CORY PAYNE
Real Name: Cory Payne
(maiden name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Nurse
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Defenders (Doctor Strange, Gargoyle, Hellcat, Nighthawk, Son of Satan, Valkyrie), Devil-Slayer, Ira ‘Sunshine’ Gross, Messiah (David Kessler)
Enemies: Deathlok (Manning), Ian Fate, Six-Fingered Hand
Known Relatives: Eric Simon Payne (Devil-Slayer, husband)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: None
as Cory is currently deceased;
formerly Israel;
formerly New York City
First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight I#33 (April, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: Cory has no known powers.
History: Little is known about the background of Cory Payne. At some point, she got her nursing degree.
(Marvel Spotlight I#33 (fb)) - Cory married Eric Simon Payne.
(Man-Thing III#3 (fb)) - Cory and Eric, early in their marriage, lived in an apartment on Foster Avenue in Brooklyn. They frequented Grandma’s Bar.
(Marvel Spotlight I#33 (fb)) - Eric went off to serve in a conflict in Viet Nam.
(Defenders I#104 (fb)) - When Eric returned from the war, he and Cory were both different and quickly realized their marriage would not work.
(Marvel Spotlight
I#33 (fb)) - Cory left Eric for another man. She
took a job at New Grace Hospital in New York City as a Pediatrics nurse.
(Marvel Spotlight I#33) - Cory was at work when two super-powered men battled in the Pediatrics unit. Cory confronted one of the men, Deathlok, who called her Janice, his ex-wife. Cory, frightened, fainted, and Deathlok carried her with him outdoors. When she awoke, there was a group of demons accosting her. Deathlok and Devil-Slayer (the other hero, who Cory recognized as Eric) drove the demons away. Eric picked Cory up, cradled her, and teleported away.
(Defenders I#97 (fb)) - Cory and Eric tried to get back together, but it didn’t work out as they didn’t have the same goals. Cory quit her nursing job and flew off to Europe, to find a new life. She worked for a time at Kibbutz in Israel. She came to believe in the teachings of a man named David Kessler, who professed to be the Messiah.
(Defenders I#97) - While Kessler was healing men, Cory noticed Eric across the way and rushed to him. She thought he was there to join her, then realized he was there to stop Kessler, seeing him as a devil to be slain. When Kessler believed the heroes were devils, he called down ‘angels’ (secretly disguised demons) to battle the heroes. Cory waited for Kessler to realize what harm he was doing, and he eventually did, and Strange revealed the angels true nature. Kessler was then possessed by Hyppokri (of the Six-Fingered Hand) and Cory tried to shake him to his senses, but Kessler pushed her aside. Kessler impaled himself on Eric’s blade so he wouldn’t give in to the demon.Cory was distraught and mourned over Kessler’s death. She chose to remain in Israel.
(Defenders I#104 (fb)) - Cory was kidnapped by Ian Fate, a former reporter who now practiced the occult, in a revenge scheme against Eric.
(Defenders I#104 (BTS)) - Cory was held captive in another dimension. Before Eric could rescue her, Fate realized that he couldn’t murder an innocent, so he sent Cory back to Earth.Fate used illusions of Cory dying to entice Eric to battle. Fate later kidnapped Ira ‘Sunshine’ Gross, and disguised him as Cory, to further entice Eric.Gross was killed in the battle to save ‘Cory.’
(Defenders I#110 (fb)) - Cory soon realized that Kessler had been false, but she looked within herself and found the Christian love she’d looked for for so long.
(Defenders I#110) - Months later, Cory found Eric lying in the street, fevered. She took him in and nursed him back to health. She hugged him, but he rejected her and hit her across the face.She told Eric of the peace she’d found and implored him to join her.Eric chose to teleport away though, and Cory jumped in after him. They ended up in the Negative Zone, where Eric planned to commit suicide.Because Cory was there, though, he chose to go back and try again. He later turned himself in for his crimes, an act which garnered a lot of media attention.Cory rented an apartment near the jail to support him as much as she could. Later, she wrote Doctor Strange about these events.
(Man-Thing III#4 (fb)) - Cory convinced Eric to help the authorities track down the mob leaders he had worked for as a hitman after their divorce. Eric agreed, and entered the Witness Protection Program. Eric convinced Cory to remarry him, and he felt that she was his reason for being and that he had finally changed. They were happy for a time. When a mob enemy planted a bomb in Eric's car to get revenge, Cory was the one killed.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#46/2 - BTS) - Eric mourned Cory's death.
Comments: Created by David Anthony Kraft, Rich Buckler, Mike Nasser, Arvell Jones, and Klaus Janson (all creators in the first appearance).
Cory Payne's death was mentioned in passing in MCP 46, and cleared up years later in Man-Thing.
Clarifications:
Cory Payne has no known connections to
images:
Defenders I#110, p20, pan4
Defenders I#97, p10, pan2
Marvel Spotlight I#33 (April, 1977) - David Anthony Kraft (writer), Rich Buckler, Mike Nasser & Arvell Jones (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Defenders I#97 (July, 1981) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Joe Sinnott, Sal Trapani & Jack Abel (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Defenders I#104 (February, 1982) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Joe Sinnott & Al Milgrom (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Defenders I#110 (August, 1982) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#46/2 (May, 1990) - Dwight Zimmerman (writer), Rodney Ramos (pencils), Mark McKenna (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Man-Thing III#3 (February, 1998) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Liam Roger Sharp (artist), Mark Bernardo (editor)
First Posted: 10/05/2005
Last updated: 10/05/2005
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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