Billie biffs Biff in SCREAM #19.
This unnamed killer lady comes closer than any other BLACKHAWK evildoer to snuffing out the main hero, and she's only prevented (and killed on the next page) by the dumb luck of a native archer's interference.
Let's see-- in her story, the Blackhawks stumble across a deserted city, possibly in Southeast Asia, in which a bunch of wanted criminals pose as tiger-worshipers, all wearing tigerskin garments and tiger-head masks, So, she's-- THE TIGER QUEEN, because that name hasn't been taken yet!
In BLACKHAWK #19, the adventuress known as "Fear" shows that she can whip it good.
From DETECTIVE PICTURE STORIES #2 (1937), The Clock meets a woman of mystery, The Orchid, who would continue to intrigue him intermittently during the feature's run.
Considerably later, Centaur dared the wrath of DC Comics with "Super Ann," a mildly athletic girl detective in the two issues of CMO COMICS (1942).
For a heroine with a risible name like "Judy of the Jungle." she has a touch of psychological seriousness to her origin. She's raised in the jungle with her widowed, research-minded father, and he explicitly says he doesn't trust anyone, for unspecified reasons. Then the dad is killed by bad white guys. The dying father tells Judy not to ever trust any men, which for a lot of girls would scar them for life.
Nevertheless, when Judy goes hunting for daddy's murderers, she finds a really handsome guy in their midst, one who boasts an even sillier name, that of "Pistol Roberts." After the killers capture Judy, Pistol sets her free, and they flee the killers, moments before Judy returns Pistol's favor with a similar rescue. He turns out to be a government agent, and thus not really one of the murderers. Still, it's interesting that it's through the agency of the father-killers that Judy meets her new love interest, at least for the episodes I've read.
Here's Judy getting a kick out of life.
And some punchy art from Frank Frazetta.
Another bash from Betty Bates.
Only one issue of SAARI JUNGLE GODDESS from an obscure publisher, but the red-headed jungle girl of the title acquits herself reasonably well.
The TV cartoon, featuring four keen teens hunting for artifacts that endowed one with super-powers, sometimes included scenes of hand to hand combat. However, all I found for female members Zhalia and Sophie were scenes of them using energy-powers.
I chanced across this internet reprint of the following sequence of a strip that began in 1908, DOCTOR PEACH AND HER MODERN METHODS.
Happily there was one resource online that provided some in-depth material on this vintage strip: the 2-9-2024 post on the blog STRIPPER'S GUIDE. Blogger Allan Holtz notes that the strip, about a comely lady doctor making her way near the turn of the century, was advanced for its time given the favorable depiction of this female professional. That didn't keep the strip from petering out in the same year it debuted, though. Holtz also reprints a "health improvement" strip similar to the one I showed above.
There had certainly been isolated depictions of women being able to duke it out with men in one way or another prior to 1908, but I don't know of any *serial* examples. There was a dime novel series about Calamity Jane in the 1870s, at a time when the real frontierswoman was still alive. But as I've read none of them, Jane may or may not fit my definition of a femme formidable.
But maybe Doctor Peach is the first serial type in the 20th century at least. The year she was published, Hollywood was making lots of shorts, often on western themes. The earliest attestation I find to another series character was a series of 15 shorts, beginning in 1912 or 1913, about a western gal, Calamity ANNE (played by Louise Lester). But none of these are readily available either. Ditto another series, beginning in 1919, starring cowgirl Tempest Cody (Marie Walcamp). And of course the 1910s also marked the rise of American silent serials, many of which starred female characters, like the well-known 1914's PERILS OF PAULINE-- though one often can't also take for granted the formidability of these heroines either.
As long as I'm spotlighting heroines of this period, the punchiest I've come across is the one-shot film ROWDY ANN (1919), in which tomboy Ann (Fay Tincher) hits, lassos or shoots at four or five opponents, including donning boxing gloves to beat one cowboy. (She does cheat a little by stomping on his bare feet.)
