Spider-Tracer: That Time Spidey Fought Corona (and Won!)

No, not the virus also known as COVID-19! Welcome to another Spider-Tracer article, Spidey fans; I hope it finds you safe and sound during these rather trying times we’re facing. For this month’s Spider-Tracer installment, I thought I’d tackle a villainess whose name has been on everyone’s lips: Corona! Wait, who?

In “The Spectacular Spider-Man” #176-177, we’re introduced to Dagney Forrester (the spelling of her first name changes between both issues, so I just picked a way and stuck with it), aka Corona, and her amoral, villainous brother, Cedric. The siblings are both scientists with little regard for rules and regulations, which soon leads to disastrous results.

Dagney and Cedric were trying to show that human cells could convert matter to energy. Rather than hear Dagney protest to using a vagrant in the experiment, Cedric forcibly used her instead, which led to more than just a little resentment. The experiment led to Dagney gaining superhuman powers, which included flight, durability, super strength, the ability to fight energy blasts, changing an object’s state of matter (turning a solid into a liquid, for example), and the ability to infect others with a toxin from biting or scratching an enemy, though the last of those powers seems to only occur once her bodily energy has depleted; this proved that Dagney’s powers were unstable. Cedric gave Dagney the name Corona due to the bright light given off by her body.

While the experiment bestowed powers on Dagney, poisonous chemicals from the experiment wound up in the city’s water supply, which began to afflict New Yorkers with that which was soon called the “Soho Flu”; signs of the infection included a fever and extreme exhaustion. Among the infected were little Normie Osborn, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and eventually ol’ Spidey himself!

Dagney, or Corona, had attacked the Forrester building in hopes of getting the cure to her affliction from Cedric, which is how her path first crossed with our hero Spider-Man. During their tussle, the cure is lost as Mary Jane’s life hangs in the balance.

With his son Normie’s life also dependent upon finding a cure, Harry agrees to help Spider-Man use Osborn Chemical’s (before it was ever called Oscorp) resources to find a new cure. With one of the ingredients now impossible to get, Harry helps synthesize an alternate version of the cure. In the meantime, Spider-Man manages to save Corona from Cedric’s men despite barely managing to hang on with the SoHo Flu attacking him internally. Harry manages to get a cure to Spider-Man in time, just before Cedric arrives with a court order; as her only living relative, Corona is remanded into Cedric’s custody to become nothing more than a lab rat for his studies. A disgusted Spider-Man has to be satisfied with helping to save the city, including his wife and Godson.

It’s later revealed in “Spider-Man Unlimited” Volume 1, #3, that while in Cedric’s care, he implanted Corona with a bio-monitor to stabilize her condition, as well as cause her great pain should she ever disobey him. Unfortunately for the siblings, a local criminal by the name of Lenny Flynn, aka the Operator, managed to gain access to the lab and take control of her through the bio-monitor, ensuring Cedric’s death if he got in Flynn’s way. Flynn began forcing Corona to commit crimes for him, which brought her back to Spider-Man’s attention.

Flynn revealed that he planned to sell her to the Silvermane crime family as a weapon, but due to Spider-Man’s interference and the destruction of Cedric’s computers, the bio-monitor no longer worked. Freed of Flynn and her brother, Corona and Spider-Man defeated Flynn and his men, even if Flynn managed to get away. Free to pursue her own destiny at last, Corona flew off, not worried that her condition might destabilize without the bio-monitor.

Corona later showed up at the Tinkerer’s auction for the Venom symbiote in “Marvel Knights Spider-Man” #6.

And that’s all we’ve really seen or heard of Corona since, despite Marvel encouraging readers to write in and ask for more of her after her “Spider-Man Unlimited” appearance; I’m guessing she wasn’t that in demand, and I doubt her demand is going to skyrocket despite current events. What did you guys think of the character, and will you be picking up her back-issues as so many people are right now? Let me know in the usual spot down below.