Black Mariah

Black Mariah is a street-level crime boss who debuted as an adversary of Luke Cage (Hero for Hire), running a gang that posed as ambulance crews to loot the dead. She relies on cunning and brute strength rather than superpowers.

Few villains carry their menace quite like Black Mariah, who crashed onto the Bronze Age Marvel scene in 1973's Hero for Hire #5, conjured by Steve Englehart and George Tuska. Over five decades she's proven a persistent presence in the Marvel universe, turning up most frequently in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man — sharing those stories with heavyweights like Spider-Man, Tombstone, and Lonnie Lincoln. She may not boast a towering appearance count, but her staying power from 1973 all the way to 2025 marks her as one of those quietly durable figures that true Bronze Age devotees love to track down.