MAN-KILLER

 

MAN-KILLER

Real Name: Katrina Luisa Van Horn

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) #8, January 1973 (As Man-Killer); Thunderbolts (Vol. 1) #67, September 2002 (As Amazon)

Powers: Katrina Van Horn was a German Olympic skier who was crippled and left horribly scarred during a skiing challenge against a male chauvinistic competitor. Becoming a fanatical misandrist with financial support from a wealthy militant feminist group (which itself was technologically and financially supported by the male-dominated subversive terrorist science organization known as the Advanced Idea Mechanics), Katrina underwent a physical rehabilitation program to regain her mobility and was outfitted with an exoskeleton which augmented her strength and hid her scars, she became the terrorist known as the Man-Killer.

The Man-Killer is superhumanly strong (she can lift up to 75 tons) with enhanced durability. These traits originally stemmed from her strength-enhancing exoskeleton, but the power now seems to rest in her own body. How she eliminated the need for her exoskeleton remains unknown, as does how she removed the extensive scarring that had previously disfigured her body. Shortly before and during her Ultimate Brawling League stint, she wore an armored harness, claiming it was a life-support mechanism that she could not remove, but this may have been a deception since she has not worn the harness before or since that brief period. Van Horn has some ability as an organizer and strategist, is a formidable but savage unarmed combatant, and has cultivated a certain degree of acting ability during her time spent working under various cover identities.

She is an experienced bartender. Van Horn has worn a gauntlet that generates Pym Particles, enabling her to assume gigantic size (apparently up to twenty-five feet tall), further enhancing her already superhuman strength, though this may have been a temporary ability. She formerly carried razor-edged discs that she could throw with great force and accuracy. While working with her feminist army, Man-Killer employed a flying, armored hovercraft outfitted with a powerful front-mounted battering ram and a roof-mounted energy cannon.