Mariah DillardBlack Mariah

Nobody wants to get on the bad side of Black Mariah (real name: Mariah Dillard), a Super Villain with a super appetite for both food and crime. And while she's got quite a lot meat on her bones, she's much more dangerous than she appears. Short-tempered, smart, and painful should she sit on top of you, Black Mariah is an enemy who, like Wilson Fisk (AKA Kingpin), is a lot more than they appear at first sight—in more ways than one.

New York Origins

A native of Manhattan's Lower East Side, Black Mariah is the leader of a gang of New York criminals called the Rat Pack. Their primary source of criminal activity is using a stolen ambulance to pick up the bodies of the recently deceased and then stealing whatever valuables they have on them. She takes her street name from the British term for the paddy wagon or van used by police officers to transport criminals.

Mariah's Might

Mariah's power lies in her excessive weight, which she can use to hit people and objects with respectable force. She delivers a mean sucker punch and can withstand a good amount of pain. Her large size includes a lot of muscle as well—she can yank a car door free and use it as a weapon. She also uses guns and a pair of poisoned knitting needles to drug her opponents. Mariah likes to give the impression that she's a defenseless old lady in order to lure her enemies and victims into letting their guards down. While not a power or weapon per se, Mariah also stinks of cheap perfume that might dissuade anyone from getting too close to her.

Borough Bully

Black Mariah's biggest foe is, of course, Luke Cage. Ever since Luke returns to New York City from his time in prison and becomes the Hero for Hire, he has been nothing but a headache to old Mariah. Once Iron Fist joins forces with Cage, Danny Rand also becomes a foe of hers.

Known Associates

At first, Mariah's allies are just her subordinate gang members when she ransacks dead bodies as part of her ambulance scam.

She moves up in her villainy, however, when former Runaway Alex Wilder establishes a new iteration of the Pride. The members of this villainous group, which include Cottonmouth, Dontrell "Cockroach" Hamilton, and Gamecock, become Mariah's new allies.

The Rundown

When a man named Frank Jenks is murdered in the Gem Theater, Black Mariah's gang picked up the body. When Jenks' widow learned the truth, she hired Luke Cage (who was at the scene of the murder) to find her husband. The sympathetic Cage took the job free of charge. In spite of the bad information given to him by his informant Flea, Luke Cage managed to find the hideout of Black Mariah. This led to a clash between Mariah and her men against Cage. Luke ultimately defeated Mariah and her cohorts, smashed their getaway vehicle, and turned them over to the police. However, it proved to be a bitter victory when Flea's insistence for payment (in spite of giving the wrong info) in front of Jenks' widow prompted her to get angry, thinking that Luke was going back on his offer to do the job for free.

After some time in prison, Black Mariah was released and started a new enterprise in Chinatown: drug dealing. She became the primary distributor of a drug called Acid Z, which made its users crazy and sometimes suicidal. When some Acid Z got into the hands of Luke Cage's friend D.W. Griffith, Cage went looking for his old friend while his partner Iron Fist (AKA Danny Rand) tracked down the primary distributor to shut them down. Iron Fist found Black Mariah's hideout, but discovered that she hired a special enforcer as protection: Iron Fist's old foe Scimitar. The two fought and Iron Fist destroyed Scimitar's sword. This prompted Mariah to taunt Iron Fist, saying that a tough guy like him was going to beat up an old lady. Iron Fist said he wouldn't harm her, but she called him a fool and stabbed him with a poisoned needle that she was using for knitting. She knocked Danny out with one good punch and then threw him off the roof, but he was caught by Cage, who showed up in the nick of time. Power Man learned of his old foe's involvement in the drug distribution and the Heroes for Hire made short work of Mariah and Scimitar, crushing their drug operation and turning both crooks over to the police.

Later, Mariah had former Heroes for Hire secretary Jennifer "White Jennie" Royce trick Luke Cage and Iron Fist into recovering the Supersoul Stone. She told them a necklace that belonged to her grandmother was stolen and that she'd like their help recovering it from the current owner, Tombstone (Lonnie Lincoln). Once she got it back, she gave the necklace to Black Mariah, who gleefully saw the artifact as the first step towards their taking over of Tombstone's soon-to-be-crumbling criminal empire.

Later on, when Runaway Alex Wilder was resurrected, he restarted the Pride, a collection of powerful Super Villains with immense power at their fingertips. Black Mariah was part of the Pride alongside Cottonmouth, Dontrell "Cockroach" Hamilton, and Gamecock.