Komodo (comics)

Komodo
Cover art for Avengers: The Initiative #3. Art by Jim Cheung.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Avengers: The Initiative #1
Created by	Dan Slott Stefano Caselli
In-story information
Alter ego	Melati Kusuma
Species	Human Mutate
Team affiliations	The Initiative Desert Stars Shadow Initiative
Abilities	Genius chemist and geneticist Superhuman strength, agility, stamina and reflexes Regenerative healing factor Hardened scales Prehensile tail Razor sharp claws and teeth

Komodo is the name of two fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Komodo was created by writer Dan Slott and artist Stefano Caselli, and first appeared in Avengers: The Initiative #1 (June 2007).

Komodo was one of the feature characters in the 2011 six-issue limited series Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt.

The first Komodo is one of the New Men, creatures evolved by the High Evolutionary from a lizard. He accompanied the High Evolutionary's incarnation of the Ani-Men on their clean-up mission at the Jackal's laboratory and fought the Scarlet Spider. Later, he fought Caiman of the Cult of the Jackal when their members infiltrated the High Evolutionary's citadel, but the High Evolutionary brought the fight to an end.

The second Komodo is a female trainee for the Fifty State Initiative.

Melati Kusuma is a former graduate student of Dr. Curt Connors. She stole Connors' regenerative Lizard Formula, modified it to her own DNA and administered it to herself.

Connors later registered her for the Initiative and she was sent to Camp Hammond. At the camp she was victim of a training accident; her arm was blown off by Armory, whose powers were out of control. The arm regenerates in moments. During their "field trip" to Texas to save the President from HYDRA she performed very well, and was activated for field work. She worked with War Machine in an attempt to use S.P.I.N. tech to take away Spider-Man's powers, just as had been done to She-Hulk. Spider-Man called her a "dollar-store version of the Lizard" and convinced her she would fail even as she had him pinned down, warning her that her powers would be taken away when he defeated her, which he does by firing a blast of webbing into her face. Komodo was seen begging War Machine not to have her powers removed as she considers her former human identity to be a nobody. She revealed that her code-name is taken from an animal specific to certain islands in Indonesia and her name is commonly used by Indonesians (Melati means jasmine, Kusuma means flower in Javanese language).