Super-Vixens: Thundra

I first fell in love with the 21st century Femizon reading my friend’s back-issues of  FANTASTIC FOUR. In the first story I remember reading, The Frightful Four were holding auditions  for a member to fill the ever-revolving fourth spot originally filled by Medusa.

  It’s hard to explain the mood of those issues- the Frightful Four were almost more like a joke group, and the story was light hearted and humorous in tone! The running gag was that The Wizard, the leader of the Frightful Four, was such a pushover for the ladies, that he kept making bad member decisions for the group!

  And so it was that they recruited the gorgeous Glamazon, whom I found out had originally appeared to battle the Thing  before developing a high-school girl crush on him!

 In the end, it turned out that her love of the Thing was stronger than anyone thought, for it turned out that she’s only joined the Frightful Four to keep an eye on  their shenanigans! And so the Wizard ended up with egg on his face again!

This story was so fun and interesting, I developed a lifelong love of the Amazonian beauty!

And to think, stories illustrated by George Perez and John Byrne were still to come !

Thundra

First appearance          

Fantastic Four #129 by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway

Super-Vixens: Aleta

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 Team in Marvel Super-Heroes, the group was strictly a boy’s club, it wasn’t until the Guardians got updated in the hands of Steve Gerber in titles like DEFENDERS and MARVEL PRESENTS.

Seeing an obvious void in femininity in the team, Steve 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 the Guardian member Starhawk.

Aleta is one charcter 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

Super-Vixens: Nikki

Nikki was created by Steve and Al just one issue after debuting the Guardians of the Galaxy in MARVEL PRESENTS, a Mercurian who became sort of the “juvenile Sidekick” kind of charcter, the voice of laughter and playfulness in a gang of somber grumps! There was (at the time) even a sort of side-story of Nikki and Vance growing closer, but that storyline seemed to have been phased out.

 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!

Nikki

First appearance Marvel Presents #4

by Steve Gerber and Al Milgrom

Super-Vixens: Jocasta

  Up next we have the lovely bride of Ultron, gorgeous iron maiden Jocasta, the Do-It-Yourself Mail Order bride if there ever was one!

  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 Janet Van Dyne-Pym, Hank’s wife (as well as the nimble WASP)! Using advanced technology, a kidnapped Wasp, and a brainwashed Henry Pym, 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 wa 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 potrayal 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 off-standish 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!

Super-Vixens: Scarlet Witch

Couldn't start this blog without Miss Wanda Frank-Maximoff, prolly the Super-Heroine's super-heroine (at least in MY book, natch!)

The first comics I read featuring Wanda was the David Michelinie / John Byrne run, and also the "Marvel Triple Action" stories that reprinted the Roy Thomas / John Buscema Avengers issues (especially #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!

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, Jack Kirby art.

Favorite Artists for Wanda:

•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)