Queen Bee (comics)
Queen Bee is the name of six different characters appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Publication history
The Zazzala version of Queen Bee first appeared in
The first Bialyn Queen Bee first appeared in Justice League International #16 and was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.
The Tazzala version of Queen Bee first appeared in Creature Commandos #1.
The Beatriz version of Queen Bee first appeared in JLA: Incarnations #6 and was created by John Ostrander, and Val Semeiks.
Fictional character biographies
Queen Bee (Zazzala)
Queen Bee | |
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Cabal | |
Abilities | Superhuman strength and speed Venomous darts Ability to release mind-confusing "pollen" powder |
The leader of the hiveworld Korll, Zazzala lives only for the interstellar expansion of her species.
Zazzala reappeared in JLA #34 (October 1999), when
Later, Zazzala and her drones join Luthor's new Secret Society of Super Villains. The Queen becomes the leader of the H.I.V.E., a multi-national criminal enterprise. She appears in the six-part Villains United limited series. A small team of villains, known as the Secret Six, attack her base as part of a war against the Society. Her forces are defeated, the base's prisoner, Firestorm, is freed and Zazzala herself is badly wounded.
One Year Later, Zazzala appears in JLA #20, fully healed from her injuries, and attempting to steal a matter transportation device that will appear to allow her to transport her troops to earth. She is defeated by Wonder Woman and captured by the Flash.
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Under her re-debut in Gail Simone's Plastic Man mini-series, the Queen Bee appears as a member of the Cabal, a criminal organization made up of Per Degaton, Doctor Psycho, Amazo, and Hugo Strange.[4]
Queen Bee (Marcia Monroe)
Queen Bee | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | The Brave and the Bold #64 (March 1966) |
Created by | Bob Haney Win Mortimer |
In-story information | |
Full name | Marcia Monroe |
Team affiliations | CYCLOPS |
Marcia Monroe was a spoiled young woman, daughter of a wealthy man, who enjoyed risking her life in absurd and pointless situations. Her playgirl attitude created trouble for the police, who often tried to save her from harm during her own stunts. One day, she was rescued by Batman, who brought her down to the ground and spanked her in public, making news in the headlines of the most notorious newspapers. Shortly after this encounter, Marcia started following Batman on his crime-busting activities and provided unrequested help when Batman least expected it.[5] Marcia revealed that Batman's vulgar display of power was enough to make her fall in love with him. Batman and Marcia became an inseparable couple, but one day, she vanished without a trace.
Some time later, Batman saved a girl from being attacked with an arrow and soon he realized it was Marcia. She had returned to Gotham to ask Batman to return a valuable stolen gem which she had acquired from her father. Batman agreed to help her, but Marcia double-crossed Batman and provided evidence to the police incriminating Batman for the stealing of the gem. It was later revealed that Marcia had joined the crime syndicate known as CYCLOPS under the codename of Queen Bee. She was the leader of the task force that was in charge of releasing Eclipso from his human host, Bruce Gordon. With Eclipso's help, Queen Bee started a criminal spree and a campaign to get the criminal organizations of Gotham City under the control of CYCLOPS.
When Eclipso threatened to murder Batman, Marcia intervened and saved the man she loved. She then revealed that she had been forced to join CYCLOPS to save her father. Marcia helped Batman find a way to escape from Eclipso's trap and before parting ways, she gave Batman the real stolen gem and promised to stall Eclipso for a moment until he managed to escape. Batman was able to clear his name and stopped Eclipso with Bruce Gordon's help, but Marcia vanished from his life once again and never returned.
Queen Bee of Bialya
Queen Bee | |
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Publication information | |
J.M. DeMatteis Keith Giffen |
An unrelated Queen Bee was introduced in
Justice League Europe found out that the Queen Bee was behind their recent troubles, and that she had a Dominator named Doctor working for her. They invaded her palace and came to an agreement; she would cease hostilities against them if they kept quiet about the unethical things she was doing as Queen. They also demanded she sever relations with the Doctor. After they left, she killed the Doctor. The Queen had far-reaching influences, managing to put one of her own operatives in charge of the League via the United Nations.[6]
The Queen Bee was eventually defeated by the JLE and the Guardians, who learned of her brainwashing plot. She was assassinated by Rumaan Harjavti's brother Sumaan, during the events of the JLA/JLE crossover Breakdowns (1991).
Queen Bee (Tazzala)
Queen Bee | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | Creature Commandos #1 |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Tazzala Beatriz |
Place of origin | Korll |
Abilities | Superhuman strength and speed Venomous darts Ability to release mind-confusing "pollen" powder |
Queen Bee appeared in the 2000 Creature Commandos series. On the otherdimensional world of Terra Arcana, Zazzala's sister Tazzala joined Simon Magus's Terra Arcana Army with the ultimate goal of conquering Earth. The U.S. Army faction known as the Creature Commandos stopped the invasion plans. Tazzala herself was killed by Simon.
Queen Bee of Bialya (Beatriz)
Queen Bee | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | JLA: Incarnations #6 (December 2001) |
Created by | John Ostrander Val Semeiks |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Beatriz |
Place of origin | Korll |
The sister of the second Queen Bee, Beatriz was introduced in JLA: Incarnations #6 (December 2001, but set around 1996) as the new ruler of Bialya. She is using humans forged with machinery and passed off as the robot
H.I.V.E. Queen
The New 52
In "
She reappears much later in Teen Titans, where she takes control of the entire city of
DC Rebirth
The H.I.V.E. Queen returns in
Powers and abilities
The first Queen Bee, Zazzala, has insect-like superhuman strength and speed, can fire venomous stinger darts from a set of glands on her right wrist, or release mind-confusing "pollen" powder. She and her drones are unable to perceive the color red. She is a capable enough combatant to fight Big Barda, and to dominate and defeat her.
Zazzala's sister, Tazzala, presumably had similar abilities.
The Queen Bee of Bialya had no superhuman powers or abilities, aside from her beauty and cunning. Her sister Beatriz was also an ordinary human, but was nowhere as resourceful as her sister.
The sixth Queen has great psionic powers including telepathy, mind control, empathy, casting extremely realistic and complex illusions to distract others or to trick people into seeing her differently, telekinesis, projecting harmful blasts of psionic energy and feeding off the mental energies of others to fuel her own powers. She also displayed some sort of healing factor, being able to reconstruct her entire body from scratch after she was blasted to pieces by the Psycho Pirate. Her intellect is also increased to the "12th level", courtesy of the psionic virus she is infected with by Brainiac. She has been described as a "world-class telepath" by Robin and has proven capable of controlling thousands of people at once without visibly straining herself.
Other characters named Queen Bee
Action Comics
A different version of Queen Bee named Lisa Raven first appears in Action Comics #42 (November 1941). Lissa Raven was the daughter of a brilliant psychologist who specialized in the working of the brain. Her father invented a machine that removes all worry from a person's thoughts. Lissa made herself the test subject, but something went wrong. The device robbed her of a conscience, turning her into a criminal. She started calling herself the "Queen Bee", and became an opponent to Mr. America. In her brief, colorful criminal career, Queen Bee used such amazing weapons as a giant robot and a mob of undead Vikings. Eventually, her father built another machine that would change Lissa back to normal. Afterward, she had no memory of her criminal activities, so Mr. America let her stay with her dad rather than arrest her.[11]
Quality Universe
An alternate Queen Bee appears in Blackhawk #38 (March 1951). Queen Bee was the leader of an organization called "The Golden Swarm". They poisoned prominent townspeople and swayed public opinion in their favor partly by their comely appearance. The Blackhawks managed to defeat the Queen and her henchgirls by scaring them with mice.[12]
Mystik U
Melissa, aka Queen Bee, is a bee-creature sorceress, and is the founder of the Thriae Society sorority at Mystik University. In her previous year (or years) on campus she had grown a large following of brainwashed thralls by giving them cocktails that transformed them into worker-bee like subjects who worshipped her. Melissa was defeated when she tried to turn Zatanna into a "Queen Maker" bee by feeding her magik-laced honey, only to be stopped by Zatanna's friends, who then unintentionally set The Malevolence upon her and her "hive".
Other versions
JLA/Avengers
During
Flashpoint
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Queen Bee was part of a team led by the Canterbury Cricket to fight the Amazons which ended in failure with the demise of every bug hero except the Canterbury Cricket.[13]
In other media
Television
- The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee makes non-speaking appearances in Justice League Unlimited as a minor member of Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society.
- Queen Bee was meant to appear in the teaser for the Poison Ivy instead. Nonetheless, a draft of the original short featuring Queen Bee was made available on writer Gail Simone's message board.[14]
- The first Bialyan Queen Bee appears in Young Justice, voiced by Marina Sirtis.[15][16] This version possesses the power of persuasion over most men and some women and is a high-ranking member of the Light.
Film
The moniker of H.I.V.E. Queen is used by Rose Wilson in Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons: The Movie.
Video games
- Queen Bee appears as a boss in the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions of Justice League Heroes, voiced by Abby Craden.
- Queen Bee appears as a boss in DC Universe Online, voiced by Cyndi Williams. This version is aligned with H.I.V.E. and Brainiac.
- Queen Bee appears as a playable character in DC Unchained.
Miscellaneous
- The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee appears in Super Friends tie-in comics.
- The Justice League Unlimited incarnation of Zazzala / Queen Bee appears in issue #6 of
- The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee appears in the DC Super Friendstie-in comics.
References
- ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
- ISBN 978-1605490458.
- ISBN 978-0-345-50108-0.
- ^ Plastic Man (vol. 5) #4. DC Comics.
- ISBN 9780345501066.
- ^ (Justice League of America #53-54 • Justice League Europe #29-30)
- ^ Superman (vol. 3) #21 (August 2013)
- ^ Superman (vol. 3) #21 (August 2013)
- ^ Superman (vol. 3) #21-24
- ^ Teen Titans (vol. 4) #23
- ^ Action Comics #42. DC Comics.
- ^ Blackhawk #38. Quality Comics.
- ^ Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket one-shot (June 2011)
- ^ WAY Too Long Brave And The Bold Excerpt
- YouTube
- ^ Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight
- ^ Justice League Adventures #6
- ^ Justice League Unlimited #29
External links
- Queen Bee (Zazzala) at DC Comics Wiki