Golden Age Girls!

One of the strange trends which struck the Golden Age Timely heroes in their waning years before cancellation was the sudden appearance in nearly all the comics of a comely girl.

In the case of The Human Torch it was a lass dubbed Sun Girl.

Sun Girl showed up as Torch's new partner and also was featured in three issues of her own comic before disappearing for several decades.

The girl on this cover is the villainous Lavender.

Captain America lost Bucky (who got shot, but not fatally -- it's damn hard to kill that kid) but gained Golden Girl.

Golden Girl was in fact Betsy Ross, a longtime cast member of the Cap storyline created by Cap's very own fathers Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Namor, the Sub-Mariner found his time shared with another "Sub-Mariner", this one a statuesque young woman named Namora.

Namora it turns out was Namor's cousin and had all the same powers as he did. She also was awarded a three-issue run at the same time as she was co-starring with her cousin in his comic.

The question though is why all of sudden did all these dames show up in the pages of what had been for a very long time exclusively man country.

Well girls seemed to be a target audience for Timely in 1948 with titles like Millie the Model, Margie, Nellie, Rusty, Tessie the Typist, Hedy DeVine, Patsy Walker and several more in their line-up.

The Blonde Phantom had recently taken over the classic superhero series All Winners.

Venus by Bill Everett debuted the same year. 

So maybe it's just Martin Goodman's tendency to jump on very trend with dominating gusto. Also in 1948 the critics of comics were finding footing and comics were being famously burned here and there across these United States by kids prompted by adults who objected to the lurid content. A publisher's organization called the "Association of Comic Magazine Publishers" was put together to stem the tide of criticism from parents groups and experts like the wily Dr.Wertham who was starting his campaign against comics in Collier's magazine.

Maybe the idea of teenage sidekicks just struck everyone as dopey, so off they went to the hospital and limbo while the rugged male heroes got to pal around with a beautiful girl on the side.

It's hard to say, but just as quick as they came they went, but then so did the superheroes.

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Diana Prince - The New Wonder Woman Volume One!

Of DC's "Big Three" - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman - it has always been the last who has struggled for attention. Created by William Moulton Marston, a pop psychologist with a gaggle of fetishistic interests, she has always had a weird resonance. I don't know if it's still the case, but DC had for a long time to keep her published regularly, despite a drop in popularity, or risk losing control of the character. So, Wonder Woman struggled on through the 50's and into the 60's. Then a change came.

DC decided to make Diana Prince the star of the show and make "Wonder Woman" less of a thing. To that end they brought in artist Mike Sekowsky, writer Denny O'Neil and inker Dick Giordano (the latter two fresh from tenures at Charlton) and gave the Amazon a dramatic makeover, with Jack Miller operating for a time as editor. Gone was the star-spangled bathing suit and the lasso and the invisible jet and even Paradise Island. Diana Prince was changed into a mere mortal and found herself in the then modern world vivid 60's pop culture. She became very like Mrs. Peel from the British TV show The Avengers.

To assist with that change Steve Trevor was written out, and an Asian sensei named I-Ching was introduced to give Diana the skills to fight against the more realistic world she encountered. An arch enemy, the mysterious Dr.Cyber, who had killed I-Ching's people was introduced and Diana and her mentor battled against the high-tech forces across the globe. A hard-boiled detective named Tim Trench shows up to lend a hand for a few issues and the whole brew was decidedly different.

Mike Sekowsky at work.

Mike Sekowsky's art is an acquired taste for many, but I've always liked his energetic pages and he is at the top of his game on this "New Wonder Woman" material. Dick Giordano adds a sharp edge to Sekowsky's roudy lines and gives Diana a beauty which is not frozen but vibrant.

The first volume of Diana Prince - Wonder Woman gathers the first seven issues of the revival with the first five written by O'Neil. The stories are interesting but mannered a bit, the evidence of perhaps too many interesting but divergent sources blended into the brew. With the last two issues Sekowsky takes the reins as writer and returns Diana briefly to Paradise Island to battle among mythic figures (King Arthur, Seigried, and Roland among others) to save her mother and the Amazons themselves. These two issues are wonderfully imaginative and Sekowsky's artwork is exquisite.

Here are the covers for these issues. 

More to come next week.

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Tiffany Sinn - The C.I.A. Sweetheart!

In the tenth and final issue of Charlton's Secret Agent (formerly Sarge Steel), David Kaler and Jim Aparo join forces to craft the third and final installment of the adventures of "Tiffany Sinn: Sweetheart of the C.I.A.". In the story "Espionage: Miami Beach Style" Aparo's typical craftsmanship is on display and Ms.Sinn looks at once beautiful, naive, and daring as a secret agent.

To read Tiffany's final adventure see this four-color link. Tiffany Sinn had two previous adventures at Charlton, in the romance line of all places.

 

Career Girl Romances #38 featured her debut.

  (Flashback by Jim Aparo)

She was created by Gary Friedrich who wrote the first story titled "To Save an Agent", which featured artwork by the stalwart Charlton team of Charles Nicholas and Nick Alascia.

 

Under a very attractive cover by Dick Giordano, Career Girl Romances #39 spotlighted Tiffany again. This time featuring artwork by Luis Dominguez titled "St. Louis Stake-Out".

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The Female Of The Species!

I don't exactly when my love affair with the Nathasha Romanoff began, but it was likely soon after she broke up with Clint (Hawkeye) Barton and headed out to redesign and redefine herself in the pages of the aptly named Amazing Adventures. This sleek sexy new Black Widow really captured my boyhood heart and libido to boot. Marvel had a few female characters, but sex appeal was often blunted in these good heroic women as they pined away silently for some shmuck hero who ignored them like as not. Only the Enchrantress and Karnilla the Norn Queen, two baddies seem to have a proper sense of their own value. But it wasn't until Natasha lost the fishnets and slipped into something more comfortable that she seemed to find hers. 

She never seemed to find full-blown success in the Marvel Universe, but she was always around and often playing key roles. She was a partner to Daredevil for a very long time and later led The Champions. When she was brought to the Marvel movie universe in the second Iron Man flicker, she stole the show and proceeded to do just that in every one of the movies she appeared in. Her tragic demise was in many ways the emotional highlight of the finale. Now I want to pay homage this month to one of the sexiest superheroines around -- The Black Widow. 

You see above just some of the nifty collections I hope to read and report on this month. Don't expect elaborate reprises of the adventures, but just my reflections on this most fascinating character as her life and times trundle along the many decades of the MU. I'll close it all out with a proper review of the most recent movie itself which was a tremendous last hurrah for the beguiling Natasha Romanoff. 

Also of interest this month is another of Marvel's spy girls -- Mockingbird. Bobbi Morse started out in the pages of Astonishing Tales attempting to lure Ka-Zar to help her with a little project concerning a certain Man-Thing. She went on to become a fighter in her right as "The Huntress" and later "Mockingbird". She really found her role when she fell in love and married on Clint Barton better known as Hawkeye. 

Created individually by Tony Isabella and Larry Hama, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing were crucial parts of the Iron Fist saga as the detective duo "Nightwing Restorations". Chris Claremont and Marshall Rogers took a swing at these deadly dames when they were dubbed "Daughters of the Dragon". Great stuff. 

One of the most successful of the creations of the Indy explosion in the early 80's Ms. Tree comes to the Dojo at last. Created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty, the saga of Ms, Michael Tree combined noir crime elements with a baseline sense of normalcy that made for a heady brew. The Dojo will feature Ms. Tree's adventures on Sundays this month by taking a look at the publications gathering up some of her best by Titans Books under its Hard Case Crime brand. 

From the recesses of the Dojo we'll be taking another look at the vivacious Diana Prince when she sought to lose all that Amazon baggage and become an ultra-cool crimefighter in the Emma Peel mode. This is a time (thanks to Mike Sekowsky) when the woman was indeed full of unexpected wonder. 

And speaking of Emma Peel, this seems an apt time to dig out those vintage Avengers episodes featuring the alluring Mrs. Peel as she partners with John Steed to allay all manner of threats to the wholesome goodness of merry old England.  These are always a hoot. 

A dame of a slightly different nature is the vivacious Anne Frances who portrays Honey West, a paperback private eye who landed on TV for one luscious season. These are snappy little episodes filled with action and wit and even a smidge of suspense from time to time. 

I don't think I've ever read a Modesty Blaise comic adventure, though I've seen the character online. I have though watched the movie, particularly wacky spy misadventure from the 60's when such things were hot. Truth is the movie reminds me more of Barbarella than a tough as nails adventure strip which I imagine Modesty Blaise to be. 

Femme Noir by Chris Mills and one of my all-time favorite artists Joe Staton holds its own in the genres it blends together. Imagine Will Eisner's Spirit was a dame and in a bad mood. 

The Domino Lady is an original 30's pulp crimefighter from the pages of Saucy Romantic Adventures. She was a sexy socialite who put on a domino mask and slipped into something more comfortable to fight mobsters and such when her District Attorney daddy is dispatched by criminals. She's found a niche in a few places over the decades, such as Eros Comix and more recently Moonstone where both new pulp and comic stories are produced. 

I'm dipping my fingers back into the  Wold Newton well one more time by reading the provocative The Evils of Pemberly House. She's the the daughter of the world's foremost super-science crimefighter, but Patricia Wildman has her hands full when she tries to check her latest inheritance. It's full of sexy ghosts and more. This is not a book for the squeamish as the steam rises often. 

There might be more stuff as well, if time permits!

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