhile Sapphire found out that she had already killed Psylocke.
At a casino Bloodlust guarded Viper's mathematician Stenya Ubacowits, who was hired by her to plot flight trajectories for a satellite. Domino and Jubilee knocked out Bloodlust while Kitty Pryde abducted Stenya, who revealed everything about his involvement with Viper.
Back at Viper's HQ Sapphire found herself faced with a psychic manifestation of Patch.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#3) - Viper and Snake Whip got into a confrontation with Sapphire Styx, who maniacally talked about Wolverine standing in front of them.
Meanwhile Mindblast kept playing with Magneto while Knockout was bored because she was not allowed to beat up any of the captured X-Women, who were all going to be delivered to Soteira, except for Psylocke's corpse. Moments after leaving the dungeon Knockout and Mindblast were attacked by Jubilee and Kitty Pryde. Outside Domino watched agents of Soteira putting Rogue and Storm into a rocket. Bloodlust atacked Domino. When Kitty Pryde fried the technology, enhancing Mindblast's powers, Magneto escaped and ripped apart the dungeon, knocking out Knockout, Mindblast and Bloodlust, who was still fighting Domino outside. Kitty asked Magneto to leave Mindblast alive because they needed to stop the rocket. Domino knocked out Bloodlust again, the Wolverine manifestation knocked Sapphire through a window before she exploded from the inside...
After a psychic attack earlier by Sapphire against Snake Whip, the latter could see Wolverine attacking Sapphire.
(Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#4) - ...leaving in her place the original body of Elizabeth Braddock, reformed from psychic energy. Bloodlust tried to attack Psylocke, but was hurled away with telekinesis. Knockout went after Jubilee, who used her powers to knock her to the ground. Viper and Snake Whip tried to keep the X-Women and Magneto occupied so they could finish their mission for Soteira, the launch of the satellite, but Snake Whip knocked herself out when she hit the ground jumping at an illusion created by Psylocke. Knockout got to her feet only to immediately get knocked out by Rogue again. Snake Whip surrendered when Domino threatened her with a gun. Magneto once again attempted to kill Mindblast, but Kitty and Domino convinced him to let her stay alive.
COMMENTS: Created by Erik Larsen and David Michelinie.
The Spider-Man story was for many years the only appearance where they actually appeared as a distinct group, as far as I know...although...they were sitting next to each other on the S.S. Superia...except for Mindblast, who might have smelled bad or something. Ahh, who cares.
I can never believe characters with the see-through-braincase, like Mindblast, don't get it shattered and have their brains all over the place more often.
Robert McKinney tells me the Femme Fatales are a parody/homage/whatever to DC's Female Furies, of whom there are five. I can see Knockout as Big Barda, Whiplash would be Lashina, and Bloodlust would be Mad Harriet. Mindblast is definitely not Stompa, so that would make her Bernadeth, who used a fahren-knife to barbecue her foes, from the inside out. The analogy kind of falls apart on that one, but the rest definitely fit pretty well.
Mike Fichera saw forwarded a response from David Micheline regarding the 4 women with Dr. Turner in ASM I#341 (a dangling plot point that connected Chammy to his "Dr. Turner" alias due to Erik Larsen skipping a necessary panel). In Micheline's e-mail he explained that the 4 women with Dr. Turner were not intended to be the Femme Fatales. (see right)
Whiplash has an entry in the OHotMU Master Edition. The whole team has an entry in All-New OHOTMU#4.
Profile by Snood. Updates by Markus Raymond & others
CLARIFICATIONS: Whiplash has no known connection to:
- Whiplash, aka Blacklash, Mark Scarlotti, @ Tales of Suspense I#97
images: (without ads)
Amazing Spider-Man I#340, p14, pan2 (main image, including head shots for all four members)
Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#1, p20 (working for Viper)
Amazing Spider-Man I#342, p5, pan3 (Chameleon with the girls)
Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I#340-343 (October, 1990 - January, 1991) - David Michelinie (writer), Erik Larsen (pencils), Randy Emberlin & Mike Machlan (#340) (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Captain America I#389-392 (August-September, 1991) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Rik Levins (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man#6 (November, 2004) - Mark Millar (writer), Terry Dodson (pencils), Rachel Dodson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#1-3 (July-September, 2018) - Jim Zub (writer), Thony Silas (artist), Jordan D. White & Mark Paniccia (editors)
Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor#4 (October, 2018) - Jim Zub (writer), Thony Silas & Leonard Kirk (artists), Jordan D. White & Mark Paniccia (editors)
First Posted: 11/25/2001
Last updated: 06/01/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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