FF#78: JEZEBEL JADE

 

Jezebel Jade., support character from the old JONNY QUEST cartoon, got her own short-lived comic in the 1990s, with a martial-skills upgrade as well.

FF #77: HAWKGIRL (1961)

 Full-page fight-fun with the better half of the Hawk-duo.

FF #76: FRICTION AND GLITTER

 Perhaps these two ladies from D.P. 7 don't have the most memorable names, but GLITTER (the blonde) and FRICTION (the black) get some decent fights, including taking on their own teammates at the behest of some bad mental-powered dude.

FF #75: DOCTOR PAT

 A punchy prescription from the usually pacific Doctor Pat.

FF #74: CASSIE GIANETTI

 From COYOTE #9.

FF #73: BIG BARDA

 One of the few times Jack Kirby cut loose with one of his femmes formidables, the super-strong Big Barda.

FF #72: AMBER (1983)

 Launched in the early issues of NEW TALENT SHOWCASE was a one-shot story about a Vietnamese girl named Amber who could turn people into statues of amber-- and thus the feature was naturally titled FOREVER AMBER (after a 1944 romance-novel that no one reads anymore).

Oddly, in 1999 someone else did a FOREVER AMBER comic book that I've not read, and which I assume had nothing to do with the 1983 comic. 

FOLLOW-UP TO HISTORY OF FEMME FORMIDABLE

 Some additions and subtractions to the "history" I wrote here...

Though I still consider Rider Haggard's 1886 She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed to deserve pride of place, the dime novel westerns had a slight friendliness to the folkloric figure of Calamity Jane, who was a support-character in the serial adventures of "Deadwood Dick" that began in 1877, and an analogous character had her own 1882 dime novel adventure, "Calamity Jane: Queen of the Plains."

Also, slightly before SHE is Haggard's scheming villainess Gagool in the original Allen Quartermain novel KING SOLOMON'S MINES.

There's also a villainous queen, Phorenice, in the 1899 novel THE LOST CONTINENT, though I haven't reread it in many years.

Aside from the examples I mentioned in the earlier essay, the 1900s decade seem to be pretty bare. I left out the publication of ALRAUNE in 1911, which concerned an artificially conceived female killer, though I think all or most adaptations stress romance over violence.

I should have mentioned that after 1914, Americans started seeing the phenomenon of "the serial queen," not all of whom were "formidable," though I've heard good things about THE HAZARDS OF HELEN, released over the years 1914 through 1917.

I mentioned IRMA VEP in the French serial LES VAMPIRES, but after a re-viewing, I don't consider her much of a formidable, either. She does use a gun once or twice but she's really just a henchwoman.

In 1916 Edgar Rice Burroughs published his fourth "Mars" book, which may be his first novel in which the heroine-- the titular THUVIA MAID OF MARS-- was a co-equal character with the male hero, rather than a support-type like Dejah Thoris and Jane Porter. Thuvia, introduced in the 1913 book GODS OF MARS as a support-character, had an unexplained power to command the Martian animals, particularly the lion-like banths, though she didn't really use the power very dynamically.

Thanks to this post on THE PULP SUPER-FAN, I learned that Johnson McCulley, creator of Zorro and several forgotten mystery heroes, also created a one-shot heroine, Madame Madcap, in 1919, the same year that Antinea appeared in Benoit's L'ATLANTIDE.

No great additions to the earlier list for the 1920s, though Ray Cummings used a couple of non-formidable female heroes in such novels as THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM and THE SHADOW GIRL. However, in 1930 and 1931, Cummings authored two books focused on a character called "Taama, Princess of Mercury," a winged humanoid with some modest battle-skills.

From then on, I think my individual posts capture the history of the femme formidable adequately, though I lost interest in the project before I got to one of the best, 1934's JIREL OF JOIRY.

FF #71: WONDER WOMAN

 Following on the heels of the Valkyrie post, here's one of a tiny number of renditions wherein the Amazing Amazon also looks like she's been pumping iron with both arms and legs. It's an odd variation, since almost all versions of Wonder Woman show her with a standard looking female build-- which penciller Ross Andru had already rendered for the title over a space of ten years.

FF #70: VALKYRIE (1972)

Here's the Marvel Valkyrie in fine fighting fettle. Note that artist Herb Trimpe draws her as though she's been seriously pumping iron.

FF #69: ULTRA GIRL (1981)

 Here's the second Ultra Girl, appearing, like most Dial H heroes, for just one story and then never again.