Tarantula (Vasquez)

María Vásquez joins Misty Knight's team after the Superhuman Registration Act is passed. With a bad attitude and a veiled history, María is valued for her combat skills. If she isn't ordered not to kill, she will gladly inflict pain on her opponents to the chagrin of her teammates. In a conversation with her father, María confesses to becoming a hero to avenge her sister who was killed in the explosion in Stamford Connecticut. Shortly after this revelation, her father is killed by ninjas, who were acting on a hit placed by Ricadonna to kill María and the rest of the team. Avenging her father, Tarántula kills the team of ninjas herself.

Tarántula and Collen Wing are captured and tortured by the Brood thanks to Humbugs betrayal. The rest of the team came to their rescue and Shang-Chi kills Humbug to avenge Tarántula's torture. Shang-Chi departs the group carrying the still injured and unconscious Tarántula in his arms

Not too long after Shang-Chi breaks up with Maria and she finds herself on her own.

Six Guns

Out and about on her own Maria soon finds herself in more trouble, now being extradited from San Diablo for a double murder. She also finds herself being hunted by a mysterious group by the name of Roxxon for discovering the dealing of a priceless vibranium mine, hidden deep in the jungle. She eventually gets rescued by the Black Riders Biker gang who turned her over to Roxxon, but were betrayed and all but the leader was killed. Tarantula managed to get away briefly but was being followed by Tex Dawson, one of the of the police officers who were trying to detain her and Matt Slade who wanted the bounty on her head.

Fearless Defenders

Tarantula is one the possible candidates for Valkyrie's team of Shield Maidens.

Powers & Abilities

María is highly skilled in martial arts/hand-to-hand combat, as well as weapon-based combat. She usually employs blades on her wrists to do battle with enemies and has no issues killing or maiming her foes. The blades on her costume have been shown to change shape,design, and point of origin. Sometimes she will only have blades on her wrists, sometimes her feet, sometimes her wrists and elbows (and of varying length). It is possibly an artist design choice or a malleable portion of her costume.

She has also been strong/durable enough to be capable of withstanding the strength of super-strong opponents like members of the Doom Maidens and even overpowering super-strong opponents like Goldbug who employs a powersuit to slightly enhance his strength or Shockwave who has both a suit and enhanced strength. She withstood a punch from a furious Misty Knight, delivered using her metal arm and several arrows and sword wounds from ninjas. She did not heal quickly but seems to have a high threshold for pain and high stamina.

During a fight with Man-Ape, she and Black Cat each delivered a kick, at the same time, that overpowered/knocked over the super strong individual. Her abilities seem to indicate she is at (or around) the base-level of peak human condition (able to lift at least double one's own weight over their head or more, up to 800lbs. Black Cat's suit enhances her the 800-lb threshold, indicating that Tarantula may be at the same level without a suit like Black Cat's).

She is highly acrobatic and flexible, capable of jumping great heights, and maneuvering through the air while falling.

She has also been shown to have a high degree of knowledge in the areas of biology and engineering. Her full level of these studies are unknown and she has proven to be a skilled detective, capable of observation, forensic investigation, and deductive reasoning of the highest caliber. When Reed Richards had the schematics for a device to "bioscan" while hunting an organ harvesting ring, she stated that with the schematics, she could build it. This indicates that her intellect may be somewhere near that of Reed Richards' level of intellect or slightly below.

She is also a skilled pilot and fluent in Spanish and English.