Auburn Aggressive Antagonists: The Queen Bees

Marcia Monroe and Lissa Raven, seemingly ordinary auburn haired debutantes who caused a pair of caped crusaders quite a bit of headache and heartache.

Marcia was a spoiled young rich lady who attracted the attention of Earth-One's Batman due to her recklessness. Soon after, she started following him and they began a brief romance before she vanished. When she returned, she had adopted the alter ego of Queen Bee, and agent for the evil organization known as CYCLOPS. Her task was to free Eclipso, but when that villain threatened the life of Batman she sought to save her former boyfriend. Informing him that she turned bad as her father was kidnapped, Batman helped free him, after which Monroe vanished from Gotham City.

Lissa was the daughter of a renowned psychologist who developed a device that could remove a person's anxiety, Experimenting on herself, Raven turned evil and adopted the alias of Queen Bee. Using various high tech gadgetry, she came to the attention of Earth-Two's Mister America, who sought to stall her sinister schemes. After a series of confrontations, Mister America was able to reverse the process on Lissa. Returned to normal, she resumed her law-abiding ways.

While Marcia’s caper with CYCLOPS was her sole known appearance, another more famous version plagued the Batman and his allies in the Justice League. Queen Zazzala of the planet Korll sought out the serum to gain immortality, and was drawn to Earth-One when her bee men were defeated by the Justice League. Repeatedly using actual insect humanoids of her world, Zazzala had a more enduring criminal career than her Earth-Two counterpart Elmer “King Bee” Pane, and her sadistic and scientific side mirrored that of Lissa Raven, who likewise reappeared nearly half a dozen times to battle the Americommandos. 

Among the technologies Zazzala and Lissa employed as the Queen Bees were Zazzala's magno-nuclear rod and Lissa's phosphorous light effects. Zazzala also used size alteration and magnetism which effected others while granting her regained mobility, while Lissa's gigantic robot Vo-Kan and radium were among the tools she used. Additionally, sonics played a part in later schemes, with Zazzala manipulating Sonar and Lissa recruiting a false Pied Piper. Their medical conditions drew these ladies to madness, with Zazzala's exposure to an immortality serum that paralyzed her and Lissa's exposure to a personality altering ray which turned her evil.