Character of the Month: August 2014

Poison is mostly known for the controversy she has caused by being a trans/woman/or man. No one’s really sure. Everyone has their stipulations and theories, and Capcom sure isn’t going to give us a clear answer.

I believe Poison is a female, like she was always intended to be. When she was first created as an enemy character for Final Fight, Poison and her twin Roxy were intended to be females. This changed early, according to the original concept art and Japanese game manuals, Poison was a “newhalf” (Japanese term meaning a woman with a penis) although, Roxy was not. They also had some troubles releasing the game in the west because of the taboo topic of violence against women. Poison and Roxy were then re-skinned to be Billy and Sid. Later in Poison’s lore there are stipulations that she had a sex change, though Capcom has never given a clear answer to any of it.