AMAZON ART #46: SUPERCHICK (1973)

Cool poster art; no scene like this in the movie, though.

AMAZON ART #45: WILD BLUE

I just finished the six-issue DC miniseries SLASH MARAUD. It's not very good aside from Paul Gulacy art, some of which focuses on the tiresomely cool male hero's female sidekick Wild Blue. She has blue hair and a zebra-stripe outfit, and is seen high-kicking her own impostor, also in zebra-stripes.

AMAZON ART #44: ANGEL (1987)

From the Hong Kong film ANGEL, which spawned about forty-seven film titles with "angel" in them:

AMAZON ART #43

I'd just barely started collecting comics in the year 1967, when LOIS LANE #73 appeared on comics-stands. I probably didn't see it until a couple of years later, though. I don't remember thinking that the cover was any different than a dozen other DC covers in which the heroes were being betrayed by their girlfriends or best friends. Only with greater perspective did it seem really unusual to see a 1960s "children's comic" show anything that might suggest a sexual fetish, even though said activity has been displaced in that Lois is whipping a puppet of Superman rather than the hero himself. For what it's worth, the story proper explains that Lois is enacting a ritual based in some obscure tribal magic, to expel a supposed demon from Superman by whipping his puppet-double. Further, the whole magilla is also a fake-out designed to make a villain reveal himself, so there's no sex as such in the story.

A few months prior to this issue, Lois Lane encountered another famous comics-female, in a two-part story in issues 70-71:

Catwoman, interestingly, had been exiled from DC Comics since 1954, probably because she was the only villainess Frederic Wertham named in SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT. The good doctor focused on her sadistic character by saying that she "is vicious and uses a whip." The only reason the Cat Came Back when she did was because she was one of the villains that the ABC BATMAN teleseries chose to adapt in the show's first (half) season. The show's first Catwoman aired in March 1966. Months later, when it must've become apparent that her appearance on TV hadn't triggered a new comics-crusade, editor Mort Weisinger-- who was generally in charge of the SUPERMAN-related titles-- decided to bring back the villainess. She still wore her original purple-and-green costume, though as I recall her signature weapon was nowhere in evidence. The whip did make one minor appearance in Catwoman's first TV show, and rarely appeared thereafter on TV, but it quickly returned in the comic book and even animated cartoons.

AMAZON ART #42

Not that it will make a difference to this blog's readership, but I may occasionally toss in good "Amazon art" from films and TV.

This one was rather eye-opening in the day.

AMAZON ART #41

Here's a couple of DOOM PATROL covers in which Elasti-Girl struts her 50-foot woman boots.

June Robbins of CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN got into the act for one issue.

And someone evidently liked the giant-girl action enough to bring in a regular opponent, mammoth "Multi-Woman:"

AMAZON ART #40

Another support-character that would've fit my diachronic study is Elzie Segar's Olive Oyl. Though she usually wasn't able to fight with men like later femmes formidables, Segar often showed her capable of popping a guy anyway. Segar also liked to comment on a female "double-standard" in that Olive would constantly nag Popeye about getting into fights, but if another girl came mooching around, Olive made no bones about kicking her ass.

AMAZON ART #39

The late Steve Ditko didn't do a lot of amazon-characters, as he seemed to prefer male protagonists. Still, there are some notable ones.

One of the few starring characters was a 1970s one-shot named LIBERTY BELLE.

Then there was a sci-fi lady cop, Mellu Loron, who made things tough on starring hero Shade the Changing Man.

Also, two villainesses, the Dagger Lady from THE CREEPER, and the Huntress from THE DESTRUCTOR.

AMAZON ART #38

I've just started the long-running manga series FREEZING, which is all about a bunch of super-powered female soldiers who wear foofy school uniforms. At right is the main female character Satellizer El Bridget, at left is her romantic rival Rana.

AMAZON ART #37

Oddly, I just realized I never did a post on the 1970s karate-chopping version of Wonder Woman, which was certainly notable for action packed scenes.

Parenthetically, this was one of the first times that Catwoman began to be portrayed as a tuff girl with karate-skills, though the WW-CW matchup doesn't amount to much.

And even Lois Lane briefly got in on the girlfight action.

AMAZON ART #36

Just started investigating the adventures-- sadly, no longer regularly published-- of HACK/SLASH, starring monster-killing maiden Cassie Hack and her partner Vlad. Here she's seen dealing out justice to Chucky himself, which might qualify for one of my "best crossovers."

AMAZON ART #35

If I'd kept going with the chronological study of femmes formidables, I imagine I would've found space for the short-lived LADY DANGER, who appeared in 10 issues of SENSATION COMICS in the late 1940s.

AMAZON ART #34

I read the first collection of THE UNSTOPPABLE WASP. Nothing special in the story dept., just another wannabe "second MS. MARVEL," but the heroine uses krav maga to defeat a big lady wrestler-villain.

AMAZON ART #33

I noticed I don't have a heading for "She-Hulk," so here's a nice scene of her clouting her perpetual adversary Titania.

And here's one of the first fistic encounters between the two, from SECRET WARS, apparently taking place after Shulky has cleaned house with the Wrecking Crew.