MERLE SINGER
Real Name: Merle Singer
Identity/Class: Human civilian
Occupation: Apparently employed at or owned a
storage facility; sculptor
Group Membership: Y
& L Personal Storage staff
Affiliations: Foolkiller
(Greg Salinger), Foolkiller
(Kurt Gerhardt); Jake (also working out of
formerly an unidentified boyfriend
Enemies: Unidentified
former boyfriend
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: At least formerly an apartment
above Cullen Light and Fixtures, the Bowery, Manhattan, New York;
at least formerly employed at (or
owned) Y & L Personal Storage, New York (likely Manhattan)
First Appearance:
Foolkiller#2 (February, 1990)
Powers/Abilities: Merle has no
superhuman powers.
Merle is a skilled sculptor.
She is also experienced with first aid
wound care.
Sympathetic to the Foolkillers'
missions, she is a loyal and trustworthy confidant, keeping their
secrets and assisting them in whatever is needed. She is comfortable
with the execution of those who are harmful to others and/or to society
in general. She trusted Salinger implicitly and by extension trusted
anyone that Salinger trusted.
She kept a bottle of the acid
used on her face with her sculptures as a reminder of the experience.
Although deeply upset by the idea, she had the fortitude to pour acid
on Kurt Gerhardt at his insistence to help disguise his appearance.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'9"; she didn't
look much shorter than the 5'11" Gerhardt)
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 130 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue (sometimes looked brown)
Hair: Black
Other Distinguishing Features:
Much of the right side of Merle's face and neck is scarred from a chemical
acid burn.
History:
(Foolkiller I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Merle Singer's face was
scarred by a boyfriend who threw acid in her face.
At her request, Greg Salinger
brought some of the acid back to her in the bottle because she had
wanted a reminder (see comments).
(Foolkiller I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Merle tried to be
Salinger's friend.
(Foolkiller I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Merle kept
Salinger's secret, treated his injuries and helped him as needed.
(Foolkiller I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Salinger had Merle store a
spare Foolkiller costume and purification gun at her place of business,
Y & L Personal Storage. He told her to give
it to anyone who told her that they were picking up a parcel for Pierre
and J.D., and she at least assumed that if someone was picking it up,
it meant that Salinger had died.
(Foolkiller I#2 - BTS) - Kurt Gerhardt established a
correspondence with Greg Salinger while he was imprisoned at the Central Indiana State Mental Institution via a computer bulletin
board. After Gerhardt earned his confidence and
convinced him of his sincerity, Salinger gave him
instructions on how to pick up his spare costume and purification gun for
Merle Singer at Y & L Personal Storage.
(Foolkiller I#2) - When Kurt arrived at Y & L
and asked for Merle, Jake, the man at the front desk shouted her name.
Merle advised Jake that he was in the next room, not the next county,
told him to take it easy and asked what the man needed. Kurt told her
that he was picking up a parcel for Pierre and J.D. Merle was surprised
and asked if that meant he was dead, and Kurt told her that it was
nothing like that and that he had just asked him to pick it up. Merle
asked, "For him, or for you?"
Kurt replied that that was a good question and that he thought that it was
for him. 
Kurt asked Merle if she had been close to
Salinger, and she told him "Not the way
you mean. He did me a favor. I tried to be his friend."
Kurt asked her what kind of favor, but she told him to wait there while
she retrieved the package. As she delivered it to him, they shared each
other's names, and she told Kurt to come to her for anything she could
do to help.
(Foolkiller I#2 - BTS) - Minutes later, Gerhardt encountered
two skinheads beating a woman and tried the gun out on them.
It worked just fine.
(Foolkiller I#4 - BTS) - After Gerhardt had been
injured while trying to kill the drug-dealer Backhand, he called from a
pay phone and got the number for Merle.
(Foolkiller I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Kurt called Merle, who
gave him her address, and he traveled to her place.
(Foolkiller I#4) - As he lied on her couch, Merle
treated Kurt's wounds. He apologized for calling so late, but she
shushed him, telling him it was alright and that Greg had had nights
like that, too. She shared that there were lots of dead fools that the
police and the newspapers never found out about, as they were ashes
scattered on the wind or washed down a sewer on a rainy night. Kurt
noted that she was smiling, and Merle explained the her compassion had
rather definite limits, and that she didn't weep at the death of
carcinoma cells, either.
Appreciating
that Merle had known Salinger quite well, Kurt asked her
to know everything about his experience as Foolkiller, but she told him
that if Greg wanted him to know, he would tell Kurt himself; she
further added that she did not betray confidences. Apologizing, Kurt
noted that their was a bond between them -- the artist and the "poet,"
he guessed. As he told her surmised that she had sculpted all of the
statues in her apartment and noted that he was no poet, she warned him
against touching a glass container as it contained sulfuric acid. She
then shared that that was what her former boyfriend had used to scar
her face and that Greg had brought it back to her in the bottle because
she had asked him to and that she had wanted a reminder.
Merle subsequently suggested that Kurt get some
sleep and told him he was welcome to stay the night, as long as it was
clear in his mind that there would not be any spontaneous intimacy.
After lying down, Kurt told her that he had lost all capacity for
intimacy a long time ago.
(Foolkiller I#10) - After his identity had been
made public, Kurt visited Merle, who told him that she had been
expecting him. He told her that he needed a place to stay for a couple
of days and noted that he had no right to ask, but she assured him that
it was no problem. She informed him that Greg was the only one who
could establish any link between the two of them and that he would not
do that. As she made him some coffee, Kurt told Merle that there were
some things that he needed to buy and that while he had
money...Appreciating that Kurt could not walk the streets, she assured
him that she would get what he needed.
Kurt further told Merle that there was also one
piece of work left to do and that he could not die with that
unfinished. When Merle asked him what made him think he was going to
die, he told her "actions have consequences," which had been his motto
as Foolkiller.
(Foolkiller I#10 (fb) - BTS) - Merle bought a
number of items for Kurt, including hair dye, some skin tone-darkening
product and a fake mustache.
(Foolkiller I#10) - When
Kurt was finished changing his appearance, Merle compared him to the
picture of his face on the cover of the Daily Bugle and noted that she
didn't see any resemblance. Nonetheless, she asked him if it wouldn't
make more sense to just leave town now, but Kurt told her if he did so,
eventually they would find and kill him and that this would be more
useful. As he prepared to leave, he told Merle that the fools should be
more afraid of her than him, as she did not have to become one to fight
them. He told her goodbye and thanks.
(Foolkiller I#10 - BTS) - Kurt subdued
drug-dealer Emilio Mendosa and dressed him in the Foolkiller costume,
and he was subsequently shot and killed by members of the New York
Police Department.
(Foolkiller I#10) - Kurt subsequently returned to
Merle's apartment. Noting that he could barely stand, Merle told him
that he needed to rest and eat something, but he told her he could not
stay and that it was too dangerous for her. She started to argue that
no one could connect them, but he told her that the criminal Backhand
had survived, and so they would know his disguised face as well. He
instead told her that there was one thing she could do for him and that
he swore he would never ask for anything again. She told him that
whatever it was, she was sure Greg would want her to do it, but when he
picked up her bottle of sulfuric acid, she was shocked and hoped he did
not mean it. Tears ran down her face as Kurt told her that it was the
price he had to pay for not dying, and then he asked for something to
cover his eyes.
(Foolkiller I#10 (fb) - BTS) - Merle doused Kurt's
face in acid (or helped him do it to himself), severely scarring
it.
(Foolkiller I#10 (fb) - BTS) - Kurt had another of his
contacts establish a false identity and financial history, and
relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There he went to a
reconstructive specialist, and gave him his new id, with a new
face to use as a goal.
Comments: Created
by Steve Gerber and J.J. Birch (a pseudonym for Joe Brozowski--as pointed
out by
Grant Rybicki, the
Continental Op)
I had apparently misremembered it being clearly detailed in the story
that Salinger had incinerated Merle's boyfriend after he scarred her
face with acid. I think it can be clearly inferred as the most likely
scenario -- that Salinger at least killed him, even if it was before
he
had his purification gun -- and that she was eternally grateful to him
and both sympathetic to and supportive of his mission. When
Salinger
sent
Gerhardt to her, she trusted Salinger's judgment implicitly and
was instantly willing to assist Gerhardt in any way she
could. In
addition to listening to the thoughts he could tell no one else,
she also acted as his assistant when there became too much heat
for him to be out in public.
I would also think it likely that she poured the
acid on to Kurt's face, as it would be difficult -- but not impossible
for him to do to himself.
Kurt's new identity from Foolkiller#10 was Gregory
Curtis Ross, which is also an amalgam of the names of all three
Foolkillers (Ross
G. Everbest, Greg Salinger, Kurt Gerhardt). Additionally, Ross is Steve
Gerber's middle name; the face on his driver's license that was
supposed to be his new target appearance appeared to be Richard
Rory; and the driver's license was
from Las Vegas, Nevada, which is where Gerber lived.
Merle Singer previously had a
sub-profile in the Kurt Gerhardt Foolkiller profile, originally published
01/10/2002.
This profile was
completed 10/09/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended
for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Merle Singer should be distinguished from:
- Dr. SINGER -
scientist working for US Department of Defense, provided classified
footage on Arsenal--Avengers Annual#9
- Dr. SINGER -
see MADAME
SINGRE.
Kree, served as physician to Ultra-Girl, sought to guide her to attain
what they perceived to be her mission as the ultimate
unifier--Ultra-Girl#2
- SINGER (real
name unrevealed) - Assassins Guild of New Orleans. Fly, communications
channeler--Rogue I#1
- SINGER of SONGS
- see DANKSER--Marvel
Premiere I#27
- other "Merle" or
"Singer" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...
 Merle's apartment is (or, at least was) above Cullen Light and Fixtures, in
the Bowery, Manhattan, New York
It was filled with her sculptures.
Kurt Gerhardt stayed there while
recovering from injuries and/or hiding out from the authorities.
--
Foolkiller#4 (10
|
 
(Foolkiller I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Merle Singer's face
was
scarred by a boyfriend who threw acid in her face.
At her request, Greg
Salinger brought some of the acid back to her in the bottle
because she
had wanted a reminder (see
comments).
(Foolkiller I#10) - To disguise his appearance,
Kurt asked Merle to use the acid on his face. She was shocked
and hoped he did
not mean it, and tears ran down her face as Kurt asked for
something to
cover his eyes.
(Foolkiller I#10 (fb) - BTS) - Merle doused Kurt's
face in acid (or helped him do it to himself), severely
scarring it.
--Foolkiller#4 (10
|
images: (without ads)
Foolkiller#2, pg. 19, panel 6 (face);
pg. 20, panel 6 (knees up);
#4, pg. 6, panel 5 (apartment & sculptures);
pg. 7, panel 1 (full, posterior
oblique);
panel 2 (face, left
oblique);
panel 4-5 (sulfuric acid
& sculpture);
panel 7 (face);
#10, pg. 23, panel 7 (face, right profile)
Appearances:
Foolkiller#2 (November, 1990) - Steve Gerber
(writer), J.J. Birch (penciler), Tony DeZuniga (inker), Craig Anderson
(editor)
Foolkiller#4 (January, 1991) - Steve Gerber
(writer), J.J. Birch (penciler), Tony DeZuniga (inker), Craig Anderson
(editor)
Foolkiller#10 (October,
1991) - Steve Gerber
(writer), J.J. Birch (penciler), Vince
Giarrano (inker), John Lewandowski (assistant editor), Craig Anderson
(editor)
First posted: 09/23/2026
Last updated: 10/09/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to
www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
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