(Punisher War Journal II#20) - Jigsaw hired Lady Gorgon and her crew of Hand ninjas to bring him the head of the Punisher for fifty million Euros. He showed her the money and she praised him for not trying to trick the Hand with fake money. Jigsaw agreed to not hire anybody else in addition to the Hand as Lady Gorgon requested, but as soon as she was out of his meat locker hideout Jigsaw got the word out on the street that there was an open bounty for the Punisher's head.
(Punisher War Journal II#20 - BTS) - On Lady Gorgon's order the Hand attacked the Punisher, who was aided by his allies Diamonelle and Stuart Clarke, but the Hand were only interested in the Punisher and quickly forced him out to the streets. The Punisher eventually took out the ninjas.
(Punisher War Journal II#20) - The Punisher arrived wounded in an alley where he was cornered by Lady Gorgon, Illumination and Silhouette.
(Punisher War Journal II#21) - Lady Gorgon promised to the Punisher that he would soon die and be reborn as a member of the Hand. She watched Illumination blast the Punisher with electricity until Domino, Silver Sable and Val de la Fontaine came to his rescue. The three ninjas avoided Silver Sable's bullets. Lady Gorgon went after the Punisher while her allies fought with the three mercenaries. Watched by two junkies Lady Gorgon pushed the Punisher through a flimsy wall, but he had already escaped through a window to the roof using the fire escape when she came through the hole in the wall. Lady Gorgon contacted him telepathically to make him realize that there was no way to escape her. To show the Punisher what death felt like she telepathically linked one of the junkies to the Punisher's mind and then cut the man's neck down to his spine. The Punisher felt the man bleed out and die. She ordered the Punisher to return to her and accept her as his Jonin and threatened the life of the second junkie, but before she could kill the other man as well, the Punisher jumped through the ceiling on to her. Lady Gorgon knew that the Punisher only did it to be spared to feel him die as well. Lady Gorgon took the Punisher down, but was suddenly hit by Silver Sable with several chais. While the Punisher seemed to flee Lady Gorgon slashed open Silver Sable's belly, stabbed her in the shoulder and mocked her because she had saved a man that ran away. At that moment the Punisher shot Lady Gorgon in the head, apparently killing her.
BTS - Lady Gorgon got better! (see comments)
(Franken-Castle#17 (fb) - BTS) - Lady Gorgon and her allies were cast out in shame from the Hand for their failure to assassinate the Punisher.
Sometime later Lady Gorgon hired members of the Shaolin Scientist Squad to kill the Punisher (he was the Franken-Castle around this time) at his wife's grave to save face with the Hand. They failed!
Henry Russo found out that Lady Gorgon was behind the Shaolin Scientist Squad's attack on the Punisher and that she was in Tokyo. He gave Frank all the information he had and made arrangements for him to travel to Japan on a cargo ship.
(Franken-Castle#18) - Lady Gorgon told her men that even though they had disgraced the hand by failing their mission to kill the Punisher, she had a plan to get them all readmitted to the Hand in good grace. She planned to present Kagenobu Yoshioka's sword Izanami-no-Mikoto to his descendant Kazu Yoshiokya, master of clan Kabuicho, who prized relics from the Hand's history very highly. She was sure this was enough to get back with the Hand. Moments later one of her men delivered a file to Lady Gorgon on Kenneth William Duncan. She was surprised because nobody knew about their hideout, but when she recognized the man in the file as the man she had killed while his brain was telepathically linked to the Punisher, she knew who had sent it to her. The gem on the Izanami-no-Mikoto sword glowed because it could predict when it would drink blood and she told everyone that the Punisher was here. The lights went out and everyone in the room was quickly killed by the monstrous Franken-Castle. Lady Gorgon used the gem on the Izanami-no-Mikoto sword to light her way to the roof. On her way there she only encountered the dead bodies of her students. On the roof Franken-Castle told her everything he knew about Duncan. Lady Gorgon considered killing Duncan a favor and Franken-Castle was willing to return the favor by killing her. Lady Gorgon avoided Frank's bullets, but was unable to dominate his mind because his brain was too damaged. When more of her men arrived she linked their brain to Frank's to force him to suffer through their deaths in case he killed them. Frank didn't care and slaughtered them. Lady Gorgon jumped at Frank, but he grabbed her in mid-air and tossed her from the roof to her death. Lady Gorgon landed on a neon sign, then jumped on to a car and took mental control over the driver, linking his mind to Frank at the same time. Frank felt the terror of the driver, who was forced by Lady Gorgon to keep driving. Frank used his motorcycle to stop the car from driving into a crowd. Lady Gorgon escaped in the chaos and went to Kazu Yoshiokya in the Hand's district. His guards were ordered to let her through. Lady Gorgon offered the Izanami-no-Mikoto sword to Yoshiokya for a chance to become part of the Hand again, but Yoshiokya told her that the only way to become part of the Hand again was to finish her assignment to kill the Punisher. Lady Gorgon was given command of a contingent of Hand ninjas and they attacked Frank, who went through them to get to Lady Gorgon. She cowardly ran away from him and informed Yoshiokya that they had been overtaken. She saw the gem on the Izanami-no-Mikoto sword glow and called Frank a fool for entering the sacred dojo of Master Yoshiokya because the master would end him. Instead Yoshiokya stabbed Lady Gorgon through the back as punishment for her repeated failure, killing her once again.
Comments: Created by Matt Fraction, Rick Remender & Howard Chaykin.
She apparently took a bullet to the head in Punisher War Journal II#21, which probably killed her. If she was dead and a failure in the eyes of the Hand then why did they resurrect her? Weren't they aware of her failure at the time? Was she that stupid to tell them after her resurrection? Did the memo about her failure arrive too late to prevent her resurrection? Is resurrection part of the Hand's health insurance package?
Kagenobu Yoshioka was spelled Yoshiokya in Franken-Castle#18 unlik his grandnephew Kazu Yoshioka. Maybe the spelling changed over the centuries. There is also the slight problem that Kagenobu was active in the 16th century, which would mean that either he or his grand-newphew were centuries old. Not a huge problem because the Hand can resurrect people, but it is unknown how many times either of them had to be resurrected that they were only two generations apart.
Other websites treat Tanya Adrian and Lady Gorgon as the same character, but this assumption falls apart if you think about what was later revealed about Adrian. Adrian started out as the mysterious sniper at Maria Castle's grave in Franken-Castle#17 and apparently had long hair like Lady Gorgon, but Gorgon was revealed in the same issue to be in Tokyo. Later in Punisher: In the Blood#1 the sniper lacked long hair and looked like a burn victim. Punisher still recognized her as the sniper from the grave though. Throughout the mini-series the Punisher believed this woman to be his resurrected wife Maria, but in the end Henry Russo revealed her to be nothing but an assassin hired by his father. Jigsaw's ally Stuart Clarke then added that this assassin was set on fire years ago by Frank Castle, which just doesn't work with what we already knew about Lady Gorgon. We even see a head shot of Tanya Adrian before she became a bit crispier. Additionally Lady Gorgon seems to be of Asian heritage (possibly Japanese) while Tanya Adrian looks Caucasian (in her original head shot).
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Lady Gorgon should not be confused with:
- Gorgon of the Inhuman Royal Family @ Fantastic Four I#44
- Gorgon (Tomi Shishido), Japanese mutant @ Wolverine III#20
- Delphyne Gorgon, Queen of the Amazons @ Incredible Hercules#121
- Gorgons, offspring of the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, cursed by Athena @ Adventure into Terror#15
- any other character with a similar name
Kenneth William Duncan has no known connection to:
- Duncan, encountered and stopped the Cyclops, engaged to Amanda @ Tales of Suspense I#10
- Duncan, cousin of Melanee Carondelet @ Namor the Sub-Mariner I#51
- Duncan, Reavers @ New Mutants II#5
- Dave Duncan, older brother of Jess, brown hair, glasses, associated with Scarecrow/Strawman, write for unknown magazine @ Dead of Night#11
- Dr. Duncan, Weapon X project @ Weapon X: Agent Zero
- Frederick Duncan, former FBI agent, Black Womb project, ally of Professor Xavier @ X-Men I#2
- Jess Duncan, owner of the scarecrow/Strawman's oil painting, younger brother of Dave. wm, grey hair and beard @ Dead of Night#11
- Paul Duncan, Mutant Civil Rights Task Force, involved in plot against mutants, killed by Ashton Wither @ X-Factor II#3
- Shawn Duncan, Warheads Kether Troop @ Warheads#13
- Tiger Duncan, disembodied criminal @ Captain America Comics#41
- any other character with a similar name
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(Franken-Castle#18 (fb) - BTS) - Duncan was a Vietnam veteran. He was married to Mary Duncan and they had a daughter together named Christina. He ran a diner in Norfolk, Nebraska until it burned down with his family inside. Duncan turned to his sister in New York, but she died of cancer. Duncan ended up a homeless alcoholic. (Punisher War Journal II#21) - The Punisher passed two junkies while running from Lady Gorgon and told them to get to safety. They witnessed Lady Gorgon push the Punisher through a flimsy wall. Lady Gorgon then telepathically connected the brain of one of the junkies to the Punisher's and cut the man's neck down to his spine to show the Punisher how it felt to die. The Punisher felt him bleed out and die. (Franken-Castle#18 (fb) - BTS) - Lady Gorgon telepathically linked the brain of drunk vagrant Duncan to the Punisher's before gutting Duncan. The Punisher felt Duncan's wound and death. (Franken-Castle#18 - BTS) - Lady Gorgon received a file on Kenneth William Duncan from the Punisher. --Punisher War Journal II#21 ([Franken-Castle#18 (fb)], Punisher War Journal II#21, [Franken-Castle#18 (fb)], [Franken-Castle#18] |
