AMAZON ART #2

Four issues of this Wildstorm "one-shot" were published in 2000, and to my knowledge the characters never appeared again. Lobdell's script is routine but artist Flores deserves credit for his gleefully absurd cheesecake-designs, particularly (left) a lady warrior whose armor leaves her belly cutely exposed, and (right) a futuristic nun wearing a slit-skirt.

AMAZON ART #1

The cover to JUMBO COMICS #9 (1939), the first of the series to be totally focused upon Sheena, who remains the first "superstar-amazon" in the medium of comic books.

COVERS THUS FAR COVERED

The blog's original concept focused principally on comic-book covers (or interior art)  featuring the Amazon Archetype, and since I don't plan to write much text from now on, I decided to list the most significant art I've reprinted thus far-- always in keeping with "fair use"-- in which said archetype appears.

My personal aesthetic standouts seen thus far:

BIRDS OF PREY.

MARY MARVEL. 

SUPERGIRL (VERSION II)

BATGIRL (VERSION III)

BAT-GIRL (VERSION I)

BATWOMAN (VERSION I

CATWOMAN

THE FEMALE LEGIONNAIRES

STAR SAPPHIRE (VERSION II)

MS. MARVEL (VERSION I)

MRRA

CAVE GIRL

KYRA

RED SONJA

BLACK CAT (VERSION II)

BATGIRL (VERSION III)

BATGIRL (VERSION II)

VAMPIRELLA

ELEKTRA

THE WOLF GAL

MERA, ELASTI-GIRL, AND MME. MARIE

POISON IVY

CHANGE OF PACE

Given that I haven't updated this blog since October, it would be a fair assumption that other concerns have usurped the attention I used to devote to this blog-- particularly the "mythcomics" feature I've been regularly updating on a weekly basis since last year on THE ARCHETYPAL ARCHIVE. Though I still like the concept of FEMMES FORMIDABLES as outlined at the beginning of 2012, I don't have time to devote to it any more, particularly when (a) I don't get any sense that it's reaching any readership, and (b) I've probably covered most of the fictional characters I liked best, anyway.

I hate to let FF go completely defunct, though, so to whatever extent I keep my hand in, it'll probably go back mostly to the original, low-maintenance concept of the blog, which focused upon displaying prominent images of the "amazon archetype" in comics. This  won't do a thing to staunch all the crocodile tears of the people who look at comics' rich. Amazon-filled history and can see nothing but pin-up art. It also won't be any more popular than any other incarnation of the blog.. Eventually, I'm sure FF will pass away, but I'll attempt a few more transfusions before giving up the ghost.

YEAR 1968: MADAME MASQUE

Technically, the character who would later be known as "Madame Masque"-- or even just "Masque" in one incarnation-- was called both by her given name "Whitney Frost" and by her formal name as head of the criminal "Maggia," "the Big M." (No relation to "M-Appeal," I guess.)

Whitney Frost, later revealed to be the daughter of the Maggia's former leader Count Nefaria, debuted in TALES OF SUSPENSE #98, as a glamor-girl who began romancing SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell. The romance was at least partly for show, for she was trying to get intel from Sitwell so that her gang could break into Stark Industries and rip off the inventor's store of super-weapons. (Today, no one would believe that a criminal gang would bother making such a blatant assault, since it would be so much easier to bribe employees into copying the tech-- which more or less became the subject of the "Armor Wars" arc in the IRON MAN title.)

Sitwell only pretended to be fooled by Whitney's blandishments in order to lure her into a trap. Like many sentimental Marvel females, she couldn't resist saving Sitwell's life despite him setting her up to take a fall. Then she escaped. Several issues later, after TALES OF SUSPENSE had morphed into IRON MAN, writer Archie Goodwin essentially ripped off the origin of Doctor Doom, having Whitney facially injured in a tragic accident that forced her to wear a mask to conceal her ruined beauty.

I know that I've said this before of other characters, but from what I've seen of Masque's later incarnations, she never seemed to catch fire outside of the original arc of Goodwin-scripted stories. Goodwin's scripts had a more hard-edged, noir-ish feel than those of Smilin' Stan or any of the many Marvel raconteurs who followed some if not all aspects of Stan's writing-style.  Madama Masque, who was a "tough girl" at least a year before Marvel's Black Widow showed any propensity at hand-to-hand fighting, just didn't fit the rather "soft," soap-operatic style of later IRON MAN writers, particularly Bill Mantlo, who tried to make her into Stark's regular girlfriend.

YEAR 1967: ANGELIQUE

In April 1967, the failing horror-soap opera DARK SHADOWS introduced the character for which the show would become best known: the tragic vampire Barnabas Collins. About six months later, the writers introduced the witchy woman who had created him: Angelique. She was usually tagged with the surname "Bouchard," though as this Wikipedia writeup details, neither name precisely signified her original identity.

Mythically, Angelique is interesting as an example of a "downstairs" striving to mingle with the "upstairs." Her early life as Angelique portrays her as having come to work as a servant to the Countess DuPres in the French Caribbean colony Martinique in the 17th century. Later she, as a member of the Countess' retinue, emigrates to Collinsport, Maine. There she enjoys an affair with wealthy Collins scion Barnabas, but Barnabas rejects her in favor of another upper-class representative: Josette, daughter of Angelique's mistress. This rejection of her love leads Angelique to curse Josette to experience a fatal accident, and to condemn Barnabas to the mordant existence of a vampire. When Barnabas revives during the 20th century and seeks to undo his curse, witchy Angelique shows up at the Collins door, determined to make her former paramour suffer.

Over the serials' remaining years Angelique displayed a variety of awesome supernatural powers, including a period when she herself became a vampire, as shown above. But the greatest mystery about her is: why did the writers make her a low-class servant from Martinique? Given that the Caribbean Islands signify a condition of racial admixture, is there a sense that Angelique, despite being a blonde Caucasian, is actually "coded" as having the "colorful" background often assigned to Martinique's Creole population?

Regardless of this possible reading, Angelique was one of the better developed DARK SHADOWS characters. Other actresses essayed the role in later versions of the show, but for this fan, Lara Parker remains the definitive incarnation.

YEAR 1966: GOLDEN SWALLOW

I confess that it's been quite a while since I screened King Hu's influential kung-fu drama COME DRINK WITH ME, and I don't remember being knocked out by its somewhat old-fashioned plot, though I accept the verdict of authorities who consider it a pivotal work in the history of commercial Hong Kong films in this genre.  But it deserves a mention here in that it's credited with being the first modern film to focus upon the adventures of a female kung-fu diva, one "Golden Swallow," played by Cheng Pei Pei (best known to contemporary viewers for her role in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON),

Given that I don't have that much new information to impart, I'll pass over the usual summation and simply link to an online essay that explores the film and its director in more depth than I can.

h