Officer Marsha Collins
Real Name: Marsha Collins
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Police Officer
Group Membership: NYPD
Affiliations: NYPD, Unnamed Partner
Enemies: Vermin (Edward Whelan)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Vermin called her "Mother"
Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York
First Appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man II#131 (October, 1987) (Part of The Kraven's Last Hunt Crossover)
Powers/Abilities: Police Training, incuding firearms training
History:
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#131) - Officer Marsha Collins and her partner were cruising the stormy streets
of Manhattan when a figure ran across the road in front of their patrol car.
At first, Marsha mistook it for a gigantic dog, but it was actually Vermin,
who had just killed a young woman in a nearby alley. Vermin recognized the
patrol car as containing cops, and, remembering his former cruel treatment
at police hands, decided to avenge himself. Vermin tore Marsha's partner
through the windshield and caused him to be assaulted by hundreds of rats.
With Vermin's attention distracted, Officer Collins got off a shot, hitting
him in the side and ordering him to call of the rats. Vermin complied,
as his jumbled thoughts began to link Marsha's voice and dark skin with his
mother. Vermin suddenly jumped the officer, licking her face, calling her
mother, and telling her that he loved her. As Vermin fled, Officer Collins
fell against the car, babbling, apparently suffering a complete mental
breakdown... A short time later, Joseph "Robbie" Robertson was listening
to a news report of the attack, which stated that Marsha was in a "deep state
of shock" and her partner was in critical condition. Nothing further was
stated of the fate of either officer.
Comments: Created by J.M.De Matteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod.
Whether or not either officer fully recovered is unrevealed.
At first glance Vermin's attack on Marsha's partner seemed to have a racial
overtone "Blue ssssuit...pale ssskin. big club.
hithurthithurthithirt....Now I'm hitting back!", and his picturing Marsha,
who was African-American, as his mother, but the woman he had just murdered
(apparently, her death wasn't confirmed) was also African-American.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that the other woman was younger than the
age he pictured his mother to be.
I thought Vermin hated his mother for allowing his father to molest
him.(I don't know what she did or didn't do), but here he says he loves her...of
course as Vermin, Edward Whelan has the mind of an extremely confused small
child, and really can't reason too well, he might have switched back and
forth between love and hate, unable to hold on to one or the other.
At this time Vermin was preying on young women, attacking and eating them,
and was dubbed by the press as "The Cannibal Killer". He was later captured
by Spider-Man and remanded to The Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally
Insane.
This story was reprinted in the Graphic Novel : The Amazing Spider-Man:
Fearful Symmetry- Kraven's Last Hunt
Clarifications:
This character, Marsha Collins, has no known connections to
Marsha's Unnamed Partner
Marsha Collins partner was a strongly built caucasian man with a mustache, he was dragged through the windshield of the patrol car by Vermin, and nearly eaten alive by Vermin's rats. He was never named.
--Spectacular Spider-Man II#131
images:
Kraven's Last Hunt, p64, pan2
Kraven's Last Hunt, p67, pan2
Kraven's Last Hunt, Pg65, Pan 2 and 3
First Posted: 12/04/2005
Last updated: 12/04/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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