Real Name: UnrevealedPITY
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutant/mutate
Occupation: currently unknown;
former servant of the Gentleman
Affiliations: former member of the Sinister Six
(Chameleon, Dr. Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, Vulture)
Gentleman (former master);
Spider-Man (ally); "Fred, Daphne, Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma"
(see comments)
Enemies: formerly Spider-Man and S.A.F.E. (Strategic Action For Emergencies)
Known Relatives: parents (deceased)
Aliases: formerly thought to be Carla May Mendelsohn;
Spider-Man also believed for a time that she might be his
sister
Base of Operations: currently unknown; last seen off
the coast of Maine;
formerly the Gentleman's townhouse/safehouse in the upper
East side of Manhattan
First Appearance: Spider-Man: The Gathering of the Sinister Six novel (March, 1999)
Powers/Abilities: Pity has superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and agility, all comparable with Spider-Man (Class 10). She is a swift and savage fighter, capable of holding her own or taking the advantage against Spider-Man. She would murder if her master so ordered, or if it became necessary in order to complete a mission for him, though she did try to avoid killing others unless absolutely necessary.
She apparently nullifies Spider-Man's
spider-sense. In addition, she can generate a total blackness through which no
light or any other form of detection can pass. She could spread this field over
several floors of a building. She can also make the field so small that it might
only appear to shadow someone's face so they could not be recognized by a
security camera.
As she has sometimes arranged it so that certain people can
see in this blackness while others cannot, it may be that she is actually
psionically affecting her victims. Nonetheless, the field she generated appeared
completely opaque to those both within and without. This blackness may or may
not be associated with the Darkforce.
In fact, Pity can also generate beams of bright light and
warmth. However, all of her life the Gentleman had forbidden her from using this
power which might inspire hope.
In addition, Pity--through her facial expressions and behavior when following the orders of the Gentleman--tends to inspire great sympathy from those around her, making them wish to assist her or to resist fighting her. It has been speculated that this is an actual low-level psionic ability of hers, although this is uncertain.
Under the direction of the Gentleman, Pity
had virtually no will of her own. She existed only for his will, at the expense
of her own at all costs. She would deprive herself of food and water for days on
end if he so instructed. Under his command, she remained mute--though she had no
physical disability--for her entire life. It was only after his death that she
began to try to speak. The Gentleman had no actual psionic or other type of
power over her, but had just brutally conditioned her to behave so.
Each of her cheeks were marked with a vertical, linear scar,
which the Gentleman had placed as a symbol of his ownership of her.
History:
(Spider-Man: Secret of the Sinister Six (fb)) - Approximately twenty years ago,
her parents were murdered under the direction of Gustav Fiers, the Gentleman. As
a young girl she was claimed as the Gentleman's own, to serve his will. Recognizing the
mutant powers in the girl, he used the most advanced mind-control techniques in
exist to bond the girl to his will, such that she had no will of her own.
Forbidden to even speak, she was known by one name only: Pity.
BTS - Pity served the Gentleman in a number of endeavors over the years, acting as bodyguard, field agent, assassin, etc.
(Spider-Man: The Gathering of the Sinister Six) - Pity accompanied the Gentleman to New York City for his mission against Spider-Man. While he was out making arrangements and enjoying the city, she sat alone in a corner of their rented suite, shrouded in darkness, not eating, drinking, or moving, with the instructions to slay anyone who entered her field of darkness.
(Spider-Man: Revenge of the Sinister Six) - The Gentleman
introduced Pity to the other five members of the Sinister Six. While all of the
group had sympathy for her and the way the Gentleman treated her, Electro found
himself moved by much more. When he questioned the Gentleman, he offered her to
him as a prize upon the successful completion of their mission, in lieu of his
actual pay. Dr. Octopus later tried to convince her to betray info about her
master, but she remained silent, as always, angering him further.
Pity was present with the group when they appeared in the
Daily Bugle building, announcing their intentions. As they left, the Gentleman
had her engage Spider-Man in an inconclusive skirmish that showed her talents.
While the other four members of the Six engaged in the "Day of Terror" --acts of
terrorism at sites of Spider-Man's previous failures to save others--Pity and
Electro stole an unknown compound from a secret facility on Governor's Island,
while Mysterio covered their actions on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Afterwards, she joined the rest of the Six to team up against
Spider-Man back at the Daily Bugle building. Pity blacked the entire building so
that no sharpshooters or others could get involved in the struggle. In addition,
she arranged it so that the rest of the Sinister Six had normal vision within
the field, while Spidey was literally blind, relying only on his other senses
(including the spider one). However, after much struggle, Pity was the second of
the six to fall in battle, and Spidey regained his vision to fight against the
others.
Pity later awakened and used her field to inhibit the
invasion of SAFE agents into the building, and then escaped with the other
members when they sent Spider-Man after a false threat against the Bugle
employees.
(Spider-Man: Secret of the Sinister Six) - Pity accompanied
the Gentleman on several of his missions to convert his monetary holdings into
objects of great value (gold, gems, artwork, etc.) as he and the rest of the Six
advanced his plot to destroy the financial system across New York City. The
Gentleman then sent Pity to take the valuables he had acquired back to the safe
house with his chauffeur, Ivan. However, a group of criminals had seen what they
had purchased and ambushed the limousine, killing Ivan--at the expense of one of
their own--in the process. Pity fought back and crippled her three attackers,
but by then the police were on the scene. She incapacitated them, but they
delayed her long enough for Spider-Man to arrive as well. Spidey tried to reach
Piy, to no avail, but in the course of their struggle, the briefcase full of
precious gems was torn in half and fell to the streets below, where the people
of New York quickly made them scarce.
The Gentleman brutally battered Pity for her failure, and
though she was too strong to be physically injured, her shame knew no limits.
The rest of the Six stopped his assault, nearly causing a disruption in his
leadership, though he managed to regain control of the situation. Later, Pity
attempted to defend the Oltion generator with which the Gentleman had instructed
the Six to generate an electromagnetic pulse. She occupied Spidey when he tried
to stop Dr. Octopus from getting the generator to the stop of the Empire State
building. Spidey continued in his efforts to get through to her and explain that
he wanted to help, but she fought him to a standstill and then vanished.
However, after SAFE executed Spider-Man's plan to neutralize Electro, the Six
then lacked the source to power the generator. It was at this point that Spidey
pointed out to Pity that Dr. Octopus had vanished, probably to take his
vengeance on her master, and that the only way she could save him was to lead
them to the Gentleman.
Pity reluctantly consented, and directed them to the
Gentleman's private airplane just off of JFK airport. However, by the time they
arrived, the plane had already taken off, and Spidey and Pity managed to board
it. No sooner had they entered the plane than they found that Octopus was
already aboard, and he soon attacked them both as well. During the struggle,
Octopus tightened his tentacle around the Gentleman's neck, who then revealed
himself to be the Chameleon, who had duped and shot the real Gentleman and left
him for dead on the tarmac. And the Gentleman was indeed dead, as the SAFE
agents confirmed to Spidey, and as he told told to Pity.
As the struggle continued, Octopus was knocked out of the
airplane and into the storm above the ocean. Pity tried to warn Spider-Man of
the bomb the gentleman had her place in his house, but she could not voice the
words. Spider-Man made an immense mass of webbing in an effort to cushion and
insulate himself, Pity, and the Chameleon. However, when SAFE located them in
the water, based on a beam of light emitted by Pity, only Spidey and the
Chameleon were anywhere to be seen.
However, several nights later, Pity was picked up along the side of the road by a van, driven by an athletic blond guy, along with a thin guy with a mop of unkempt dark brown hair and a goatee, a short-haired brunette in a loose orange sweater, and a tall and shapely redhead "whose fashion sense seemed devoted to purple," and a Great Dane. Everyone felt sorry for the poor woman, soaked to the bone, but she managed to choke out the words, "No...pity...ever again."
Comments: Created by Adam-Troy Castro and Mike Zeck.
The you can't be sure from the black and white pictures, Pity wore an all-white costume in "Revenge" and in black pants and a white jacket in "Secret". She was in her mid-to-late twenties in this story.
And in case it's not abundantly clear, the group that picked up Pity was Scooby Doo and the gang, who had updated to a white van from the old Mystery Machine.
I tried and failed to get Pity and the Gentleman into the Spider-Man Encyclopedia. The novels are not considered official canon, and they weren't willing to make them so in the pages of the 'pedia. Oh well, there's always next time...
CLARIFICATIONS:
Last updated: 07/14/03
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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