Real Name: Nina Vladimirovna TsiolkovskyMADAME X
Real Name: Nina Vladimirovna Tsiolkovsky
Identity/Class: Human conventional weaponry user
Occupation: Spy, soldier
Group Membership: People's Defense Force (Beasts of Berlin, Scarlet Beetles, el Toro, Voice unidentified communist agents)
Affiliations: Former agent of U.S.S.R.,
former agent of
communist leaders of Hungary
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Comrade X
Place of Birth: Kaluga, Russia
Base of Operations: Formerly the Soviet Union, formerly Hungary
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#36 (October, 1962)
Powers/Abilities: Madame X is a master of disguise and is exceptionally skilled at espionage, stealth, etc. She was at one time known as the greatest spy in the USSR. She apparently has some military training and has used both conventional guns, as well as a specially designed gun which fired gas. She wore a latex mask, a padded uniform and a vocal modification device to appear as a convincing male figure as Comrade X.
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Tales to Astonish I#36) - Madame X, originally known as Comrade X, was one of
the greatest espionage agents in the Soviet Union. After a group
of other spies attempting to steal Dr. Henry Pym's shrinking
process (later known as Pym Particles) met with failure, a Soviet
leader sent Comrade X to the USA to accomplish the mission.
A former lover of the "deadly red master spy" Comrade X warned Ant-Man of a plot to steal his size changing formula. She sent him to board a freighter at Pier 89, where he and his ants were caught inside a glass cage by the waiting Comrade X. However, not meant to kill him, the cage had air holes, which enabled him to summon outside ants to board the ship and cause one of Comrade X's agents to drop the container, freeing him. After subduing Comrade X, Ant-Man had his ants remove the mask to reveal...the woman who had sent him there in the first place. Ant-Man, of course, knew it all along, having hidden out in her purse and seen the mask, etc. before meeting her. Comrade X, now revealed as Madame X, was taken away by the US coast guard.
(West Coast Avengers II#36(fb), 33-34, 36) - Later during a plot against the West Coast Avengers, Quicksilver allied himself with Hungarian communists, who had organized a group of agents composed of a number of Henry Pym's old communist enemies. Madame X was one of the leaders of this group, and participated in an unsuccessful effort to capture the Avengers. She and her allies were ultimately defeated by a woman who at the time was believed to have been Maria Trovaya, Pym's wife, long thought dead, who had been mutated to possess a giant brain and immense mental powers along the lines of Modok.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.
Madame X was the original Ant-Man's very first named villain.
"Maria Troyvana" turned out to be another trick, and that woman later came to be known as Sodam, and then Modam, the agent of AIM.
The group of old Tales to Astonish foes in West Coast Avengers was named the People's Defense Force in Hungary's entry in the Marvel Atlas.
Comrade X (Madame X) has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook. Her real name was revealed in her profile in OHotMU A-Z Hardcover#8.
images: (without ads)
West Coast Avengers II#34, p12, pan4 (Madame X main image)
Tales to Astonish I#36, p3, pan1 (Madame X as Comrade X)
Tales to Astonish I#36, p13, pan1-2 (Comrade X revealed as Madame X)
Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#36 (October, 1962) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)
West Coast Avengers II#33-34 (June-July, 1988) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Mike Machlan (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
West Coast Avengers II#36 (September, 1988) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (pencils), Mike Machlan (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
First Posted: 09/07/2001
Last updated: 03/08/2003
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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