HEROINE HEADCOUNT: MARIA SARRAZIN

Since I've already touched on Frenchie King, I may as well cite her partner-in-crime Maria Sarrazin (Claudia Cardinale), who isn't an outlaw when she starts in the film, but turns crooked by its end.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: LACEY BOND

"The name is Bond. Lacy Bond"--

--is a line no one speaks in 1974's POLICEWOMEN, though Lacy (Sondra Currie) is at least as much as a kickass hero as the British secret agent. The film may have been given its best known name to play off the 1974 "Police Woman" series, but POLICEWOMEN is replete with a lot more sex and violence, and a nice sampling of softcore sex. There is another policewoman in the story, but the film is all Lacy's show.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: KATANA

I wasn't that fond of Katana during her debut in DC's OUTSIDERS titles--

-- though in BEWARE THE BATMAN she made a pretty good susbtitute for the difficult-to-use "boy sidekick" Robin.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: JESSI'S GIRLS

The 1975 rape-revenge western JESSI'S GIRLS set innocent Mormon wife Jessica Hardwick (Sondra Currie) on the vengeance trail when outlaws raped her and killed her husband. After being tutored in gun-skills by an old prospector, she rescued three outlaw-girls from a corrupt sheriff to help her get even with the outlaws. Outlaw Rachel (who renamed Jessica "Jessi"), saloon girl Claire and Native American Kana don't survive being on Jessi's team, but she makes it to the end of the picture after killing all of her enemies and the sheriff too.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: THE IRON LADY

The Iron Lady only had four adventures in assorted comics, circa 1947, from the publisher Hillman. Her origin was at least novel: a frail old inventor invented special metal gloves to enhance his hand-strength, but he expired before he could use them. The gloves fell into-- and onto-- the hands of American Doris Packer, who used her new crushing handshake to fight crime.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: HUNDRA

And here's a live-action barbarienne, HUNDRA, portrayed in her one adventure by Laurene Landon.

HEROINE HEADCOUNT: GHITA OF ALIZARR

No sooner did I set down my prospective categories than I realized that if I was going to alternate between "characters performed by live actors" and everything else, there really aren't that many of the former in the first half of the 20th century. So I'll forget the business about that time-division and just pick characters from any time-frame. I may choose from different decades in each pairing, though.

Next up: one of the best female barbarians in comics, whose adventures I surveyed here and also here.