Flattery Will Get You... Death!

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

When having the misfortune of crossing paths with this villain, her chosen name leaves no doubt as to what will happen to you if you happen to be an adult male--as the sole male attendant of a secret meeting held in New York City discovers, to his detriment.

Yes, the phrase "I'd soon as kill you as look at you" seems made to order for the Man-Killer, aka Katrina Luisia Van Horn, who makes her entrance in comics as part of a militant group conducting strikes first in Chicago and now in New York. Ms. Van Horn, however, is not to be confused with the similarly-named creation of Hydra, which obviously failed to patent their killing machine:

As for our Man-Killer and her minions, their activities have caught the attention of the Cat, who trails the Man-Killer and her partners to N.Y.C. and seeks out Spider-Man to give her an assist in rounding them up.

But while there's no doubt that male chauvinism was alive and well in 1973, what deep-seated memories would have the Man-Killer flying into a homicidal rage at the mere sight of a man in a perceived position of authority? We have to shift our attention to Europe for the answer--though if you happen to be a winter Olympian, here's your incentive to avoid indulging in any competition off the field.

Obviously this militant group of apparently female membership, which has funneled so much time, effort, and money into this person who now spearheads their operations, also bears scrutiny as to their motivations, high-tech resources, and certainly their origin. But we'll have to table that for now, as they make their move on the power plant which is their next target--only to find an unexpected pair of heroes arriving to stop them.

The story by writer Gerry Conway and artist Jim Mooney (who inks his own work here) clearly gives a considerable amount of credit to the power of the Cat, who shrugs off a punch from a woman with seven times her strength and bounces back to lay out the Man-Killer with one hit. It's hard to buy that after seeing the Hellcat in action against super-powered foes, but no one ever claimed that a reliable profile of a character's makeup could be found in Marvel Team-Up stories.

For what it's worth, the Man-Killer doesn't stay out for long, back on her feet when no one is keeping tabs on her (!) and making off with a valuable piece of equipment. It really hasn't been a bad day for the Man-Killer and her crew, with the power plant in ruins and getting their hands on the "hush hush" project that Mr. Watkins has spoken of; and even though the other ladies in the Man-Killer's company are headed for the slammer, she has secured the item they presumably came for. But Spidey, and in particular the Cat, manage to rein her in, with just a few pointed words which an unstable mind sensitive to the manipulations and taunts of men cannot bear to hear.

We can assume that the Man-Killer picked herself up and dusted herself off from this scene, given that she would go on to have dealings with Daredevil, Iron Man, the She-Hulk, the Masters of Evil, and the Thunderbolts.

BONUS!

The cover which introduced the Man-Killer to the chauvinists of the world.

(Doesn't this woman ever crack a smile?)