Super-Vixens

When I was first introduced to Ms. Marvel, I have to confess I didn’t find her very interesting, and as a matter of fact, thought that the Red and Blue Captain Marvel costume looked absolutely ridiculous cut into  a bad one-piece swimsuit. But I had a friend who absolutely loved her, (and I mean LOVED her!) and insisted on sharing,  so I was exposed to her comic whether I liked it or not! This actually worked out to my benefit as I was able to filter through the stuff I didn’t like and appreciate the stuff I did, and eventually I came around and started picking up some of those issues myself!

The biggest part of what turned me around from a non-believer to a general fan of the comic was, of course, THE NEW COSTUME! Now THIS was what I liked! Rendered by a master of sexy super-heroine costumes was the mighty DAVE COCKRUM, and YES, the new outfit looked EXACTLY like a variation of Jean Grey’s revamped PHOENIX costume, but HEY, when you’ve got a winning formula, you don’t mess with it…

So, anyway, gone was the horrendous red and blue outfit, in was the sleek ‘n’ sexy blue outfit with the lightning bolt and golden sash , and just in time for a  return slugfest against super baddie Deathbird (who would go on to give Hawkeye a run for his money in AVENGERS #189) then onward to my favorite arcs of the series, where Carol dukes it out with a civilization of super Lizard Men! Ah, trust me, it’s cooler than it sounds.  And THEN…

The Comic got cancelled. Yep. GEEZ! All that coaxing and convincing me to get onboard the Ms. Marvel Fan Ship, and then the voyage was abruptly ended! But the best was yet to come with the aforementioned AVENGERS stint, all lovingly rendered by John Byrne, who was TOTALLY in his PRIME at this time!

At this time we started trying to buy all the back issues of old Avengers stories, and when we got our hands of the epic KREE-WARS stories, got to see exactly where Carol Danvers had come from in the first place! It was kind of nest to realize she actually had a bit of “history” within the pages of those old Silver Age Marvels!

So yeah,  I was a fan there…but after that surrealistic ( and highly controversial) AVENGERS issue  (196?) where she gets pregnant in some convoluted cosmic drama, I kind of lost interest and drifted away again. Next time I checked, for some reason the character named “Ms Marvel”  was a big female version of  the Thing! I didn’t know if this was supposed to be Carol Danvers or some OTHER character, and I  DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW! (Okay, I found out later it was some OTHER gal, but still, the shock…!)

 In fact, it was only with the arrival of Frank Cho’s cool and sexy MS MARVEL revival did I breathe a sigh of RELIEF, for here once again was that awesome dynamic costume, proving it could stand the test of time! The MS Marvel of Old was back! ( and MAN, let’s hope she STAYS that way!)

 A funny side-story that always makes me smile is remembering when my friend picked up a new issue of Ms Marvel and saw that Carol was dating some dude with a beard, he mock- angrily declared war against all bearded men, and set about cutting up every picture of a bearded man in the daily newspaper. I sat on the couch howling with laughter as he jokingly destroyed all the pictures, until he got into trouble when his father scolded him and said “What are you DOING to the Newspaper? I haven’t even READ it yet!”

Ahahahahahaha!!!

Ms. Marvel / Carol Danvers

First Appearance: Marevel Super-Heroes #13

By Roy Thomas and Gene Colan

My first exposure to Misty Knight was in the same place that I first saw Colleen Wing: In the pages of the Byrne / Claremont run of THE UNCANNY X-MEN.

 My first actual memory of Misty was,in fact, Uncanny X-Men #122. In that issue, Ororo returned to the apartment of her childhood where she has a violent tussle with some punk drugged up kids. Power Man arrives with a very slick  "Pam Grier"-ish chick at his side. Who WAS this gal? Assumptions at the time told me she MUST be Luke Cage's girlfriend, maybe nothing more?

 But I was wrong- reading back issues later I was to find she had closer ties than I thought- she was Jean "Phoenix" Grey's roommate, and later when I began collecting the Byrne / Claremont run Of MARVEL TEAM-UP, I found she was co-owner of NIGHTWING INVESTIGATORS along with Colleen Wing (Get it, Knight-Wing.) and her beau was non other than Daniel Rand, A.K.A. IRON FIST!

 It was only when I started delving into these earlier issues that I got a clearer picture of how cool she really was. Collecting IRON FIST (and later POWER MAN and then POWER MAN/IRON FIST), I was surprised how fully developed her character was! Reading these, it really seemed a shame that her character never took off (back then). I bet if Colleeen and Misty had gotten their own series with Byrne and Claremont at the helm, we coulda been in for one HELL of a story!

 Oh, and funny thing- All that time reading those issues, I NEVER knew that Misty sported a Bionic arm a la the Six Million Dollar Man! They relied so heavily on her cool attitude and smart thinking that I don’t believe I ever saw her use it once! In fact, it wasn’t unitl the John Byrne NAMOR comic years and years later that her “powers” were dramatically revealed to me!

First appearance (unnamed)

Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #1 (March 1972),

Second Appearance (name revealed)

Marvel Premiere #20 (January, 1975)

Created by           

Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas and Ross Andru

Ah, another one in the category of “salacious one-shot characters” that seem to spring forth effortlessly from the pen of comic maestro John Byrne, Arathaza is at once both awe-inspiring and utterly disposable!

 Issue# 585 of Superman’s ACTION COMICS begins with a bang not so unlike the explosive opening teasers of the great JAMES BOND movies of yesteryear where we come in not at the beginning but rather the end of the last mission, and so we see Superman already engaged in battle with a new (and after, never again seen) villainess who is slowly draining the life force out of Supes.

 Through their dialog we learn that the majestic (and slightly Tina Louise al la Ginger Grant looking) Arathaza was once only a mild mannered secretary named Barb Kowaleski until she found the means of transferring Superman’s powers to herself. It is here that he turns the tables on her, rendering himself completely passive so that there is no power to draw from!

At that point, he grabs her staff, which he rightly figures is the source of her powers, and she’s turned back into the frumpy looking mortal that she was. Supes sweeps her up, saving the day and delivering the coupe de grace to the latest would-be world dominator!

And  then and ONLY then did the actual story featuring the Phantom Stranger start!

Arathaza / Barb Kowaleski

Action Comics #585 By John Byrne

Invaders #28 is one issue that I’ve always been aware of after seeing it my friends’ huge Marvel collection back in the late seventies because it featured the first appearance of Bucky’s fellow sidekick-aged counterparts in an interesting group called the KID COMMANDOS.

  That particular issue’s cover made an impression on me because of two things: One, there was a cute oriental gal in the group, and Two, there was a black kid wearing what I considered to be one of the ugliest costumes out of the Silver Age! I remember thinking, wow, that girl’s got that oriental kimono thing down good, but that dude looks like he just broke out of prison!

  Well, it wasn’t until years later that I actually got down to buying that issue of the Invaders, and reading it I was even more amazed to find that the costumes the kids wore weren’t even made for them- they were “just some old theatre costumes that had been left behind”(!) Funny how they found ones that fit their powers/codenames so nicely- then again, maybe it was just luck that Gwenny Sabuki got to choose her costume before David Mitchell, otherwise, who knows? SHE might have been stuck with that green striped shirt! AHAHAHAHAHA!

 But as we know, she got her hands on the Golden Kimono first, and thus was born the blazing GOLDEN GIRL, possessor of energy light powers and cheerful disposition!

 I was hoping to read lots more stories featuring Gwen and the rest of the commandos, but after their battle against Agent Axis (who turned out to be that tricky Namor) I was disappointed to find they were largely regaled to “supporting cast”, at least in the issues I managed to get ahold of. 

 One thing that surprised me reading those issues was how YOUNG Gwen was… all those years staring at the cover of Invader #28, she always seemed to be eighteen or nineteen years old. But reading the stories as penciled by veteran artist Frank Robbins, she looked decidedly underage- more like 11 years old…(well, they WERE called the KID Commandos, after all…not the TEEN Commandos!)

I’ve always thought that Gwen’s GOLDEN GIRL character would have been a great one to revive somehow, though I wasn’t sure just how they would bring “up-to-date” a character that was a teen in World War Two… so I was very interested to find that they HAD brought her back (in a way) in the pages of THUNDERBOLTS, as part of the V-Battalion. Not that I have any inkling what that was all about, except for what Wikipedia tells me-

Gwenny Sue later helped found the post-war organization the V-Battalion. Gwenny eventually changed her superhero name to Golden Woman, before she died in 1961. Her daughter and her granddaughter became the superheroines Golden Sun and Goldfire, respectively, though Golden Sun died when her own daughter was five years old.

Not bad for a sidelined secondary support character, eh?

Gwenny Lou Sabuki

First appearance: Invaders #26

Created by: Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins

When DC rebooted the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES in the mid-nineties, it was a take-off of Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, in that it was set in the future of that character’s life. Only difference was, in Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne was now an old man, and in LEGION, the heroes, who’d been mere teenagers in their original comic, were now-gasp- responsible adults living VERY adult lives such as raising families and keeping 9 to 5 jobs!

 One of the more offbeat side stories in this controversial update was an interlude featuring one of the Legion’s more wacky members, Tenzil Kem, better known (back in the day) as “Matter-Eater Lad”. We tuned in on Tenzil as an adult and found he’d been running (very poorly) through a multitude of different jobs, including an archaeological explorer and even a space age lawyer!

  Tenzil has been called to defend Brek Bannin (Polar Boy) in court, and while I don’t have time to go into it, (Trust me, the story was wacky and funny as hell!) one of the things that I found endearing was his banter with his able assistant, a beautiful blonde named Cal. In passages, I found her name to be “Calorie Queen”, and I laughed that they had created an assistant with a name to match “Matter-Eater Lad”.

 Little Did I Know that they HADN’T just created Calorie Queen, and that she was a character created a WAYS back! Imagine my surprise when (shopping in a comic store near Pike’s Market in Seattle) I found an old back issue of Superboy (Featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, of course) and saw that one of the girls in the menacing super-team on the cover was none other that Tenzil’s trusty assistant, Calorie Queen Herself!!!

 Getting that original issue with Calorie Queen as nature intended should have been a real eye opener into the character, for I now knew she had : 1) a costume, 2)a real name (Taryn Loy), and 3) a home planet (Bismoll, just like Tenzil!!!)…but honesty, it really didn’t do much for me. I simply liked the “later” Cal more! Smart and funny, cool and witty, she was the perfect foil for outlandish Tenzil Kem, and besides, If I have to choose between 70’s disco jumpsuit costumes or pretty dresses I always go with the latter. Because I do love a pretty girl in pretty clothes!

 Props to Jim Shooter and Mike Grell for creating Cal, and BIG KUDOS to Tom and Mary Beirbaum and Keith Giffen for the “Update”!

Taryn Loy

Calorie Queen

First Appearance: Superboy #212

Bu Jim Shooter and Mike Grell

A while ago, my friend Gerg mentioned to me in passing that Warren Ellis (one of his favorite comic writers, don’t you know) had started up a brand new series that he was really getting into, and this particular comic was available online, absolutely free! Then our conversation got onto the topic of The Authority, and before I knew it, we were oof onto another subject, and I forgot all about asking for the details of said Ellis Comic.

  So, recently I was online, looking for pictures of children for some project, and for some reason, my google search brought up this alluring, mysterious and striking image of a goth laden girl crouching on the ground...WOW! Who WAS this girl? What WAS “Freakangels”? This bore further investigation!

Clicking on the link, I was taken to the official FREAKANGELS site, where I found it was a weekly online comic, illustrated by Paul Duffield, and written by….yep, you guessed it…WARREN ELLIS! Why, this was the comic Gerg had told me about, all those many months ago!

  Well, my late entry into the FREAKANGLES story may have been a blessing in disguise, for I was able to enjoy almost two volumes worth of FreakAngels pages, and I made sure to slowly read them and enjoy it, and I managed to stretch my reading to three evenings, TRUST ME, that took some WLL POWER!

 I got to know all the various members of the FREAKANGELS society and all their quirks and powers, and it was here that I fell in love with that aforementioned beauty from the promotion advertisements. Known simply as “KK”, she is the FIRST character you’re introduced to in the series, and- whatta gal! Shown as a beautiful goth/rocking chick with a penchance for sleeping around with all the wrong types, how could I resist! Plus, she is shown to have an almost instinctive knowledge about the powers and engineering of steam (and in a post-apocalyptic world, that’s good as GOLD)  and that meant she had both Beauty AND brains, a knockout combination!

  Through KK, we are introduced to the other members in the city one by one, and though the story gets divided up between the various members pretty well, the story never strays too far away from her, and  I still think of her as the “Main” character of Freak Angels.

 In an interesting side-story showing the sibling-like bickering between her and another Freakangel named Kirk, we find that the name KK was christened with was the fantastically eclectic tag “Kolfinnia Kokokoho”, which supposedly is a mixture of Norse and Japanese for Winter Owl, her parents probably meant it as a beautiful artistic name, but in the hands of her (sort of) siblings, it’s a motive for swift death! Not since Jughead Jones’ name was revealed to be Forsythe has anyone hated a birth-given name so much in comics!! Ahahaha!

 Though the comic is pretty much available for anyone with even the slightest curioustiy to check out, the series IS collected and availble in hardcover and trade paperbacks, and I’m happy to say that not only have I picked up Volume One, but also Volume Two which just came out a few weeks ago! Just Beautiful!

K.K.

FreakAngels

By Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

Official FreakAngels Site

http://www.freakangels.com/

I had a friend who was in love with a certain actress, stating she had the “most perfect and prettiest face created by nature!” Then a few months later he came across a plastic surgery site that indicated his lady of worship had had quite a few procedures done, especially in the eyes and nose department!

   Looking at the “before” shots of the woman’s “enhancements”, he sighed and said, “Ahh, I should have known…Nobody THAT perfect could have been for real!”

 Although he was talking about his favorite actress, he may as well have been talking about our next Super-Vixen, the lithe and lovely Miss DELPHINE COURTNEY… This was a woman who seemed to have it all- brains, style, AND beauty…and just like my friend’s fallen angel, was a complete and utter invention… quite literally, in the case of Ms. Courtney!

 In the issues of ALPHA FLIGHT leading up to the death of Guardian (who I’ll ALWAYS think of as “Vindicator”), Delphine Courtney ws the sultry smooth talker hired by Jerome Jaxon to corral ex-members of Beta and Gamma Flight into forming a team to battle Canada’s answer to the Avengers.

 Delphine was always shown in the latest styles, sexy outfits and slinky dresses befitting her sylph-like features, and I was loving it! It was here that I guess I should have remembered the lesson of my friend’s tragic tale, but I was too busy enjoying the view!

 We thought we were in for a helluvva cat-fight when Heather Hudson (wife of Guardian) began tearing at Delphine’s face and clothes, calling her a “Harpy”- but unfortunately, under all that satin and silk (and skin!) was nothing more than cold, unfeeling metal, as Delphine is revealed to be nothing more than an android, and a darn ruthless and evil one, at that!

 That Android would escape to “live” another day, and the next time she (it) showed up was disguised as The Guardian himself! While the reappearance of the character was cool, and the story really helped put a close to the Death Of Guardian storyline,  she (it) never did put back on that Delphine disguise, and I found that I really missed that old look of hers!

 Delphine Courtney

First appearance: Alpha Flight #8

By John Byrne

One thing you could always count on wth writer/artist Howard Chaykin’s stories were the appearance of  his gorgeously stylized Femme Fatales, and his 1984  DC Mini Series revamp of THE SHADOW didn’t disappoint!

 I’d already been quite familiar with Chaykin’s work from his awesome AMERICAN FLAGG! series and CODY STARBUCK strips in Heavy Metal, and from these, knew that I could expect to see what he was best at: Extreme Violence, Gratuitous Cheesecake and a heaping helping of Noir thrown in for good measure!

 Now, the Shadow strip was filled from page to page with lovely ladies, from Preston Mayrock’s lady loves and agents, (even a tough as nails police detective falls victim to The Shadow’s charms), but the one reigning Sex-kitten that flies miles above the rest of them is the invention of the deliciously ditsy and HELLA sexy MERCY MAYROCK!

 Our story finds The Shadow on the hunt to find Preston Mayrock, an aging billionaire who’s  been killing former agents of the Shadow to draw him out. It seems he’s dying of cancer and wants The Shadow to take him back to the mystic village of where he believes they can transfer his brain into a healthy young clone of himself. And as an added incentive to make them do his bidding, he’s got a Nuclear Missile  in his possession which he’ll set off if he doesn’t get his wish!!

 Now, Mayrock thinks he’s got his master plans all uner control, but not only has his sexy trophy wife Mercy been “getting it on” with his clone for years, she’s got an even CRAZIER plan in that she has a DEADLY infatuation with the Shadow, and her ultimate fantasy is to get down with him as the nuclear bomb devastates the city! We readers were like “WHOAA! beautiful, ditzy, conniving…and BATSH*T insane!!!”How could you EVER come up with a more interesting character!!!

 Upon recently re-reading THE SHADOW series, Mercy seems horribly dated because she was supposed to be a “modern girl”, and was depicted wearing the latest fashions and sadly, this was the 80’s! Look at that image above of her in those new-wave glasses, gads, could anything look more “Cyndi Lauper”?! But MAN, dress her up in a sexy  teddy compete with the garters and stockings, and you’ve got Chaykin drawing what he does best, this is pure, timeless BABE-NESS!!!

 THE SHADOW Mini-Series was so successful, it garnered a new monthly title written by Andy Helfer and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz, but without Howard Chaykin at the wheel, it always seemed to be missing something. Chyakin’s masterful style of Violence, Sex and Film Noir really was what MADE the Shadow work, in my opinion…and there’s no greater example fo ALL THREE of those qualities in Mercy Mayrock…a REAL “Dame to Die For”!

 Mercy Mayrock

The Shadow: Blood and Judgement

By Howard Chaykin

While I’ve never been a big fan of Duo Damsel’s orange and purple outfit, I’ve always had a place in my heart for the character herself- probably because the writers of DC (especially cary Bates) always took the time to write special side-stories for her and her beau, the  rubbery Bouncing Boy, that really showed how “Down to earth” (OK, they weren’t on EARTH, but you get my meaning) the couple was, every story showing off the love they had for each other, making readers like me care a hella lot for them.

  In any case, yeah, I didn’t care much for the former Triplicate Girl’s costume, but when Chuck and Luorno decided to tie the knot in SUPERBOY STARRING THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #200, I was presented with Luorno draped in one of the prettiest, elegant outfits ever- her wedding dress, to be sure, but so much more…cosmic than what most would expect! Plus, I don’t think Dave Cockrum’s ever draw her more beautiful. WOW!

  The Wedding of Duo Dansel and Bouncing Boy eventually led to Dave Cockrum leaving the Legion of Super-Heroes.Apparently, the story goes that Dave loved that illustration of the wedding so much, he asked editor Cary Bates if he could have the original art as a keepsake. “I don’t see why not,” was Bates’ reply. Later, however, when editore Carmine Infantino came into Cary’s office, he saw the artwork on his desk and asked what it was doing there. Whn he told him he’d like to give it to Dave, Infantino said flatly, “We don’t’ give the artwork back!” Dave was so hurt by this callous descision, that he left, right then and there!

 Happily enough, Dave was able to pull some strings and get his hands on that artwork at some years later! In an interview with , he admitted that although he DID have it at one point, byt eh time of the interview, he himself had already sold it off, too! Ahahaha!

 Triplicate Girl

First appearance: Action Comics # 276

By Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney

Back in my day, (gads, I sound like a grandfather!) the top five major BATMAN villains were 1. Joker, 2. Penguin, 3. Two-Face, 4. The Riddler, and 5. Catwoman.

While the origins and personalities of the first four villains  have remained consistent for DECADES, the CATWOMAN of today had almost no similarity to the Catwoman I grew up with and loved.

 I’m talking, of course, about the ORIGINAL Catwoman, that is, Ms. Selina Kyle, she of feline tendencies, and on-and-off again lover of Bruce Wayne himself!

It was this lovers/arch enemies twist that made those stories so interesting, and it was really cool to be aware that the HUNTRESS was the daughter of Earth Two’s Batman and Catwoman!

  Back then, the art was usually handled by Dick Giordano or Irv Novick, and I have to say, their depictions of Selina are the ones that all others must be judged!-There was this one particular story I really had a fondness for, where somehow it ended up that Catwoman’s costume was so shredded in their battle with the Cat-Man, she ended up naked in the Batcave! What a treasured moment!

 I’m not sure why Selina Kyle’s character was constantly reimagined and reworked, maybe her history of amnesia, her shifting back and forth between a heroine and a villainess was too confusing? Too Boring? I don’ know, but with each update, she seems less and less like the Catwoman from my comics.

 But then again, that’s probably true for most of my beloved comic heroes, huh?

Catwoman

Selina Kyle

First appearance : Batman #1 (Spring 1940)

Created by  Bill Finger and Bob Kane

The Image Series CASANOVA was another one of those graphic novels that my buddy Gerg turned me onto- The eclectic Strip by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba featured espionage and adventure drenched in that quasi-mod style of the late sixites a la Jim Steranko, and introduced me to another gorgeous babe in the shape of Zephyr Quinn!

 Zephyr “Zeph” Quinn is a hard character to pin down…on one hand she’s the smart and level headed twin sister of Casanova, the hero of the strip…and on the other hand, she’s a double agent, working secretly against her family’s organization.

 Then there’s her unbelievable sexiness- running the gamut from sultry , scantily clad and leathered up like a dominatrix, she’s a hive of super-babeness…and yet most of her time is strangely spent seducing Casanova himself!

 Ah well, Zephyr’s undeniable great looks kept me glued to the series, a truly worthwhile investment of my time, as she just got sexier and SEXIER with each appearance. Drawn in that arty/fractured Kevin O’Neill (Marshal Law) angular style, Zephyr looks like Gabriel Ba’s version of an abstract Jennifer Connelly, and I don’t have to tell you, that’s a PLUS…

 In fact, since the series ended with everyone all hunky-dory*, I don’t think it would be too hard for them to come up with a self-supporting mini series starring  Zeph, I, for one, would find it HELLA interesting!

Zephyr Quinn

Casanova

By Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Image Comics

* I’m not even gonna go into that story where she turns out to be “somebody” else.

Me and my friends were regular readers of EPIC Magazine as well as its awesome storyline METAMORPHOSIS ODYSSEY, written and painted by Jim Starlin, (who we’d already loved for his work on WARLOCK), and so I was justifiably excited when  a classmate pulled out a new comic he’d picked up just the other day- a comic by Jim Starlin called DREADSTAR!

 There was Oedi, the cat/man friend of Vanth’s who was the lone survivor of his race, the wild and woolly (and not just a little bit Hank McCoy-ish) Skeevo, and last but not least, the pretty telepath, Willow.

 Willow actually had appeared in the Metamorphosis Odyssey strip, although she looked quite a bit different then- She wasn’t a redhead, and her brown hair looked styled more like Bonnie Franklin in One Day at a Time! But she changed, as many people do (or, rather, was re-vamped for the series), and I for one, was all for it!

 Willow seemed to be the character that was the most “human” of the bunch- unlike the warrior-type mentality of the other members, she had a lot of emotional issues to deal with, and this made her the most accesible person the reader could relate to.

 Willow was put through so many overwhelming trials, from dealing with blindness to the loss of her mother, and though it is quite commonplace now, I believe Dreadstar was one of the first comics to deal with the pain of sexual abuse, bothy physically and mentally.

Every time she overcame an obstacle, she grew stronger, and we actually see her getting wiser as the series progresses!

 PS: I’ve always been a fan of Jim Starlin’s art, and always loved his depictions of the female of the species, (see entry for Heater Delight for more on THAT) But it wa in a issue with guest penciller Jim Sherman in issue #24 that I found myself really liking how Willow looked- a lot less stern and a bit more girly, if that’s a good thing…some may disagree!  Ahahahaha!

Willow

Dreadstar

by Jim Starlin

DC Comics’Doom Patrol has long been associated with its similarities to Marvel Comics’ X-Men, with both teams consisting of Super-powered outcasts led by a mind-bending man in a wheelchair, and in fact, the very first time I laid eyes on  the Patrol, it was in the pages of Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECCH, where Magneto thinks he sees the silhouettes of the X-Men approaching, and is astounded when they turn out to be the Doom Patrol instead! I remember thinking…who ARE these guys, and why do they look SO MUCH like the X-Men?

 Well, I was to get educated by my friends James and Lar, those brothers with the unlimited cache of awesome silver age comics (and the passion and expertise to go with it!) who let me borrow some of their old DOOM PATROL comics to peruse.

 First thing that struck me was how cool Cliff Steel AKA Robotman was, (and what kid didn’t dig Robotman?) here’s this nearly indestructible guy listening to Guy Lombardo records! Larry Trainor was cool as Negative Man, a dude who looked like a cross between Jimmy Olsen and Human Torch! And then there was Rita Farr, the lovely movie star turned exotic Giantess when exposed to volcanic gasses during a bad photo shoot. Remember my love of Diana Rigg? Well, that’s EXACTLY who she looked like to me!

 Rita was simply a pleasure to look at, especially when they’d get her all dolled up for some dance or event, whether it be a love-in to investigate a mad guru, or the school to play chaperon to Beast-Boy and his date (and by the way, just WHAT was their relationship? Sometimes they acted like Rita was him MOTHER!)

 Funny, there were issues where it was pretty obvious to me that they’d drawn one good head shot of Rita, and stuck photo stats of the head onto several different panels of Elasti-Girl in various predicaments…(Maybe she didn’t look good in the original pencils?) but as an artist myself, know that it’s rare when you can get a face looking just right, and quite frustrating when you’ve gotta duplicate it three or four times every page!

Rita Farr / Elasti-Girl

First appearance: My Greatest Adventure #80

By Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Murray Boltinoff and Bob Haney

Yikes! The Silver Banshee is truly one of the more bizarre characters ever to be featured here on Super-Vixens, but I guess that’s a testament to the art of John Byrne that he can take a girl  who’s literally death becomes her, and put such a  sexy spin on her that you find yourself strangely attracted…

 There have been many yeas and nays regarding John Byrne’s SUPERMAN reboot back in  1986, and while I’ve agreed and disagreed on the various pros and cons of the jumpstart, the very creation of Silver Banshee has already made it worth my while- folks, I just LOVE this super-villainess!

 Look at this splash page that introduces the character to us…YE GODS what a shot! I have to say, I fell in love with her right on the spot! I’ve always said that nobody drew gals’ legs like Byrne, and to see the 7 foot tall demoness struttin’ her stuff down  5^th Avenue, complete with sexy heels, WOW! I was hooked!

 Yes, she’s (like) a walking vampire, sucking the life out of anyone hapless enough to get in her way, but at times, she is downright ADORABLE! YES! So powerful and yet so  much like a “fish out of water” in ways…gotta love when she’s propositioned by the construction worker, and asks, “Are you addressing ME, little man?”! She couldn’t believe some guy of the street was trying to pick her up…I, however, fully understood!

(and I guess would have met the same fate as the now-deceased dude!)

 Byrne really went all-out with this character- from the very beginning you’re drawn into her story, and want to find out more about her! Strangely cute to watch her flipping out when she can’t find her book, and that little lost look on her face when “Superman” passes through her…she’s completely befuddled!

 And I think secretly even Jimmy Olsen has a thing for Ms. McDougal, because it really seems like he spends an AWFUL lot of time spying on her as she “does her thing” in those bookstores. He ‘s always peeking at her through a window in the background! Ahahaha!

 Another thing to ponder. Back in the day, me and my friends used to think the Marvel Comics Soul –Searching Silver Surfer was WHITE… only later when they released an action figure of him all painted in shiny chrome that we realized, “Hey, yeah…he was supposed to have been silver-but comic colors just couldn’t give us the metallic sheen, so they just left him white!”

  Now, what’s the deal with Silver Banshee? Is she ALSO supposed to be silver with black accents? I hope not…I think the solid black and white contrasts give her the shocking impact you’re supposed to have, reminding me so much of a pirate ship flag with its stark skull and crossbones design. Plus, the white gives her the ghostly, ethereal look, too!

Siobahn McDougal

Silver Banshee

First Appearance Action Comics #595

Created By John Byrne

And here we feature a heavenly creation of Magneto’s who gives a new meaning to the old adage “All style and no substance”! With the looks of a drop dead gorgeous woman and the mind of a naïve three-year old, entrancing Lorelei is Marvel Comics’ answer to Melody Jones!

   Oh, sure, she had a mutant power, all right- when she sang her sweet love song, all the dudes in Maggy’s secret lair immediately became transfixed and frozen in captivation,  a power that didn’t do much good when one member of the X-Men was a red-blooded American GIRL, and it was Jean Grey indeed who eventually put the kibosh on Magneto and his New Men’s plans!

 Expertly crafted by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, Lorelei really stands out as one of the prettier mutants in a the X-Men canon (and that’s really saying something!) but unfortunately, Lorelei and her fellow Savage Land Mutates only made two or three more appearances (in the silver age), and sadly, none of them featured Neal Adams on pencils!

 Talk about rare appearances! In fact, most of my life growing up, I only had TWO things with Lorelei in it: X-Men #63 and a battered old issue of FOOM which featured the X-Men, and had some new artwork regarding Magneto’s merry mechanically-engineered mutants!

 And by the way, at the end of X-Men #63, the Mutates appear to be losing their powers and reverting back to their former selves…when Lorelei appeared next in the Avengers, she not only had her powers back- but had gone from blond to redhead! How the heck did THAT happen? I guess when Magneto fills you up with Mutant Powers, even the residue has a bit of kick!

 Oh, and interesting side note about Lorelei’s attack on the Avengers…once again, all the members became entranced when she sang her song-except for the two girls there (Scarlet Witch and the Lady Sif)…and THE VISION! Hahaha, this really screwed him up because even a synthezoid like him knew that if sexy little Lorelei doesn't turn you on, something's wrong! Ahahahaha!

 Lorelei

First Appearance: X-Men #63

Created by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams

When I used to read by friend’s old battered copies of DC’s strange and quirky super robot team METAL MEN, my eyes just naturally settled on the pretty silver maiden who obviously stood out as she was the smurfette to the otherwise all-male demographic!

 The Metal Men were a group of metal robots with varying densities and personalities befitting the metal they'd been made out of, but something about these characters always reminded me of another very human super-group called the INFERIOR FIVE, they were so zany!

  I can’t say I ever took a more than passing interest in the actual STORIES in those old comics, but the illustrations of Tina by Ross Andru (he later of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN fame) always gave me enough incentive to go ahead and read ‘em all, anyway! Delicate and doting on Doc Magnus, Tina always seemed the most "human" out of the group, frequently crying and worrying about the latest crisis that might threaten her beloved creator!

 At the time, I recall is being really puzzled as to why there were two robots made of Tin. I mean, there was Gold, Lead, Mercury, and Iron, then Tin and Tina. It was only years later that I found out Tina was actually Platinum, NOT Tin!

  Another thing I remember was that it seemed (to me, at least) like they were ALWAYS fighting this one villain called CHEMO, this humanoid-shaped container filled with a mixture of chemicals that gave him sentience… I’d pull out a different issue, and groan, “Ahg, not THIS villain again!” But my memory’s probably distorting the facts…

 Wait...I just checked that John Byrne Action Comics Superman story where he teams up with the Metal Men- and the villain is...CHEMO! I WAS right!

Platinum (Tina)

First appearance    Showcase #37 (March-April 1962)

Created by    Robert Kanigher

Ross Andru

Mike Esposito

One of the first comics a friend of mine collected was THE INCREDIBLE HULK-( this would be around…oh 1978 or so)

 Though I myself wasn’t a reader of Marvel's jolly green giant, I always loved looking at the covers of those comics because they had such impact!

 There was one of Hulk lifting a tractor above his head. There was one of Hulk smashing through the wall of a roadside saloon . There was an incredible cover (by Ernie Chan, as I recall) of the Leader in some robot-gizmo blasting Hulk’s back…

 And there was this one featuring a “Maiden” punching out the Hulk named Moonstone!

 Looking at Psychologist-turned-Villianess Karla Sofen’s costume now, it wasn’t much different from the other duds of the day, sort of NOVA mixed with the RED GUARDIAN, but at the time, I really thought that was one KEWL chick in that costume! I didn’t get around to actually reading those issues til years later, and didn’t get around to picking up copies for myself until even LATER, but as the old adage goes, better late than…you know the rest!!

Re-reading the comic now, it’s shocking to see how subdued Karla’s Moonstone character is. In the day of big boobs, skimpy costumes and pin-up splash pages, artists Bob McLeod and Sal Buscema seem almost unconcerned about using her sexiness as a selling point, (Ahh, these were the days, after all!) and I really had to scrounge around those two issues to get any kind of decent full-body shots of Moonstone!

Of course, Karla and her lunar powered alter-Ego Moonstone would get the “modern” updating in titles like THUNDERBOLTS, complete with obligatory sexy poses AND sexier new costumes, nonetheless, it’s still cool to see that Karla's character is still around, even though she ain’t NOTHIN’ like the Maiden I loved all those years back!

Moonstone

First Appearance

Incredible Hulk #228

Another  awesome “one-shot” character by John Byrne,  Darthartheen was one of the descendents of OA who knew how to handle a power ring just as well as Hal Jordan himself!

 Featured in the Green Lantern special GANTHET’S TALE, (drawn by Byrne and written by science fiction writer Larry Niven), Darthatheen’s multi-dimensional persona made her stand out among Lantern’s opponents, and the open-ended revenge theme leads one to think Niven and Byren were planning on expanding her character in some future tale.

 Throughout the tale, facets of her complex personality are hinted at- after savagely battling with the girl, Hal is surprised to find she actually cares about the fate of  an advesary she may have been able to save. When she is confronted with the death of her beloved father, she swears revenge, and we think we’re getting set up for an awesome cosmic showdown between Hal and Darthatheen…

 But, it was not to be, and to this date, GREEN LANTERN: GANTHET’S TALE is the sole appearance of the tough but thoughtful woman warrior, at least as far as I know! If anyone has any information about this young lady, PLEASE drop me a line!

Wait, Did I say YOUNG lady? As Hal noted himself, though the gal might LOOK like a pretty young lady, Darthatheen is in fact, hundreds of years old!

Darthartheen

Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale

By Larry Niven and John Byrne

Hot on the Heels of the wildly successful GEN 13, illustrator J. Scott Campbell decided to up the ante times three, by drumming up a new strip composed completely of the adorable and super sexy girls he’d become famous for drawing during his tenure with Fairchild and her crew.

 Along with Writer Andy Hartnell, they created DANGER GIRL, a strip focusing on a trio of thrill-seeking James-Bond (er, make that Lara Croft) types, with storylines set up to completely utilize the girls drawing power. In fact, on almost EVERY PAGE, there was at least one complete body shot (re: PIN UP!) of one or more of the girls, usually in state that ranged from the tantalizing to semi-dress. Or Undress. Or whatever. You get the point.

 Sure, the storylines fell by the wayside a lot of the time, but who could complain with all those beautiful young ladies cavorting around, saving the world from imminent destruction and looking fabulous to boot?

 Abbey Chase

 We start off with the All-American wonder-girl of the group, Ms. Abbey Chase, better known to us as “The Marilyn Monroe-ish chick of the group”. Or at least that's the way she seemed to be depicted to my friends!

  As for me, I don’t know why, maybe it’s that mole on her right cheek or the dramatically arched eyebrows or pointed nose, but Abbey always reminded me of Christine Baranski, a statement I’ve said to the appalled groans of my fellow Danger Girl fans!

 I know I’m in the minority, but gee, I think Christine Baraski’s sexy!

 More acceptable is my other note that there are times when Abbey reminds me of 4AD rocker Tanya Donelly, and folks, trust me when I tell you that from ME, that’s a HELLUVA compliment!

Oh, and by the way, I KNOW that Pink Waitress outfit I posted up as the "Signature" pose isn't her official costume, but it's my favorite get up she's worn. Sue Me.

Abbey Chase

Danger Girl