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| “ | You want to go back out there while I hide in here? To lure the Comedian away? No. You are not going to leave me. You are not going to die so I can run. We are in this together. Do you understand me? You are the only thing that makes me smile in this dark place. | „ |
| ~ Marionette to Mime, regarding their relationship. |
Erika Manson and Marcos Maez, collectively known as Mime and Marionette, are major antagonists in the DC Comics storyline Doomsday Clock; a sequel to Watchmen. They are a husband-wife duo of supervillains who team up with Rorschach II and Ozymandias in order to both find Doctor Manhattan and locate their lost son.
History
Past
Erika and Marcos were originally the children of two neighboring small business owners, Erika's father's store selling marionette dolls. The two formed a strong kinship with one another, only furthered when Marcos saved Erika from a group of bullies. Eventually, pressured by corrupt policemen who were extorting money out of him, Erika's father committed suicide, Marcos' parents also dying because of the policemen's actions. Enraged, Erika brutally attacked the policemen with Marcos' help. The two never left each other's side afterwards, adopting the personas of Mime and Marionette during their adulthood to commit crimes (Marcos also somehow gaining access to an arsenal of invisible weaponry and tools).
At some point in their criminal career, the two villains (or at least just Marionette) encountered the vigilante Rorschach, who threatened to throw her down an elevator shaft if he ever saw her again. During their last heist, the two held up a bank one mile from Empire State Plaza, putting on a show for the cameras while doing so. Mime then noticed a teller named Julia signal for the police, and, using a photo of her son on the desk, Marionette pressured her into revealing the man who could open the vault, Mr. Mangold. Mangold attempts to lie and state that the vault is on a time lock, but Julia is once again intimidated by Marionette and calls his bluff. Mangold begins verbally abusing Julia and her son in response, and, disgusted by this, Marionette used one of her wires to slice his finger off. Mangold then revealed that the vault ironically uses a hand scanner, and Marionette begins asking if anyone knows where the finger went in response.
Just then, Doctor Manhattan arrived to stop the robbery, his sudden materialization leaving Marionette in awe. Mime pointed his gun at Manhattan and the latter prepared to kill him, only for Marionette to step up, proclaiming that Manhattan must kill her too. Manhattan then noticed a second heartbeat coming from Marionette's chest, indicating that she was pregnant, and withdrew as the police surrounded the both of them. It was later confirmed that at least thirty-seven people had been killed during Mime and Marionette's crime spree.
Doomsday Clock
Recruitment and Escaping Earth
While a mass evacuation is enacted in response to the nuclear war inevitable between the US and Russia, Rorschach breaks into the prison in which Marionette is imprisoned and asks that she come with him. Marionette initially refuses, given her past history with Rorschach, but he then removes his glove, showing his darker skin and proving that he is not the same Rorschach Marionette had known. Rorschach hands Marionette over an envelope containing payment for a job (the packaging also being sticky due to Rorschach's previous altercation during his breakfast), and the payment turns out to be information regarding the location of Marionette's missing son.
She subsequently lashes out at Rorschach and demands to know where her son his, and he claims that he doesn't know but his partner does, and the three of them have to "find God" and save the world together. Marionette refuses to leave without Mime, which Rorschach refuses, due to him being too unpredictable and not part of the plan, but, after seeing Marionette promise her son to see him again, he passively remarks that it's good to have family and asks where Mime is being held. As the prisoners are rioting and attacking the guards, they begin to beat on Mime for not talking (unaware that he is actually mute), only for Marionette and Rorschach to arrive, the former telling him that they are going to leave and find their son. Inspired by this, Mime then puts on a "performance", where he brutally beats all of his assailants to death.
Once they regroup, Marionette states that Mime refuses to leave without his weapons, and Rorschach begrudgingly allows him to reclaim them. Mime soon takes his invisible equipment back, to Rorschach's utter confusion, and the two set out towards Rorschach's partner, Rorschach briefly getting lost, resulting in Mime threatening to shoot him, but he fails to take the threat seriously and sets them back on the right path. Rorschach, Mime and Marionette arrive in Nite Owl's old lair, leading the two villains to believe that Rorschach's partner is Nite Owl himself, although he states that this isn't true. In response, Ozymandias reveals himself as Rorschach's partner, and Mime and Marionette are immediately hostile towards him, although Ozymandias calms them by assuring them that they'll find their son. Ozymandias then tells the two that, in order to save the world, they are going to find Doctor Manhattan.
Ozymandias soon hands the two villains their old costumes and equipment back while he and Rorschach watch the footage of Mime and Marionette's bank robbery. Ozymandias subsequently explains that Marionette represents a moment in Manhattan's past and that she hopefully will be able to convince him that humanity is worth saving and to return to save Earth. Both Ozymandias and Rorschach realize that the US and Russia have launched their nuclear weapons and they no longer have time. All four of them board into the Owlship, Ozymandias explaining that they are going to follow Manhattan's trail of leaking electrons to find him. Just as the first bomb hits New York, Ozymandias locks on to Manhattan's location and transports them all there.
Arrival in the DC Universe
The Owlship crash lands in an abandoned carnival in Gotham City, and, upon recollecting themselves, Ozymandias and Rorschach handcuff Mime and Marionette to keep them in the ship while they explore the city. However, after they leave, Mime produces a lock pick and the two escape. While wandering around Gotham, they find themselves in a bar, where one of the thugs there confronts them for wearing makeup, claiming they can't do so on Joker's turf. Marionette asks who Joker is in response, resulting in the thug grabbing her and threatening to cut up her face. Mime points his gun at the thug, but, thinking he is faking, he suggests carving the smile "somewhere more interesting", driving Mime to shoot him in response.
A massive fight ensues with the other thugs in the bar, and Mime and Marionette succeed in killing all of them. Following this, the two drink together and decide to find the Joker.
Gallery
.jpg "Marcos Maez (Watchmen).jpg (162 KB)")
Trivia
- Mime and Marionette are based on Charlton Comics villains, Punch and Jewelee.
- Fittingly, Punch and Jewelee served as antagonists towards the heroes Captain Atom and Nightshade, who were the inspirations for Doctor Manhattan and Silk Specter respectively.
- Coincidentally, in the television series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, one of Hawk Moth's akumatized villains also uses the persona of "The Mime" and utilizes invisible weapons, just like Marcos does (however, unlike him, Miraculouses' Mime actually creates invisible weapons rather than just using them).