Aspiring to be a world-famous professional wrestler as Poundcakes, Marian Pouncy instead falls into crime to make up for her lack of success in the ring.
Pre-Show
While serving time in prison for a failed extortion scheme, she meets Melissa Gold, whom Marian convinces to join her in her wrestling dream. Upon their release, Gold takes the name Screaming Mimi, and the two join Davida DeVito, AKA Titania, and Hellen Feliciano, AKA Letha, in pursuit of breaking into the upper echelons of the wrestling business. They turn to Ann Fraley, AKA Auntie Freeze, a former wrestler-turned-promoter specializing in womens’ wrestling. Auntie Freeze places them in a stable called the Grapplers, and the quartet achieves a small amount of fame, but do not find the success that their male counterparts did.
When representatives of Roxxon Oil Company attend a wrestling card, they offer the Grapplers a chance to become more famous by undergoing cybernetic surgery. The women accept and are taken to Roxxon’s subsidiary Brand, which gives Pouncy enhancements that provide her with superhuman strength as well as “seismic boots.” Now truly living up to her ring moniker Poundcakes, Marian and the other Grapplers agree to perform tasks for Roxxon, and along with Thundra, are sent to break into Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. There, they run afoul of Wendell Vaughn, AKA Quasar, Bill Foster, AKA Giant-Man (later Goliath), and Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, and Giant-Man overcomes Poundcakes and Thundra. The Grapplers are sent to Ryker’s Island, where their abilities allow them to rule over the other inmates until they cross paths with Allison Blaire, AKA Dazzler, who resists their brutal harassment.
Signature Moves
Poundcakes possesses superhuman strength (lifting 5 tons) and stamina, as well as enhanced speed and durability. She wears “seismic boots,” the heels of which contain shockwave generators capable of creating minor localized tremors, the force of which can overturn a small automobile.
She is extensively trained in several variations of wrestling (most notably Greco-Roman), mixed martial arts and various forms of street fighting.
Beat Down
Sent by her employers to break into Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Poundcakes goes up against Quasar, Giant-Man, and the Thing which lands her in jail. She seeks revenge against the Thing, blaming him for her capture, and is defeated yet again leading her to undergo further strength treatments, which helps her in their next encounter when she gets the upper hand in the fight.
She also goes up against John Walker, AKA U.S.Agent, Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, and Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil. But her true enemy lies within the ranks of her original team the Grapplers, that of Screaming Mimi who becomes more of a hero going by Songbird.
Alliances
Poundcakes allies with fellow wrestlers Titania, Letha, and Screaming Mimi. They become known as the Grapplers and they commit petty theft crimes and work for Roxxon Oil Company. With her Grapplers’ allies, Poundcakes joins the Femizons, a band of Super Villains led by scientific genius and ultra-feminist, Superia.
When Titania and Letha are murdered by the Scourge of the Underworld’s agent, Screaming Mimi quits the group, leaving Poundcakes to work for Curtiss Jackson, AKA Power Broker, alone.
After Titania and Letha are resurrected, they try to restart the Grapplers, but Screaming Mimi (now Songbird) stops them and they end up in jail. She and Letha realize that crime doesn’t pay the bills, so when they’re asked to join the ranks of Nadia Pym, AKA Wasp’s venture G.I.R.L., they join up and offer their services as security.
Kickoff Show
After their imprisonment, the Grapplers sought revenge against the Thing, and along with a large number of other Super Villains, targeted him while he was in a hospital recovering from injuries. Defeated yet again, Poundcakes and the rest of the Grapplers gave up their vendetta and turned over a new leaf, rejoining Freeze and her newly expanded Grapplers team, which had become a sensation in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation (UCWF). Along with all of the Grapplers new and old, Poundcakes underwent treatments by Curtiss Jackson, AKA the Power Broker, to further enhance her strength.
Tensions grew between Poundcakes and Titania after the latter lost a match to newer Grappler Anita Ehren, AKA Battleaxe, but when Titania was murdered by the Scourge of the Underworld agent Caprice (posing as Grappler member Golddigger), Poundcakes was among the first to attack the Thing, believing him to be the culprit. Within weeks, Letha was murdered by another Scourge, and Screaming Mimi quit the group. The last remaining original Grappler, Poundcakes became an enforcer for the Power Broker’s scientist Dr. Karl Malus and confronted the Thing yet again, this time defeating him with the help of Lucius O’Neil, AKA Mangler.
Poundcakes kept a low profile for several months, though she crossed members of the Serpent Society when she forcibly tried to ward off the romantic advances of Jackhammer while in public.
Briefly recruited by Superia as one of her Femizons, Poundcakes sought out more mercenary work, attending an Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) weapons expo and later selling mind-controlling alien bugs on the black market after they had been left on Earth. After delivering some of the bugs to a group of renegade Atlanteans (Homo mermani), she encountered U.S.Agent but managed to escape, only to be caught by the Avengers. Poundcakes has become a regular at the Bar with No Name, sometimes fighting with heroes Spider-Man and Daredevil.
Poundcakes reunited with the resurrected Letha and Titania and the trio restarted the Grapplers. They added a young, houseless girl to their ranks and gave her weaponry, replacing Screaming Mimi, now going by Songbird. But Songbird found out what they were up to and defeated them. Poundcakes ended up imprisoned at the Raft on Ryker’s Island. Going by her first name Marian, she tried to get out when Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut, transformed into Kuurth, creating an escape route for the inmates. She encountered a group of male inmates on her way out and fought alongside Moonstone, defeating them. Despite this victory, she realized escape was impossible and returned to the Raft.
Later, once out of prison, Marian attempted to extort a gift shop owner in New York. The new Wasp, Nadia Pym, tried to talk her out of it. Letha arrived, shoving the Avengers’ butler Edwin Jarvis into the shop, and Marian realized that Pym was a kid Avenger. A fight between the pair ensued but Marian lost, getting knocked unconscious. Later, Marian and Letha both take a job from Pym at her organization Genius In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.). Pym hoped they could redeem themselves from their criminal pasts.
Marian worked as G.I.R.L.’s security officer, and her and Letha pursued professional wrestling under the name Skrull Kill Krew. After one match that G.I.R.L. members attended, they all returned to Pym Labs and found A.I.M. attacking it. They sprang into action.
Marian later attended the Criminal Technology Show Expo alongside other villains. A fight broke out when Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, and M.O.D.O.K. were revealed as disguised attendees, and Marian joined in.
