Virgo is the name of several fictional characters appearing in
American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...
s published by
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
.
Publication history
The original Virgo first appeared in ''
Avengers'' #72 (January 1970), and was created by
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor. He was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and possibly bes ...
and
Sal Buscema
Sal Buscema ( ; born Silvio Buscema, , on January 26, 1936) is an American comics artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he had a ten-year run as artist of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk'' and an eight-year run as art ...
. The character subsequently appears in ''Avengers'' #120-123 (February–May 1974), ''Ghost Rider'' #7 (August 1974), ''Iron Man'' #184 (July 1984), and ''West Coast Avengers'' #26 (November 1987), in which she is killed. Virgo appeared as part of the "Zodiac" entry in the ''
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition'' #20.
Fictional character biography
Virgo (Elaine McLaughlin)
Elaine McLaughlin is one of the founding members of the
Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
, and her base of operations was
Denver, Colorado
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
. The Zodiac was infiltrated by Nick Fury, posing as Scorpio; the Zodiac fought the
Avengers and escaped. Led by Taurus, the Zodiac later attempted to kill all Manhattan residents born under the sign of Gemini as a show of power, but were thwarted by the Avengers. Taurus's faction attempted to kill the Zodiac dissident faction, but all 12 leaders were captured by the Avengers. A new android version of the Zodiac later appeared, led by Scorpio in a new android body, massacred the human Zodiac, and took over their criminal operations.
Virgo (LMD)
An android Virgo was a
Life Model Decoy
A Life Model Decoy (frequently known by the abbreviation LMD) is a fictional android appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. LMDs duplicate all outward aspects of a real living person with such authenticity that they can eas ...
created by
Scorpio (Jacob Fury) in his "Theatre Of Genetics" to be part of his Zodiac crime organization. The
Capricorn and
Pisces androids, however, died due to imperfections soon after their activation, and the Virgo android proved to be impossible to activate, in essence, being "still-born." Scorpio was so distraught over the loss of the Virgo LMD, he seemingly took his own life.
Because the first version of the Virgo LMD was "still-born," Scorpio created a new Virgo. During their battle with the
Avengers, Virgo was able to incapacitate
Iron Man
Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appearan ...
, but had her face smashed into the ground by
Tigra
Tigra (Greer Grant Nelson) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Roy Thomas and artist Wally Wood (Marie Severin was then brought in to help layout the art), with her early adventur ...
and was taken into custody along with the rest of The Zodiac LMD's that weren't destroyed during the battle. She arranged the ambush in which the android Zodiac killed all of the remaining human Zodiac leaders except Cornelius van Lunt, alias
Taurus. Immediately afterward, Van Lunt sought out the services of the Avengers' West Coast branch to confront and defeat the android Zodiac. In their initial foray, the Avengers failed, although several androids were destroyed.
The Zodiac Key immediately resurrected the Scorpio LMD. Claiming superiority and believing that the Zodiac would eventually kill the Avengers as the androids could never be stopped, Scorpio wanted to use the Key to transport everyone on the scene to the Key's native dimension where the conflict, he believed, could be prolonged indefinitely. However, when the androids were in the other dimension, they ceased to function because each of them was aligned with a particular zodiacal energy, energy that did not exist in the other dimension. The Avengers found
Hawkeye and Tigra had been sent to the same dimension and, reunited, the team was sent back to Earth by the Brotherhood. However, secretly the Brotherhood waited so that someday they could also send the Key to Earth again and create new conflicts for them.
Virgo (Ecliptic)
Ecliptic Virgo is one of the first recruits in the latest incarnation of the Zodiac. She was quiet and loyal to Scorpio, who was in love with her. She came to like Paris during her time stranded there without her teleportation device, but it is unknown if it was she or Taurus who killed her "rescuers." Virgo was apparently killed by
Weapon X
Weapon X is a fictional government genetic research facility project appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were conducted by Department K, which turned willing and unwilling beings into living weapons to carry out c ...
.
Thanos' Virgo
The fourth Virgo is an unnamed female who
Thanos
Thanos () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Jim Starlin, the character first appeared in '' The Invincible Iron Man'' #55 (cover date February 1973). An Eternal– Devia ...
recruited to join his Zodiac. She and the other Zodiac members perish when Thanos abandons them on the self-destructing Helicarrier where
Cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
was the only survivor.
[''Avengers Assemble'' Vol. 2 #4]
Powers and abilities
The original Virgo was skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
The android Virgo employed an energy-siphoning device that she used on more than one occasion to shut down Iron Man's armor. Virgo was programmed after the Virgo sign. She was also particularly fond of money, seducing men, and relying upon proven tactics instead of taking risks.
Ecliptic's Virgo doesn't demonstrate any powers. She wields different guns and bows.
The fourth Virgo wears a special suit that transforms her into a winged female with a fiery head.
In other media
* Virgo makes non-speaking appearances in ''
The Avengers: United They Stand.'' This version is an alien with psychic powers and a member of
Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
.
* Virgo appears in the ''
Marvel Anime: Iron Man'' episode "Daughter of the Zodiac". This version is a flying robotic head utilized by Zodiac that is synchronized with the brainwaves of a telekinetic girl named Aki (voiced by
Marina Inoue
is a Japanese voice actress and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. She is affiliated with Aoni Production. She was signed into Aniplex until 2007. She was chosen out of 2,000 people from the "Gonna be a star" auditions (hosted by Sony Music Entertain ...
in the Japanese version and by
Laura Bailey
Laura Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American voice actress. She made her voice acting debut as Trunks (Dragon Ball), Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' and has since voiced List of Gunslinger Girl characters#First Generati ...
in the English dub) before Iron Man destroys it.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virgo (Comics)
Characters created by Roy Thomas
Characters created by Sal Buscema
Comics characters introduced in 1970
Fictional characters from Colorado
Marvel Comics supervillains