Nekra
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| Nekra | |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Shanna the She-Devil #5 (Aug 1973) |
| Created by | Steve Gerber and Ross Andru |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Nekra Sinclair |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | Lethal Legion, Cult of Kali, former priestess of Black Spectre |
| Partnerships | Mandrill |
| Notable aliases | Adrienne Hatros |
| Abilities | Hate and rage build superhuman power and invulnerability Magical knowledge and skills for creating zombies, fangs and claws |
Nekra is a fictional mutant supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Decades ago, Gemma Sinclair was an African-American cleaning lady at Los Alamos National Laboratory. While she is pregnant, an exploding lab experiment bombards Gemma with radiation, causing her unborn child to mutate. Nekra is born an albino with vampiric features. Loathed by her parents and community, Nekra runs away into the New Mexico desert to live alone when she is fourteen years old.
She soon encounters by chance another child who has been mutated by the same explosion. Although his parents were white, he had been born dark-skinned and had developed fur and baboon-like features, for which he had named himself Mandrill. For six years they live by theft and scavenging, until they are attacked by a lynch mob that thought they were monsters. While filled with rage, Nekra discovers she is invulnerable to the mob's attacks. Slaying a few of their persecutors, the two escape and come to regard each other as if they were siblings.
The two later leave to Africa, as part of the Mandrill's ambitious scheme to overthrow multiple nations through Black Spectre, a cult of personality powered by the Mandrill's pheromonal control over women. This effort is thwarted by Shanna the She-Devil. The two eventually escape, kidnapping Shanna's father in the process, and eventually killing him.
Their next plot is of similar means, whereby they use the Mandrill's powers to raise a cult of black women to overthrow America. They are eventually defeated on the White House lawn by Daredevil, the Black Widow, and Shanna. Abandoned by Mandrill, Nekra is captured by authorities.
Nekra is held captive and drugged in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital, until a subliminal message from Hate-Monger inadvertently gave her the rage necessary to break free. While in the New York sewers, Nekra encounters a cult of Kali, whom she persuades that Nekra herself was the reincarnation of Kali. She then moves to the West Coast where she kills and replaces Adrienne Hatros, the reclusive sponsor of an emotional research clinic where Nekra hopes to overcome her own dependency upon emotions. This plot is foiled by the first Spider Woman.
Escaping again, Nekra falls in with the voodoo-master the Black Talon as voodoo tutor, and with the Grim Reaper as her lover. When the Grim Reaper dies in combat, Nekra is able to briefly reanimate him as a zombie, so lifelike that even the Grim Reaper does not realize he is dead. When Nekra's love becomes greater than her hate though, the Reaper dies again. Nekra takes his corpse with her, in hopes of reanimating him again.
Nekra then had run-ins with Spider-Man, and then Henry Pym. She also battled Alpha Flight at the behest of Llan the Sorcerer.[1]
Nekra spends some time in the super-villain prison The Vault. During a prison wide riot, she and Mister Hyde have a brief romantic interlude. [2]
Nekra finally manages to re-animate the Grim Reaper again, but this time there is a caveat: he has to kill one person every 24 hours in order to stay 'alive.' The Reaper then promptly chooses Nekra as his first victim and kills her.
Sensing the potential threat of Doctor Druid, Daimon Hellstrom uses his magics to reanimate Nekra, and sends her to investigate him. First she seduces Dr Druid, which negates his powers, but he manages to regain them via sacrifice. Nekra then shoots Dr. Druid in the forehead, killing him.
Nekra recently resurfaces in Loners #1. She is donating genetic material to an M.G.H ring that had sprung up in L.A. after the death of The Pride. She is defeated by Ricochet, Darkhawk, and the third Spider-Woman. She later returns at the Loners' meeting place to get her revenge on them, as seen on the final page of issue four. In issue #5, Nekra easily battled and defeated all of the Loners and precedes to strangle Mickey, when she is struck from behind by a mysterious lady named "Namie".
