During her long-term run as writer on Daredevil, Ann Nocenti (along with John Romita Jr.) managed to create one of the great female antagonists in Typhoid Mary, who suffered from schizophrenia and possessed potent telekinetic and psychic powers. In this storyline, the Kingpin immediately hires Mary for a very special assignment. Fresh off his embarrassment at the hands of Daredevil in the Born Again arc, Kingpin concocts a new way to strike at Matt Murdock: through his heart. He sends Mary after Matt, but demands that she make Daredevil fall in love with her before unleashing the psychotic Typhoid personality to physically punish him. Matt is immediately smitten with Mary, and even cheats on his longtime love Karen Page with the woman. Demonstrating his own animal magnitude, Kingpin also gets some action from Mary. Kingpin manages to make a huge mess of his rivals life thanks to Mary. But, when Mary goes too far and presumably kills Daredevil (he would return after an issue away), Kingpin is conflicted by his victory, demonstrating the criminals complicated relationship with the hero.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
