We begin a theme week: Fighting Females Week, three stories of women who can serve up a punch, and I don’t mean the kind of punch one sips at a garden party.
First up, Miss America, who was a character created by Otto Binder, appearing in Marvel Mystery Comics. Here is what Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has to say about her: “She was originally Madeline Joyce, beautiful teenage ward of radio tycoon James Bennet. Even before getting super-powered, she was passionately devoted to the cause of justice, and didn't mind an occasional fistfight to achieve it — and she wished she had a man's strength, so she could achieve more. In Marvel Mystery #49 (November, 1943), she and Bennet visited a Professor Lawson, whose experiments with electricity Bennet was underwriting. Lawson claimed to have gained awesome power when lightning struck a strange contraption he had built. That night, during a thunderstorm, Madeline tried to duplicate his feat. Lawson found her unconscious and, unable to face Bennet, destroyed the device and himself with it. But Madeline recovered quickly, as powerful as she'd hoped, and soon embarked on her career as a scourge of evildoers.”
This Miss America episode is from Marvel Mystery Comics #54 (1944), credited to writer Otto Binder, and Charles Nicholas with a ? as artist.
It's not just amazing how well she fights, but how her massive eyelashes don't take a single bit of damage!
ReplyDeleteI never got the "dress up in your own costume" for a party ... that has got to be one of the worse ideas. You're really inviting a lot of people to say, as at least two do in this story, that you look EXACTLY 100% like the super hero! Yeesh!
I love how chipper she is during everything!
Brian, must be some tough eyelashes; false eyelashes glued on with Superglue or its WWII equivalent.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about her showing up at the party dressed in her Miss America costume, inviting recognition. But jeez, and we have mentioned this before, super heroes must have some sort of ability to cloud minds, when even their nearest and dearest relatives, friends and lovers, can't recognize them, even in costumes that don't do much in the way of disguise.