FEMMES FORMIDABLES: March 2023

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Monday, March 20, 2023

MARY MARVEL AND BULLETGIRL

One of the few heroine-teamups in the Golden Age was this one, in which the female partner of the "Bulletman" ensemble hunted down two of her enemies on Mary Marvel's turf in MARY MARVEL #8.

Monday, March 6, 2023

I've noted elsewhere that when Takahashi began the URUSEI YATSURA comic, some elements suggest that she meant for Ataru and Shinobu to remain a couple throughout the series. However, in the first episode she introduced not just the two Japanese high-schoolers, but also the alien charmer Lum. The latter seems to have instantly captivated enough readers that Takahashi was obliged to re-orient her plans so that, in essence, Lum edged Shinobu out.

In beginning RANMA, Takahashi seems to have been careful not to introduce any substantial competition for Akane until the quarrelsome relationship between her and Ranma had fully developed. Shampoo, Akane's greatest rival for Ranma's affections, thus shows up in the seventeenth adventure, and she's trying to kill Female Ranma.

Akane diverts the club-wielding Amazon and then tasks Ranma with explaining him/herself. The insecure teenage girl seems instantly sure that the trouble has something to do with how "cute" Shampoo is, though the warrior-woman's animus has nothing to do with any sexual interaction between her and either version of Ranma.

I won't detail the nature of the conflict, but it does turn sexual when Shampoo encounters Male Ranma, all unknowing of his shared identity with Female Ranma. Shampoo demands to know the location of Female Ranma and becomes threatening. Male Ranma disarms the Amazon and defeats her-- but instead of causing Shampoo to want to kill Male Ranma, she kisses him and wants to marry him. This is one of the key scenes in which Akane punishes Ranma, even though he's done nothing to invite the situation.

Almost inevitably, Akane and Shampoo declare hostilities (though in such a way that Akane doesn't overtly seem to be fighting for Ranma).

However, though Shampoo could easily defeat Akane in terms of fighting-skill, she uses a Lum-like trick that makes Akane forget Ranma's very existence (possibly because the Chinese Amazon's not sure she could seduce Ranma after killing his apparent girlfriend). However, even after the erasure, Akane's instincts take over when she sees Shampoo embrace Ranma, with painful results for Ranma.

By a lucky chance, Ranma stumbles across a way to restore Akane's memory, by insulting her-- and this too reaps the usual reward.

Male Ranma then reveals his double identity to Shampoo, and despite her anger, she can't kill him now, and she takes her leave-- but only for a little while.

This is the first Ranma-arc in which the male hero really gets turned into a punching bag by the female lead (not to mention his getting some licks from his father and potential father-in-law as well). I think my survey will show that from now on this become the dominant pattern in the series. Unlike Ataru in URUSEI YATSURA, Ranma hardly ever seeks to show romantic attentions to any woman, including his reluctant betrothed. But Akane acts like a jealous wife, clobbering Ranma every time another girl even comes on to him.