4 posts tagged “george perez”
The next two entries into my personal “Super-Heroine Hall Of Fame” I’ve dubbed “Super-Vixens" are the two leading ladies of the original 1970’s futuristic heroes, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.
When Gene Colan and Arnold Drake created the futuristic team of spacemen in MARVEL SUPER-HEOES, the group was strictly a boy’s club, and it wasn’t until the Guardians got updated in the hands of Steve Gerber in titles like DEFENDERS and MARVEL PRESENTS that the gang got some much needed femininity!
Seeing the obvious void of girls in the team, Steve created a couple of heroines to join the team, first with Aleta along with her counterpart Stakar in the pages of DEFENDERS, the duo of course would unite to become a single being, the Guardian member called Starhawk.
Aleta is one character who has been revamped in recent years so far from her original look as to be unrecognizable! Nowadays she sports the modern “pin-up” look of most heroines in the biz, but back then she was portrayed as a more serious character, only occasionally appearing to chew out Starhawk and confuse Vance! I’m not sure if she was supposed to be a “sexy” heroine, but she definitely had that appeal to me, although she always seemed to remind me of Cathy Lee Crosby! And that’s whether Al Milgrom OR George Perez was drawin’ her! Ahahaha!
Aleta
First appearance Defenders #29
by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema
Nonetheless, she remained the sole firecracker in the group, and one of my favorite portrayals of her is in an issue of MARVEL TEAM-UP, where Nikki , Martinex and Yondu team up with Spider-Man in New York. The Pencils are done by Bob Mcleod, and his rendition of Nikki ranks up there with his “Ororo as White Queen” cover in X-Men!
My first exposure to the peppy guardian was during the infamous KORVAC SAGA played out in Avengers #167-177, where the Guardians came down to aid the Avengers in their desperate battle against the man called MICHAEL.
Nikki
First appearance Marvel Presents #4
by Steve Gerber and Al Milgrom
Created by Henry Pym’s frankenstein creation Ultron, It was only natural that Ully would want his bride to be infused with the life-force of his "father's" wife, Ms.Janet Van Dyne-Pym,better known as the nimble WASP! Using advanced technology, a kidnapped Wasp, and a brainwashed Henry Pym, Ultron hoped to transfer Janet’s soul into the metallic shell of his mate!
Alerted by Hank’s trustworthy ants, the Avengers intervened just as Janet’s life-breath was almost completely absorbed by Jocasta, and the sudden separation resulted in two-two-two girls in one! And although she did start off with her hubby’s diabolical bad habits, Jocasta quickly saw Ultron as the crumb he really was, and crossed over to the side of the Angels!
George Perez really knew what he was doing when he created the visuals for this character. It was like he’d been studying just what was so attractive about Tina, the platinum kitten of the METAL MEN, and added MORE curves and general sexiness, and came up with Jocasta…Sexy? heck, he even got her a sexy-as-hell Metal GARTER BELT as part of the design, or at least that’s what I always thought it was!
But it was her portrayal in the later issues under the care of David Michelinie and John Byrne’s hands where I really felt she could branch off into a multi-dimensional character, as they depict her as a naive, curious girl very observant of the “human interplay” between her fellow Avengers. There’s this great scene where Tony Stark’s putting the moves on Ms. Marvel, and Jocasta is bored of the bland chatter. She tries to connect with the Vision, whose stand-offish attitude only made her look more warm and human in contrast!
But the best is perhaps when general fly-in-the-Avengers-ointment Government Official Henry Peter Gyrich realizes she’s “alive”, and demands to know if she’s cleared for security. She then shames him, asking him if the government is so paranoid now they’re screening the machines!
Jocasta
First Appearance: Avengers #162 by George Perez and Jim Shooter
The first comics I read featuring Wanda was the David Michelinie / John Byrne run of THE AVENGERS, and also the "Marvel Triple Action" stories that reprinted the early Roy Thomas / John Buscema Avengers issues (I especially dug #47: "Mine Is The Power")...together, these two comics gave me a very complete picture of Wanda and Pietro, as in the Triple action stories we see them as young unsure characters, and jumping ahead to the #181-191 run, we see not only two very confident characters, but somewhere along the lines Wanda had married The Vision, and Quicksilver had married Crystal of the Inhumans!
So I fell in love with the Scarlet Witch. Yes. It's True. My favorite covers were the ones that prominently featured Wanda on them, and good old George Perez never failed to deliver! Issues #171 and #161 were among the first "back issues" I purchased, and I remember my friend James getting a big box of old comics from his relatives, and one night as I browsed through the stacks, I came across Avengers #113 with Wanda defiantly cursing the crowd for striking down The Vision, and I immediately went "OOH! I...I want this issue!" To which James dismissively said, "Yeah.. I figured you would..." Hahahaha
First Appearance: X-Men #4, By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Favorite Artists for Wanda:
• John Buscema (Avengers 47-53, 76-92)
• George Perez, specifically the Avengers #160-172 era (especially the BRIDE OF ULTRON arc),
• John Byrne, Avengers #181-191 run, especially The Yesterday Quest, (issues #185-187)
If you would like to view past entries, please visit the Archives at:
http://greyvictory.multiply.com/
And Yes, the Scarlet Witch Yahoo Group is still trudging along to this very day!
