Elaine Coll is not a nice person. She is not mentally stable, and in actuality, she has a mean streak running through her that would make the most hardened criminals shiver. She was part of the Hell's Kitchen Mob when the Maggia crimelord, Silvermane, offered her an alliance between the "families". The Hell's Kitchen and Maggia organizations were usually enemies, but Silvermane sweetened the deal. He had his engineers upgrade the suit of the then retired Scorpion, and gave it to Elaine. She dubbed herself Scorpia, and she was more than willing to do Silvermane's bidding as long as the Hell's Kitchen gang got their piece of the city after the smoke had cleared.
Working with Silvermane's other operatives, Speed Demon, Hydro-Man, Beetle, and Boomerang, she sought out the cyborg Deathlok in order to retrieve him for her Maggia ally. The first assault on Deathlok may have been successful if not for the interference of Spider-Man. The two heroes managed to drive their enemies away only to learn that Silvermane gained control over the city's computer systems, and he would only release his hold once he had Deathlok's body for himself. Deathlok surrendered himself to Silvermane in hopes that the city would be spared from any further disasters, but Spider-Man would not allow Silvermane to get possession of Deathlok's body so easily. Spider-Man found another ally in Daredevil and the two of them tracked Deathlok to Silvermane's hideout.
Surveillance cameras alerted the Maggia to the intruders, and Scorpia was more than willing to bring the fight to them. As she attacked, Daredevil immediately recognized her. He remembered that she tortured and killed two policemen while singing and was committed to the psycho ward at Bellevue Hospital, but she was released due to the fact that she was supposedly completely rehabilitated. Scorpia seemed to be more than a match for the two heroes, but she was defeated when Silvermane, now in control of Deathlok's body, shot her from behind in order to gain his enemies trust. Enraged at Silvermane's betrayal, Scorpia set out to find him so that she could even the score. Stalking Spider-Man and Daredevil, so that they would lead her right to Silvermane, Scorpia only had a brief moment to attack before her armor was taken control of by Mainframe. However, once Mainframe was defeated by Daredevil, she was free to act out her revenge. She never got her chance to get Silvermane because the Punisher arrived and severely damaged a plasma reactor inside the military installation where the fighting took place. As Deathlok and Spider-Man shut down the reactor, Scorpia escaped.
Laying low for a number of months, Scorpia next appeared as a mercenary working Manuel Ortega. Hired to kill Ortega's rival Mr. Brownstone, Scorpia donned a new battle-suit and attacked Brownstone during an awards gala at Carnegie Hall, where Brownstone was saved by Spider-Man and his ally Black Cat. After a brief battle, Scorpia was taken into custody, where she was visited by the two heroes seeking information on her employer. She initially refused to help them, but after being bombarded by webbing and the horrific singing of the Black Cat, she gave into the heroes demands and was set free. Scorpia later appeared at a franchise of the infamous Bar With No Name, where she and numerous super-villains watched as the Basher challenged Spider-Man to a fight via an internet video site. After placing bets on the fight with the Bookie, Scorpia and the other villains turned on him when an impostor Spider-Man (secretly Screwball) arrived at the fight. The real Spider-Man soon arrived at the Bar, having been tip off by Screwball, and a brief battled ensued until the bartender reminded all present that the Bar was a sanctuary for anyone seeking to avoid the law, which, at the time, included Spider-Man and the Bar's regular villainous patrons.
