Massacre (Marvel Comics)

Massacre is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He primarily appears in Spider-Man related publications. The character is responsible for the murder of Ashley Kafka, a supporting character in various Spider-Man comic books and adapted media.[1]

Not to be confused with Massacre (DC Comics) or Masacre (Marvel Comics).
Massacre
Massacre as seen on the cover of The Superior Spider-Man #4.
Publication information
First appearanceThe Amazing Spider-Man #655 (April 2011)
Created byDan Slott
Marcos Martin
In-story information
Alter egoMarcus Lyman
AbilitiesLack of emotion
Genius-level intellect

Publication history

The character's first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-Man #655 (published April 2011), during the Big Time storyline and was created by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin. The character also appeared in the following issue.[2][3] Massacre would go on to make his return in the fourth issue of the Superior Spider-Man series.[4][5] He was killed by the eponymous character in the next issue of that series.[6][7]

Fictional character biography

Marcus Lyman was an ordinary man until a failed assassination attempt nearly claimed his life. He and his wife, Judy Lyman, were successful traders for a local Wall Street firm in New York City until an unhappy client planted a car bomb on their vehicle. The bomb killed Judy Lyman but Marcus survived with a piece of shrapnel from the explosion stuck in his forehead, penetrating his brain. The shrapnel was successfully removed but not without consequence: the damage had caused certain connections in Lyman's brain to no longer function. As a result, he lost his ability to feel emotion. He was sent to the Ravencroft Institute For The Criminally Insane, where he was treated by Dr. Ashley Kafka. Dr. Kafka was disturbed by Lyman and she found that there was nothing she could do to help his mental state, advising that he be held under observation indefinitely.[8]

Now calling himself "Massacre", Marcus Lyman escaped the Ravencroft Institute and began kidnapping hostages. He held the hostages in a building, killing one of them to prove that he was willing to do so. The police began attempting negotiations with Massacre.[9] Having temporarily lost his Spider-sense,[10] Spider-Man arrived on the crime scene in an attempt to free the hostages, but was barely able to do so due to Massacre's heavy artillery. Massacre managed to escaped the scene, though not before Spider-Man secretly placed a Spider Tracer on him. Massacre resurfaced not long after, kidnapping another set of hostages at his former Wall Street firm but Spider-Man arrived on the scene prepared. Now donning a bullet proof costume and magnetic webbing, Spider-Man was able to defeat Massacre and rescue the hostages. When asked about his motivations, Massacre admitted that he had no particular reason for committing the crimes he did. Massacre was sent back to the Ravencroft Institute.[11]

At the Ravencroft Institute, Dr. Kafka became increasingly afraid of Massacre, believing him to be her most dangerous patient. Her fears were realized when Massacre once again escaped Ravencroft, killing Kafka in the process.[12] Massacre then went on a killing spree, threatening to murder anyone who crossed his path. Massacre soon took hostages at a Burger Town restaurant and, in retaliation for an employee pressing an alarm button, murdered them. Massacre then tracked down the manager of the Phizzy Cola company (Burger Town being one of its subsidiaries) and offered to help fix Phizzy Cola's public image after the killings by continuing to murder innocents wearing the logo of Phizzy Cola's rival company in exchange for a large sum of cash. Fearing for her own life, the manager agreed to Massacre's offer. Because of all of the harm Massacre has caused to innocent civilians, the Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's mind in Spider-Man's body) decides to end Masacre's killing spree by killing him with his own gun. Just before his death, Massacre claimed to feel a spark of emotion.[13][14]

Clone

During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Massacre is among the villains cloned by Jackal and his company New U Technologies. Although New U Technologies is supposed to revive individuals without any defects, Massacre assumedly retains the shrapnel in his brain as he is seen with the metal plate over his head.[15] He was involved in a fight with the other cloned supervillains until it was broken up by a clone of Prowler.[16]

Powers and abilities

While Massacre doesn't have any traditional super-powers, an accident made it nearly impossible for him to feel any emotion. Massacre also has a genius level intellect.

In Other Media

Film
  • Marcus Lyman appears in X2: X-Men United, portrayed by Peter Wingfield. Lyman is a member of Weapon X, and is William Stryker's second-in-command. Lyman aids in the raid on the X-Mansion, and later shows some regret over kidnapping several mutant children during the raid, though Stryker is able to persuade him it is necessary. During the X-Men and the Brotherhood’s joint attack on the base, Stryker orders Lyman to shoot anyone who tries to interrupt his attempt to use his son Jason to convince Professor X to wipe out all mutants, including Stryker himself, as it would likely be a disguised Mystique. While guarding the door, Magneto arrives and pulls the pins off of Lyman and several other soldiers’ grenades, causing a massive explosion that kills them.

Video Games
gollark: ↑ you, as a result
gollark: ```rustfn matches(expr: &Value, condition: &Value) -> Option<Bindings> { match (expr, condition) { (Value::Num(a), Value::Num(b)) => if a == b { Some(HashMap::new()) } else { None }, (Value::Call(efn, eargs), Value::Call(rfn, rargs)) => { if efn != rfn { return None } if rargs.len() != eargs.len() { return None } let mut out_bindings = HashMap::new(); for (rarg, earg) in rargs.iter().zip(eargs) { match matches(earg, rarg) { Some(x) => out_bindings.extend(x), None => return None } } Some(out_bindings) }, (_, Value::Identifier(b)) => Some(vec![(b.clone(), expr.clone())].into_iter().collect()), _ => None }}```
gollark: You fell right into my trap, actually.
gollark: ↓ wrong
gollark: I should offer an osmarks.net™ hosted JSON validator™ for this.

See also

References
  1. "The Defining Moments That Made Otto Octavius A "Superior" Spider-Man". comicbookresources.com.
  2. The Amazing Spider-Man #655-656 April & May 2011
  3. "Preview: Amazing Spider-Man #656". comicbookresources.com.
  4. The Superior Spider-Man #4 April 2013
  5. "Superior Spider-Man #4: Massacre's Back". Crave Online.
  6. The Superior Spider-Man #5 May 2013
  7. "Countdown: Top 10 Things That Made "Superior Spider-Man" a Superior Comic Book". multiversitycomics.com.
  8. The Amazing Spider-Man #655
  9. The Amazing Spider-Man #655
  10. The Amazing Spider-Man #654
  11. The Amazing Spider-Man #656
  12. The Superior Spider-Man #4
  13. The Superior Spider-Man #5
  14. "Review: Superior Spider-Man #5". Crave Online.
  15. Clone Conspiracy #2
  16. Prowler Vol. 2 #1
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