History
Origin[]
Sometime after Jessica Drew entered her cryo-sleep, Michael was born to Miriam Drew, who realized she was alone and had Michael be raised by her cousin in America as their own child. He grew up well educated and inherited ownership over his foster parent's pharmaceutical company, Marchand Pharmaceuticals.[3]
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Young Michael
In college, he fell in love with Alison Jones and together would have a daughter, Rebecca. However, when Alison developed radiation sickness during her pregnancy, Michael learned from his resurfaced mother that it was a side effect of Michael's altered genetic makeup, and he blamed himself for Alison' death and Rebecca's genetic disease.[4]
Michael used the company to treat his daughter Rebecca's rare condition to no avail, until he used Jonathan Drew's radiation research to craft a cure. Despite positive results, the remission only lasted a year before her condition worsened, and he realized too late that the research was incomplete. He sought out Jessica Drew in the hopes that she would be the key to curing Rebecca, as she was proof of the research. But not wanting to risk confrontation, Michael used the excuse of needing security for Rebecca's birthday party to contact Spider-Woman, and covertly subjected her the experimental medication which removed her radiological immunity.[5]
Family Drama[]
Hiring Big Ronnie to give Jess a special materials new suit to monitor her vitals, Jess attended the birthday, worrying Michael with her uncharacteristic behavior against Rebecca's would-be kidnappers. After Jess realized the subterfuge, she confronted him as he admitted with full explanation and he also stated that not finding a cure could potentially pass to her son, Gerry. With Jessica's participation, Michael's treatments sped her recovery and they pursued the next piece of the research with the thought extinct Latrodectus Aeternum spider.[5]
While Jess was outraged Michael didn't warn her about Octavia Vermis, he defended his position with the need for finding a cure for his daughter being a priority. After mentioning how her son is, the building was besieged and Michael's doctor Stephen took Rebecca hostage for the Aeternum spider. Once Rebecca was safe, he directed Jess to his private jet, which he and Jess piloted to a new destination. Once safe, Jess found Wundagore Mountain and was greeted with their mother, Miriam Drew.[6]
After Miriam appraised Jess of how things came to be, their location was compromised by an attack from Octavia and her L.M.D. army., during which Miriam turned on Jess and revealed herself as a clone. The Drew women brawled across the base until Michael used the Spider formula to boost Jess' strength. The fight was interrupted as Octavia took Rebecca, forcing Miriam to sacrifice herself as Michael escaped with Rebecca by Jess' escort. Safe outside, Michael admitted to having known Miriam was already a clone, being desperate for any route to cure Rebecca. He parted ways with Jess on strained terms, but both promised to find a cure for their condition.[7]
A Very Bad Choice[]
After Jess handed Michael a copy of the cure array file, he tested it on his secretary (and lover), Rose Roché, granting her spider powers similar to Jess. But the medical information was promptly corrupted by a failsafe on their floppy disk that destroyed all data. To recover the data, Rose hired mercenaries to recover the original file, but Jess found out and confronted Michael to learn the truth. Jess returned afterwards as Spider-Woman to destroy the machine, but Michael used the array on himself with his serum as a catalyst. Developing his own set of spider powers, Michael became vehemently aggressive towards Jess, overpowering her and blaming his woes in life on her. Despite Rebecca's arrival pleading mercy, he ignored her and renamed himself Aeturnum.[8]
Rose then mind-controlled Jess with her pheromone powers to take Rebecca and fly a helicopter rigged to explode. The two women managed to escape, but ran into Rose and Michael again at his apartment. Still blinded by the effects of the serum, an augmented Michael fought Jessica while Rose handled Rebecca, but the heroic ladies were victorious as Jess knocked Michael unconscious and Rebecca injected Rose with a serum that removed her powers. As the villainous duo was escorted away by company security, Rebecca told Michael that she'd leave him some money on his bank account to get as far away from her as possible. His parting words were tearfully apologetic, realizing she was perfect just the way she was.[9]
New Life of Villainy[]
Following his and Rose's exile, they were approached by Octavia Vermis and joined the Anti-Arach9, a supervillain team squarely focused on eliminating Spider-Woman.[10]Personality
Attributes
Powers
- Venom Blasts: Just like his sister, Michael was also able to attack by projecting electrical energy.[6]
Weaknesses
- Michael is extremely suggestible around Rose, doting on her every command from her pheromonal manipulation of his mind. From her sway, he'll rationalize anything in the context of maintaining his daughter's welfare.[2]
Trivia
- Michael bears resemblance to his nephew from Earth-20368.
See Also
- 12 appearance(s) of Michael Marchand (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Michael Marchand (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Michael Marchand (Earth-616)
- 8 image(s) of Michael Marchand (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Michael Marchand (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #14
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #4
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #15
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #1–2
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #3
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #4–5
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #13–14
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #15–16
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #19–20
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #2–3
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 7) #14