Mary Roche was originally an exotic dancer at a Paris night club. She was known as “Black Venus” because of her beauty and the black curve-hugging bodysuit. She was engaged to Jean Cartier, a Parisian lawyer. Unfortunately for Jean, her dancing captured the attention of Yomata, an attache to the Japanese embassy in Paris. Upon learning of Jean’s existence, Yomata arranged to have Cartier assassinated. When Mary discovered what happened, she swore vengeance on Yomata and the Japanese people in general. As Black Venus, Mary fought against Japanese pilots with ruthless proficiency. In fact, she was so proficient that the Imperial government issued a large reward for her capture. She eventually learned that Yomata (who, by that point, rose through the ranks of the Japanese military to become a colonel) was stationed at a Japanese base nearby. She deliberately got herself captured so that she may get close enough to get revenge. Realizing that Yomata still had feelings for her, she offered to have dinner with him. With no weapons at hand, she improvised by grinding the glass in her goggles into shards and tossing them into his drink, a painful, but, in Mary’s view, perfectly justified death. Notes: The character’s name was spelled several different ways in his only appearance. It is unclear just how secret Black Venus’ secret identity really was. While most members of the American military didn’t know that she and Mary were one and the same, a few clearly did. Yomata seemed to know exactly who Black Venus was before he got a chance to see her in person. Presumably, he made the connection between the aviatrix that beguiled his forces and the dancer he was once infatuated with long before that.
Description Mary Roche was originally an exotic dancer at a Paris night club. She was known as “Black Venus” because of her beauty and the black curve-hugging bodysuit. She was engaged to Jean Cartier, a Parisian lawyer. Unfortunately for Jean, her dancing captured the attention of Yomata, an attache to the Japanese embassy in Paris. Upon learning of Jean’s existence, Yomata arranged to have Cartier assassinated. When Mary discovered what happened, she swore vengeance on Yomata and the Japanese people in general. As Black Venus, Mary fought against Japanese pilots with ruthless proficiency. In fact, she was so proficient that the Imperial government issued a large reward for her capture. She eventually learned that Yomata (who, by that point, rose through the ranks of the Japanese military to become a colonel) was stationed at a Japanese base nearby. She deliberately got herself captured so that she may get close enough to get revenge. Realizing that Yomata still had feelings for her, she offered to have dinner with him. With no weapons at hand, she improvised by grinding the glass in her goggles into shards and tossing them into his drink, a painful, but, in Mary’s view, perfectly justified death. Notes: The character’s name was spelled several different ways in his only appearance. It is unclear just how secret Black Venus’ secret identity really was. While most members of the American military didn’t know that she and Mary were one and the same, a few clearly did. Yomata seemed to know exactly who Black Venus was before he got a chance to see her in person. Presumably, he made the connection between the aviatrix that beguiled his forces and the dancer he was once infatuated with long before that.
