Mademoiselle Marie

Last updated
Mademoiselle Marie
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Star Spangled War Stories #84 (August 1959)
Created by Robert Kanigher (writer)
Jerry Grandenetti (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego(original) Marie
(current) Josephine Tautin
Team affiliations(original) French Resistance
(current) Checkmate
AbilitiesMarkswoman

Mademoiselle Marie (often shortened to Mlle. Marie) is the name of two fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #84 (August 1959), and was created by Robert Kanigher and Jerry Grandenetti. [1] She was based in part on several actual members of the French resistance, most notably Simone Segouin.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Original

The original Mademoiselle Marie was introduced in Star Spangled War Stories #84, created by Robert Kanigher and Jerry Grandenetti. Marie (last name unknown) was a French farm girl who joined the French Resistance during World War II. [2] The red beret-wearing character is notable as being the only love interest of Sgt. Rock.

In Pre-Crisis continuity it was revealed that Marie had a daughter named Julia Remarque. The father of her child was Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth, who was an intelligence agent in France during the war. [3]

Legacy

At some point following World War II the name of Mademoiselle Marie became a code name awarded to agents of the French intelligence agency, the DGSE. [4] Josephine Tautin, introduced in Checkmate Vol. 2 #5, uses the name in her capacity as the member of Checkmate known as the Black Queen's Knight. Relatively little has been revealed of Tautin's background as yet, save that she was the only Knight candidate able to pass Checkmate's admission tests by displaying sufficient cold-bloodedness.

A retcon in Checkmate Vol. 2 #21 reveals that the Madmoiselle Marie codename in fact dates to before World War II. Flashbacks in this story show earlier characters using the name rescuing nobles from the French Revolution in 1791, and defending Louis-Philippe from assassins during the July Revolution of 1830 and that the various Maries were, themselves, assassins. Another flashback reveals that there were a number of Madmoiselle Maries during World War II, one of whom (Sabine Roth) later trained Josephine Tautin.

In Checkmate Vol. 2 #22, Tautin goes on a one-woman mission to rescue Madeleine Desmarais (the daughter of her former supervisor and lover) from a terrorist camp. She shows her cool efficiency and ruthlessness as a killer, poisoning a contact that tries to betray her by dosing him with a neurotoxin, then destroying the antidote after extorting the required information. She also kills everyone in the terrorist camp in the process of rescuing Madeleine. Her actions cause Checkmate to be criticized by the Secretary-General of the United Nations because one killing occurred in front of a news camera. He demands that Tautin be disciplined, but the Black Queen secretly commends her for her actions.

Known Mademoiselle Maries

In other media

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References

  1. ↑ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 350. ISBN   978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. ↑ Markstein, Don. "Mademoiselle Marie". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  3. ↑ Detective Comics #501-502
  4. ↑ Checkmate vol. 2, #5
  5. ↑ DC Universe: Legacies #4 (October 2010)
  6. ↑ Super-Soldier: Man of War #1 (June 1997)
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