Calypso Ezili

**Calypso Ezili** appeared in 1980 *Marvel Comics* called *Amazing Spider-Man*.

Calypso was a voodoo priestess of Haitian descent. She was a psychopathic woman who was associated with Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven the Hunter. Calypso seemed to enjoy driving Kraven into fits of rage and furthering his hatred of Spider-Man, which ultimately led to Kraven's suicide.

Calypso increased her powers via the sacrifice of her younger sister. She used her abilities to hold Curt Connors, The Lizard, in her grasp, and the two nearly succeeded in murdering Spider-Man. However, the web-slinger managed to best them both, and Calypso was apparently killed.

Calypso next emerged on the streets of Hell's Kitchen, kidnapping Haitian refugees and turning them into zombies, as practice for her plan to resurrect Kraven. When Daredevil confronted her, she managed to temporarily enslave him until Brother Voodoo advised him on how to defeat her. As Daredevil freed the enslaved souls she had accumulated, she deliberately crashed the building down upon herself.

In New Orleans, Calypso killed a voodoo priest and stole one of the Amulets of Damballah which allowed her to resurrect and control Simon Garth, though she soon abandoned him to his own fate. This, too, seems to have been practice for a long-term plan of resurrecting Kraven.

She next appeared in Colorado, seducing a guard at the Vault and then using her magic to break the Lizard out of jail so that she could control him again. But the enraged Lizard slashed her throat open and escaped.

However, Calypso cheated death once again. In her final seconds of life, she was able to transfer her spirit into the magical, voodoo-empowered Amulet of Damballah. Now, with her spirit able to control the actions of anyone possessing the amulet, Calypso began a long process of reuniting her soul with her body. First, she commanded some “mindless servants” to steal her body from the Vault's morgue and bury it in the supernaturally infused Cypress Hill cemetery outside New York. While buried, her body slowly healed and regenerated, awaiting her spirit's return. Then, housed inside the amulet which had been sent to her homeland in Haiti, Calypso's spirit first possessed an old Haitian refugee, then moved to Gloria Grant, a New Yorker working for the Daily Bugle who was on a Caribbean cruise. Once she was back in New York, Glory Grant began dressing as Calypso and enslaved Grant’s cousin Ramon to dig up her own body. She was set to perform the voodoo ceremony when Simon Garth, who was also mystically bound to the amulet, attacked her and stole it. But Spider-Man retrieved it and returned it to her, knowing that the only way to save Glory Grant was to allow Calypso to perform the ceremony that would reunite her with her own body. After Grant's spirit returned to her body, Spider-Man returned the talisman to the rampaging Zombie, finally placating him. Calypso, now reunited with her body, escaped.

It remained Calypso's goal to reunite with Kraven and get revenge on Spider-Man. Commanding a squad of savages, she attacked Spider-Man and Alexei Kravinoff, the son of the original Kraven the Hunter, using her magic to force them to fight each other. Spidey and Alyosha fought off her spell and shared a handshake. Alyosha said that he would hold Calypso at his mansion so the villainess could tell him about his long-lost father. However, once Spider-Man had left, Alyosha slew her instead.

## Powers and Abilities

Calypso was well-versed in the religion and practice of Voodoo. She often used voodoo drums, potions, and charms. Calypso used mind control, resurrection, and poisons.