Yes, Marvel Somehow Has Six Super-Villains Named Malice

Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.

Reader David L. wrote in to ask, "In today's post, you mentioned that Sue Richards was once possessed by Malice. Okay. Was that the same Malice who was a Marauder and possessed Lorna Dane? I also recall a character named Malice in Priest's Black Panther. Is that the same as one of these? Both? Or are there three characters in the Marvel U named "Malice" running around? Thanks!"

Oh, David, it is somehow much more than just that!

The first villain named Malice debuted in Jungle Action #8 (by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson), as one of the bad guys helping Killmonger in his attempted coup of Wakanda...

The next Malice showed up in Ghost Rider #25 (by Jim Shooter, Don Heck and Tony DeZuniga), as a publicity-seeking rich guy who wanted to be a super-villain for the notoriety of it all...

He happened to get into Ghost Rider's path...

And he discovered that, as Bob Dylan once said, "All the money you made will never buy back your soul."

This brings us to Fantastic Four #280 (by John Byrne), where the new Hate-Monger, working in connection with the mind-altering powers of the Psycho-Man, conspired to brainwash the Invisible Woman (then still calling herself the Invisible Girl) into becoming Malice, the Queen of Hate...

This is the story where Reed, in an attempt to cause the brainwashing to backfire, acted like he hated Sue, as he figured out that they were turning her feelings of love into the OPPOSITE, so he knew that if he got Sue to HATE him, then it would all break down. This involved him smacking her around a bit, which definitely looks really bad (and probably was not a good idea for Reed to do period).

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Probably the most famous Malice is the one who was part of Mister Sinister's Marauders. Malice was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #210 (by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and Dan Green), where she possessed Alison Blaire, the Dazzler, who had been playing in Lila Cheney's band undercover after being outed as a mutant...

You can tell someone is possessed by Malice because of that choker that appears around their neck.

She fought against the X-Men in Dazzler's body and even jumped around a little bit into different members of the X-Men (leading Wolverine to almost accidentally stab Storm to death). It's kind of weird in the story how slow they are to pick up on the whole "oh yeah, the person with the choker around their necks is obviously possessed by Malice. Wolverine's senses trick him into thinking Storm is possessed again by Malice, but she's not wearing the choker, so what the heck, Wolverine? You don't need enhanced senses to see that she doesn't have the choker on!).

Eventually, though, she found her main host, as she took over Polaris' body. All of that power was too much for Malice to turn down and she became the leader of the Marauders and taunted the X-Men, as seen here in X-Men #222 (by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green)...

Malice has been a recurring X-Men foe ever since.

The next Malice is a very interesting figure because she is someone who just played a major role in the blockbuster film, Black Panther, but as a HERO.

Introduced in Black Panther #1 (by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira) as one of Black Panther's Dora Milaje, the female bodyguards who are raised to be his protectors from a young age, Nakia was a loyal bodyguard to T'Challa for years...

In the third issue, Mephisto created an illusion that caused T'Challa to think that he was kissing his old girlfriend, Monica Lynne, while he was actually kissing Nakia...

This made Nakia believe that T'Challa loved her, but since T'Challa then reunited with the real Monica Lynne, she began to have thoughts about that, as seen in Black Panther #11 (by Priest and M.D. Bright)...

The following issue, she made her move by ejecting Monica from the plane that they were both in...

She didn't realize that Monica survived, so she told T'Challa that Monica was dead.

In the next issue (by Priest and the then-new art team of Sal Velluto and Bob Almond), Panther banishes her from his service due to her actions...

She goes on the lam but is then captured by the villainous Achebe, who tortures her for quite some time...

She is freed by Killmonger, who makes her his new malice, as seen in Black Panther #24 (by Priest and Bright)....

I imagine that the Nakia in the Black Panther franchise will not go down this path.

The final Malice is one of the oddest ones of the bunch.

Okay, during Infinity War, Magus teamed up with a race of aliens who shape-shifted into doppelgangers of the various heroes of the Marvel Universe. These doppelgangers had little to no consistency in how they were applied. One of the strangest ones debuted in Fantastic Four #369 (by Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi) and attacked the Invisible Woman in her mind somehow AS Malice. Sue ended up absorbing Malice into herself...