Queen Bee (comics)


Queen Bee is the name of six different characters appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Queen Bee has made limited appearances in media outside comics, with Marina Sirtis voicing the character in Young Justice.
Fandom dc:Queen_Bee

Publication history

The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee first appeared in Justice League of America #23, and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.
The first Bialyan Queen Bee first appeared in Justice League International #16, and was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.
The Tazzala incarnation of Queen Bee first appeared in Creature Commandos #1.
The Beatriz incarnation of Queen Bee first appeared in JLA: Incarnations #6, and was created by John Ostrander and Val Semeiks.

Fictional character biographies

Queen Bee (Zazzala)

The leader of the hiveworld Korll, Zazzala lives only for the interstellar expansion of her species. Zazzala first appeared in Justice League of America #23. She clashed with the original Justice League several times during the 1960s and 1970s, but largely disappeared for several decades.
Zazzala reappeared in JLA #34, when Lex Luthor contacts her to join his Injustice Gang. She agrees, freeing The General from his asteroid prison in exchange for a percentage of Earth's population to become her drones. She also participates in other battles against the League. Her main effort is concentrated upon the city of New York where she forces many of the citizens to craft an 'egg matrix' out of local supplies as a way to secure even more mind-control. She attempts to brainwash Green Lantern and Steel to serve her using 'hypno-pollen', but both heroes are able to fight it off; Huntress encouraged Green Lantern to resist the pollen, and Steel's suit's data-protection immune systems protected him from the pollen's effects. The Queen displayed impressive physical strength, as she was able to overpower, dominate, and defeat Big Barda in direct combat. Exploiting Queen Bee's inability to see the color red, which many of the superheroes had in their costumes, Wonder Woman and Barda keep the Queen's forces occupied while Steel and Plastic Man get the drop on the Queen, Plastic Man covering Steel to render him virtually invisible to the bees. Utilizing a Boom Tube, technology controlled by Barda, they teleport the Queen and her army back to Korll.
Later, Zazzala and her drones join Luthor's new Secret Society of Super Villains. The Queen becomes the leader of the H.I.V.E., a multi-national criminal enterprise. She appears in the six-part Villains United limited series. A small team of villains, known as the Secret Six, attack her base as part of a war against the Society. Her forces are defeated, the base's prisoners Firestorm and Gehenna are freed, and Zazzala is badly wounded.
One Year Later, Zazzala appears in JLA #20, fully healed from her injuries, and attempting to steal a matter transportation device that will allow her to transport her troops to earth. She is defeated by Wonder Woman and captured by the Flash.
In 2016, DC Comics implemented a relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to The New 52. Under her re-debut in Gail Simone's Plastic Man mini-series, Queen Bee appears as a member of the Cabal, a criminal organization consisting of Per Degaton, Doctor Psycho, Amazo, and Hugo Strange.

Queen Bee (Marcia Monroe)

Marcia Monroe is a spoiled young woman, daughter of a wealthy man, who enjoys risking her life in absurd and pointless situations. Her playgirl attitude creates trouble for the police, who often try to save her from harm during her stunts. One day, she is rescued by Batman, who publicly spanks her. Shortly after this encounter, Marcia starts following Batman on his crime-busting activities and providing unrequested help. Batman and Marcia became an inseparable couple, but one day, she vanished without a trace.
Some time later, Batman saves a girl from being attacked with an arrow and soon realizes that she is Marcia. She had returned to Gotham City to ask Batman to return a valuable stolen gem which she had acquired from her father. Batman agrees to help her, but Marcia double-crosses Batman and provided evidence to the police incriminating Batman for the stealing of the gem. It is later revealed that Marcia had joined the crime syndicate CYCLOPS under the codename of Queen Bee. She was the leader of the task force that was in charge of releasing Eclipso from his human host, Bruce Gordon.
When Eclipso threatens to murder Batman, Marcia intervenes and saves him. She then reveals that she had been forced to join CYCLOPS to save her father. Marcia helps Batman escape from Eclipso's trap and before parting ways, she gives Batman the real stolen gem and promised to stall Eclipso for a moment until he managed to escape. Batman clears his name and stops Eclipso with Bruce Gordon's help, but Marcia vanished from his life once again.

Queen Bee of Bialya

An unrelated Queen Bee was introduced in Justice League International #16. She is an ordinary human "femme fatale", who gained control of the country of Bialya by forging an alliance with its former ruler Colonel Rumaan Harjavti, then assassinating him. She solidifies her power by brainwashing the Global Guardians into serving her.
Justice League Europe found out that Queen Bee was behind their recent troubles, and that she had a Dominator named Doctor working for her. They invaded her palace and came to an agreement; she would cease hostilities against them if they kept quiet about the unethical things she was doing as Queen. They also demanded she sever relations with the Doctor. After they left, she killed the Doctor. The Queen had far-reaching influences, managing to put one of her own operatives in charge of the League via the United Nations.
Queen Bee was eventually defeated by the JLE and the Guardians, who learned of her brainwashing plot. She was assassinated by Rumaan Harjavti's brother Sumaan during the events of the JLA/JLE crossover Breakdowns.

Queen Bee (Tazzala)

Queen Bee appeared in the 2000 Creature Commandos series. On the otherdimensional world of Terra Arcana, Zazzala's sister Tazzala joined Simon Magus's Terra Arcana Army with the ultimate goal of conquering Earth. The U.S. Army faction known as the Creature Commandos stopped the invasion plans. Tazzala herself was killed by Simon.

Queen Bee of Bialya (Beatriz)

The sister of the second Queen Bee, Beatriz was introduced in JLA: Incarnations #6 as the new ruler of Bialya. She is using humans forged with machinery and passed off as the robot Extremists to police her country. Her fate since Captain Atom's Extreme Justice team brought an end to these activities is unknown, but she was presumably toppled from power.

H.I.V.E. Queen

In "The New 52", Queen Bee is revamped and renamed the H.I.V.E. Queen. She makes her debut in Superman #21 as the leader of H.I.V.E. She claims to be Brainiac's daughter. She is a member of the Twenty, a group of otherwise ordinary Metropolis citizens who are infected with a virus by Brainiac that grants them each psionic powers. However, her worldview is distorted and she becomes a zealous devotee of the alien.

Powers and abilities

The first Queen Bee, Zazzala, has insect-like superhuman strength and speed, can fire venomous stinger darts from a set of glands on her right wrist, or release mind-confusing "pollen" powder.
Zazzala's sister, Tazzala, presumably had similar abilities.
The Queen Bee of Bialya had no superhuman powers or abilities, aside from her beauty and cunning. Her sister Beatriz was also an ordinary human, but was nowhere as resourceful as her sister.
The sixth Queen has great psionic powers including telepathy, mind control, empathy, illusion generation, telekinesis, and energy manipulation. She also displayed some sort of healing factor, being able to reconstruct her entire body from scratch after she was blasted to pieces by the Psycho Pirate. After being infected with Brainiac's psionic virus, she temporarily gains twelfth-level intellect similar to his.

Other characters named Queen Bee

Action Comics

Lissa Raven appears in Action Comics #42. She is the daughter of a psychologist and was temporarily made evil after his invention malfunctioned.

Quality Universe

An alternate Queen Bee appears in Blackhawk #38. Queen Bee was the leader of an organization called "The Golden Swarm". They poisoned prominent townspeople and swayed public opinion in their favor partly by their comely appearance. The Blackhawks defeat the Queen and her henchgirls by scaring them with mice.

Mystik U

Melissa, aka Queen Bee, is a bee-like sorceress and the founder of the Thriae Society sorority at Mystik University. She grows a large following of brainwashed thralls by giving them cocktails that transform them into worker-bee like subjects.

Other versions

  • An unidentified incarnation of Queen Bee appears in JLA/Avengers #4 as a brainwashed minion of Krona.
  • An alternate universe variant of Queen Bee appears in Flashpoint. This version is a member of a resistance against the Amazons before being killed in battle with them.

In other media

Television

Film

The moniker of H.I.V.E. Queen is used by Rose Wilson in Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons: The Movie.

Video games

Miscellaneous

  • The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee appears in the Super Friends tie-in comics.
  • The Justice League Unlimited incarnation of Zazzala / Queen Bee appears in issue #6 of Justice League Adventures and issue #29 of the Justice League Unlimited tie-in comic book.
  • The Zazzala incarnation of Queen Bee appears in the DC Super Friends tie-in comics.