AMAZON ART #26

Though she was just a supporting character in THE PHANTOM, girlfriend Diana Palmer was often portrayed as a tough cookie--as witness the first panel of the first PHANTOM comic, where she's practice-boxing a guy. Pretty good for 1936!

AMAZON ART #25

In addition to the changes in Poison Ivy that I described in this post, she was also occasionally given a little more martial talent than she'd displayed in her first appearances. I haven't found many screencaps of relevant scenes on the web, though there is this nice Jim Lee page, in which Poison Ivy gets physical with Catwoman and finds herself completely outclassed.

AMAZON ART #24

One of the DC groups that may have influenced the Fantastic Four was the the Sea Devils (1960-67), a group of deep-sea daredevils made up of an alpha-male leader, his girlfriend, the girlfriend's brother and the leader's best buddy. Girlfriend Judy Walton wasn't one of the most prepossessing heroines of the period, but given that she was a full-time swimmer, there was a little more emphasis on her fighting villains alongside the boys.

AMAZON ART #23

Screenshot from ep 15 of KILL LA KILL, one of the better recent female-centric anime TV show. Feminists ought to appreciate that it's almost entirely about female-female relationships-- there's no romantic arc whatever-- even if many of the women are devoted to kicking each other's asses.

AMAZON ART #22

The original "Helena Wayne" HUNTRESS, dumping Dick Grayson on his ass (unlike her alternate version, who ends up doing more "humping" than "dumping."

AMAZON ART #21

Hmm, the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL appears in theaters tomorrow, and there's hardly any caps of Major Kusanagi fighting to be found.

Here's the only one I located.

AMAZON ART #20

I had heard that in recent years DC had been building Aquaman's sidekick Mera as a power in her own right. Still--

The idea that she could send Superman flying with one blow is a little nuts.

Nice punch, though.