65 posts tagged “super-vixens”
When I was first introduced to Ms. Marvel, I have to confess I didn’t find her very interesting, and as a matter of fact, thought that the Red and Blue Captain Marvel costume looked absolutely ridiculous cut into a bad one-piece swimsuit. But I had a friend who absolutely loved her, (and I mean LOVED her!) and insisted on sharing, so I was exposed to her comic whether I liked it or not! This actually worked out to my benefit as I was able to filter through the stuff I didn’t like and appreciate the stuff I did, and eventually I came around and started picking up some of those issues myself!
The biggest part of what turned me around from a non-believer to a general fan of the comic was, of course, THE NEW COSTUME! Now THIS was what I liked! Rendered by a master of sexy super-heroine costumes was the mighty DAVE COCKRUM, and YES, the new outfit looked EXACTLY like a variation of Jean Grey’s revamped PHOENIX costume, but HEY, when you’ve got a winning formula, you don’t mess with it…
So, anyway, gone was the horrendous red and blue outfit, in was the sleek ‘n’ sexy blue outfit with the lightning bolt and golden sash , and just in time for a return slugfest against super baddie Deathbird (who would go on to give Hawkeye a run for his money in AVENGERS #189) then onward to my favorite arcs of the series, where Carol dukes it out with a civilization of super Lizard Men! Ah, trust me, it’s cooler than it sounds. And THEN…
Then the Comic got cancelled. Yep. GEEZ! All that coaxing and convincing me to get onboard the Ms. Marvel Fan Ship, and then the voyage was abruptly ended! But the best was yet to come with the aforementioned AVENGERS stint, all lovingly rendered by John Byrne, who was TOTALLY in his PRIME at this time!
At this time we started trying to buy all the back issues of old Avengers stories, and when we got our hands of the epic KREE-WARS stories, got to see exactly where Carol Danvers had come from in the first place! It was kind of nest to realize she actually had a bit of “history” within the pages of those old Silver Age Marvels!
So yeah, I was a fan there…but after that surrealistic ( and highly controversial) AVENGERS issue (196?) where she gets pregnant in some convoluted cosmic drama, I kind of lost interest and drifted away again. Next time I checked, for some reason the character named “Ms Marvel” was a big female version of the Thing! I didn’t know if this was supposed to be Carol Danvers or some OTHER character, and I DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW! (Okay, I found out later it was some OTHER gal, but still, the shock…!)
In fact, it was only with the arrival of Frank Cho’s cool and sexy MS MARVEL revival did I breathe a sigh of RELIEF, for here once again was that awesome dynamic costume, proving it could stand the test of time! The Ms Marvel of Old was back! ( and MAN, let’s hope she STAYS that way!)
A funny side-story that always makes me smile is remembering when my friend picked up a new issue of Ms Marvel and saw that Carol was dating some dude with a beard, he mock- angrily declared war against all bearded men, and set about cutting up every picture of a bearded man in the daily newspaper. I sat on the couch howling with laughter as he jokingly destroyed all the pictures, until he got into trouble when his father scolded him and said “What are you DOING to the Newspaper? I haven’t even READ it yet!”
Ahahahahahaha!!!
Ms. Marvel / Carol Danvers
First Appearance: Marevel Super-Heroes #13
By Roy Thomas and Gene Colan
Ah, another one in the category of “salacious one-shot characters” that seem to spring forth effortlessly from the pen of comic maestro John Byrne, Arathaza is at once both awe-inspiring and utterly disposable!
Issue# 585 of Superman’s ACTION COMICS begins with a bang not so unlike the explosive opening teasers of the great JAMES BOND movies of yesteryear where we come in not at the beginning but rather the end of the last mission, and so we see Superman already engaged in battle with a new (and after, never again seen) villainess who is slowly draining the life force out of Supes.
Through their dialog we learn that the majestic (and slightly Tina Louise a la Ginger Grant looking) Arathaza was once only a mild mannered secretary named Barb Kowaleski until she found the means of transferring Superman’s powers to herself. It is here that he turns the tables on her, rendering himself completely passive so that there is no power to draw from!
At that point, he grabs her staff, which he rightly figures is the source of her powers, and she’s turned back into the frumpy looking mortal that she was. Supes sweeps her up, saving the day and delivering the coupe de grace to the latest would-be world dominator!
And then and ONLY then did the actual story featuring the Phantom Stranger start!
Invaders #28 is one issue that I’ve always been aware of after seeing it my friends’ huge Marvel collection back in the late seventies because it featured the first appearance of Bucky’s fellow sidekick-aged counterparts in an interesting group called the KID COMMANDOS.
That particular issue’s cover made an impression on me because of two things: One, there was a cute oriental gal in the group, and Two, there was a black kid wearing what I considered to be one of the ugliest costumes to come out of the Bronze Age! I remember thinking, wow, that girl’s got that oriental kimono thing down good, but that dude looks like he just broke out of prison!
Well, it wasn’t until years later that I actually got down to buying that issue of the Invaders, and reading it I was even more amazed to find that the costumes the kids wore weren’t even made for them- they were “just some old theatre costumes that had been left behind”(!) Funny how they found ones that fit their powers/codenames so nicely- then again, maybe it was just luck that Gwenny Sabuki got to choose her costume before David Mitchell, otherwise, who knows? SHE might have been stuck with that green striped shirt! AHAHAHAHAHA!
But as we know, she got her hands on the Golden Kimono first, and thus was born the blazing GOLDEN GIRL, possessor of energy light powers and cheerful disposition!
I was hoping to read lots more stories featuring Gwen and the rest of the commandos, but after their battle against Agent Axis (who turned out to be that tricky Namor) I was disappointed to find they were largely regaled to “supporting cast”, at least in the issues I managed to get ahold of.
One thing that surprised me reading those issues was how YOUNG Gwen was… all those years staring at the cover of Invader #28, she always seemed to be eighteen or nineteen years old. But reading the stories as penciled by veteran artist Frank Robbins, she looked decidedly underage- more like 11 years old…(well, they WERE called the KID Commandos, after all…not the TEEN Commandos!)
I’ve always thought that Gwen’s GOLDEN GIRL character would have been a great one to revive somehow, though I wasn’t sure just how they would bring “up-to-date” a character that was a teen in World War Two… so I was very interested to find that they HAD brought her back (in a way) in the pages of THUNDERBOLTS, as part of the V-Battalion. Not that I have any inkling what that was all about, except for what Wikipedia tells me-
"Gwenny Sue later helped found the post-war organization the V-Battalion. Gwenny eventually changed her superhero name to Golden Woman, before she died in 1961. Her daughter and her granddaughter became the superheroines Golden Sun and Goldfire, respectively, though Golden Sun died when her own daughter was five years old."
Not bad for a sidelined secondary support character, eh?
Gwenny Lou Sabuki
First appearance: Invaders #26
Created by: Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins
When DC rebooted the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES in the mid-nineties, it was a take-off of Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, in that it was set in the future of that character’s life. Only difference was, in Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne was now an old man, and in LEGION, the heroes, who’d been mere teenagers in their original comic, were now-gasp- responsible adults living VERY adult lives such as raising families and keeping 9 to 5 jobs!
One of the more offbeat side stories in this controversial update was an interlude featuring one of the Legion’s more wacky members, Tenzil Kem, better known (back in the day) as “Matter-Eater Lad”. We tuned in on Tenzil as an adult and found he’d been running (very poorly) through a multitude of different jobs, including an archaeological explorer and even a space age lawyer!
Tenzil has been called to defend Brek Bannin (Polar Boy) in court, and while I don’t have time to go into it, (Trust me, the story was wacky and funny as hell!) one of the things that I found endearing was his banter with his able assistant, a beautiful blonde named Cal. In passages, I found her name to be “Calorie Queen”, and I laughed that they had created an assistant with a name to match “Matter-Eater Lad”
Little Did I Know that they HADN’T just created Calorie Queen, and that she was a character created a WAYS back! Imagine my surprise when (shopping in a comic store near Pike’s Market in Seattle) I found an old back issue of Superboy (Featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, of course) and saw that one of the girls in the menacing super-team on the cover was none other that Tenzil’s trusty assistant, Calorie Queen Herself!! Getting that original issue with Calorie Queen as nature intended should have been a real eye opener into the character, for I now knew she had : 1) a costume, 2)a real name (Taryn Loy), and 3) a home planet (Bismoll, just like Tenzil!!!)…but honesty, it really didn’t do much for me. I simply liked the “later” Cal more! Smart and funny, cool and witty, she was the perfect foil for outlandish Tenzil Kem, and besides, If I have to choose between 70’s disco jumpsuit costumes or pretty dresses I always go with the latter. Because I do love a pretty girl in pretty clothes!
Props to Jim Shooter and Mike Grell for creating Cal, and BIG KUDOS to Tom and Mary Beirbaum and Keith Giffen for the “Update”!
Taryn Loy
Calorie Queen
First Appearance: Superboy #212
Bu Jim Shooter and Mike Grell
A while ago, my friend Gerg mentioned to me in passing that Warren Ellis (one of his favorite comic writers, don’t you know) had started up a brand new series that he was really getting into, and this particular comic was available online, absolutely free! Then our conversation got onto the topic of The Authority, and before I knew it, we were off onto another subject, and I forgot all about asking for the details of said Ellis Comic.
So, recently I was online, looking for pictures of children for some project, and for some reason, my google search brought up this alluring, mysterious and striking image:
WOW! Who WAS this girl? What WAS “FreakAngels”? This bore further investigation! Clicking on the link, I was taken to the official FREAKANGELS site, where I found it was a weekly online comic, illustrated by Paul Duffield, and written by….yep, you guessed it…WARREN ELLIS! Why, this was the comic Gerg had told me about, all those many months ago!
Well, my late entry into the FREAKANGLES story may have been a blessing in disguise, for I was able to enjoy almost two volumes worth of FreakAngels pages without having to wait nary a week, and I made sure to slowly read them and enjoy each page, and I managed to stretch my reading to three evenings, TRUST ME, that took some WILL POWER!
I got to know all the various members of the FREAKANGELS society and all their quirks and powers, and it was here that I fell in love with that aforementioned beauty from the promotion advertisements. Known simply as “KK”, she is the FIRST character you’re introduced to in the series, and- whatta gal! Depicted as a beautiful goth/rocking chick with a penchant for sleeping around with all the wrong types, how could I resist! Plus, she is shown to have an almost instinctive knowledge about the powers and engineering of steam (and in a post-apocalyptic world, that’s good as GOLD) and that meant she had both beauty AND brains, a knockout combination!
Through KK, we are introduced to the other members in the city one by one, and though the story gets divided up between the various members pretty well, the story never strays too far away from her, and I still think of her as the “Main” character of Freak Angels.
In an interesting side-story showing the sibling-like bickering between her and another Freakangel named Kirk, we find that the name KK was christened with was the fantastically eclectic tag “Kolfinnia Kokokoho”, which supposedly is a mixture of Norse and Japanese for Winter Owl, her parents probably meant it as a beautiful artistic name, but in the hands of her (sort of) siblings, it’s a motive for swift death! Not since Jughead Jones’ name was revealed to be Forsythe has anyone hated a birth-given name so much in comics!! Ahahaha!
Though the comic is pretty much available for anyone with even the slightest curioustiy to check out, the series IS collected and availble in hardcover and trade paperbacks, and I’m happy to say that not only have I picked up Volume One, but also Volume Two which just came out a few weeks ago! Just Beautiful!
K.K.
FreakAngels
By Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield
Official FreakAngels Site:
http://www.freakangels.com/
I had a friend who was in love with a certain actress, stating she had the “most perfect and prettiest face created by nature!” Then a few months later he came across a plastic surgery site that indicated his lady of worship had had quite a few procedures done, especially in the eyes and nose department!
Looking at the “before” shots of the woman’s “enhancements”, he sighed and said, “Ahh, I should have known…Nobody THAT perfect could have been for real!”
Although he was talking about his favorite actress, he may as well have been talking about our next Super-Vixen, the lithe and lovely Miss DELPHINE COURTNEY… This was a woman who seemed to have it all- brains, style, AND beauty…and just like my friend’s fallen angel, was a complete and utter invention… quite literally, in the case of Ms. Courtney!
In the issues of ALPHA FLIGHT leading up to the death of Guardian (who I’ll ALWAYS think of as “Vindicator”), Delphine Courtney ws the sultry smooth talker hired by Jerome Jaxon to corral ex-members of Beta and Gamma Flight into forming a team to battle Canada’s answer to the Avengers.
Delphine was always shown in the latest styles, sexy outfits and slinky dresses befitting her sylph-like features, and I was loving it! It was here that I guess I should have remembered the lesson of my friend’s tragic tale, but I was too busy enjoying the view!
We thought we were in for a helluva cat-fight when Heather Hudson (wife of Guardian) began tearing at Delphine’s face and clothes, calling her a “Harpy”- but unfortunately, under all that satin and silk (and skin!) was nothing more than cold, unfeeling metal, as Delphine is revealed to be nothing more than an android, and a darn ruthless and evil one, at that!
That Android would escape to “live” another day, and the next time she (it) showed up was disguised as The Guardian himself! While the reappearance of the character was cool, and the story really helped put a close to the Death Of Guardian storyline, she (it) never did put back on that Delphine disguise, and I found that I really missed that old look of hers!
Delphine Courtney
First appearance: Alpha Flight #8
By John Byrne
One thing you could always count on with writer/artist Howard Chaykin’s stories were the appearance of his gorgeously stylized Femme Fatales, and his 1984 DC Mini Series revamp of THE SHADOW didn’t disappoint!
I’d already been quite familiar with Chaykin’s work from his awesome AMERICAN FLAGG! series and CODY STARBUCK strips in Heavy Metal, and from these, knew that I could expect to see what he was best at: Extreme Violence, Gratuitous Cheesecake and a heaping helping of Noir thrown in for good measure!
Now, the Shadow strip was filled from page to page with lovely ladies, from Preston Mayrock’s lady loves and agents, (even a tough as nails police detective falls victim to The Shadow’s charms), but the one reigning Sex-kitten that flies miles above the rest of them is the invention of the deliciously ditsy and HELLA sexy MERCY MAYROCK!
Our story finds The Shadow on the hunt to find Preston Mayrock, an aging billionaire who’s been killing former agents of the Shadow to draw him out. It seems he’s dying of cancer and wants The Shadow to take him back to the mystic village of where he believes they can transfer his brain into a healthy young clone of himself. And as an added incentive to make them do his bidding, he’s got a Nuclear Missile in his possession which he’ll set off if he doesn’t get his wish!!
Now, Mayrock thinks he’s got his master plans all uner control, but not only has his sexy trophy wife Mercy been “getting it on” with his clone for years, she’s got an even CRAZIER plan in that she has a DEADLY infatuation with the Shadow, and her ultimate fantasy is to get down with him as the nuclear bomb devastates the city! We readers were like “WHOAA! beautiful, ditzy, conniving…and BATSH*T insane!!!”How could you EVER come up with a more interesting character!!!
Upon recently re-reading THE SHADOW series, Mercy seems horribly dated because she was supposed to be a “modern girl”, and was depicted wearing the latest fashions and sadly, this was the 80’s! Look at that image above of her in those new-wave glasses, gads, could anything look more “Cyndi Lauper”?! But MAN, dress her up in a sexy teddy compete with the garters and stockings, and you’ve got Chaykin drawing what he does best, this is pure, timeless BABE-NESS!!!
THE SHADOW Mini-Series was so successful, it garnered a new monthly title written by Andy Helfer and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz, but without Howard Chaykin at the wheel, it always seemed to be missing something. Chaykin’s masterful style of Violence, Sex and Film Noir really was what MADE the Shadow work, in my opinion…and there’s no greater example of ALL THREE of those qualities in Mercy Mayrock…a REAL “Dame to Die For”!
Mercy Mayrock
The Shadow: Blood and Judgment
By Howard Chaykin
Below: The wonderful Wedding of Duo Dansel and Bouncing Boy splash page that eventually led to Dave Cockrum leaving the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Apparently, the story goes that Dave loved that illustration of the wedding so much, he asked editor Cary Bates if he could have the original art as a keepsake. “I don’t see why not,” was Bates’ reply. Later, however, when editor Carmine Infantino came into Cary’s office, he saw the artwork on his desk and asked what it was doing there. When he told him he’d like to give it to Dave, Infantino said flatly, “We don’t give the artwork back!” Dave was so hurt by this callous descision, that he left, right then and there!
Happily enough, Dave was able to pull some strings and get his hands on that artwork some years later! In an interview with Philip Schweier for BACK ISSUE magazine, he admitted that although he DID have it at one point, by the time of the interview, he’d already sold it off! Ahahaha!
Triplicate Girl
First appearance: Action Comics # 276
By Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney
Back in my day, (gads, I sound like a grandfather!) the top five major BATMAN villians were:
1. Joker, 2. Penguin, 3. Two-Face, 4. The Riddler, and 5. Catwoman.
While the origins and personalities of the first four villians have remained consistent for DECADES, the CATWOMAN of today has almost no similarity to the Catwoman I grew up with and loved.
I’m talking, of course, about the ORIGINAL Catwoman, tht is, Ms. Selina Kyle, she of feline tendencies, and on-and-off again lover of Bruce Wayne himself! It was this lovers/arch enemies twist that made those stories so interesting, and it was really cool to be aware that the HUNTRESS was the daughter of Earth Two’s Batman and Catwoman!
Back then, the art was usually handled by Dick Giordano or Irv Novick, and I have to say, their depictions of Selina are the ones that all others must be judged!-There was this one particular story I really had a fondness for, where it somehow ended up that Catwoman’s costume was so shredded in a battle with the Cat-Man, she ended up naked in the Batcave! What a treasured moment!
I’m not sure why Selina Kyle’s character was constantly reimagined and reworked, maybe her history of amnesia, her shifting back and forth between a heroine and a villianess was too confusing? Too Boring? I don’ know, but with each update, she seems less and less like the Catwoman from my comics.
But then again, that’s probably true for most of my beloved comic heroes, huh?
Catwoman
Selina Kyle
First appearance Batman #1 (Spring 1940)
By Bill Finger & Bob Kane
The Image Series CASANOVA was another one of those graphic novels that my buddy Gerg turned me onto- The eclectic Strip by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba featured espionage and adventure drenched in that quasi-mod style of the late sixites a la Jim Steranko, and introduced me to another gorgeous babe in the shape of Zephyr Quinn!
Zephyr “Zeph” Quinn is a hard character to pin down…on one hand she’s the smart and level headed twin sister of Casanova, the hero of the strip…and on the other hand, she’s a double agent, working secretly against her family’s organization.
Then there’s her unbelievable sexiness- running the gamut from sultry , scantily clad and leathered up like a dominatrix, she’s a hive of super-babeness…and yet most of her time is strangely spent seducing Casanova himself!
Ah well, Zephyr’s undeniable great looks kept me glued to the series, a truly worthwhile investment of my time, as she just got sexier and SEXIER with each appearance. Drawn in that arty/fractured Kevin O’Neill (Marshal Law) angular style, Zephyr looks like Gabriel Ba’s version of an abstract Jennifer Connelly, and I don’t have to tell you, that’s a PLUS…
In fact, since the series ended with everyone all hunky-dory*, I don’t think it would be too hard for them to come up with a self-supporting mini series starring Zeph, I, for one, would find it HELLA interesting!
Zephyr Quinn
Casanova
By Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba
Image Comics
* I’m not even gonna go into that story where she turns out to be “somebody” else.
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