YEAR 1945: FIREHAIR

1945, the last year of WWII, was not a particularly strong year for femmes formidables: the jnext significant "boom years" would commence in the next year with both comics-heroines and the femmes fatales of cinema's films noirs.

I confess that I've only read a handful of Firehair stories, but my overall impression is that she was nothing but a transparent attempt to create a western version of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.  Just as Sheena is a white woman raised by Black African tribesmen, Firehair is raised by Native American tribesmen.  The main difference is that while Sheena was raised from childhood,  Firehair is a normal adult woman of the late 1800s when she undergoes her cultural transformation. Thanks to a wagon-train attack by a raiding-party made up of phony Indians, she loses her memory of her old identity as a civilized white woman.  A tribe raises her as one of their own and gives her the name Firehair, but she doesn't act at all like the squaws of the tribe, displaying greater fighting-skills-- fighting, riding, weapons-play-- than any of her red brothers.  Later in the series Firehair regains her memory but decides to stick with the tribe rather than return to the white man's world.  And why not?  She wasn't technically the ruler of her tribe, but she was implicitly the "big dog" in their ranks, whereas she'd only be another woman in white society.

Whereas Fiction House's Sheena stories are fairly witty for their genre, Firehair's tend to be rather routine, though as is usual for Fiction House, the art is at least lively.

YEAR 1944: GIGANTA

In the original Marston-Peter WONDER WOMAN series, Giganta was something of a penny-ante player.  She begins life in WONDER WOMAN #9 as a female gorilla, whom wacky inventor Professor Zool transforms into a muscular red-headed human being, automatically gifted with human speech though tending to talk in a rough patois suggesting her animal nature.  Zool accomplishes this miracle in a far more merciful manner than his symbolic ancestor Doctor Moreau: using an energy-radiating "evolution machine."  However, the machine gets out of control and reverts the rest of the world to caveman days.  Wonder Woman's endeavors to set things right are complicated by the "gorilla girl" and her attempt to create a new regime governed by pure force.  Giganta's only other Golden Age appearance was her alliance with the criminal group "Villainy Inc," for which a separate essay is necessary.

Within the corpus of the Marston mythology, Giganta's main significance was as another example of Marston playing with expectations about body-form, since Giganta's drawn to be far taller and more muscular than the average woman.  This was not one of Marston's more pronounced tropes, though he did also execute a couple of stories about super-tall Amazons.

Giganta might have been largely forgotten had she not been selected to be a charter member of the "Legion of Doom" in the 1970s SUPER FRIENDS cartoon.  This brought about a change in her powers and status that DC Comics has continued to exploit in current comics, and will receive separate treatment later as well.

YEAR 1943: THE VALKYRIE

The original Valkyrie only made a handful of appearances in Hillman Comics' AIRBOY feature, debuting as an enemy to the titular pilot-hero in AIR FIGHTERS v.#2, no.#2. 

In that debut she leads an all-female squadron of fighter-pilots on behalf of the Nazi cause during WWII, and proves instrumental in capturing Airboy and delivering him to a Nazi commander.  However, some of Valkyrie's fellow pilots try to liberate Airboy, so the commander orders them whipped for their disloyalty. Displaying the sort of ideological flip-flop characteristic of Golden Age comics, the German lady pilot instantly decides to betray her country and to help Airboy escape, if he helps liberate her friends.  It's such an extreme about-face that I can't help but wonder if there was something else going on between Valkyrie and her all-girl squad-- something with an affinity to those famous lesbian pilots of pop-fiction, "Pussy Galore and her Abro-Cats."

Pussycats aside, Valkyrie quickly transfers her affections to young Airboy within that same story, sealing their bargain with a big smooch-- and in her subsequent appearances during the WWII years, she remained in a loose romantic relationship with the hero. Her last two Golden Age apperances following the war recast her as a Communist agent who had no continuity-ties with the original version.

The character was revived in the 1980s by Eclipse as support-cast for their new AIRBOY comic, and even received her own mini-series.  Given that her outfit and demeanor were pretty bitchin', this was definitely one of the best revivals of a forgotten forties character thus far seen in the comics medium.

YEAR 1943: MISS AMERICA (II)

Since Quality Comics' "Miss America" character died on the vine, their competitor Timely felt comfortable utilizing the name for a new character, who would enjoy a more noteworthy career.  Starting in MARVEL MYSTERY #49, Madeline Joyce received super-powers as the result of a lightning strike, and immediately took up crimefighting as "Miss America."  Aside from the one constant ability of flight, Miss America's powers varied wildly, ranging from super-strength to X-ray vision.  Some versions had her running around wearing glasses in her superhero identity, a clear reverse-riff on Clark Kent's schtick of doffing glasses to become Superman.


This online reprint of a "Miss America" story suggests that in her 1940s incarnation she was just a middling-to-fair superheroine. Without getting into her later incarnations at Marvel, the original character's greatest distinction may have been her charter membership in Timely's short-lived superhero team, the "All-Winners Squad."

YEAR 1942: THE BLACK ANGEL

The only female star of Hillman Comics' AIR FIGHTERS COMICS was the redoubtable "Black Angel," a British socialite who assumed a secret identity in order to carry on her private war against the Axis.  By some reckonings she was the only character in AIR FIGHTERS that might be deemed a "superhero," given that she wore a skintight costume. Like many other superheroes from Superman on down, she had the mysterious ability to run around with her bare face hanging out, and no one (to the best of my knowledge) ever recognized her.  So many comic-book heroes-- in contrast to their pulp forbears-- ran around without masks that one must wonder if many artists simply didn't like drawing them.  To be sure masks do cut down on the expressions one can conjure with.  In the illustration above the Angel certainly looks a lot more pissed with no mask than she would with one.

Speaking of pulps, most of the features in AIR FIGHTERS shared with the pulps an affection for fast-paced, rip-roaring, lurid adventures with only a marginal plotline.  The Black Angel's adventures against foes like the Baroness Blood, Madame Claw and the Hag from Hades all contributed to a strong Gothic atmosphere.  The Angel, like all the heroes of AIR FIGHTERS, was a superb fighter-pilot and showed a high level of martial athleticism on the ground as well.

Like most Hillman heroes she disappeared after the war, but her character appeared in Eclipse's 1980s AIRBOY titles.  She had aged normally and passed on her secret ID to a younger woman, who was a more literally "black" Angel.

YEAR 1942: MARY MARVEL

Introduced in CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #18, Mary Marvel was the second major spin-off from the Fawcett Captain Marvel, as she was preceded by "Captain Marvel Jr" in 1941.  Unlike Junior, the superheroine was literally related to her perceptor's true identity, as Mary was introduced as the long lost sister of orphan Billy Batson.  The most interesting aspect of her origin-story revolves around Billy figuring out how she could possibly summon the powers of the all-male coterie of transhuman beings who made up his magical anagram "Shazam."  As shown above, it was decided that a girl hero should get her power from female transhumans, even if the writer had to make up a female goddess named "Zephyrus."

In general the Fawcett "Mary Marvel" tales-- appearing in WOW COMICS the year after she debuted-- shared with the rest of the Marvel Family strong if simple plots and winsome humor.  The Mary stories are a tad more violent than one expects for stories of a preteen girl.  Given that Mary was one of the few heroines to be a "heavy hitter," she showed a remarkable tendency to beat the hell of her villains, though to be sure the other Fawcett heroes are about the same.  Given that the company avoided overt sexualization-- Mary remains a flat-chested juvenile for most of her original run-- maybe the violence was a compensating factor.

Mary would continue to appear in DC's adaptation of the Marvel Family, as well as making her television debut in the 1981 SHAZAM! cartoon.

YEAR 1941: MISS AMERICA (I)

One of two Goklen Age heroines named "Miss America," the first one appeared only the first seven issues of Quality's MILITARY COMICS, and then disappeared until she was revived by DC Comics.

The most interesting aspect of the first Miss America was the means by which she gained her powers. During the chaos of World War II, ordinary woman Joan Dale was visited by the Statue of Liberty itself-- or more likely, some "spirit of liberty" dwelling within the statue.  The Statue gave Joan extraordinary transformation powers, and for her short career she used those powers against criminals and WWII saboteurs.  She began her adventures wearing ordinary clothes but later donned a costume whose details were far from consistent.

A number of other heroes of the period gained fabulous powers from spirits of liberty or ancestors dating back to the American Revolution.