Super-Vixens: Monet St. Croix

I have to admit that I was a reader whom until I picked up the first issue of Peter David’s X-Factor reboot in 2005, had never heard of Monet, but after just a few issues of this mysterious, alluring raven haired mystery woman, I was quick to become a fan! Her deadpan humor and utterly narcissistic attitude had me running online to read up on just where she came from!

Well, seems like Ms. Monet St. Croix has in fact quite a bit of back-history to her, being part of the Twins, her stint as Penance, etc…too much for me to handle! Besides, the only incarnation that really mattered to me was the current version in the latest pages of X-Factor, and how I tuned in regularly to see the brash, arrogant superpowered heroine in action! Oh, Theresa Cassidy was delightful to look at (and even the grown-up version of Layla Miller, to an extent) but it was Monet’s whole package that had me as the fan I was!

Super-Vixens: Roxy Spaulding

My first introduction to GEN 13 and Image Comics in general came one day when my co-workers had stopped off at a Blockbuster Videostore to rent some flicks for the weekend. At the time, Blockbuster was in the process of “cross merchandising” its wares, and for a brief time, actually sold comics! In any case, my friend Jas saw a slick comic featuring some very pretty girls and picked one up to check out.

Upon arriving back at work (ah, how lax worktime was back then!) Jas, who’d read the entire comic on the ride back, threw it to me and said, “hey, check this comic out, looks totally like the kind of stuff you like, cute girls and the artist is pretty good!”

The comic was called GEN13 (and this was labeled as Issue #0!) from a comic company called IMAGE featuring writers Brandon Choi, Jim Lee and artist J Scott Campbell, though I’d heard of Jim Lee(from his popular new X-Men stint, natch), I hadn’t heard of the other two guys, but from just glancing at page one of this new comic, I knew I was gonna love it, and by the end of it, I was a fan and wanted to see MORE!

Although briefly covering everyone, the issue mostly featured the wacky characters of Roxy and Grunge, two really outgoing, wacky and HILARIOUS characters, and the peppy dialog really enhanced the beautiful artwork. I was to later read that Roxy had been based on Natalie Portman (back when she was still a cute young thang in LEON), but at the time she seemed like nothing more than a savvy, sassy fun-lovin’ teenager, and she immediately became my favorite member!

In later years, Choi and Campbell pulled what I call a “Mallory Keaton” on Roxy, where it seemed like issue by issue, she was getting dumber and dumber, for comedy’s sake of course. And make no mistake about it, Gen13 was all about the comedy! It didn’t bother me when she started becoming the resident Phoebe Buffay, but it certainly was jarring when I later went back and read those earlier issues!

Air-headed or not, throughout the series, Roxy remained the “heart” of the comic, and, along with Grunge, always kept things lively and light when the story sometimes was taking a turn for the somber! Going through the enture series again, it’s easy to see that these characters were the ones that really made me love the strip so much!

Roxy Spaulding

by

Brandon Choi, Jim Lee

 and J. Scott Campbell

Gen 13

Super-Vixens: Caitlin Fairchild

So having read and loved Gen13, I found out from friends that this “Issue Zero” was in fact a bonus issue that was tagged onto the end of the original series. How confusin’ was THAT? (of course, creating bonus issue zeroes seemed to be a regular thing for many a comic in later years, but this was the first I’D heard of it!)

The original series was a 5-Issue miniseries, and it was (at the time) a very coveted and highly priced collector’s item, but taking one look at the cover of Issue One,(with the VERY saucy picture of Fairchild literally bursting out of her dress, and when was the last time you saw a super-heroine in her panties on a cover?) I made the leap and got all of those issues, finally getting to read the origin that I’d only read in capsulated form (in issue 0) as the epic five part saga it was!

Funny, unlike the Issue 0, which fronted the comedy team of Roxy and Grunge, it was clear here in the original five issue storyline that Fairchild was the main character, and it was so interesting to be seeing the story from her point of view, if you know what I mean. Though she would continue to be the statuesque buxom babe (and perennial leader) of the group, she would later be outshone by Roxy and Sarah Rainmaker as the “quirky” gals of the group.

Caitlin Fairchild

by

Brandon Choi, Jim Lee

 and J. Scott Campbell

Gen 13

Super-Vixens: Sarah Rainmaker

Shortly after the original five-issue miniseries ended and that fateful Issue Zero came out, it was announced that Image Comics would be starting up a NEW Gen 13 series, and thru to its origins, this one was even MORE wacky than its predecessors (if that’s possible) with the Gen 13 group fighting evil Maurice Sendak characters, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even teaming up with the Archie Comics gang!

Fairchild and Roxy were the same characters we’d come to know and love from the miniseries, but if there was one character that really got fleshed out and more fully-developed in this mazi-series, it just HAD to be Sarah Rainmaker, Gen 13’s resident Native American babe/Superheroine! Unlike the very by-the-book Fairchild and the uber-nutty antics of Roxy, Sarah was inevitably the group’s calm and thoughtful voice, and I daresay she even turned out to be the group’s sultry resident sex-kitten!

I remember at the time there was a kind of online controversy regarding Native Americans being stereotyped as overly sexual, and while I haven’t particularly noticed it in other comics as a whole, I will admit that for a awhile there, Sarah was just about the most beautifully exotic woman in that strip regardless of her ethnicity, and one that I certainly looked forward to seeing each month!

Oh, and following in extremely clichéd comic rule regarding superheroes of Native American descent, Rainmaker’s costume of course has lots of fringe and tassles. All Native American comic super heroes have fringe and tassles. Go Figure.

Sarah Rainmaker

by

Brandon Choi, Jim Lee

 and J. Scott Campbell

Gen 13

Super-Vixens: Vampirella

In celebration of Halloween, I give you Warren's famed Gothic Supernatural Seductress that's been putting the VAMP in Vampire for nigh on five decades, the illustrious Queen of the Undead, Vampirella!

Vampi's been around since the late sixties,  and I remember feasting my young eyes on  those oh-so-seductive Warren Magazine covers and noting that even then it seemed more about sex than Horror! Oh, you can bet those covers just drove me out of my mind, they were so AWESOME!

I remember back in 1979, there was this one particular Vampirella cover that I truly believe was the sexiest illustration I'd ever seen at that point in my life (and still may rank among the top five!) and I remember staring at that cover every day I went into the store to buy my comics. 

Oh how I'd been brave (and old) enough to have picked that one up at the time, but unfortunately for my raging hormones, it would be not until years later that I finally got ahold of that one! The issue was Vampirella #82, and I remember when I was older, going to the comic store and feverishly thumbing through the old box of Vampirellas, and the THRILL when I found it again after all those years!

But that was just one of the many, many awesome issues that Warren put out in those years (even a short stint where they used real life models dresses as Vampi for the covers, which i just HATED) and  she even had a new life in the 90s and beyond in the comics medium! But for, it would always be about those 70's issues that so enthralled me!

Super-Vixens: Anita Manaday

In the era of comics blatantly using scantily-clad, half-naked  heroines to sell their books, Codename: Knockout seems to be just another comic in the seemingly never ending slew of titles relying on sex and girls to propel sales, and I have to say that after reading the first 10 issues or so I hadn’t found any reason to dispel those accusations.

 I mean, sure, the storyline and characters in that Vertigo title were all interesting enough, but the fact of the matter is, it WAS a story centered around scantily clad women, and in that regard, Codename Knockout succeeded very, very WELL!

Sexy and half-dressed girls is the modus operandi here, and not one single opportunity is missed to show the girls prancing in short, SHORT skirts, bikinis, and lingerie, and no character looked finer than Anita Manaday, The E.V.I.L. Agent who uses (what else?) her awesome powers of sexual seduction to “break” the men laid before her!

Super-Vixens: Angela Devlin

In the first few issues under the penciling of Louis Small Jr, Codename Knockout main character Angela Devlin looked curiously (and disturbingly) like Pamela Anderson…and very VERY BRONZED Pamela Anderson, I might add. I wasn’t until artist Ed Benes arrived that she really seemed to come into her own (or at least, didn’t look like anyone I recognized) and become a “real” character!

Super-Vixens: Amora

Everyone has their dark side, but poor Angela takes the adage literally in the delightfully witchy “evil twin” incarnation of Amora, her hellbent sister who goes about systematically destroying everything in her sight! When the time finally comes for the two to have their “showdown”, you never saw such an awesome display of raw power…and panty-upskirt shots! Truly a match made in heaven for any comic geek!

Super-Vixens: Dawnstar

You know, one thing that always disturbed me about the future depicted in the pages of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes was that far from a future of peaceful racial co-existence, it seemed that all the people of different races, colors and creeds gave up trying to intermingle with each other and departed for planets of their own!

 I first noticed this reading the story of Tyroc, the black man with the sonic scream that could teleport him wherever he wanted to go- hailing from an entire planet populated by blacks…my first thought was like, wow, Planet Earth must have pulled some MASSIVE super-segregation in the 30^th century!

 Which brings us to Dawnstar, a young girl coming from the planet Starhaven, and THIS one is populated by the descendents of American Indians (Anasazi, it seems) whom I guess realized were never gonna get their land back from those "dirty backstabbin’ Americans", and hopped the first rocket out to colonize a new planet!

They’ve somehow grown wings and are able to fly like eagles- for some reason, this oft-used relationship between the eagle and Indians makes sense to me, as the Eagle has always seemed synonymous with the Indian  philosophy (is it un-PC to say Indian anymore?), think about that song “Eagle” by ABBA- very Native American in feel!

In fact, I hereby declare that ABBA song as the official theme song for Dawnstar!

Of course, being of Native American descent, her costume has tassles and fringe. All “Indian” characters costumes have to have that fringe! Well, maybe not. But just taking a quick glance at heroes like  Thunderbird, Dani Moonstar or even Talisman, it sure seems like it to me!

Created by Paul Levitz and Mike Grell in

SUPERBOY starring the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #226

Super-Vixens: Lilith

When the Teen Titans began in 1966, it was a comic geared towards kids with a supposed “hip” slant to it, but with scripts that seemed decidedly UN-Hip (Mad Mod, anyone?) and it wasn’t until Dick Giordano came aboard and re-tooled it with the likes of Neal Adams and Marv Wolfman did it actually come across as a cool, timely strip.

 Stories were introduced that more accurately reflected the times of the late-sixties with Race Riots, Love and Peace, and College Protest Marches, and along with these tales we were introduced new characters that reflected the times as well…

Among these new characters was the gorgeous if not slightly aloof red-haired temptress named Lilith- though she was Clairvoyant Telepath, she was less like a super-heroine than that Annie Golden character in HAIR, and when she wasn’t helping out the Teen Titans with their various dilemmas, she was rocking out in the Go-Go dancing cage and/or rocking out the coolest and sexiest dresses and outfits!

 And by outfits, I mean CLOTHES outfits…A funny thing about Lilith is that she (along with fellow new character Mal Duncan) never ever did get a costume proper and spent the entire series in civilian clothing. Each episode I would wonder just when the heck she was going to get a costume, but before I realized it, I was used to and quite happy to see her in her swinging’ sixties dresses, and didn’t WANT her to wear a costume!

When Marv Wolfman and George Perez revamped the Titans in the 1984 series “The NEW Teen Titans”, I was disappointed to not see Lilith among the ranks (but satisfied myself with the knowledge that at LEAST Donna Troy would be there, and even MORE comforting was the exclusion of those characters from the mid- seventies East/West Teen Titans whom I’ve NEVER liked). And though I’ve read that they DID eventually bring Lilith back in some capacity, by that point I’d stopped collecting the New Titans, and missed out on it completely. Ah well, chances are I woulda been disappointed anyway- nothing can compare to the vibrant sixties era Lilith, a true product of her times!

Super-Vixens: Darthartheen

Another  awesome “one-shot” character by John Byrne,  Darthartheen was one of the descendents of OA who knew how to handle a power ring just as well as Hal Jordan himself!

 Featured in the Green Lantern special GANTHET’S TALE, (drawn by Byrne and written by science fiction writer Larry Niven), Darthatheen’s multi-dimensional persona made her stand out among Lantern’s opponents, and the open-ended revenge theme leads one to think Niven and Byren were planning on expanding her character in some future tale.

 Throughout the tale, facets of her complex personality are hinted at- after savagely battling with the girl, Hal is surprised to find she actually cares about the fate of  an advesary she may have been able to save. When she is confronted with the death of her beloved father, she swears revenge, and we think we’re getting set up for an awesome cosmic showdown between Hal and Darthatheen…

 But, it was not to be, and to this date, GREEN LANTERN: GANTHET’S TALE is the sole appearance of the tough but thoughtful woman warrior, at least as far as I know! If anyone has any information about this young lady, PLEASE drop me a line!

Wait, Did I say YOUNG lady? As Hal noted himself, though the gal might LOOK like a pretty young lady, Darthatheen is in fact, hundreds of years old!

Darthartheen

Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale

By Larry Niven and John Byrne

Super-Vixens: Ms. Marvel

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!

Original Costume

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…

The Bold n Sassy NEW Outfit

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…

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!)

Frank Cho Ms Marvel

 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

Super-Vixens: Misty Knight

My first exposure to Misty Knight was in the same place that I first saw Colleen Wing: In the pages of the Byrne / Claremont run of THE UNCANNY X-MEN.

 My first actual memory of Misty was,in fact, Uncanny X-Men #122. In that issue, Ororo returned to the apartment of her childhood where she has a violent tussle with some punk drugged up kids. Power Man arrives with a very slick  "Pam Grier"-ish chick at his side. Who WAS this gal? Assumptions at the time told me she MUST be Luke Cage's girlfriend, maybe nothing more?

 But I was wrong- reading back issues later I was to find she had closer ties than I thought- she was Jean "Phoenix" Grey's roommate, and later when I began collecting the Byrne / Claremont run Of MARVEL TEAM-UP, I found she was co-owner of NIGHTWING INVESTIGATORS along with Colleen Wing (Get it, Knight-Wing.) and her beau was non other than Daniel Rand, A.K.A. IRON FIST!

 It was only when I started delving into these earlier issues that I got a clearer picture of how cool she really was. Collecting IRON FIST (and later POWER MAN and then POWER MAN/IRON FIST), I was surprised how fully developed her character was! Reading these, it really seemed a shame that her character never took off (back then). I bet if Colleeen and Misty had gotten their own series with Byrne and Claremont at the helm, we coulda been in for one HELL of a story!

 Oh, and funny thing- All that time reading those issues, I NEVER knew that Misty sported a Bionic arm a la the Six Million Dollar Man! They relied so heavily on her cool attitude and smart thinking that I don’t believe I ever saw her use it once! In fact, it wasn’t unitl the John Byrne NAMOR comic years and years later that her “powers” were dramatically revealed to me!

First appearance (unnamed)

Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #1 (March 1972),

Second Appearance (name revealed)

Marvel Premiere #20 (January, 1975)

Created by          

Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas and Ross Andru