ELECTRO

Real Name: Francine Frye

Identity/Class: Human clone mutate

Occupation: Professional criminal

Group Membership: Sinister Six (Bombshell/Lori Baumgartner, Hobgoblin/Roderick Kingsley, Iron Spider/Aaron Davis, Sandman/William Baker, Spot/Johnathon Ohnn)

Affiliations: Lucia von Bardas, Big Wheel (unrevealed), Bombshell (Lana Baumgartner), Ceres, Martha Connors, Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius), Jackal (Ben Reilly), Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Lizard (Curt Connors), Rhino (Alexei Sytsevich), Shocker (Herman Schultz), Zzzax;
    formerly Boomerang (Fred Myers), Electro (Max Dillon)

Enemies: Boomerang (Fred Myers), Champions (Cyclops/Scott Summers (time-displaced), Hulk/Amadeus Cho, Ironheart/Riri Williams, Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Nova/Sam Alexander, Spider-Man/Miles Morales, Viv Vision), Devil Dinosaur, Electro (Max Dillon), Madame Web (Cassandra Webb), Madame Web (Julia Carpenter), Max Modell, Moon Girl (Lunella Lafayette), Prowler (Hobie Brown), Prowler (Hobie Brown clone), Red Hulk (Robert Maverick), Scarlet Spider (Kaine Parker), Spectro (Hector Cervantez), Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) of Earth-65;
    formerly Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Electrellina"

Base of Operations: New York City;
    formerly the Underworld, San Francisco, California;
    formerly an apartment in the West Village, Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: (Frye) Amazing Spider-Man III#2 (July, 2014)
    (Electro) Amazing Spider-Man III#17 (October, 2016)

Powers/Abilities: Electro can absorb electricity in her body, using it to fly, project damaging electrical blasts, discharge hazardous electrical charges on contact, create "electric slides" on which she travels, or enhance her own strength. She is vulnerable to water, which can short out her powers and incapacitate her.

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Gray
Hair: Brown, formerly dyed green

History: (Amazing Spider-Man III#2 (fb) ) - Francine Frye was a super-villain groupie, and was well-known in the villainous community for giving fugitive villains a place to stay. She was especially fond of Electro, who "made her hair stand on end".

(Amazing Spider-Man III#2) - Electro, on the run after experiments conducted by Otto Octavius (at the time occupying Spider-Man's body) had sent his powers out of control, destroying the prison he'd been housed in, went to seek shelter from Francine. She welcomed him in and listened to his sob story, noting that his altered powers attracted the metal of her facial piercings. She eventually decided she knew how to make Electro better, and kissed him...only for his powers to flare out of control and electrocute her.

(Amazing Spider-Man III#6 - BTS) - A group of villains held a memorial service for Francine at the Bar With No Name.

(Amazing Spider-Man IV#17) - The Jackal, as part of his scheme to resurrect the people whose deaths Spider-Man was responsible for, acquired Francine's body and used DNA from inside her cheek to resurrect her in a cloned body (which lacked all her piercings, tattoos, and dyed hair). The Jackal told her she'd need to work for him in exchange for the pill that kept her new body alive, and she jumped at the chance - although she didn't believe the Jackal's assertion that they were "the good guys". He used her to convince Max Dillon, who had been depowered, to work for him and accept the return of his powers. Although Francine was uncomfortable to be around the man who'd killed her, he accepted - but his body rejected the power transfer. As he went to leave, the power from the Jackal's botched repowering started to leap from Dillon's body to Frye's. The Jackal realized that some of Dillon's DNA had been on her cheek from their last kiss, giving her some of his abilities. Excited by this, Francine forcibly kissed Dillon, acquiring all of his powers and apparently killing Dillon in the process. As she feebly told the Jackal it was an accident, he sent her to capture the Prowler, who had broken into their lab. Although she was disappointed there was no time to get her a costume, she complied. She quickly caught up with the fleeing Prowler and zapped him out of the air. He shot her with a webline which she instantly sent a lethal charge through, seemingly killing him, much to the Jackal's displeasure. Later, the Jackal brought back the Prowler as a clone while Francine (now costumed as the new Electro) and the Rhino watched.

(Prowler II#1) - Electro taunted the Prowler as he left New U on an errand, suggesting that he wasn't truly loyal to the Jackal.

(Prowler II#2) - The Prowler failed to return, and the cloned villains he was supposed to take care of were brawling, prompting the Jackal to meet with Electro. He sent her to find him; she sought direction from the cloned Madame Web, but she wouldn't tell her where she'd sent the Prowler. Using her powers, she tortured his destination out of her: Alcatraz. She found him there in a high-tech command room, in rough shape and needing his pill.

(Prowler II#3) - As she mocked the semi-conscious Prowler for letting whoever had set up in Alcatraz get away, he used a grappling hook to flee her. She chased him through the abandoned prison; she hit him with a bolt of electricity and planned to finish him off, hoping it would convince the Jackal not to resurrect him again. He blinded her with a flare device and escaped her again, this time leading her to the gift shop. She triggered the trap he'd left for her and was hit with coins from an exploding cash register and several bottles of water, knocking her out.

(Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#1/1) - When Spider-Man broke into the Jackal's New U headquarters, he sent Electro and Rhino after him. They attacked him in tandem, and Electro revealed her origins to him - taking advantage of her inexperience, Spider-Man smashed a water main, blasting both of them with water. Electro's powers knocked her and Rhino out, allowing Spider-Man to proceed.

(Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#2) - Electro and Rhino revived, and found Spider-Man in the clutches of fellow clone Dr. Octopus. The Jackal found them and dismissed Electro, Rhino, and Ock while he took Spider-Man on a tour of the facilities.

(Silk II#15) - When Ock confronted the ghostly intruder Spectro at New U, Electro crept up behind him and shocked him into unconsciousness, leaving him in Ock's clutches.

(Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#3) - After his assistant, a Gwen Stacy clone, was abducted, the Jackal sent Electro and Rhino to Horizon University, where she was being held. They burst in, where they found her with spider-clone Scarlet Spider and Horizon scientists Max Modell and Anna Maria Marconi. Modell blasted her with an experimental fire extinguisher; before she could retaliate with lethal force, the Rhino stopped her. They returned to New U with Gwen, the defeated Scarlet Spider, and Marconi, who volunteered to go.

(Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#4) - Electro submitted to Dr. Octopus' scans as he studied her and the Scarlet Spider to design a superior clone. Although she complained about how boring it was, things soon became interesting when a Warren clone brought in Marconi, Octavius' ex-lover. She rejected his advances; Electro found this highly amusing, proclaiming it to be like "the worst telenovela", and excitedly recounted it to the Jackal when he returned. The Jackal then made an ill-advised offer to Marconi for an improved body, causing Ock to turn on him - which Spider-Man's ally Spider-Woman then took as an opportunity to attack. Electro tangled with Spider-Woman, who webbed up her face and webbed her to the wall as she tried to free the Scarlet Spider - just as Octavius triggered the device that activated the Carrion Virus in all of the Jackal's clones, threatening to infect the whole world!

(Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#5 / Prowler II#5) - Electro freed herself, and the Jackal sent her to finish off the fleeing Spider-Woman and Scarlet Spider. She found them in Haven, where they had joined forces with the Prowler clone to battle the Jackal's resurrected villains. Electro promised to kill him permanently this time. After losing him in the chaos, she found him battered and bruised in an alley. She charged up to kill him, but his ally Madame Web (Carpenter) blindsided her. Electro quickly gained the upper hand, but the Prowler summoned his last ounce of strength and took her down before succumbing to his injuries and degeneration. Injured but alive, Electro slunk off and escaped.

(Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur#19 (fb) ) - Electro teamed up with Shocker and Zzzax to rob a bank, but encountered Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, who tricked them into sending their energies into the New York power grid.

(Spider-Man II#234) - Criminal weapons dealer Ceres contacted Electro, Spot, Hobgoblin, Bombshell, and Sandman and summoned them to the burglar Aaron Davis' secret lair, where he (now calling himself the Iron Spider) invited them to join his new Sinister Six. He offered them a generous down payment for their services, and told them of the heist he'd planned - the theft of a SHIELD Helicarrier!

(Spider-Man II#235) - The Six met in New Jersey, at the docks, where the Iron Spider showed them an unused SHIELD Helicarrier. He used a spider-drone to show them the interior, but insisted that they not steal it right now, as the Red Hulk was guarding it. However, he told them that SHIELD was gone, and they wouldn't have to worry about any repercussions from them.

(Spider-Man II#236) - Electro, Spot, and Sandman went to San Diego. They scouted the airport, which held a secret SHIELD storage facility containing deactivated Sentinel robots. Sandman was detected, unleashing a wave of Nick Fury LMDs; Electro blasted them, shorting them out, and escaped. As they watched the police arrive from a nearby rooftop, Electro lamented that she didn't get any respect; Sandman suggested she change her name, as the original Electro, who he knew well, was a goofball. Together with the Spot, they plotted to betray the Iron Spider and his ally Bombshell - plus the Hobgoblin, who none of them trusted - to take the Helicarrier and sell it directly to the Iron Spider's buyer, splitting the take three ways.

(Spider-Man II#238) - At the Six's hideout, Iron Spider laid out the plan to steal the Helicarrier. Electro was pleased that it was so straightforward, and told the others she didn't care who they were selling it to, despite Sandman's objections. That night, the Six (plus Bombshell's semi-estranged daughter Lana) watched the Red Hulk depart and moved in. Electro took out the power source, allowing the Iron Spider and Ceres to take over the ship.

(Spider-Man II#239) - The Six, plus Bombshell's reluctantly-criminal daughter and minus Hobgoblin, who Sandman outed as a traitor and threw off the ship, flew the Helicarrier to Latveria, where their buyer, Lucia von Bardas greeted them with a hero's welcome. Electro demanded to see the money, but before the Latverians could comply, they realized they'd been followed by Spider-Man and his allies, the Champions. Electro blasted the Hulk and took down Cyclops before Ms. Marvel punched her with a giant fist.

(Spider-Man II#240 (fb) ) - Electro was taken down by the Hulk as the rest of the Six was defeated; however, the Iron Spider escaped.

(Free Comic Book Day 2018 (Amazing Spider-Man/Guardians of the Galaxy) #1) - Electro joined up with Boomerang, Rhino, and a new Big Wheel to rob the Museum of Natural History. Although Boomerang had assured his crew that nobody went to museums anymore, they were accosted by Spider-Man as they escaped with their loot. Electro tried to blast him with electricity, but she missed and hit the Big Wheel's vehicle instead, sending it careening towards a busy restaurant. As Spider-Man struggled to halt it, Electro, Rhino, and Boomerang prepared to finish off the occupied wall-crawler - only for the police, under the command of Mayor Wilson Fisk, to arrive. They took Electro and Rhino into custody, but Boomerang flew off, leaving his compatriots behind.

(Amazing Spider-Man V#6) - Out of jail, Electro ran into Boomerang (plus Boomerang's roommate, Peter Parker, posing as the villain "The Liar") at the Bar with No Name. She angrily confronted him, but the bartender, Deke, insisted that there was no fighting in the bar. Later, after watching Boomerang and Parker clean up at Spider-Man Trivia Night, she and the other villains in the bar received a message from the Kingpin, offering a reward large enough to disregard the bar's rules in exchange for Boomerang's head...

(Amazing Spider-Man V#7) - Electro and the other villains attacked Boomerang and Parker, hoping to collect the bounty. However, Parker bluffed them as "The Liar", claiming that he would make all of their weapons backfire, giving Boomerang time to cover their escape with a bomberang.

Comments: Frye created by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, and Victor Olazaba. Electro created by Dan Slott, R.B. Silva, and Adriano di Benedetto.

Francine's apartment had pictures of Kraven, Sandman, Dr. Octopus, Tarantula, Morbius, Chameleon, Kingpin, and Norman Osborn - those may have been her past conquests, or she may just have been a fan.

Mourners at Francine's memorial service included Shocker, the Brothers Grimm, Boomerang, Speed Demon, Spot, and several Hobgoblin franchisees (Beetle, Melter, Killer Shrike, Ringer, 8-Ball).

Profile by Minor Irritant.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Francine Frye, alias Electro, should not be confused with:

• Aftershock (Danielle Blunt), electric-themed villain who also dresses like Electro @ Young Allies II#1
• Electro (Max Dillon), her predecessor @ Amazing Spider-Man I#9

...but has no known connection to:

• Electro, robot built by Professor Zog @ Marvel Mystery Comics#4
• Electro (Ivan Kronov), electric Soviet @ Captain America Comics#78
• Elektro, robot, joined the Fin Fang Four @ Tales of Suspense I#13

images: (without ads)
Amazing Spider-Man IV#17, cover (main image)
Amazing Spider-Man IV#17, p11, pan3 (Frye, clone)
Amazing Spider-Man III#2, p6, pan3 (Frye, original)
Prowler II#3, p12, pan1 (blasting)

Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man III#2 (July, 2014) - Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man III#6 (November, 2014) - Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man IV#17 (October, 2016) - Dan Slott (writer), R.B. Silva (pencils), Adriano di Benedetto (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Prowler II#1-3 (December, 2016-February, 2017) - Sean Ryan (writer), Javier Saltares (layouts), Jamal Campbell (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#1/1-3 (December, 2016-February, 2017) - Dan Slott (writer), Jim Cheung (pencils), John Dell (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Silk II#15 (February, 2017) - Robbie Thompson (pencils), Irene Strychalski (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#4 (March, 2017) - Dan Slott (writer), Jim Cheung (pencils), John Dell & Cory Smith (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy#5 (April, 2017) - Dan Slott (writer), Jim Cheung (pencils/inks), John Dell & Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Prowler II#5 (April, 2017) - Sean Ryan (writer), Javier Saltares (layouts), Jamal Campbell (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur#19 (July, 2017) - Brandon Montclare (writer), Natacha Bustos (art), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Spider-Man II#234-236 (January-March, 2018) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Oscar Bazaldua (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
Spider-Man II#238-240 (May-July, 2018) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Oscar Bazaldua (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
Free Comic Book Day 2018 (Amazing Spider-Man/Guardians of the Galaxy) #1 (May, 2018) - Nick Spencer (writer), Ryan Ottley (pencils), Cliff Rathburn (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man V#6-7 (November-December, 2018) - Nick Spencer (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)