Curaré (Batman Beyond)

Curaré ("voiced" by Melissa Disney) is a fictional character appearing as a foe of Terry McGinnis in the animated television series "Batman Beyond".

She is a highly regarded member of the Society of Assassins, and despite the origin of her name, she rarely deals in poisons. Instead, Curaré prefers a special sword which can cut through nearly anything, its edge being sharpened to only a molecule in thickness.

Curaré has blue skin, but hides her face behind a headdress resembling a white niqab. She loses it once, in her debut episode "A Touch of Curaré", although quickly recovers it, and Terry McGinnis becomes the only person ever to have seen her face. The audience only witnesses her face for three frames — and during these frames she covers her face to the viewer with her hand, making it impossible to see her face at all; it is only glimpsed by the viewer, but is apparently so hideous that it makes even Batman momentarily recoil in horror. ("A Touch of Curare")

In "A Touch of Curaré", Curaré is hired to kill Sam Young, Gotham City's District Attorney and the husband of Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon. However, she is foiled in the attempt by the combined efforts of Batman and Gordon, and because of this failure, she becomes a target of the Society of Assassins, and goes on the run.

Curaré appears again in the second season episode "Final Cut." She turns the tide against the Society of Assassins, and starts killing them off one by one. Curaré uses a special gas that neutralizes her subjects' brain activity, causing the target to become comatose, or as one of Gotham's officers put it: "The lights are on, but nobody's home." Her last target, Mutro Botha, forces Batman into helping him fight off Curaré by placing a bomb in Gotham's arms museum. Eventually, Max Gibson, McGinnis' friend and ally, is attacked by Curaré while investigating Botha's apartment. When Curaré realizes Botha is not there, she tracks him in the park after Batman abandons him to rescue Max. Curaré renders Botha comatose, and plans to complete her revenge by attacking Batman in the arms museum while he and Max are trying to disarm the bomb. Eventually, they do, and Curaré is captured.

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