Carlie Cooper

Carlie Cooper is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character appears in comic books centered on Spider-Man. She is named after Joe Quesada's daughter.^[2] Carlie is friends with Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Harry Osborn, Vin Gonzales, and Lily Hollister. She is one of the first potential romantic interests for Parker following his long relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the "One More Day" story arc and eventually becomes his girlfriend^[3] for a time.^[4]

Publication history

Carlie Cooper first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #545 (December 2007) and was created by Dan Slott and Joe Quesada.

Fictional character biography

"Brand New Day"

Carlie Cooper is the roommate and best friend of Lily Hollister; they grew up together, although Carlie was the brighter of the two.^[5] As a child, she was also friends with Gwen Stacy.^[6] She is an officer of the New York Police Department's Crime Scene Unit.^[7] She campaigned vigorously for Bill Hollister, whom she considers a father figure. Her birth father, Ray Cooper, was a well-respected cop who reportedly died years earlier.

While preparing a body found in the river for the medical examiner, she finds a spider-tracer in its mouth, which initiates the police warrant for the "Spider-Tracer Killer". She later discovers that the "Spider-Tracer Killer" is a conspiracy by a group of New York cops, who have planted the tracers on dead bodies to frame Spider-Man in an attempt to turn the public against him. Carlie informs the precinct's sergeant, who is secretly a part of the conspiracy and issues a warrant for her arrest, claiming that she is aiding and abetting the killer.^[8] She goes to Lily and Bill Hollister and tells him the truth of the tracer killings. She escapes the police with the help of Menace. Later, Vin finds her and apologizes to her for all he has done.^[9]

When Doctor Octopus tries using his Octobot technology to turn New York into his own living weapon, Carlie and Norah Winters investigate who is responsible and through the course of their investigation, stumble upon Doctor Octopus' lair. Unknown to them, Doctor Octopus has already kidnapped J. Jonah Jameson Sr., after learning that JJJ Sr. is going to marry his old love interest, Peter's Aunt May. Spider-Man frees all three of Doctor Octopus's captives with the aid of the Human Torch (Johnny Storm). Afterward, Carlie attends the wedding with Johnny Storm as her date.^[10]

Later, Carlie is accused of tampering with evidence when several pieces of evidence collected from three murder scenes mysteriously disappear from the police evidence locker.^[11] Spider-Man later discovers that the 'evidence' was actually pieces of the Sandman, which left the evidence locker on their own.^[12] Carlie was cleared, but is still looked down on by some fellow officers.^[13]

It is discovered that Carlie's father did not die.^[13] He speaks to Carlie while she is watching a fight between the Magia family and Mr. Negative's Inner Demons.^[14] When Carlie learns that her father was not the good cop he was made out to be, she has him arrested. She then cuts her hair and decides to be more assertive in her life.

After several near misses and almost-dates, Carlie and Peter finally set up a real date at the Coffee Bean. Harry and Mary Jane happen to be there and the two girls get talking, when all of a sudden Lily bursts through the wall, followed by an attacking team of supervillains. MJ asks Carlie to help Lily, who has gone into labor, but they are held captive by Doctor Octopus.^[15] Spider-Man manages to save them and rescue Lily's newborn infant from the supervillains. Later, Harry and Mary Jane take Lily to safety, but Carlie was too angry with Lily and instead focuses her energy on trying to find Peter. She is confronted by Tombstone.^[16] The police arrive and Tombstone escapes but later doubles back to follow her after discovering that Carlie knows Menace's secret identity. Carlie, Mary Jane, and Lily are able to defeat Tombstone when he attacks them.^[17]

Afterward, Peter and Carlie continue to hang out for a time, but Peter lacks the courage to ask her out, leaving Carlie fuming. She gives him an ultimatum and after seeing her at Harry's going-away party, Peter asks her to be his girlfriend. The two kiss and begin dating.^[18]

"Big Time"

Peter and Carlie have now been dating for a short while. When Michele Gonzales moves back to Chicago, Peter considers moving in with Carlie but she decides that it is too early in the relationship. It is at this time that Peter discovers Carlie is a roller derby participant, using the sport to help her unleash any pent up anger. Her roller derby name is "Crusher Carlie".^[19]

When Peter is called out on a mission with the Future Foundation, he tells Carlie he is going away on a business trip for his new job at Horizon Labs. Carlie is very angry when she finds out that there was no trip. She takes her rage out in the rink which results in her being sent off mid-game for a vicious assault on "Iron Mavis" from the other side. Noticing her bad mood, two of her teammates offer to take her out for a night on the town. After getting drunk, Carlie decides to get a tattoo of the Green Goblin's insignia to spite Peter, knowing his opinion of Norman Osborn (as he had murdered Peter's first girlfriend Gwen Stacy).^[20] However, she changes her mind and gets a tattoo of Spider-Man. She is worried that the tattoo will make things awkward between herself and Peter, but he assures her that it is not the case.^[1]

During the "Return of Anti-Venom" storyline, Carlie correctly deduces that the new Wraith is her police captain Yuri Watanabe using a mask Mysterio created that could impersonate the face of the late Jean Dewolff since only they and Spider-Man knew about it. This becomes more obvious when she visits evidence storage and learns of a mysterious incident that supposedly destroyed the mask with Watanabe being the last visitor beforehand. Having secretly placed her cell phone into Watanabe's pocket earlier and following her, Carlie's suspicions are confirmed. Rather than turn Watanabe in like she previously did to Vin and her father, Carlie agrees to keep it secret and suggests that Watanabe needs to improve on covering her tracks for her own safety.^[21]

"Spider-Island"

During the events that lead to the "Spider-Island" storyline, Carlie confronts Peter about his connection to Spider-Man, and accepts his explanation that he designs all of Spider-Man's technology.,^[22] (which was essentially the truth). She later gains spider-powers due to the Jackal's genetically-altered bedbugs, with the addition of organic webs.^[23] However, her mutation, like the millions of others in New York City, turns her into a monstrous spider-being.^[24] She and the rest of the civilian population were eventually cured when Spider-Man uses Doctor Octopus' octo-bots to disperse the antidote.^[25] When she returns to normal, Carlie breaks up with Peter after deducing that he is Spider-Man, furious that she has been lied to once again.^[4] She and Peter are on a sort of truce as she requires Spider-Man's help in order to investigate the death of a gothic teen who died from falling from a great height and was ruled as a suicide.^[26] Carlie works the case without police approval, putting her at odds with Chief Pratchett. Shortly after the case is resolved, Carlie, still conflicted over her feelings for Peter, confides in Peter's best friend and ex Mary Jane despite her initial anger over MJ also knowing Peter's identity.^[27]

"Superior Spider-Man"

Around the end of the Dying Wish storyline, Carlie Cooper catches Doctor Octopus breaking into the NYPD to reclaim his golden Octobot. She tries to stop him, not knowing that Doctor Octopus is really Peter Parker's mind in Otto's body. Peter/"Otto" tries to calm her down, but she shoots him, causing him to defend himself with a tentacle, the bullet ricocheting off his arm and shooting through Carlie's shoulder, to his shock. She is taken to the hospital, where she recovers.^[28]

Later, Mary Jane and Carlie are surprised by some footage showing the Superior Spider-Man shaking hands with Mayor J. Jonah Jameson, who came to thank Spider-Man, for stopping the Sinister Six. They both agree that things are weird. Carlie mentions that things have been weird since her run in with Doctor Octopus, but does not explain why. Mary Jane confides in her that she and Peter seem to be getting back together, shocking Carlie. When Mary Jane tells Carlie that the Superior Spider-Man broke it off with her just when they were getting back together, Carlie decides to "go back to work", wanting to know what really happened to "Peter".^[29]

It is heavily implied that Carlie knows who Superior Spider-Man really is, but she is keeping it to herself until she can find proof.^[30] Soon while lurking in the shadows while Captain Wantanabe interviews police witnesses to Superior Spider-Man killing Massacre at point blank, Carlie appears to have also confided in one mysterious person about her speculation, this person was later revealed to be Wraith.^[31]

Carlie and the Wraith, later follow a lead how the new Spider-Squad is being funded, as it is not being financed by Mayor Jameson's initiatives.^[32] After investigating the foreign bank accounts of Super villains, it is revealed that Carlie has stumbled upon proof that an account belonging to Doctor Octopus is funding the new Spider Squad. Therefore, she has made the connection of her suspicions that Superior Spider-Man is Doctor Octopus in Peter Parker's body.^[33]

Later, Carlie mourns Peter being buried under Doctor Octopus' headstone. She respects and apologizes for not believing him and makes Doctor Octopus pay for what he had done. The grave collapses to discover that Doctor Octopus' body is empty. Before continuing, Carlie is kidnapped by Menace and brought to the Goblin King's lair. She grabs Carlie's journal and gives it to the Goblin King where he learns about Superior Spider-Man's secret.^[34] With all the evidence of Doctor Octopus' mind being in Spider-Man's body, the Goblin King still tries to interrogate Carlie about why she left Spider-Man's true identity out of her journal. He tries to take it out of her, but she refuses to reply, prompting Menace to take over the interrogation.^[35] The Goblin King sprays the Goblin Formula on Carlie after she still refuses to divulge the true identity of Superior Spider-Man, causing her to writhe in agony.^[36] The Goblin Formula used on Carlie begins to take effect transforming her into one of them and the Goblin King nicknamed her "Monster". When prompted to reveal the Spider Man's identity by the Goblin King, Carlie questioned who Goblin King was to which he replied that he is Norman Osborn. Carlie did not buy it and asked him to remove his mask to prove the fact. The Goblin King however wanted Carlie to prove that she was a real member of the Goblin Nation first before doing so. Monster joins Menace into attacking Hobgoblin's henchmen Ringer, Steeplejack, and Tumbler. Steeplejack ends up shooting Monster only to be viciously attacked by her in response earning her place in the Goblin Nation after Goblin Knight kills Steeplejack.^[37]

At the time when the Goblin Nation was causing havoc in Manhattan, Monster attacks Parker Industries where Otto gets her away from the other people inside. Superior Spider-Man was shocked to discover that Monster is Carlie. Superior Spider-Man deploys Living Brain to fight Monster while he and Sajani Jaffrey flee inside. He tells Sajani to split up wanting to direct Monster's attention to him. He succeeds and Otto fights Monster in a closed room. He lands a kick which breaks the earpiece on Monster and she informs him that because of this, the Goblin King would not be able to listen to them. She states that she needs Otto or Peter's brains to fix this situation and fix her as well before she loses control. Telling Otto to hurry, she says that Otto has no idea what the Goblin King has planned for him and this world. Carlie also mentioned that she is unsure of the Goblin King's claim of being Norman Osborn.^[38] Sajani continues to work on the cure for the Goblin Serum when Carlie gets loses control while waiting for it, Wraith breaks free from the grip of Living Brain and makes her way to where Sajani and Carlie are. In the brief fight, Wraith is unable to see Carlie as her technology has been hacked by the Goblin King to render any goblin undetectable, Sajani completes the cure as Wraith restrains Carlie long enough for Sajani to inject the cure into her to change back into human form, with Carlie falling unconscious afterwards. Wraith leaves Carlie in Sajani's care as she heads off.^[39]

In the aftermath, as she was still recovering from the effects of the Goblin serum, Carlie has one last talk with Mary Jane where she has decided to leave New York since she realized that she will always remain as a target as long as she remains close to Peter Parker or Spider-Man and wants to move to a less dangerous place where she could work as a police forensic officer without having to deal with any supervillains.^[40]

Powers and abilities

Carlie Cooper is an expert at forensics.

As Monster, Carlie Cooper has likely obtained similar powers to Green Goblin due to the Goblin Formula circulating within her system which grants her superhuman strength, stamina, and speed.

Other versions

MC2

In the MC-2 Universe, Peter works with the police department after retiring as Spider-Man. Carlie is the person who gave Peter the idea to work with the police.^[41]

Spider-Island

In this alternate telling of Spider-Island from Secret Wars, Carlie was mutated into a spider monster alongside Mary Jane, Betty Brant, and Sharon Carter by the Spider Queen and used as bait by the heroes. Spider-Man, Agent Venom, and Iron Goblin use Curt Connors' Lizard formula to mutate the ladies into lizards, but free their minds from the Spider Queen's control.

In Other Media

• Carlie Cooper appears as a non-playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited while another version based on her Spider-Island counterpart is playable.

References

External links

• Carlie Cooper at Marvel.com
• Carlie Cooper at Marvel Wiki
• Carlie Cooper at Comic Vine