YLANDRIS YLANDRIS
Real Name: YlandrisIdentity/Class: Extradimensional (realm unrevealed; see comments) energy being/symbiote
Occupation: Warrior;
former mentor
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Carlos Cardinale, Poison (Cecilia Cardinale), Spider-Man (Peter Parker);
presumably Maria (Carlos' babysitter)
Enemies: Eliminators (High Evolutionary-associated), High Evolutionary (Herbert Edgar Wyndham), Miami's drug lords and other criminals, the Purifiers (High Evolutionary-associated), Slug (Ulysses X. Luggman) and his henchmen;
it is unrevealed whether Ylandris has experience with Mrinha, the
similar being associated with Joe Trinity, aka the Mop Man.
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Poison (what her name meant in her native dimension)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed, presumably her unidentified home dimension;
formerly Miami, Florida
First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4 (1988)
Powers/Abilities: Ylandris is an energy being, although little has been revealed about the nature and origin of this energy. She exists in that form in her native dimension.
At full power, Ylandris can access/open existing interdimensional portals, such as the Nexus of Realities in the Man-Thing-associated swamp outside Citrusville, Florida, and endure/navigate the journey back to her native realm.
In an Earth-like environment, she weakens over time, and she would eventually disperse in the atmosphere; the length of time she can survive in such an environment is unrevealed.
She can symbiotically merge with a human, whose form allows her to not only survive but to recover her strength. In addition, she can grant superhuman abilities -- including superhuman strength, flight, durability, hearing, possibly flesh-molding, telekinesis, shield projection, or telepathically influencing others to miss when shooting -- to such a host. Ylandris could alter the host's body so that he or she would retain much of these abilities even after Ylandris departed his or her form and returned to her own dimension.
Ylandris apparently caused an uncomfortable reaction from Peter Parker's "spider sense" when he was around the Ylandris-bonded Cecilia.
Ylandris could telepathically communicate with and influence a human host Apparently with her host's permission, she could take control of their form; it is unclear whether she could forcibly control such a host.
Ylandris could also, presumably telepathically, learn information about others, and she shared that information with Cecilia.
Height: Unrevealed (roughly human-sized, likely variable)
Weight: Unrevealed (likely negligible)
Eyes: White or pale yellow
Hair: None
History:
(Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4/2 (fb) / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5: Poison (fb) - BTS) - Ylandris is a semi-tangible energy warrior from an extradimensional realm in which her name means "Poison." Under unrevealed circumstances, she became stranded in the Earth dimension after having "fallen from her own world." (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4/2 (fb) / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5: Poison (fb) - BTS) - After Cuban refugee Cecilia Cardinale arrived at a Miami Florida refugee camp and gave birth to her son, Carlos, illness she had contacted began to worsen. (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4/2 (fb) / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5: Poison (fb)) - Cecilia was near death when Ylandris -- who was by this point at risk of having her form dispersing in Earth's atmosphere without substance to contain her -- offered to merge with Cecilia and save both their lives. Cecilia initially believed Ylandris to be a result of a fevered dream. (Marvel Comics Presents#60/2 (fb) - BTS) - Cecilia, at least, later considered Ylandris to be a demoness. (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5: Poison) - Ylandris provided Cecilia's beleaguered immune system with the strength to fight off her illness, while Cecilia's body serve as a containment vessel for Ylandris' energy. Cecilia recovered from her illness, now containing the life energy and consciousness of Ylandris within her. Taking her name from the English translation of Ylandris' name, Cecilia adopted the identity of the costume vigilante "Poison" for a number of years, using powers gained from Ylandris. Hunting any who harmed the vulnerable, her battle thirst was driven partly by Ylandris and and partly by her own determination to never again be victimized and to at least symbolically strike back for the wrongs done to her. Poison combated evildoers she considered "the destroyers of the heart." (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4/2 (fb) - BTS) - Cecilia and Carlos moved to Miami, where Cecilia became a hotel chambermaid. (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#9: Poison) - Poison spent years as a sporadic crimefighter. After Carlos reached school age, the High Evolutionary sent his Purifiers and Eliminators to Florida to, among other things, hunt people potentially infected by the Nexus of All Realities within the Citrusville, Florida swamp associated with the Man-Thing. (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4) - When Cecilia knocked on the door of Peter Parker -- who was staying in a hotel in Miami during his tour to promote his book "Webs: A Pictorial History of Spider-Man," his spider-sense went off, apparently in reaction to her mutated/alien-bonded nature. After leaving Parker's hotel room, Cecilia wondered who was that man to make her babble so, and Ylandris apparently noted that he was "power without corruption"; Peter, however, having been pained by her effect on his spider-sense, hoped he would not see her again. As Cecilia caught a bus home, she argued with Ylandris about a potential mission, and her speaking aloud caused other passengers to think her crazy. Finally accepting Ylandris' instruction to find a babysitter for Carlos to do needed work, Cecilia asked Ylandris to let her sleep for a while to gather her strength. |
(Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4) - Having taken a shower, Cecilia was refreshed, composed, and purified, which she noted to Ylandris; pleased, Ylandris encouraged Cecilia to become Poison. After she did so, Ylandris advised her that the High Evolutionary's Eliminators were coming for her and for Carlos, noting that they knew what she was and feared what her son may be. Warning of the power of their weaponry, Ylandris instructed Cecilia to stop them immediately, and Poison swiftly descended upon and destroyed a trio of armored warriors, shattering their armor and redirecting their weaponry back at them.
When
Carlos, drawn by the commotion, recognized his mother as Poison,
Ylandris instructed Poison to ignore the voice of her son and to take
her far away, to the place where their worlds converged. 
In the swamps outside Citrusville, home to the Nexus of Reality, as Spider-Man battled and defeated other Eliminators, Poison descended from the air above. When Ylandris noted that she would soon leave and return to her own world, Cecilia confessed that she would be relieved at her departure, leading Ylandris to state that Cecilia had learned well from her, and she asked Cecilia to give her control of the body so she could do what must be done.
Cecilia acquiesced, and Ylandris then departed her form, noting that she had changed Cecilia's body such that not all of the powers she had granted would vanish with her departure, as well as the fact that Carlos may also have been changed by her presence. She also advised Cecilia that the Eliminators had sought to seal off the Nexus forever.
Strengthened by her experience with Cecilia and apparently by the Eliminators' efforts to close the Nexus, Ylandris opened a portal to return to her world and endure the hard journey home. She told "Sweet Poison" that her journey had yet to begin.
(Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4/2 (fb)) - After Ylandris' departure, Cecilia retained her powers, and she went out into the streets of Miami, recalling her origins as she sought to find one of the "destroyers of the heart"; finding only other victims, she returned to her apartment to tuck Carlos in.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber and Cynthia Martin.
In Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4, Ylandris told Cecilia that the High Evolutionary's Eliminators knew what she was and feared what her son may be.
Even more
convincingly, as Ylandris separated from Cecilia, she noted that she
had changed Cecilia, and perhaps Carlos, as well...
My understanding was that Carlos was born before Ylandris merged with
Cecilia, so it is unclear whether Carlos was just exposed to energy
emanating from Cecilia or whether Poison directly transferred energies
into Carlos, as well; or perhaps the information about the merger
occurring after she gave birth was erroneous.
In Spider-Man I#64, Poison noted that the alien life that had empowered her had been from the stars. I guess she could have traveled amongst the stars in her extradimensional realm, as Ylandris is otherwise consistently referred to as an extradimensional.
Ylandris' realm has not been identified. I suggest "Simsotsulirosiu."
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Ylandris should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Web of Spider-Man I Annual#4 (1988) - Steve Gerber (writer), Cynthia Martin (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Annual#4/2 - Steve Gerber (writer), Alex Saviuk (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#5 (November, 1989): Poison
entry - Peter Sanderson (writer/researcher), Kelly P. Corvese
(penciler/assistant editor), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Gregory Wood
(editorial assistant), Terry Kavanaugh (editor), Mark Gruenwald
(executive editor)
Wolverine: Weapon X Files: Poison
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#9 (July, 2009):
Poison entry - Jeff Christiansen, Stuart Vandal, & Sean McQuaid
(head writers/coordinators), Mike Fichera & Madison Carter
(coordination assistants), Michael Hoskin, Ronald Byrd, Mike Fichera,
Madison Carter, Eric J. Moreels, Mike O'Sullivan, David Wiltfong,
Gabriel Shechter, Rob London, Markus Raymond, Jacob Rougemont, Andrew
Goletz, Rich Green, Chris Biggs, Jeph York, Mark O'English, Al
Sjoerdsma, Chad Anderson, & Anthony Flamini (writers),
Alex Starbuck (editorial assistant), John Denning & Cory Levine
(assistant editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special products), Jeff
Youngquist &
Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
First posted: 04/17/2023
Last updated: 04/17/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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