Typhoid Mary (History): Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Mary Walker

First Appearance: Daredevil #254 (May, 1988)

Powers: Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Mind Control, Above Average Reflexes, Martial Artist

Affiliation: The Hand, Sisterhood of Mutants, The Initiative, and Shadow Initiative

Did You Know?  Typhoid Mary was introduced as a Daredevil enemy but has found her way into Spider-Man and Deadpool.

A Little History

The transformation of Mary Walker to Typhoid Mary was actually caused by Matt Murdock. While tracking down a villain, Matt inadvertently knocked Mary down. After getting up from the incident, Mary vowed to never let a man hurt another woman again.

What nobody realized was that the fall triggered Mary’s Dissociative Identity Disorder. This meant that Mary now housed three different identities inside her.

The first was Mary, her normal persona. The second was her Typhoid personality. Unlike her quiet and subdued Mary personality, Typhoid was outgoing, adventurous, and violent. The third and worst personality was that of Bloody Mary. This version had no moral compass. She was brutal, sadistic, and incomprehensible. 

What makes Typhoid Mary unique is that she is not evil by nature. In fact, at one point Matt Murdock falls in love with her kind form, Mary, while Daredevil falls for her Typhoid persona. If this is confusing understand that because the two are different persons, they have different heartbeats. Therefore, Matt Murdock can’t distinguish between the two and believes himself to be dating two different women.

Mary is a product of her environment and did not wish to become who she is. She, like so many others in the world, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter, she is one of the more interesting villains in the Marvel Universe. It’s no wonder why she branched out to other Marvel heroes titles after her debut in Daredevil.