The final Wonder Woman trailer premiered at the MTV Movie Awards last night where it renewed focus on one of the film’s main villains: Doctor Poison. The main question every had besides "MTV is still a thing?" was about this character. While the trailer laid out tidbits of Diana’s altered backstory and focused on some strong action sequences, Doctor Maru finally got a moment to shine. In all the talk about how important of a villain Ares is to Wonder Woman—especially now that he is her half brother—Doctor Poison has been sidelined in the film trailers, but now she’s taking center stage.
Doctor Poison will likely be revealed as a proxy for Ares, but will still be a relevant fixture in the movie. In MTV’s trailer, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes on Themyscira while on a mission to stop Poison who is planning on releasing a toxin that would kill millions and keep the war going interminably. Horrified, this is what inspires Diana (Gal Gadot) to leave Paradise Island and fight for humanity. Even if Doctor Poison is just a substitution to whet our appetite for Ares, her role is still an important one: she makes Wonder Woman necessary.
But then, if you’re like even the most ardent comic book fans, you have to be thinking: Who the hell is Doctor Poison? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
The Traditional Origins of their Rivalry
Their backstories and their allegiances were reflective and diametrically opposed, and despite having a clear physical advantage, Wonder Woman couldn't just defeat Poison with brute force. In that way, Doctor Poison could have been used as Superman’s Lex Luthor or Batman’s Joker.
Most importantly, Wonder Woman was a member of the Allies and Doctor Poison was a well-connected member of the Axis Powers. Obviously, this has changed in the upcoming film, which takes place in World War I rather than Two, lending credence to the theory that Doctor Poison is either working for Ares or is the world’s first supervillain. If the latter is true, the radical change would give their first conflict a huge, biblical meaning within the context of the DCEU and give Wonder Woman an intrinsic place in its history. After all, the first supervillain requires the first superhero.
The Original Doctor Poison (Pre-Crisis)
Like Wonder Woman, Doctor Poison was created by William Moulton Marston. While it would be easy to peg Doctor Poison as a gimmicky version of Paula von Gunther, it would be to both characters’ detriment. Von Gunther is a Nazi soldier through and through; Doctor Poison is like many Marston creations: designed with a heavy air of subversion.
While Wondy was redolent with themes of female supremacy, bondage and lesbian fantasy, Doctor Poison was a gender bender. Presented in bulky surgical garb, she was thought to be a he by both Allied and Axis powers. She was also clearly meant to be a more important villain than she would later become; she was Diana’s perfect opposite.
The original Doctor Poison was Princess Maru (perhaps she had a sibling named Kobayashi). Like Diana, she came from royalty and had difficulty navigating Man’s World. Wondy managed these problems head-on—displaying and embracing her femininity—while Doctor Poison disguised herself as a man in bulky clothes and a mask that revealed only her wide, unhinged eyes and venal smile. Where Wonder Woman used the Lasso of Truth to get to the center of the problem, Maru used a toxin called Reverso to mind-control others, making them supplant and subvert the orders they were given.
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Doctor Poison II (Post-Crisis)
More modern incarnations have retconned sections of Doctor Poison’s history. In the comics, it’s now accepted that the original Wonder Woman was Hippolyta—Diana’s mother—who fought for the Allies in World War II and was archenemies with Doctor Poison. In the modern era, where Diana is Wonder Woman, there is a new Doctor Poison. This one is more in line with the stylistic mores of the modern supervillain. She’s decked out in leather and black trench coat (similar to the one seen in the recent Wonder Woman trailer) and looks decidedly unhinged. There’s an obvious BDSM leather fetish motif going on there. Whether this is an intentional reference to the Golden Age stories isn’t clear.
This new Doctor Poison was the granddaughter of the original. Given the origins of Wonder Woman, having the descendants of the original Wonder Woman and Doctor Poison adds to the mythic tapestry of both comics and the Wonder Woman line specifically. It makes its own sense as an oral tradition.
Doctor Poison (New 52 & Rebirth)
Since this is DC Comics, one should always use three retcons when one would do. In the New 52, Doctor Maru’s parents were Russian scientists who were groomed by American spies to defect. Despite not doing so, they were put in prison anyway and, as a result, Doctor Poison grew up wanting revenge on America. While the story never quite came together, the concept continued the generational retelling of their rivaly, this time updating Dr. Poison as Russian agent rather than a member of the Nazi Party.
In DC’s Rebirth (current continuity), Dr. Poison is Marina Maru, a Japanese soldier and member of the terror organization called Poison, which is run by her parents. Even in comics, nepotism is the only way to get ahead, apparently.
Maru is likely the most prolific in her knowledge and usage of poisons than any of the other incarnations. Here, her poisons have a psychotic, murderous effect and a larger scope and her feud with Wonder Woman spans over a decade. It is revealed that Doctor Poison was one of the very first villains Diana encountered when she came to Man’s World. This makes Doctor Maru an important figure in Wonder Woman’s modern history again and given her placement in the film adaptation is one that could be indicative of greater importance moving forward.
Doctor Poison in the Film
The film incarnation seems to be a mix of these different versions of Doctor Poison. Also, given the timing of the character’s return to comics in Greg Rucka’s recent Wonder Woman: Rebirth series, it might be the film version that influencing the comics as well. The film version has an almost Doctor Cyber-like articulated mask clearly based on the original’s (or Mason Verger's from Hannibal). She wears a green medical garb like the original Doctor Poison and a trench coat like Doctor Poison II. Steve Trevor’s line “Millions are dying, the war would never end” lends to the idea that she has genocidal tendencies of, well, all of them—though, specifically the original and the Rebirth versions if you want to split hairs.
In the most recent trailer, we got a brief glimpse of Doctor Poison testing her chemicals on someone and clearly deriving some pleasure from it. The sadism is clearly something from Doctor Poison II, and could be an attempt at making Maru something of a proto-Mengele, from whom the second Doctor Poison was clearly drawn from the same cloth.
This movie adaptation of Doctor Poison, however, does seem to be more hands-on and physical than her comic book counterparts. She’s seen in the middle of the action and capable of holding her own in a fight. Then again, Maru probably hasn't have much in the way of strong competition before.
This is Wonder Woman’s first live-action feature film and the first major female-led comic book movie since 1984’s Supergirl. The focus, of course, should be on Diana, but the villains don’t need to resemble their comic book counterpart, especially in an origin story. They just need to be a threat worthy of Wonder Woman. If the movie does live up to the trailers, then DC might finally be on to something.
