Volume 1, Number 167
June 2026
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Roger Ash
PUBLISHER
John Morrow
DESIGNER
Rich Fowlks
EDITOR EMERITUS
Michael Eury
COVER ARTISTS
Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson (Originally appeared as a variant cover to Spider-Girl #2. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions.)
COVER COLORIST
Glenn Whitmore
COVER DESIGNER
Michael Kronenberg
PROOFREADER
Kevin Sharp
SPECIAL THANKS
Chuck Austen
Cary Bates
Jarrod Buttery
Gerry Conway
Tom DeFalco
Ron Frenz
Stephan Friedt
Grand Comics 	Database
Robert Greenberger
Mike Grell
Heritage Auctions
Paul Levitz
Ed Lute
Alissa Marmol-Cernat
Will Murray
Pat Olliffe
Tom Peyer
James Robinson
Philip Schweier
Roy Thomas
Mark Waid
Steven Wilber

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Roger Ash	2
FLASHBACK: Saturn Girl: First Lady of the Legion	3
A look at one of the Legion’s founders
FLASHBACK: Squirrel Girl: Nuttin’ But A Good Time	13
The beginnings of squirrel power
BEYOND CAPES: Mai the Psychic Girl	23
One of the first Manga to come to America
Prince Street News	30
Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon
PRO2PRO: The Amazing, Sensational, and Spectacular Spider-Girl 	33
Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Pat Olliffe discuss Spider-Girl
FLASHBACK: Phantom Lady	43
The twisted history of Phantom Lady
BEYOND CAPES: Tank Girl: A Counterculture Icon	53
Chaos in Australia
FLASHBACK: Invisible Woman: Marvel’s First Lady	61
The hero who holds the Fantastic Four together
Back Talk	77

BACK ISSUE™ issue 167, June 2026 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.
Michael Eury, Editor Emeritus. Roger Ash, Editor-In-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Roger Ash, Editor, 2715 Birchwood Pass, Apt. 7, Cross Plains, WI 53528. Email: rogerash@hotmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson. TM & © Marvel Character, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © TwoMorrows and Roger Ash, except Prince Street News © Karl Heitmueller Jr. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING

Girls, Women, and Ladies Issue • BACK ISSUE •

Photo credit: Jesse Chieffo.

One of the things I really enjoy about being editor of BACK ISSUE is coming up with themes for the issues. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Sometimes it is. Other times it’s like banging my head on the wall. Then there are the times when I’m overly clever and get in my own way. John Morrow is good at telling me when I do that.
The theme for this issue started fairly simply. Some of our readers and writers suggested that we do a companion issue the “Hey, Mister” issue (BACK ISSUE #158). But what could the topic be? Just having “Women Characters” is too big. It needs focus. After all, issue #158 wasn’t “Men Characters.” It had a focus and so should this issue. I’d like to thank the folks who write for BACK ISSUE for keeping me on task when it came to that.
After much consideration, “Girls, Women, and Ladies” was chosen. It’s not as concise as “Hey, Mister,” but it works. Obviously, all the characters spotlighted in this issue had to have girl, woman, or lady as part of their name. Some of the characters that spring immediately to mind (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Lady Blackhawk, for example) aren’t included because we’ve covered them before. But that still leaves us some incredible characters to investigate.
Someone I had to put in the issue was the Invisible Girl/Woman (she’s been both). After all, Mr. Fantastic was featured in #158, so it made perfect sense to spotlight Sue here. Saturn Girl was an easy decision, too. She’s one of the founders of the Legion of Super-Heroes and definitely worthy of a profile in this issue.
Mai, the Psychic Girl may surprise some people, but I think she was important to include. Today, going to your local comic shop, Barnes & Noble, or whatever, seeing Manga on the shelves is commonplace. That wasn’t always the case. The decision to bring Manga titles to the US was not without risk. It could have failed miserably. Instead, it succeeded spectacularly. Mai was one of the first Manga to be translated in the US and, as such, is worthy of note. She may not have the history behind her of Sue and Imra, but her impact on the comic marketplace cannot be denied.
Phantom Lady has been around longer than any of the other characters in this issue. With her history, her longevity is impressive. I won’t spoil anything, but if you like stories with lots of twists and turns, you’ll love this.
Squirrel Girl is a character whose popularity has greatly increased as the years have gone on. It’s very revealing to go back to her beginnings and experience her origin.
Somehow that I can’t remember, I used to get my hands on the British magazine Deadline fairly regularly. One of my favorite strips was the over-the-top adventures of Tank Girl. It was fun, punk, silly, irreverent, and man could Jamie Hewlett draw! If you’re only familiar with her from the movie, get ready to have your mind blown.
Last, but certainly not least, is Spider-Girl. I enjoyed her adventures when she first appeared because they were fun. They reminded me of why I enjoyed comics. They weren’t the same as the comics I read back when I first started reading them, but they captured the spirit of them. It’s a joy to look back at her history.
On a very BACK ISSUE tangent, I really enjoy this article because it’s the first Pro2Pro interview we’ve had in a while. Reading Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Pat Olliffe interacting and reminiscing was a real pleasure. It reminded me how much fun Pro2Pro interviews are. I’ve got to make sure that we have them more often in the future.
Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope you enjoy this issue.

Our cover girl Spider-Girl, in a splash page from Spider-Girl #40. Signed by by Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

by Roger Ash

• BACK ISSUE • Girls, Women, and Ladies Issue

by Philip Schweier

The Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH) has been a perennial favorite of DC Comics fandom. Being Superman-adjacent, it’s closely tied to the publisher’s flagship character, but being set 1,000 years in the future, it maintains its own continuity. And of all the Legionnaires to pass through the doors of Nolan Plaza, few compare to its longtime leading lady, Saturn Girl.
1960s
In the late 1950s, Superboy was the star of Adventure Comics. Issue #247 (April 1958) featured the first appearance of the Legion in a story written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino. The Boy of Steel is perplexed when a trio of teenagers individually call him out on his secret identity. They soon reveal themselves to be superheroes of the 30th Century–Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad. For the first and perhaps only time, Saturn Girl sports a yellow, black, and green costume. The three teens have journeyed through time to recruit Superboy for their club, though his initiation isn’t without some hazing.
Cary Bates, who would write Legion tales in the early 1970s, recalls the Legion’s first appearance making a big impression on him. “The idea of super-powered teenagers from the future coming to Smallville to meet Superboy and award him membership into their club was not only a great premise for a story in 1958,” he says, “but it would prove to lay the future foundation for an entire sub-genre of DC Comics. Kudos to Otto Binder and (editor) Mort Weisinger for being ahead of their time.”
The Legion returned in a Supergirl story published in Action Comics #267 (Aug. 1960). Saturn Girl’s costume was completely redesigned, introducing the classic red and white color scheme. While later costumes deviated from these colors, it remains a palette that most artists have turned to when creating a new costume for her. It consisted of a red unitard with matching skirt, and white accents, including boots. A Saturn symbol adorned a white field that ran from her collar, tapering down to her belt buckle. Saturn Girl wore this costume throughout the 1960s, with minor variations, depending on the artist.
DC Comics (then known as National Periodical Publications) continued to develop the LSH feature, adding new members. Arguably, Legion abilities can be divided into different categories. Saturn Girl is one of the few whose gift lies within; the ability to channel mental abilities in some form, rather than powers based on physical might (Ultra Boy or Mon-El) or metamorphosis (Duo Damsel or Colossal Boy), for example. Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad became personally involved, a romance that served as a frequent story element.
The Legion also grew in popularity, leading to sporadic appearances in both Adventure Comics and Superboy’s own title. Tom Peyer, who would write Legion adventures in 1990s, was eight years old when he chose Adventure Comics #300 (Sept. 1962) from his local spinner rack. “I’d seen them already, in Superboy stories,” he explains. “I must admit I was initially a little annoyed with them for replacing ‘Tales of the Bizarro World’ in the back of Adventure, but that wore off quickly.”
In Adventure Comics #304, (Jan. 1963), Saturn Girl uses telepathy to influence her teammates into electing her leader, enabling her to ground the other Legionnaires. However, Lightning Lad defies her orders and dies defending Earth. It was later revealed she’d intercepted a warning that a Legionnaire would be killed in action. To prevent this, Saturn Girl was prepared to sacrifice herself. Even though her election came about under false pretenses, it was allowed to stand because of Saturn Girl’s truly heroic motivation.
By Adventure Comics #312 (Sept. 1963), the Legion had graduated to the title’s lead feature. Most of these stories were written by Edmond Hamilton and drawn by John Forte. In “The Super Sacrifice of the Legionnaires,” Saturn Girl is prepared to sacrifice herself once more to resurrect Lightning Lad, but instead, Proty, Chameleon Boy’s shapeshifting pet, takes her place to return Lightning Lad to life.
Paul Levitz, who wrote the Legion’s adventures throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, was an early fan of the Legion. “Adventure Comics #304 and 312 were formative for me, and they established Saturn Girl as the most distinctive of the women in the LSH, and probably the strongest willed Legionnaire,” he says. “I’ve always thought she was one of the most important members, not just as a founder, but for her combination of intelligence and steel-determination.”
Saturn Girl continued to prove herself worthy of her role as Legion leader, earning a second term the following year (Adventure Comics #323, Aug. 1964). The Adventure Comics masthead now included, “featuring Superboy and the Legion of Super- Heroes.” The former star of the title was now an ensemble player, his solo adventures in Smallville replaced by collaborations in the 30th Century.
The origin of the Legion was finally revealed in Superboy #147 (May/June 1968). Perhaps because no other Legionnaires were identified in the Legion’s inaugural appearance, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad were established as the Legion’s founding members. Writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Pete Costanza revealed how Saturn Girl was born Imra Ardeen on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where she and her fellow inhabitants all possess telepathic abilities. Leaving home to apply for the Science Police, she encounters two other teens–Rokk Krinn and Garth Ranzz–aboard the spacecraft bound for Earth. Imra’s telepathy reveals a plot to assassinate a fellow passenger, which they foil using super-human abilities. It so happens the rescued passenger is billionaire R.J. Brande, who offers to bankroll them as superheroes. Inspired by the legacy of Superman’s adventures as a youngster, they form the Legion of Super-Heroes, recruiting super-powered teens from across the galaxy.
1970s
The Legion feature ended its run in Adventure Comics #380 (March 1969), after which it migrated to Action Comics as a back-up feature for 16 installments. Action Comics #392 (Sept. 1970) featured the debut of Saturn Girl’s new costume. According to ComicBookRevolution.com, it was created by Kim Haven Metzger, a Legion fan from Columbia City, Indiana. Retaining the red and white color scheme, it was a one-piece bathing suit design with thigh-high boots and long gloves. Cut-outs on the side accentuated Saturn Girl’s hourglass figure and placing the Saturn emblem over her naval was a creative way to incorporate her logo into the new design. The thigh-high boots (also red) were topped with a white band that came to a point in the middle of the thigh, and the white gloves stop short of Imra’s elbows.
Metzger submitted his design to DC Comics, and it was featured in “The Legionnaires Who Never Were,” by Cary Bates, illustrated by Win Mortimer and Jack Able. Saturn Girl and Princess Projectra are on a mission in which they are ambushed and knocked unconscious. Regaining their senses, they return to Legion headquarters, where their teammates no longer recognize them. Instead, they’ve been replaced by male counterparts, Saturn Lad and Prince Projectur (in male versions of their feminine costumes, no less). Rather than a dream or hallucination brought on by being knocked out, it’s a deception to test Princess Projectra’s mental fortitude. A computer predicted she would crack under pressure, but she passes the test.
Action Comics #392 was the final issue edited by Mort Weisinger, who had been editor of various Superman titles for decades. Following his retirement from DC Comics, his workload was distributed among other editors. Murray Boltinoff, editing Superboy at the time, added the Legion as a back-up feature. In Superboy #184 (April 1972), newcomer Dave Cockrum refined Metzger’s design of Saturn Girl’s costume. His most noticeable tweak was to abandon the red and white colors in favor of bright pink. He also gave her a longer, flowing hairstyle, which provided a more youthful appearance.
Overall, the Legion underwent a significant facelift. Writer Cary Bates provided several stories which brought the Legion out of the rocket- driven 1960s, but he credits Cockrum with the heavy lifting. “Any contributions to new tech I made would’ve been in service of a plot,” says Bates. “It was Dave’s outstanding work that really updated the whole series.” Under Cockrum’s pencil, the Legion’s popularity was revived. The outdated rocket technology was replaced with more advanced ideas borrowed from Star Trek and other science fiction properties.
As with Adventure Comics in 1960s, the Legion graduated to a co-starring role, effective with Superboy #197 (Sept. 1973). Despite having revitalized the Legion for a new decade, Cockrum didn’t stick around much longer. His final Legion story was in Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #202 (May/June 1974) before moving over to Marvel Comics, where he helped launch a new team of X-Men in Giant-Sized X-Men #1 (1975). It should be noted that Cockrum adapted Saturn Girl’s design when creating a costume for Storm, changing the pink costume to black and adding a cape.
Following Cockrum was newcomer Mike Grell, who admits he had no particular familiarity with the Legion when he took it over. “I was coming to it with completely fresh eyes,” he says. “For me, it was a job, my first regular assignment, and I needed the work.”
Boltinoff provided the new artist with a folder filled with Dave Cockrum’s sketches of characters and costumes, which was a tremendous help to him. The folder stayed open on Grells’ drawing table. During his 22-issue run on the title, he saw little reason to make major changes to Cockrum’s costume designs–including Saturn Girl, though pink is not his first choice for a costume color.
“It worked with the context of that particular character because she was blonde and pretty and very feminine, so it worked out pretty well. I never touched that, never bothered to change it.” Grell adds that his most significant adjustment to Saturn Girl’s appearance was to give her more of a Farrah Fawcett hairstyle.
“Because she’s one of the founding members, she was one of the core personalities on the team,” Grell says “When you start off with a very small group, and another girl comes in, okay, maybe she’s got more powers than Saturn Girl, or prettier, or more exotic, you can’t kick Saturn Girl to the curb. That doesn’t happen. As a writer/creator, you don’t just jettison a character, you find other ways to use them to keep them vital and interesting in the reader’s eyes.”
Grell’s final issue, Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #224 (Feb. 1977), featured Saturn Girl prominently on the cover. He surrendered interior art chores to free himself up for other assignments, including writing and drawing a title he created, The Warlord. However, he continued contributing covers as Paul Levitz came aboard as writer as of Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #225 (March 1977), building toward Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s eventual nuptials.
Levitz says it was his ambition to see Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad married, with no disagreement from DC’s editorial management. “No one else cared,” he says. To amplify the significance of the wedding of two of the Legion founders, it was published in a special tabloid-sized All New Collectors’ Edition C-55 (1978). “The Millenium Massacre” featured the wedding of the Legion’s first couple, as well as a plot by the Time Trapper to remake the 30th Century into a more militarized society.
Levitz offered Mike Grell the “prestige” of drawing an original tabloid-size comic. At the time, only Neal Adams had done one that wasn’t an inter-company crossover. “It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time,” explains Grell, “and I was able to get in some stuff that I thought would be interesting.” The story featured a two-page wedding spread, which Grell recalls was a logistical nightmare. The challenge was placing characters in such a way that the colors of the various costumes didn’t bleed into one another, while maintaining the prominence of major characters such as Superboy or Cosmic Boy.
Grell also inserted himself and Levitz as wedding guests. “I worked pretty hard to render two guys who looked like us,” Grell says, though many feel the likenesses suffered under the pen of inker Vince Colletta. A sometimes controversial inker, Colletta had a reputation for cutting corners in the interest of speed. “By the time Colletta got done with it–probably in about 20 or 30 minutes–there was very little resemblance.”
In the business of comic books, sometimes speed is precisely what’s needed to make deadline, especially on a feature as challenging as the Legion of Super-Heroes. “I will give props to any artist who worked on that book because it’s a crusher,” says Grell. “When you have 26 characters to deal with, and at any given time there’s eight or nine of them featured in any story. Which means that eventually, eight or nine of them are going to be in several panels in a big battle scene with eight or nine or 10 or 150 other villains. It’s a nightmare book to do.”
Returning from their honeymoon, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad briefly migrated to reserve status, as Legion bylaws prohibited married members. “I took her out of action for a while until we updated the Legion rules,” explains Levitz.
After Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad were permitted to return to active duty, further tweaks to her appearance depended on the artists that followed–James Sherman, Joe Staton, and Jimmy Janes. The length of her gloves, the height of her heels, and how the Saturn emblem was rendered all varied from one artist to the next.
1980s
The end of the 1970s also heralded the end of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (sort of). Beginning with issue #259 (Jan. 1980) Superboy was dropped from the masthead as the Legion once more displaced the Boy of Steel from his own title. But fear not–he would return intermittently beginning in #280 (Oct. 1981). The following issue also saw the return of Paul Levitz, who briefly co-authored with Roy Thomas, before taking on solo writing duties in Legion of Super-Heroes #284 (Feb. 1982).
Three issues later, artist Keith Giffen came on board, leading to one of the most successful comic book collaborations of the 1980s. During the epic “Great Darkness Saga,” (Legion of Super-Heroes #290–294, Aug.–Dec. 1982), Giffen took the opportunity to revise Saturn Girl’s costume into some- thing reminiscent of her red and white outfit of the 1960s, with the formerly red areas now magenta.
“I can’t take much credit on the visual looks, as that was Keith’s genius. In some instances I’d give him a cue, but 99 percent of it came out of his amazing imagination,” Levitz says. “The characters and ideas were, by and large, mine, or in a few instances collaborative with the artists giving me a visual starting point. Tellus was Steve Lightle’s, for example.”
Saturn Girl’s hairstyle also changed into something more mature, perhaps because motherhood was on the horizon for Mrs. Garth Ranzz. In Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3 (1984) she gave birth. Twins are common on Lightning Lad’s home world, and unbeknown to anyone, one child was taken by Darkseid into the past, where he grew to be Validus of the Fatal Five. However, the boy is returned to normal in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2 (1986).
The mid-1980s were a fertile time in comics, as new marketing opportunities led publishers to experiment with innovative storytelling. To meet the challenges of increased competition, DC Comics launched a new Legion of Super-Heroes title available directly to comic bookstores. The original series was retitled Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes, beginning with #314 (Aug. 1984). After the first year, Tales began reprinting stories from the direct market title until its final issue, #354 (Dec. 1987).
Despite the double workload, there remained ample fuel for Legion stories. “I think it was one of the richest comics around in terms of complex casts, opportunities for science fiction, and genuine character development,” says Levitz. “There were only a half dozen or so Titans, and none were likely to die. We could add drama that no other DC group book could.”
Despite the return to active duty, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad began to have doubts, suggesting their full-time status may have been in haste. Following her involvement in DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths, Saturn Girl returned to the 30th Century to co-star in Legionnaires 3 (Feb.–May 1986), a four-issue miniseries by Keith Giffen and Mindy Newell, with art by Ernie Colon and Karl Kessel. It featured the Legion’s original founders up against the Time Trapper.
Saturn Girl’s telepathic abilities were instrumental in preventing Universo from conquering Earth (Legion of Super-Heroes #32–35, March–June 1987). Levitz cites the story arc for demonstrating Saturn Girl’s power. “Again, probably the strongest will of the whole team,” he says, “one of the smartest, and equipped with a power that had enormous usefulness.”
Following the Magic Wars storyline (Legion of Super-Heroes #60–63, May–Aug. 1989), the title–and Levitz’ astonishing seven-year run–came to an end. “The fun of the Legion was the ability to evolve the characters,” he says. “Not everything I did to them was applauded (or maybe wise?), but it was key to making the series interesting.”
1990s
With Levitz elevated to executive duties under publisher Jenette Kahn, a new Legion of Super- Heroes #1 was released, cover dated November 1989. Long-time collaborator Keith Giffen and fans-turned-pros Mary and Tom Bierbaum presented a five-year gap in the Legion timeline, under the guidance of editor Mark Waid.
“With the exception of Paul Levitz–maybe–there was and is no greater fan of the Legion than I,” Waid proclaims. In the late 1980s, he compiled an official index of Legion adventures, chronicling every character appearance and every story in chronological order. “I’m still a fan,” he says proudly.
In this new era, Earth’s government had turned hostile, with many of the Legionnaires operating underground, or resigning altogether. Lightning Lad was incapacitated by illness, so he and Saturn Girl had retired to his home world, where they had two twin daughters. For Waid, Saturn Girl remained a favorite character. “If you think of the three founders as the id (Lightning Lad) and the superego (Cosmic Boy), Saturn Girl’s a natural fit as ego, the rational mediator between the two,” he explains. “And as the years passed, her seniority granted her an appropriately high amount of respect among newer members.”
Waid wouldn’t regard Saturn Girl as the 31st Century’s most powerful telepath, but believes she’s honed her abilities far beyond those of her home world. “Her strength is definitely her compassion–a telepath would by nature be empathetic–but it’s sometimes her weakness, as well, since she’s not really the first to jump into a fight if she thinks it’s a conflict that can be settled some other way.”
Beginning with Legion of Super-Heroes #41 (March 1993), the series adopted a lighter tone, as evolving story elements headed toward a reboot. In the aftermath of DC Comics’ Zero Hour storyline, decades of Legion continuity ended in Legion of Super-Heroes #61 (Sept. 1994). The following month, the series continued written by Waid.
Meanwhile, a new sister series titled Legionnaires debuted, cover dated October 1994, written by Tom Peyer. “Anytime you get to write characters you read as an eight-year-old, that’s pretty special,” he says.
Peyer explains the initial ideas leading out of Zero Hour were in place prior to his arrival. “Mark Waid, Tom McCraw, and editor KC Carlson had been working on it awhile and I kind of got on the bus while it was moving pretty fast. I really liked what everyone had been doing, and I was happy to help keep it going. I wouldn’t have forced some new idea on Saturn Girl, for example, the project was to think about who she was already and look for aspects that hadn’t been covered.” He describes Saturn Girl as controlled, respectful, and trustworthy. “The will power it must take to shut everyone’s thoughts out, to honor their privacy–‘privacy’ being an alien concept. She’s that impressive.”
During the course of both series, several characters were reinvented and/or renamed; Lightning Lad became Live Wire, though Imra remains known as Saturn Girl. Her costume design is similar to that of the 1980s, but with white gloves and ankle boots. Saturn Girl’s character is consistent with previous versions, including another tenure as Legion leader.
When Waid left after Legion of Super-Heroes #66 (March 1995), Peyer took over, remaining on the book until #121 (Nov. 1999). Throughout his tour of duty, he made certain Saturn Girl remained an integral member of the team. “Imra, Garth, and Rokk are the founders,” he reiterates. “No one’s more important.”
Peyer feels very fortunate to have spent five years of his career writing Legion adventures. “Even back then, that was rare. I miss them, of course, but who gets to write them for that long?”
2000s
Following the end of Legion of Super-Heroes #125 and Legionnaires #61 (both cover dated March 2000) the property lay dormant until 2004. The team was revived for a crossover with the Teen Titans in Teen Titans (vol. 3) #16 and the Teen Titans/Legion Special. Mark Waid returned to write, and he and artist Barry Kitson rebuilt the Legion from the ground up, abandoning the codenames established in the 1990s in favor of the original names from the 1960s and ‘70s.
During his second tenure on the Legion, Waid gave a great deal of thought to Legionnaires whose powers were genetic, rationalizing why these individual races would develop such abilities and how they would mold their societies. “With Saturn Girl, I assumed that people in a civilization of telepaths wouldn’t speak aloud very often if at all,” he suggests. “I made a point of this by having it be a bit of a struggle for her.”
Beginning with #15 (May 2006), Waid reintroduced Supergirl to the Legion, leading to a title change to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. He remained as writer for another 15 issues, until stepping away after #30 (July 2007). “Every time, it’s always been bittersweet,” he says, describing his departure. “As a writer and editor, I’ve had many, many different bites of this apple and may again someday. But there’s always something special about being a Legion writer.”
Starting with #37 (Feb. 2008), the title reverted to Legion of Super-Heroes, written by Jim Shooter. As a teenager in the 1960s, he had written the Legion feature for Adventure Comics, then returned in the 1970s when the team was co-starring in the Superboy title. The current series continued until #50 (March 2009).
During this time, writer Geoff Johns launched a three-year reinvention of the Legion, beginning with “The Lightning Saga,” published in Justice League of America #8–10 (June–Aug. 2007) and Justice Society of America #5–6 (June–July 2007). Co-written by Brad Meltzer, it featured the Legion of the post-Infinite Crisis era. The second phase, titled “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes,” appeared in Action Comics #858–863 (Dec. 2007–May 2008), and features the 1970s version of the team. Artist George Perez joined Johns for the final installment, Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds (Oct. 2008-Sept. 2009), a five-issue miniseries that brought elements of the various Legion continuities to fight the Time Trapper and a new iteration of the Legion of Super-Villains.
This led to a re-launch of the Legion property, first in the revived Adventure Comics #1 (Oct. 2009), written by Johns. Beginning with Adventure Comics #11 (Aug. 2010), Paul Levitz took over as writer. Having risen to president and publisher, he stepped down from his executive position to serve as the Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant for the newly formed DC Entertainment. He also wrote a 16-issue Legion title (Legion of Super-Heroes #1, July 2010), as the team again took over Adventure Comics’ lead feature until the end of the title with #529 (it had resumed its original number sequence). Both books concluded October 2011, as DC Comics prepared for its New 52 relaunch.
With the advent of DC’s New 52 came yet another Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (Nov. 2011), again written by Levitz. However, many of the revisions throughout DC’s New 52 Universe struggled to find an audience, and the plug was pulled on the Legion title after #23 (Oct. 2013). The property lay dormant until Brian Michael Bendis revived it (Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Jan. 2020) for a 12-issue run.
With the passionate fandom of the Legion, it’s inevitable that it would be translated to film. Its first on-screen appearance was in 1998 in a third season episode of Superman: The Animated Series. “New Kids in Town” featured Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy, and Saturn Girl (voiced by Melissa Joan Hart) traveling back in time to prevent Brainiac from killing a pre-Superman Clark Kent. Kari Wahlgren portrayed Saturn Girl on the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series (2006-2008), Lego DC Comics Super-Heroes–Cosmic Clash (2016), and a 2022 episode of Young Justice. Tara Strong played the role in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019).
Saturn Girl has been featured in live action twice, portrayed by Alexz Johnson wearing a modernized outfit based on the character’s red and white costume in “Legion,” a 2009 episode of Smallville. Amy Jackson adopted the role for several appearances during the third season of Supergirl. This version possessed telekinesis in addition to telepathy.
Though DC has no current Legion series, it’s far too popular a property to remain off the comic book racks for too long. In 2024, the Legion made an appearance in the Justice Society of America #10 (April 2024), suggesting the publisher may have been testing the waters for the Legion’s return. Time will tell.

All these cover appearances are giving Saturn Girl a splitting headache! Art by Jeff Moy and W.C. Cacari from Legion of Super Heroes Secret Files #1. (inset) The world’s first glimpse of Saturn Girl was on the cover of Adventure Comics #247. Art by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye.
TM & © DC Comics.

(top) Saturn Girl shows off her mental abilities in her first appearance, Adventure Comics #247. Art by Al Plastino. (bottom) Saturn Girl gets her classic costume in Action Comics #267. Art by Jim Mooney. (inset) The Legion becomes a regular part of Adventure Comics in issue #300, and Saturn Girl is right there with them. Art by Curt Swan and George Klein.
TM & © DC Comics.

Saturn Girl joins Supergirl and Cosmic Boy on this Jim Mooney commission. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © DC Comics.

(left) Who wore it better? Saturn Girl enters the 1970s with a new costume and a bizarre male doppelganger. Action Comics #392, art by Win Mortimer and Jack Abel. (right) Dave Cockrum and Murphy Anderson give us a new look at Saturn Girl in Superboy #184.
TM & © DC Comics.

cary bates

TM & © DC Comics.

mike grell

Dr. Dan Yahnian/
Mike Grell.

(top) Saturn Girl faces Tyr courtesy of artist Dave Cockrum in Superboy #197. (middle) Saturn Girl battles the Time Trapper in Superboy #223. Art by Mike Grell and Bob Wiacek. Story by Jim Shooter. (bottom) Superboy #224 was Mike Grell’s final issue and includes Saturn Girl on the cover.
TM & © DC Comics.

paul levitz

© Luigi Novi /
Wikimedia Commons.

(top) The wedding of Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad from All-New Collectors’ Edition C-55. Art by Mike Grell and Vince Colletta. (bottom) The team of Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen begins in Legion of Super-Heroes #287 and includes this wonderful page featuring Saturn Girl and Light Lass. Inks by Bruce Patterson.
TM & © DC Comics.

(left) Saturn Girl is front and center on the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #300. Different artists drew each character with Dick Giordano drawing Saturn Girl. (right) Saturn Girl gives birth in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3. Art by Curt Swan and Romeo Tanghal.
TM & © DC Comics.

(top left) Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad discover that their long-time foe Validus is their son in Legion of Super-Heroes Annual (1985) #2. Art by Steve Lightle. (top right) Saturn Girl is featured on the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #11. Art by Steve Lightle and Larry Mahlstedt.
TM & © DC Comics.

(bottom left) The founding members are featured in the Legionnaires Three miniseries. Cover by Ernie Colon and Karl Kesel. (bottom right) Saturn Girl takes on Mon-El, Ultra Boy, and Universo and wins in Legion of Super-Heroes #35. Art by Greg LaRocque and Dan DeCarlo.
TM & © DC Comics.

(top) Imra Ardeen, five years later. From Legion of Super-Heroes #3. Art by Keith Giffen and Al Gordon. (bottom left) The Legion is reborn in Legion of Super-Heroes #0. Cover by Stuart Immonen and Ron Boyd. (bottom right) Saturn Girl isn’t playing nice on the cover of Legion of Super- Heroes #89. Art by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.
TM & © DC Comics.

(left) Things don’t look good for Saturn Girl. Legionnaires #38 cover by Jeff Moy and W.C. Carani. (middle) Saturn Girl graces the cover of issue #2. Art by Barry Kitson. (right) Things come full circle in Adventure Comics #0. Cover by Aaron Lopresti.
TM & © DC Comics.

PHILIP SCHWEIER is a lifelong comic-book nerd, and frequently contributes to BACK ISSUE magazine and ComicBookBin.com. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

by Ed Lute

Most comic book fill-in stories are just that-stories that were produced to make sure that a comic book was still published when a regular creative team couldn’t hit a deadline. These stories, while many times good, were usually just place holders until the creators could get back on schedule and the regular storyline back on track; the stories didn’t usually introduce memorable characters. However, that’s just what happened with an Iron Man fill-in story that, while never used for the regular Iron Man book, appeared in Marvel Comics’ anthology series Marvel Super-Heroes.
The story introduced the character of Squirrel Girl to the world. Squirrel Girl made just one appearance during the BACK ISSUE era, then all but vanished from the comic book world before coming back even stronger and more popular in the next century. Squirrel Girl is now a very marketable character for Marvel, appearing not only in her own comic book but also in animated form, in several prose novels, and even an action figure. This is the story of a girl with the awesome powers of a squirrel and how she used them to conquer the comic book world.
THE COMING OF…SQUIRREL GIRL
Doreen Green aka Squirrel Girl made her debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #8 aka Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special (Winter 1991) by writer Will Murray and artist Steve Ditko. In the story, Squirrel Girl tried to capture Iron Man to prove her worth to him. She wanted to show him that she had the skills to be a legitimate superhero. Squirrel Girl told Iron Man that he’s her favorite Avenger. Furthermore, she wanted to be his partner. Iron Man dismissed Squirrel Girl telling her he works alone and that she’s too young (she’s only fifteen years old). However, the armored Avenger ended up needing Squirrel Girl’s help against one of Marvels’ most deadly and feared villains-Dr. Doom. Squirrel Girl was able to defeat Doom and rescue Iron Man with the help of some of her furry friends.
The story was written by Squirrel Girl’s co-creator Murray. He tells BI, “I don’t remember what came first, the idea of pitting Iron Man against Dr. Doom, or using the story to introduce Squirrel Girl. But that fact that those two armored characters never clashed during my formative reading always disappointed me. So, Doom would be my antagonist.”
Murray had been working on Marvel’s comic book adaptation of The Destroyer pulp novel series. The book series, which started in 1971 with new stories still being published today, was originally written by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Murray took over writing the book series in 1988. Probably the best-known adaptation of the books was the 1985 movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Marvel’s black and white magazine- sized series ran for nine issues from 1989–1990.
The Iron Man story itself, as well as the character of Squirrel Girl, has the feel of a Silver Age Marvel Comics tale. This was intentional on Murray’s part. He recalls, “I hadn’t written comics professionally before. But I grew up on Marvel and DC in the 1960s. And I had a fondness for the formative 1962-64 Era when Marvel didn’t always take itself seriously. Grim and gritty was the prevailing tone when I started scripting [Marvel’s] The Destroyer in 1989, a series infamous for its black humor. So, I had no problem with that tone, but I felt that some of the fun had gone out of the Marvel Universe. When my editor, Howard Mackie, asked me to script a fill-in issue of Iron Man, I wanted to take it back to 1962-64. I was thinking specifically of Fantastic Four #11 [Feb 1963], which introduced the Impossible Man, a humorously off-beat character Stan Lee banned from returning after he read the fan mail. Older readers loved him, but the kids hated him.”
Comics are a collaborative medium that require a writer and an artist to complete a story. Enter legendary comic book artist Steve Ditko. “I believe Steve was drawing backup stories for The Destroyer black-and-white magazine before he agreed to draw this Iron Man story. I’m not a hundred percent certain though. But we had begun talking by phone, and I was privileged to visit his studio from time to time. We got along fairly well.
“Anyway, Steve worked from a full script on ‘The Coming of… Squirrel Girl.’ Everything was there, including the dialogue. I tend to write dialogue-driven comic scripts, with minimal description and stage direction and no page divisions. Steve broke it down beautifully. And all I had to do was plug in the dialogue, occasionally changing or cutting something to fit his page breakdown.”
Ditko was one of the founders of the Marvel Universe with his work on the Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with writer Stan Lee, so you would think it would be a shoo-in for his inclusion as artist of the story. However, that wasn’t the case. According to Murray, “I had to lobby my editor for Ditko to get the assignment, and I pushed for him to ink it, too. Nobody else inked Steve Ditko better than Ditko himself. When Steve got the assignment, I asked him to ink up a storm to show Marvel that he still had his artistic chops. At that point, they were tending to assign different inkers to him, some great and some terrible. His work was considered old-fashioned. He was over 60 at that point.
“We hoped that this might lead to a resurgence of Steve Ditko stories at Marvel, but I think this was one of the last things he did that was full length, maybe the last. He penciled and inked an Iron Man five-pager for the 1990 Iron Man Annual, and I’d like to think the Squirrel Girl story led to that assignment. He did do some other shorter things, then drifted away from Marvel for good. It’s unfortunate. He’s one of the most brilliant comic book artists of his or any other generation. I often thought of him as the smartest artist in comics.”
Ditko’s distinctive art style was the perfect fit for this story that was a callback to Marvel’s Silver Age roots. If you didn’t look at the cover of the issue and just looked at this story, you might think you had been transported back to 1963. Murray concurs, “I agree with you. But Steve came aboard after the original artist bowed out. When Howard [Mackie] asked me to do the Iron Man issue, he paired me with an artist named Tom Morgan, who had illustrated one of my Destroyer stories. Tom and I got on the phone, and he pitched me an idea for an issue of Iron Man that would have been action from start to finish. Iron Man investigates an old castle and is attacked by mechanized suits of medieval armor. No doubt it would have made a great fill-in issue but would have reduced me as a writer to simply filling in the word balloons and captions. As a novelist, I wanted to set the stage. I used to say that in comics the writer conceives the story, but the artist tells it for him. This would have been the opposite.
“This was my first crack at a Marvel superhero, and I wanted to make my mark. I don’t remember the sequence of events, but I subsequently pitched the concept of Squirrel Girl to Howard Mackie. As I recall, he was less than enthusiastic. Some arm twisting ensued, followed by my trade trademark phrase, ‘Trust me. I can make this work.’
“I don’t know if Tom Morgan ever saw my script, but after it was turned in, Howard told me that Tom was too busy to work on it. That’s when I requested Steve Ditko. More editorial gulping and authorial arm twisting followed. Fortunately, I prevailed. That’s no reflection on Tom Morgan’s artistic abilities. He would have done an excellent job. His style would have been a perfect fit for Squirrel Girl. Maybe she would have looked more like Peter Pan than what Ditko delivered! But I’m glad it worked out this way. I got to work with one of my childhood faves, and on a character he had re-designed back in 1964. That was a real thrill. In fact, I would call it a career highlight. And I say that with almost eighty books and novels behind me!
“Steve was a consummate professional. I was excited to see his pencils. And thrilled to see his inked pages colored and in print when ‘The Coming of…Squirrel Girl’ straggled out over a year after I created her. I love the fact that Dr. Doom was the villain because I vividly remembered Amazing Spider-Man #5 [Oct 1963], with Steve’s first take on the character.
“Sure, Steve grumbled about certain things. And I would probably have liked to have seen a more elaborate costume, but the goofy outfit he came up with was realistic for a 15-year-old superheroine just starting out.
“The mere fact that Steve drew that introductory story gave it a cache it might otherwise never had. Squirrel Girl has been called the last Silver Age Marvel superhero––even though she was created twenty years after the close of the Silver Age of Comics. That story has been reprinted countless times. And key panels— especially the one where Dr. Doom is flailing away under an onslaught of angry squirrels––is now iconic.”
Even though Ditko did a great job on the story, Murray remembers parts about working on the story that Ditko didn’t care for that much, “Ditko complained about the squirrel-chatter sound effects I added to that scene because it made the inking harder.
“One panel didn’t quite come off. When frightened, squirrels lay their tails along their spines, with the bushy end forming a protective cap over their heads. I described that habit, but only the bushy cap was depicted, not quite archiving the desired effect.”
While originally commissioned as an Iron Man fill-in story, it was never needed for the book, so it was shelved until it was eventually placed into Marvel’s anthology series Marvel Super-Heroes. According to Murray, “When she finally popped up in an issue of Marvel Super-Heroes because Howard never needed to resort to a fill-in story for Iron Man, Squirrel Girl elicited a strong reaction. Like the Impossible Man before her, people either loved her or hated her. There was very little indifference. One month, she appeared at the bottom of Marvel’s Coolometer. Someone must have complained. I know I did. The very next month she shot to the top of the Coolometer. And that’s been the story of Squirrel Girl ever since. Fans have a love-hate relationship with her.”
SQUIRREL GIRL IN A NUTSHELL
“Conceptually, Squirrel Girl was entirely the product of my imagination, although inspired by real life, believe it or not,” Murray recalls, “My inspirations were twofold. At that time, I had an infestation of squirrels in my attic and in dealing with them, I got to observe the furry devils closely. I learned their ways––such as they are. I recall waking up one summer’s morning to discover a number of baby squirrels investigating my feet.
“Years before that, I had a girlfriend named Doreen who was into comics and animal rescues. One day we were attending church. To my surprise, out of her jacket popped the head of a little squirrel. I had no idea it was there. This was a baby that had fallen out of its nest and Doreen had rescued it. On the way out, she let it imbibe from the Holy Water receptacle.
“Somehow, these two things collided in my imagination and produced Squirrel Girl. I de-aged Doreen to the age of 15. Somehow, that worked. You might say I took a scurry of squirrels and an ex-girlfriend, put them into a blender, hit the Puree button, and out popped Squirrel Girl!”
Squirrel Girl’s incredible squirrel powers include large buck teeth that she can use to bite though wood, extreme agility, enhanced strength, and the ability to communicate with squirrels. She also has a knuckle spike that’s retractable. Squirrel Girl didn’t gain her awesome powers by being bitten by a gamma-radiated squirrel, however. In her debut appearance, she told Iron Man that she was a mutant, but she didn’t want to join the X-Men because “they’re all so stuck up–especially that obnoxious Kitty Pride.”
While Squirrel Girl was created by Murray, her design and costume were developed by Ditko. Murray tells BI, “Despite the fact that Steve was somehow given plotting credit, I wrote a full script before he was approached to do the story. I still have it. I described a 15-year-old girl with a chipmunk kind of face, buck teeth, and a silver-gray squirrel tail. For a costume, I suggested something along the lines of Robin Hood or Peter Pan, but trimmed in fur. Something appropriately green for a character who was at home in the trees. I also described a domino mask so skimpy it would fool no one as to Squirrel Girl’s real identity. The belt with pouches filled with assortments of edible nuts was also my idea.
“When Steve got the script, either to be more realistic or because he didn’t care for that suggestion, he put Squirrel Girl in an outfit that was basically scrounged up from Goodwill, with a fur vest and boots added. I suspect that Squirrel Girl would not wear actual squirrel fur, so I like to think it was rabbit fur. Otherwise, Doreen scavenged her costume accessories from roadkill!
“So, the costume was almost all Steve, I would say. In comics, where character design is crucial, that justifiably makes him co-creator.”
Murray tells BI about an amazing coincidence in Ditko’s art for the story, “Another interesting point was even though I never mentioned anything about the real-life Doreen, somehow Ditko’s take on the character bore a general resemblance to her. And she was a huge Ditko fan. Spooky!”
While Murray enjoyed working on the story with Ditko and liked his visual take on the character, Murray didn’t agree with everything that Ditko did. “In one scene, I described Squirrel Girl carving a valentine heart on a tree with one of her finger claws. Probably because the claw would be so tiny, Ditko improvised a knuckle spike. I didn’t like it, because it was a riff on Wolverine and not very squirrel-like. I tried to talk him into redrawing the sequence, but Steve wouldn’t budge. He was probably right.”
One of the strongest aspects of Squirrel Girl is her personality which just oozes with positivity. “Since he drew from a full script, the personality of Squirrel Girl is all my fault. I wanted a character so young as to portray the hopeful innocence of early Marvel superheroes. A girlish Peter Pan. Fifteen seemed about right. Any older and the character’s naive adolescent crush on Iron Man wouldn’t be credible. If she were younger, her super heroics wouldn’t fly. Marvel super heroics was steeped in testosterone, estrogen, and angst back then. I wanted to avoid all of that.”
When Squirrel Girl hit the scene, she wasn’t alone. She was accompanied by her squirrel side-kick Monkey Joe. “Monkey Joe, by the way, was an actual squirrel who used to hang around my yard. He was a chubby little guy. I would smear peanut butter on a stick and feed it to him. He dug it. Alas, I found him dead one day—hit by a car. I was not happy when he was killed in comics, either.” Murry laments.
EATS NUTS, KICKS BUTTS
With a debut in Marvel’s anthology title in a story starring one of the House of Idea’s popular superheroes and illustrated by one of the company’s most iconic creators, Squirrel Girl rocketed to the top of the popularity charts, right? Not quite. The character didn’t take off and become the next Spider-Man, Deadpool, or even Willie Lumpkin. She would only make a few cameo appearances over the next decade.
But Murray never lost his vision that Squirrel Girl could enter Marvel’s top echelon. “I remember telling my editor that this could be developed into a great breakout character. Squirrel Girl was perfect for Saturday morning cartoons and she wouldn’t even have to be tied in with the Marvel Universe. She would appeal to a completely different audience than normally read Marvel Comics. When I first conceived her, yes, my tongue was in my cheek, but by the time I saw her cavorting in the pages drawn by Steve Ditko, something clicked in my head. I started to see her potential.
“[In a contemporaneous article] Kim Metzger, a columnist for The Comics Buyers’ Guide wrote, ‘If there’s any justice in the world, [Squirrel Girl’s] going to be the next hot character.’ His tongue was not in his cheek. He meant it. She clicked with some people. But turned off others. Jack Kirby used to say whenever you get a strong reaction from the audience, you’ve got something. I knew I had something. Something special.”
Unfortunately, the Marvel of the 1990s wasn’t the same as the Marvel of the 1960s and Silver-Age-esque characters were a hard sell. Grim and gritty were the words of the day and many of the formerly fun-loving characters took on harder edges in an attempt to appeal to a changing readership. Squirrel Girl didn’t fit the mold of the type of characters that were selling comic books at the time. Murray agrees, “Those were grim and gritty times. Late in 1992, I pitched a Squirrel Girl one-shot where she tried to join The Fantastic Four. Marvel passed. There was little interest in exploiting her. Fabian Nicieza was planning to drop her into New Warriors, but the book folded before he could. In fact, the late Mark Gruenwald once stated publicly that we would probably never see Squirrel Girl in the Marvel Universe again. I did my best to expand on the character’s potential, but the editorial vision circa 1991-92 could not see such an off-beat character as fitting into the Marvel Universe––a conceptualization that was founded upon off-beat superheroes dating back to 1939!”
This wasn’t to be the last readers would hear of Doreen Green or her alter-ego though. “It’s funny that Steve receives so much credit for the character when in fact he didn’t care for Squirrel Girl at all. When he first read the script, he complained to me that it was typical for new Marvel scripters to take an assignment like Iron Man and instead of working with the existing characters and milieu, drag in a character of their own out of left field.
“But that was one of my chief motivations creating Squirrel Girl. I wanted to introduce a major new Marvel superstar. And for a long time, it looked as if I had failed and failed miserably. But thanks to something in the core of the character that persisted, as well as a new generation of Marvel talent who lifted her up from her humble beginnings, Squirrel Girl is a now rising star.
“If you think about it, that is the strength of Marvel. The Hulk doesn’t sell in his own book, stick him in The Avengers. Ant-Man not selling? Add The Wasp. No good? Turn him into Giant-Man. Kirby’s Iron Man flailing about, let’s see if Ditko can salvage the character. Wally Wood saved Daredevil from oblivion. Refusing to throw away even the lesser Marvel superheroes is what ultimately led to the Marvel Universe of the 21st century. It’s the same with Squirrel Girl, who as it turned out became one of the most important Marvel characters created in the 1990s. But no one would have guessed that back then. She was ridiculed.”
UNBEATABLE
Squirrel Girl only made the one full appearance in the early 1990s but that didn’t stop her from becoming a top character in Marvel’s pantheon. It just took a little while longer than her co-creator Murray thought it would. After her debut appearance, she would only make a handful of cameo appearances over the next decade. It wasn’t until writer Dan Slott and artists Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar used her in the 2005 Great Lakes Avengers miniseries that Squirrel Girl was back on the map. She continued to make appearances around the Marvel Universe including during Brian Michael Bendis’s New Avengers run in 2010.
In 2015, Squirrel Girl finally got her big break with her own ongoing title The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by writer Ryan North and artist Erica Henderson. She has her own series of prose novels written by Dean and Shannon Hale. Actress Milana Vayntrub portrayed a live-action Squirrel Girl in an unaired pilot for a New Warriors television show. Vayntrub also voiced the character in the 2018 made-for-tv animated film Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors. Squirrel Girl has even made appearances in other animated Marvel projects. Squirrel Girl’s success has shown that she truly is unbeatable.
Murray states, “I moved on from Marvel when The Destroyer was canceled, and so there was nobody to pick up the torch for another dozen years, until Great Lakes Avengers. When that happened, I pitched a darker version of the character, but again Marvel passed. In both instances, I reached out to Steve Ditko to see if he would return to the character and he just laughed.”
Although Murray co-created Squirrel Girl over 30 years ago, he only wrote her initial appearance and one more story featuring the character. In 2017, Squirrel Girl celebrated her 25th anniversary with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16 (Jan 2017). The issue featured two stories. One by Murray and illustrated by Henderson and the other by regular Squirrel Girl chroniclers North and Henderson.
Murray was happy to be able to contribute to the book but wished that her other creator would have been a part of it as well. “I was pleased to be called back to script a segment for the character’s 25th anniversary. Keeping it in the Silver Age, I pitted her against the Abomination, acting as seeing-eye squirrel for a temporarily blind Hulk. After I saw the finished story, I realized I’d packed too much action into the script. The number of horizontal panels was a giveaway. But I liked the way it turned out. I understand that Steve declined to contribute to the issue. Too bad.”
Squirrel Girl’s co-creator remains a fan of the character he created. Murray is a regular reader of her continuing adventures. “I buy it faithfully,” he tells BACK ISSUE, “but I’m very far behind in my reading. At first, the art style was a little challenging to my 1960s Marvel sensibilities. But I appreciate the fresh take on the character and how she’s inspiring a new generation of girls and young women in the 21st century.”
While the original Silver Age look of Squirrel Girl as depicted by Ditko is long gone, her adventures continue to retain the fun-loving aspect of the era. Many of Squirrel Girl’s fans probably have never even seen or read a Silver Age comic but because of the character, they are experiencing the magic that the era brought. Murray and Ditko were able to capture the spirit of the time in Squirrel Girl’s debut story and the creators that followed have brought that spirit along, even if Doreen has more modern attire now.
Murray has always had faith in the ability of the character to enchant and entertain readers. “Looking back on it, it appears that I accidentally created the perfect blend of Marvel superhero and Disney character. Squirrel Girl fits comfortably in both worlds. I always felt that this could happen someday. In fact, when I first signed the payment voucher in which I irrevocably signed away my rights to the character, I remember having a moment of hesitation in which I asked myself, Do I really want to give away such a valuable character?
“Over 30 years later––Squirrel Girl was created late in 1989 and drawn in 1990––that intuition has been vindicated. I am probably the only one who is not surprised.
“There are so many versions of the character now, from the sexy to the down-to-earth, that it’s amazing. I like them all. And I frequently say that the character Steve did draw back in 1990 could have grown up to be any of these modern versions. So, I consider them all to be authentic.
“It’s wonderful that Squirrel Girl has become such a cultural icon and ubiquitous cosplay character. I suspect she’ll be around for a long time to come. And I take great pride in having created her. I’m glad I didn’t take no for an answer when I first ran her by poor Howard.
“It’s funny. When Walt Disney bought Marvel a few years back, people were excitedly predicting a Squirrel Girl cartoon show. It would have been a natural, but it didn’t happen. Yet.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if a bushy squirrel tail becomes a fashion accessory in the next year or two….”

Say hi to Squirrel Girl. From Marvel Super-Heroes #8. Art by Steve Ditko. (inset) Squirrel Girl by Erica Henderson.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) The dynamic teaming of Iron Man and... Squirrel Girl?? (right) Squirrel Girl displays the array of superpowers at her disposal. Art by Steve Ditko.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

will murray

© Drobertpowell / Wikimedia Commons.

Did we forget to mention that Doctor Doom is in this story? So did Squirrel Girl!
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top) Nary a hint of Squirrel Girl’s first appearance is hinted at on the cover of Marvel Super- Heroes #8. Art by Erik Larsen. (bottom) Iron Man does need Squirrel Girl’s help to escape the clutches of Doctor Doom. Art by Steve Ditko.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top) Monkey Joe to the rescue! (bottom) Doom overwhelmed by squirrels. Art by Steve Ditko.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Don’t tell Logan about Doreen’s finger claws... er, knuckle spike??!?
©2026 ???

Squirrel Girl makes her return in the G.L.A. miniseries. Art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top and bottom left) Squirrel Girl assists the Avengers. Art by Mike Deodato. (bottom right) It took a while, but Squirrel Girl finally got her own series. Art by Erica Henderson. (inset) Squirrel Girl as she is featured in the Marvel Rivals video game.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The author would like to thank Will Murray for his invaluable recollections without which this article wouldn’t have been possible.
Frequent BACK ISSUE contributor Ed Lute loves nuts but doesn’t kick butts. He has squirrels in his yard but hasn’t named them. Yet. His work has also appeared in The Jack Kirby Collector and RetroFan.

(top left) Celebrating 25 years of Squirrel Girl. Art by Erica Henderson. (top right) Will Murray penned a new story for Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16 featuring the Hulk. Art by Erica Henderson. (bottom) Jeez, does everybody have a podcast now?
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by Robert Greenberger

The Japanese invasion began on September 7, 1963. Americans woke up that Sunday morning and found an animated series on NBC featuring a robot child having some marvelous adventures. The fluid animation was far from the limited animation that became standard for Saturday morning television. Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy had traveled around the world. He arrived in America, the first of many anime series to share space with original domestic children’s fare and British Supermarionation offerings.
It took until 1987 before Manga formed an entirely new front on the encroachment. Eclipse Comics, formed by Dean and Jan Mullaney in the late 1970s, had already pioneered new art forms, expanding what could be done with graphic storytelling, beginning with Don McGregor and Marshall Rogers’ Detectives, Inc. They continued to explore different genres and formats as they launched their comic book company, becoming one of the first independent publishers of the Bronze Age.
In the mid-1980s, Mullaney and editor-in-chief cat yronwode (also his wife at the time) began exploring international comics to bring to American readers. They quickly settled on the Japanese Manga market and the publishing behemoth Shôgakukan, Inc. The company was best known for its Shônen Sunday, a weekly publication since March 17, 1959. By the 1980s, the title was known for its quality storytelling and limited run serials, which by edict would last no more than 40 volumes.
When Mai debuted in Japan, it stood out as the rare story featuring a female protagonist for a male-dominated audience. The 53 installments ran from March 20, 1985, to April 2, 1986, written by Kazuya Kudô and illustrated by the prolific Ryoichi Ikegami. Little is known about 86-year-old Kudô, who may be best known for Gogol 13, while Ikegami began his career in 1966 at 17, later illustrating Japan’s version of Spider-Man in 1970-71, and today, at 80, continues by illustrating Trillion Game.
In 1986, Viz Media, LLC was formed in San Francisco and began representing Manga to international publishers. The company started off modestly, licensing Manga, but it has grown to become an empire that covers print and multimedia worldwide.
“Two years went by, and Eclipse began to negotiate with Shôgakukan, Inc. for the right to publish Japanese comics in English,” explained James D. Hudnall in Area 88, one of the Viz titles to come to America. “A co-publishing deal was struck, and they immediately began looking for a person to polish the translations.” Hudnall, thanks to his ESPers work for Eclipse, got Area 88 and Mai to polish.
Eclipse initially licensed Mai, Area 88, and The Legend of Kamui, with the psychic teen leading the way. Unlike the American Manga we’re familiar with today, the stories were in traditional American comic-size, 32-page format, printed in black-and-white, reading left to right. Since the chapters varied in length, throughout the 53-issue run, the page count ranged from 32 to 40 pages. Once the film arrived at Eclipse’s Guerneville, CA offices, production artists reconfigured the art to fit the dimensions, which sometimes required flipping artwork or extending art so the left-to-right reading was comfortable. Once Hudnall polished the writing, it was lettered by Wayne Truman and Bill Pearson.
To mimic the frequency of Japanese publishing, the Manga from Eclipse was initially released biweekly, with the final issues of some titles switching to monthly. Still, when the first book arrived, cover dated May 19, 1987, audiences weren’t sure what to make of the book or the second issue’s speedy arrival. It certainly posed a unique challenge to direct sales shops, which would be ordering twice the number of issues before sales could determine demand. This was a roll of the dice for the publisher and retailers alike.
The choice of Mai to introduce American readers to Japanese storytelling was inspired. First, she’s a cute, 14-year-old girl who happens to have inherited telepathic powers. They could relate because this was the X-Men’s Jean Grey, someone they already knew. The other consideration was that Viz and Shônen Sunday saw the series as a good middle ground between Manga and Comic Books. Ikegami’s illustrative style was close enough to American comics, while his page construction and storytelling were distinctly Japanese.
Ikegami conceived Mai and told Animerica, “I talked with my editor at Shônen Sunday before taking the idea to Kudô. The original idea was to base the character on the Buddhist figure known as ‘Miruko’ or ‘Maitreya,’ a Bodhisattva supposed to come to Earth as a savior three billion years in the future. By mistake, he comes to present-day Earth. He also comes as a girl.” They were also influenced by Stephen King’s 1980 bestseller Firestarter, which was adapted in 1984 as a feature film starring Drew Barrymore.
The series arrived, and readers took notice with the first two issues receiving second printings to satisfy demand, something unusual at the time. In The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes, writers Gina Misiroglu and David Roach noted that it avoided many superhero cliches and successfully introduced Manga to an audience largely weaned on superheroes. On the other hand, it was filled with Japanese tropes and cliches, which may be one reason it proved more popular here than there.
Mai Kuju’s powers are more than telepathy; like Jean Grey, she also possesses telekinesis, called “psychokinetic” powers. She is the latest in a line of powerful women, all from Togakushi, a rural Japanese village. Her mother Maki’s abilities resulted in her death when Mai was just two, and she was being raised by her father Shuichi, the director of New Energy Resource Development for Marbushi Trading. He made her swear not to use her powers, and she happily went to school with her friends. Her concerns range from homework to a bathtub scene where she frets over the size of her budding breasts (a page excised from the Eclipse version).
Elsewhere, the shadowy Wisdom Alliance, based in the Swiss Alps, is ready to launch a plan for global domination, but it requires powerful wielders of psychokinetics. They have been secretly testing adolescents around the world, and just five rated an eight, top of the scale. Ryu, their leader (drawn to resemble Max Von Sydow’s Ming the Merciless with an eyepatch), hires Kaieda Information Service to bring them Mai. As her father realizes what is happening, he takes a leave of absence and returns to Togakushi, with the KIS in pursuit.
Shuichi took Mai to meet Madarao Idei, whose family had been protecting Mai’s bloodline for generations. Fortunately, Shuichi mastered martial arts, keeping the KIA agents away from his daughter. Needing to take Shuichi out of the equation, the KIA takes Tsukiro, a giant man, out of cryogenic suspension and unleashes him. At this point, Mai is led to believe her father had died, falling off a narrow ledge into a deep gorge. Tsukiro’s right arm was permanently mangled, but he was still a threat to Mai until she was rescued by Intetsu, a college student hiking in the vicinity. She returned the favor, using her powers to let him win with the one-armed bandits.
Despite his having a girlfriend, she develops a crush on the older motorcycle rider. Thankfully, during this collegiate period, she rescues a puppy, which she keeps and names Ron, who becomes her companion during her grief.
Soon after, KIA founder Senzo Kaieda strikes a deal with Mai after her father’s apparent death: her college friends would be spared if she accompanied her, where she’d protect Mai from the Alliance.
Denied Mai, Ryu recruits the East German eight, Turm Garten, and sends her after Mai. They fight, and it appears the amoral teen kills Mai’s beloved dog, Ron, but soon after, Mai saves her life, and a bond is formed. Undeterred, Ryu sends Baion Yuwon, a fat 14-year-old from Mongolia; 15 year-old American David Perry, a surfer dude; and Grall Hong, a 16-year-old Vietnamese male. Hong has enrolled as a fellow student to keep an eye on Mai, where he endures ridicule for his small size. Although Ron’s barking proves more warning than anything else, they strike up a friendship. All the while, the Alliance is inching towards its goal, to gather psychics and go into hiding, convinced the USA and Russia are in a death spiral and by 1999 will plunge the world into a nuclear war from which mankind will not survive. The Alliance, with their powerful psychokientics, will rebuild society for a brighter future.
As Mai attempts to prevent global destruction, she discovers everyone has secrets. Senzo Kaieda, for example, approved an experiment that turned her son Tsukiro into a monster. Turm claims to be descended from a god who protected her homeland of Dresden during World War II, and suspects Mai is also descended from a god who protected the Togakushi portion of the country.
After several failed attempts to neutralize and abduct Mai, the three teens take to the skies over Tokyo and engage her in a fight to the death. Along the way, two die, and Mai loses her top, fighting bare-breasted for the final two chapters. Her determination impresses Grail, who winds up rescuing her at least once before Ryu and Mai talk. She explains her legacy and that she will die before Ryu is allowed to destroy the world.
Ultimately, she gains her freedom in the final issue (July 12, 1988), leaving the Alliance’s plans in pieces. Ryu, like every good villain, vows, “It is only a matter of time before Japan falls under the sway of our alliance!”
As an introduction to Manga, it’s an entertaining story, but not without its flaws. It’s interesting to see Japanese creators use international stereotypes much as Americans have been known to use. We’d scoff at how everyone here is a martial arts master, from her father to other salarymen, but it’s played straight. In their way, the five teens are stereotypical versions of their respective countries.
Tonally, the story shifts from family drama to melodrama, to college comedy, to thriller, with the fate of the world at stake. This can be off-putting on first read, but such shifting tones are commonplace in Asian storytelling.
Sequart’s Julian Darius wrote, “But where Mai really excels, besides its beautiful artwork, is in its depiction of the intersection of mental powers and adolescence, especially girls’ adolescence.” By focusing solely on Mai, rather than a quintet of mutants, the reader is given a more thorough exploration of a teen struggling to master her powers and balance them with friends and family. “Even two and a half decades later, the popular X-Men movies have only touched on this in a few lines of dialogue, whereas Mai paints a more or less compelling picture of a young girl struggling with her immense powers–and the damage they can do.”
We are reminded throughout the storyline that she is 14 and prone to playfulness, heartbreak, and steely determination to protect her family. Her actions are small, changing a streetlight to thwart pursuit rather than throwing a psychic blast. She plays with her puppy and dutifully goes to school. In many ways, she is a more realistic depiction of teens with powers than most of the Marvel output. Shortly after coming to stay with Intetsu, there’s a telling incident when she uses her power to stop a car from hitting the dog, but she hasn’t considered the driver. He goes through the windshield, and the stopped car causes a traffic pileup of sizeable proportions. In anguish, she thinks, “I only wanted to save the puppy!”
While keeping Ron the puppy, she falls into a depression, so when she repeats this unthinking use of her powers a chapter later, she psychically rips apart a larger dog attacking Ron in front of her horrified classmates. She has much to learn about her powers and responsibilities without her mother or father on hand to lend support and guidance. Instead, it falls to Intetsu to fill in for them offering her his wisdom.
Turm apparently had no moral guidance and is not only amoral but revels in her powers, declaring the eights as gods. She is a threat but over the succeeding chapters, Mai and Turm telepathically talk as opposed to duking it out, and there is a shift in the German’s perspective.
While pyschokinetics is a tempting power to possess, Mai’s innate goodness and desire for a normal life make her admirable. When the threat to Tokyo and the world is settled, she happily returns to Ron, her father, and her classes, not caring about using her powers anytime soon.
The father-daughter relationship is an all-too-rare theme in many Manga and American comics, so this is notable as Shuichi protects Mai as she grows up and then carefully lets her enter a world of destiny and obligation. They risk everything for one another, and their genuine love is one of the series’ strengths.
Eclipse blogger Lars Magne wrote, “Mai was, I think, the most successful transplant: It’s contemporary and it’s very Japanese. If you look at subsequent translations of Japanese comics that have been successful abroad, it’s this kind of thing that people turned out to want, not medieval ninjas or Western military.
“Frederik Schodt, author of the seminal Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics book points out that this is exactly the opposite of what comics professionals, both in Japan and abroad, predicted. ‘People may be able to tolerate exoticism in other media, but not in comics.’”
In a review printed in The Comics Journal #122, Rob Robi said, “Mai also bears an uncanny resemblance to the Disney studio’s juvenile adventure films of the ’50s and ’60s—and to George Lucas’s Star Wars cycle, for that matter. Both Disney and Lucas sought to evoke the psychological power of the folk tales by dressing up their plots in a pop-culture context. Kudô and Ikegami do the same. With such thematic and structural antecedents, it’s no surprise that Mai the Psychic Girl should turn out to be the best comic book for children and adolescents in twenty years. (It’s embarrassing to compare it to American comics that attempt similar themes— say, New Mutants.) Nor that, as with the best children’s literature, it also makes compelling reading for adults.”
Writer Frank Plowright echoed many with his praise for the visuals. “Artistically, Ryoichi Ikegami (or his assistants) delivers extraordinarily detailed renderings of cities, buildings, dinner tables, and technology, which are overlaid with simpler, sketchier figures. By Japanese standards of the time, the kinetic fight sequences as Mai is chased down are relatively brief yet still occupy a considerable number of otherwise silent pages. Although clocking in at 284 pages of story, this is still a relatively brief read for anyone not stopping to study the art.”
Darius noted, “Soon, manga was experiencing a great expansion in the U.S. Especially noteworthy, Marvel’s Epic imprint began reprinting Akira, in colorized form, in late 1988. However, only a few years later, manga died down a bit, and several of these publishers went out of business. However, English translations of manga never fully went away, and Manga would turn into a license to print money in the early 2000s, when bookstores had huge manga sections, with kids’ reading in the aisles, but comparatively few American graphic novels.”
Shogakukan released the 53 chapters in six tankôbon (collected) volumes, which were released between August 1985 to August 1986. England’s Titan Books collected the series in four volumes in 1989. Viz released their own collection  in 1990, finally including the nude bath scene from the first chapter. They subsequently released Mai, the Psychic Girl: Perfect Collection. Media Factory republished the series in three smaller bunkoban (think compact) volumes in 2002 and 2003 with two larger wideban volumes in 2006. Unfortunately, the series has been largely forgotten and is not currently in print in English.
While Mai was a limited series, Area 88 and Kamui were ongoing, but the deal floundered with Viz moving the books to Dark Horse. As reported in The Comics Journal #123, “Viz General Manager Seiji Horibuchi said the decision was made to split with Eclipse because sales on the titles were less than Eclipse had promised. Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney agreed, adding only that sales could not be attributed to only one party in such a co-publishing venture.” It was later revealed there were financial irregularities which resulted in Eclipse being fined $120,000, which helped hasten the company’s demise in 1994.
Mai outlasted that debacle and captured attention elsewhere. The rock band Sparks read the comic during its American release and wanted to turn it into a movie, going so far as to compose songs for the score. Carolco Pictures purchased the film rights for director Tim Burton in 1991, who opted to produce The Nightmare Before Christmas and Ed Wood instead. Francis Ford Coppola took a turn at developing the story but also dropped out; Kirk Wong (Crime Story) was attached to direct for Sony in 2000 with a script from the married couple of Lisa Addario (Love Nonnie) and Joey Syracuse (Parental Guidance). In 2009, Sparks released The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, a BBC radio musical using much of their Mai material. In May 2010, Burton once again expressed interest in developing Mai, but nothing came of this second attempt. At present, IMDB merely lists it as In Development.
The plucky teen burned brightly, lighting the way for the Japanese Manga invasion to commence. While she isn’t in print today, her legacy stands tall, given the explosion of Manga now found in bookstores, growing the readership for graphic storytelling. Eclipse and Viz chose wisely, and the stories remain flawed yet entertaining.

Manga comes to America. Mai the Psychic Girl #1 cover by Ryoichi Ikegami.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami/Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

(left) Mai’s powers on display in issue #1. (right) Is that Ming the Merciless? Art by Ryoichi Ikegami.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami
Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

(left) The cover to issue #2. Art by by Ryoichi Ikegami. (right) When Mai says stop, you better listen.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami/
Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

(top) A color key used in the production of issue #3’s cover. (bottom row) Covers were often quite different from standard superhero fare. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami/
Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

(top) Mai takes to the skies. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami. (bottom) Mai learns a harsh lesson. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami/
Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

(top) The thrilling conclusion, Mai the Psychic Girl #28. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami. (bottom left) The cover to the first volume of the Titan collection. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami. (bottom right) The dynamic cover to volume 3 of Viz’s perfect collection. Art by Ryoichi Ikegami.
© Kazuya Kudo/Ryoichi Ikegami/Shogakukan, Inc. TM Viz Communications, Inc.

Robert Greenberger has been reading, editing, and writing about comics since he was six years old, enchanted by Astro Boy but admits to never developing a taste for most Manga. Mai is an exception.

Spider-Man is arguably Marvel Comics’ most famous character. Conceived by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, high school student Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider. From there, he goes on to have a very long, exciting, and tumultuous super heroic career that helped spawn more exciting characters that shared in the Web-Head’s long legacy. But none shares that legacy so close as his daughter from an alternate future.
Spinning out of a major Spider- Man storyline, “The Clone Saga,” Peter and his wife, Mary Jane, are expecting their first child. The newborn is kidnapped and the would-be parents believe their daughter stillborn, a scheme enacted by Spider-Man’s archfoe, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin.
In current continuity, the story of the baby is brushed aside for potentially more exciting developments. However, one of the architects of the “Clone Saga,” writer Tom DeFalco, realized that a daughter of Marvel’s flagship hero came rife with possibilities. Thus, a Spider-Girl was created, faced with similar problems as her famous father, but dealing with them in her own inimitable style.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to any comic book reader that DeFalco would be the brains behind May “Mayday” Parker. Before having a storied career as a writer at Marvel Comics, Tom started at Archie, before moving on to Charlton and DC Comics. The writer would graduate to become Marvel Comics’ Editor-In-Chief. Besides the writer of Spider-Girl, Tom DeFalco is best known for his applauded runs on Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, and The Amazing Spider-Man. DeFalco would be  joined by two frequent collaborators, Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe.
Ron Frenz readily admits he wanted to be a comic book artist from a young age. Before breaking into the comics field, Frenz worked in animation and would eventually hold the position for six months while simultaneously penciling for Marvel. Ron and Tom became fast friends while working on Spider-Man and then later, Thor. Together they created the popular team the New Warriors.
Frenz was instrumental in bringing aboard artist Pat Olliffe who he met at the same animation studio. Olliffe, also a comics fan, met DeFalco through Ron, doing backup stories in Thor. Beforehand, Olliffe was working for Malibu Comics. Besides Spider-Girl, Olliffe’s notable works include Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Untold Tales of Spider- Man, and more.
One early afternoon in mid-February, BACK ISSUE sat down with all three creators to discuss their involvement with Spider-Girl, a series that ran for nearly a decade and was followed by multiple miniseries, one-shots, and short stories.
BACK ISSUE: What was the genesis of Mayday Parker and her cast leading to her first appearance in What If #105?
TOM DEFALCO: There was a period of time where I was working on this thing called, “The Clone Saga.” During the course of this, we discovered that Mary Jane was pregnant. Now—for a lot of the time during the clone “sucker” —I was not having a good time on the project. Too many people were trying to direct it. This was a time at Marvel where Marketing kept sticking its head in. I’d turn in a plot for a one issue story and Marketing would read it, like it, and say, “Wait a minute, this should be a four-issue story!” Making me think, “How the heck do I make this thing into four issues?”
Every once in a while, when I was bored or unhappy, working on that stuff … I’d think about how Peter and Mary Jane were going to have a baby. We had decided it was going to be a little girl, and I could imagine her having adventures with her dad somewhere along the line. At some point, they took me off of the Spider-Man books and they assigned me to do What If?. So, I had to come up with What If ideas and I thought, “Well, yeah. I might as well do that Spider-Girl story.” I called up Ron, because whenever I think of Spidey, I always think of Ron. Well, Spider-Man. Now, when I think of Spider Girl, I think of Pat. [Laughter]
Ron said to me, “Spider-Girl? Why don’t we just call her Spider-Woman?” And I said to him, “Yeah, no. That name has the stink of death on it.” Because by then, there’d been like four or five spider-women.
BACK ISSUE: Only a year later John Byrne and Howard Mackie introduced their own teenage spider heroine, Mattie Franklin, the third Spider- Woman. (A fourth, Charlotte Whitter, came immediately after.) Was that frustrating? It could be looked at as though they were possibly trying to steal the spotlight from Mayday.
DEFALCO: As for Mattie, Araña, and all the other copies—a few creative people believed that Mayday’s success was solely based on the word “spider” in her name. They believed they could all create characters that would be even more popular. We didn’t look at their efforts as competition, but they did. That’s the biz!
Ron and I got to talking and you know, the cast for Mayday kind of came together. We started talking about the personality of the main character, then the other characters kind of created themselves. Somehow, at the end of the process, there was a story.
RON FRENZ: Tom, you’re so humble. [Laughter]
Tom’s a total pro. It was a fun assignment, because it was kind of like a reunion and a homecoming for us, with Pete and Mary Jane. Tom talks about the other characters writing themselves anytime you’re going to structure a story. Every character should say something about the lead character and have a different dynamic with the lead. This is what we were interested in pursuing with Mayday, that she was equal parts Mary Jane and Pete, and that, unlike Peter, who was an outcast, she’s so popular that she has friends that are nerds and jocks. She feels divided when she’s with her nerd friends because she has to defend her jock friends (or not), and when she’s with her jock friends she’s defending her nerd friends. So, she feels very divided. And in finding out about her legacy from Peter… she finds a way through by becoming Spider-Girl.
The seeds are sown in the original story. Pete found out that if he didn’t use his powers responsibly, people could die. Mayday’s lesson, which Tom likes to say, is subtle, but significant, if she does use her powers responsibly, people will live. It doesn’t have that cloud of negativity hovering over her. May learned from the upbringing she received from a father who had learned from past mistakes, so she was much more of a positive hero going forward. I mean, in the first story it doesn’t end with her walking dejectedly down an alley, having learned in the most tragic way that great power must also come with great responsibility. It ended with her parents burning her costume and making her promise to never become Spider-Girl again.
DEFALCO: Aaand…
FRENZ: Her knowing that that’s not what was going to happen! We wrote it as a pilot. It’s one of my favorite things that I’ve ever worked on. We had a lot of fun with it.
BACK ISSUE: Pat, Ron… calling you “pencillers” just doesn’t quite cover it, does it?  Maybe an artist, sure, but that might be too broad. Even Tom is an artist, right? You’re all very much storytellers.
PAT OLLIFFE/DEFALCO/FRENZ: Yeah. [Laughter]
FRENZ: Not to overstate it, because I don’t want to be the only one here that’s not humble… [laughter] I think Pat would concur to a certain degree that one of the ways to look at it is if you compare it to the film industry. Most of what we as pencilers do when we sit down with the blank page and a plot in front of us is what an entire staff of hundreds of people on a film or a TV show do. We’re the costume designer, we’re the set designer, we’re the cinematographer—the whole bit. If you’re working well with your writing partner, then you know their job isn’t done when they hand you the plot. They’re involved in making suggestions. I was always hoping that Tom would make suggestions for physical action and Spider-Man bits, things like that, which he did.
DEFALCIO: Which you never followed.
FRENZ: You’d be surprised! Any artist that doesn’t take advantage of suggestions for gags and bits is going to end up regretting it. It’s all going to start looking the same after a while. I would hate that. I mean, the stuff we did early in our Spider-Man run where he gets pulled off a wall when the Puma threw a weight machine out the window. It was going to crash into the people below. Spider-Man webbed it and stuck to the wall to stop it. In the original pencils all I had was he gets pulled off the wall. Tom came up with this great bit—part of the brick comes off on his feet because it wasn’t his sticking power that gave out. It was the wall that gave out. So, I redrew the panel. You see Spider-Man tumbling and you see pieces of brick still stuck to his feet. You know that that’s a visual thing that I get credit for, but it came from DeFalco.
BACK ISSUE: Tom, you often share co-plotting credit with your artists. How does that work?
DEFALCO: Bottom line, comics are a visual medium. Don’t let these other guys hear this… [Side eyes Ron and Pat.] The artist is really the most important part of this. The artwork is the most important. I always say the art makes people buy the comic book the first time and the writing may bring them back the second. As a writer, I’m describing these totally ridiculous things and these guys have to actually visualize it, make it real! So, I always thought, let’s share the credit.
OLLIFFE: Tom always wrote the plot first. The Marvel style was plot first, allowing for a more creative storytelling back and forth between the writer and the artist. The plot is a more generalized description of the action that allowed the artist to have more say over the storytelling and created a better working relationship, I think. Today, most scripts are full scripts with which all the action is described in the script. Each page and each panel is delineated pretty specifically. It’s not the same kind of working relationship.
BACK ISSUE: Pat, how did you get tapped to be the regular penciller of the original Spider-Girl series?
OLLIFFE: I told Ron I’d wash his car for a year. [Laughter]
FRENZ: I wanted to do A-Next when it was decided that it was going to be an MC2 line of three books (including J2). I really wanted to do Kevin Masterson (Thunderstrike) in A-Next. We had Pat sitting right there, having just come off of Untold Tales of Spider-Man. He also drew beautiful young women. So, hey, there’s an idea! Ridiculously enough, we had to sell it.
OLLIFFE: My first handful of pages was a tryout. I mean, I wasn’t guaranteed the book, so...
FRENZ: Bob Harras was being a jerk about it.
OLLIFFE: Well, yeah. I hoped that I could get involved with at least one of the projects. When I heard about A-Next, I was kind of keeping my fingers crossed. I was a big Avengers fan. Obviously, Tom and Ron would do Spider-Girl. But when Ron wanted to follow Kevin and Thunderstrike, they offered Spider-Girl to me. I was very excited! I mean, I have a history with the character. But yeah, the Marvel offices and Bob Harras… they weren’t so keen on the idea. So, my first pages were a tryout. I did all right.
DEFALCO: I don’t know if I told you they were a tryout, or anything like that, because they were giving me all sorts of crazy things in the office at the time. And I kept saying, “No, no. We’re gonna do it this way.” Their original idea was they wanted us to put three comic books in a bag to sell in Walmart. We were only supposed to do six issues of each title. They were gonna put them on fancy paper and charge twice the amount of money of a comic at that time. And I said, “You know these are for your younger readers, right?”
The sales guy said, “No, no, no. Trust us. We know what we’re doing.” I remember I walked out of the meeting. They had a new sales guy in charge. He says, “Oh, he’ll come around.” The other guys looking around who kind of knew me, said, “No, he won’t.” Ultimately we got to do our three titles the way we wanted.
BACK ISSUE: Was it difficult writing and penciling a predominantly teen cast (with then) current lingo and fashions?
FRENZ: We never worried about current lingo and fashion. Well, fashion, but lingo? Tom’s not a big lingo guy because things come and go. He’s old enough, ancient actually, [wide grin] that he has a much longer-term view of what makes a comic timeless, and playing into fads is not.
OLLIFFE: We had to pay attention to a certain extent, not to date it too much, and had some awareness of what kids were wearing and that kind of thing.
DEFALCO: When we originally set up the MC2 world, we figured this was fifteen years in the future. I remember when Ron and I were talking, he asked, “What do you think people could be wearing in the future?
I said, “What they’re wearing now, jeans and t-shirts.”
One of the major criticisms we’d gotten when the MC2 universe came out was, “Where are the flying cars?” We started the MC2 in 1998. So, New Year’s Day, 2013, I get a call from Mr. Frenz, “Where’s my freaking flying car?!” [Laughter]
BACK ISSUE: May’s growth as character is evident throughout the Spider-Girl series. Not only is she serving as a mediator between friends at school, but she’s also turning foes into allies. Mayday looks for the good in everyone. Was this a conscious plan or just a natural progression that organically happened as the book progressed?
FRENZ: Nothing really EVER happens in a story (especially by Tom DeFalco) by accident! Everything is planned and plotted in advance. If it feels organic, that just means the writer did his job well!
BACK ISSUE: The Spider-Girl series dealt with teen, family, and clone drama, a major gang war, plus climactic world-shattering action. Among them, May and her friends faced the issue of domestic abuse. Why did that become a major topic of interest?
DEFALCO: The domestic abuse story, Ron and I read a few articles about teen abuse and felt we should discuss that problem.
BACK ISSUE: How would you describe Peter and Mary Jane as parents? How is it different from working with them as younger adults?
DEFALCO: As older adults they’re a lot more stable, more comfortable with themselves. Another point of criticism we had is when Peter discovered that Mayday was going out as Spider-Girl, he was against it. I knew what I was doing. At one point Mary Jane. says to him, “Listen, Peter. You were the same age when you were doing this stuff.” His response? “That’s different.” This is how every father thinks. The idea that his baby girl was risking her life against super villains. No father can deal with that.
Those were actually lines I’d stolen from a conversation between my brother and his daughter. I based a lot of Spider-Girl on my niece. When she graduated college and thought about going into the police force, my brother was just beside himself. He said, “Oh, no, no. It’s too dangerous.” I said to him, “John, when you were her age you were in Vietnam!”
Mary Jane was always the stabilizing influence. Mary Jane, who people used to think was so flighty, now she was the stable one.
FRENZ: Yes. See, the difference between Mary Jane and Peter is it was all happening to Peter, but he also sometimes forgets it was happening to MJ, too. But Mary Jane chose this. She loved him enough to accept that this was going to be her life. It’s like somebody who marries a cop. I think that is what has helped her be the glue for the Parker Family. That’s what helped her keep Pete a little more regulated. We even used the line at one point, she said to Mayday, “This isn’t my first rodeo.” Before Mayday was born, MJ dealt with her own craziness and life with Spider-Man. She had a very unique perspective amongst the family.
We had a terrific demographic because among younger readers we also had older readers who liked the idea that Peter and Mary Jane were now aging with them.
BACK ISSUE: Speaking of family, besides the grandson of the Green Goblin, it would be some time before we saw classic Spider-Man rogues. Was that intentional?
FRENZ: Tom is big on creating. When we first came onto The Amazing Spider-Man, he was creating new villains and not using the classics, which I resent him for to this day. [chuckle] That was also true for Spider-Girl. We would get letters early on asking why all the characters were sons or daughters of existing characters. Tom replied, “That’s kind of our thing. It’s why we’re calling it Marvel Comics Two, it’s the next generation.” Yet the villains were not. The villains weren’t second generation. We only had, like one or two second generation villains.
BACK ISSUE: Besides a new supporting cast, you introduced a whole slew of superheroes and villains. What went into creating a great character for Spider-Girl?
OLLIFFE: Basically, Tom gives you a description. You have a conversation and then you start doodling things. The idea of the character takes a certain direction. You have some good ideas, bad ideas. You pass them around. I think Ron and I were sharing studio space and we would show each other ideas. Eventually, it just kind of forms from that. The genesis, of course, is the description that Tom gives.
BACK ISSUE: Do any of you have a favorite character that you created for the Spider-Girl series?
OLLIFFE: Two characters stand out for me, Crazy Eight being one of them. There was something about the visual that just kind of clicked. I was super happy with how it came out. Dragon King was another one. Mr. Nobody was also a lot of fun.
FRENZ: I have a secret weapon, a gentleman named Richie Yanizeski, who helps me out with design stuff. Every once in a while he comes up with some beautiful stuff outside of my comfort zone. He helped design a lot of the MC2 universe. He came up with the main design of Darkdevil and helped a lot with the Thunder Guard. Obviously, I’m very fond of Mayday. Kevin Masterson, too. Both versions. Especially the MC2 version, but I’m also very fond of the 616 version.
Oh, and JJ, the Buzz. I like JJ a lot. He was very much a teenager. One of my favorite scenes with JJ was at the end of his miniseries where Mayday is hitting him with questions like, “Why did you wait? Why didn’t you help me save Dr. Octopus? What are you doing? Why did you do that?” And he just flew away. That was teenager stuff, man, you know, and I get that. He was primal in his teenager-ness, and I appreciated it. He was very much a counterpoint for Mayday.
I also really enjoyed exploring April (May’s clone). What I really enjoyed about the character was the whole sociopathy of it. I would have loved to have explored her had we had more time. What is nature? What is nurture? You know, things like that. We barely got to touch on it in Spider-Girl: The End. She… learned. Can you learn empathy? Apparently she did. It’s very fascinating to me.
BACK ISSUE: Right. Mayday’s both Peter and Mary Jane, having been raised by them, whereas April didn’t have that. She spent most of her life in suspended animation.
DEFALCO: All that was Ron’s idea.
FRENZ: But Tom takes the idea and turns it into something that will break your heart.
BACK ISSUE: This goes back to the “Clone Saga.” Rewinding, but slightly on the same subject, in Spider-Girl, you didn’t really introduce any major villain at its inception. We did see the Venom symbiote. but beyond that, we really hadn’t seen any spider-villains until we saw Kaine, the first clone of Peter Parker.
Tom, why did you bring Kaine back? Was there any trepidation about bringing in elements of the “Clone Saga” into the series.
DEFALCO: No, none. It was a fact that Kaine was the one who had saved Mayday from Norman Osborn’s scheme and brought her back to the Parkers. It made sense to bring him back.
FRENZ: I always loved Pat’s redesign of Kaine, but my favorite scene with him was during our own clone saga. I thought that was some wonderful storytelling. Peter met with Kaine up on the rooftop.
BACK ISSUE: The impending confrontation had been building. Mayday had been told to steer clear from Kaine by her parents, but by then he was firmly involved in her adventures as Spider-Girl. Kaine has a redemption story, he’s not a complete heartless bastard. He actually has a heart and does care about Mayday.
FRENZ: It wasn’t Pete at his best, but it was Kaine at his.
DEFALCO: Kaine does care about Peter. He does care about Mary Jane.
BACK ISSUE: Would you agree that May seems to be at the center of the MC2 universe?
OLLIFFE: I don’t know who else it would be.
DEFALCO: Probably true. There wouldn’t have been an MC2 universe without Mayday.
BACK ISSUE: Where did the ideas for Last Hero and Last Planet Standing come from? Spider-Girl was certainly at the forefront of your two MC2 crossovers, the latter of which is one of the best Galactus stories to date.
DEFALCO: That came about because…
OLLIFFE: Because I needed work. [chuckle]
DEFALCO: The Marvel superstars at the time failed to deliver on some projects. At one point, Marvel came to me and said, “Any chance that you can come up with a limited series quickly?”  And I think I had just been talking to you, Pat.
OLLIFFE: Yeah. Well, I looked at it as a way of scratching that itch. In the beginning of all the MC2 stuff, I was thinking I was going to do the Avengers book or, at least, an Avengers based storyline. This had a lot of characters, but it was a lot of fun!
BACK ISSUE: Let’s talk about how fans saved Spider-Girl. The original SG series lasted a hundred issues, remaining the longest running Marvel series starring a female protagonist. After that there was a follow-up series, a miniseries, digital series, and backup stories. What made Mayday so beloved?
DEFALCO: She was a great character, that’s what made her beloved. Here’s the secret behind comics. In the Direct Market, sales primarily only go down. The Sales Department would look at a title, they’d see where it was selling now, and they could pretty accurately predict when it would be getting close to breaking even, or losing money. The only exception to the rule was Spider-Girl. They would prepare for this book to be cancelled and eight months later, magically, either the sales had stayed stable, or had gone up. Time and again they told us the book was going to get cancelled.
OLLIFFE: And we prepared for it to be cancelled.
DEFALCO: We used to say, the only people who don’t think Spider-Girl is a stable book are the people working on it.
OLLIFFE: I look back with a lot of fondness, being able to be on a book for almost five years, but it was, “Well, it looks like I’m going to be looking for a new job pretty soon.” That was the vibe for the whole run.
DEFALCO: Yeah, I’m trying to remember. You know, it was supposed to end with issue six, then it was supposed to end at issue twelve. For some reason, I think, issue sixteen or seventeen was going to be the last issue. They kept telling us it was going to be the last issue. So, every time we built up to a nice climactic ending, “Okay, nope, you got another one!” [laughter]
I always remember this, because on April Fool’s Day… it was April first… [Pat starts laughing] The editor calls me up and says, “Spider-Girl is uncancelled.”
I said, “Come on, I’m not falling for that,” and I hung up. It was because of the fans. Anytime the fans heard it was getting cancelled, they would organize all these campaigns. At one point they even took out ads in the fanzines! We had a super loyal audience. Spider-Girl fans are still very loyal.
I always remember, [editor] Tom Breevort called me up at 7:30 at night and said, “You’re the last person I want to be speaking to right now. Since Spider-Girl has been uncancelled… we need a plot in two days. Can you come up with something?”
And I said to him, “Absolutely.”
Tom asks, “What can you tell me about it?”
I said, “The title of the story is, ‘Marked For Death.’”
He goes, “Okay. Do you know what it’s about?”
I said, “Absolutely not.” [raucous laughter]
FRENZ: The people… the fans… we’ve been lucky enough to meet, they’re exceptional people. I mean, they’re first responders and they work in the medical field. Or they work, you know, in nonprofits. It’s really humbling because they’re genuinely smart people. Not just because they like Spider-Girl. [wide grin] It’s been really a fantastic experience to interact with that fanbase. We’re very lucky.
OLLIFFE: Absolutely.
BACK ISSUE: Guys, we appreciate you so much. Thank you for taking time to discuss May “Mayday” Parker and her corner of the Marvel Universe. It’s been a sincere pleasure.
DEFALCO/FRENZ/OLLIFFE: Thank you!

tom defalco

Hildy DeFalco.

ron frenz

Facebook.

patrick olliffe

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by Steven Wilber

Our heroine, from the cover of Spider-Girl #0. Art by Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Spider-Girl and her parents, Peter and Mary Jane, from Spectacular Spider-Girl #4. Art by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Spider-Girl meets Darkdevil in Spider-Girl #2. (right) Spider-Girl attempts to join A-Next in Spider-Girl #13. Art by Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top left) The supporting cast appears on the cover of Spider-Girl #16. (top right) New villains the Savage Six on the cover of Spider-Girl #25. (bottom) Fresh from the “Clone Saga,” Kaine causes problems for Spider-Girl. Art by Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson from Spider-Girl #17. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top) May hangs around in Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson’s cover to Spider-Girl #53. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom row) A sampling of Ron Frenz’ lovely covers in the Spider-Girl run.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

May joins forces with her father to take on the Hobgoblin in Spider-Girl #100. Art by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top) Ron Frenz’ cover rough and (inset) final cover to The Amazing Spider-Girl #8. (bottom) Breakout character The Buzz got three issues of his own series.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Spider-Girl and friends head off to fight Galactus in Last Planet Standing #1. Cover by Pat Olliffe and Scott Koblish.
(right) Team-up time! Art by Pat Olliffe and Scott Koblish. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema delineate an epic battle between Spider-Girl and Mayhem. From Spectacular Spider-Girl #2. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Things don’t look good for our heroes on this page from Spectacular Spider-Girl #4. Art by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

STEVEN WILBER is a storyteller on canvas and educator in the classroom based in Boston, inspired by his growing 30-plus-year collection of comic books.

by Alissa Marmol-Cernat

The odds are you know Phantom Lady. You’ve been reading comics for a while now, if you’ve as much as glanced at anything to do with the All-Star Squadron or the Justice Society of America, you know Phantom Lady. Maybe not by name, maybe not even by reputation, but the green-and- yellow-clad bombshell is hard to forget once you’ve caught a glimpse of her. Phantom Lady isn’t just one of the most visually striking female superheroes to have ever graced the hallowed newsprint of Golden Age comics but also the subject of an especially long and troubled publication history. As we take the long way around on this overview of the character, we’ll delve into the role Phantom Lady played in comic book history as a whole and the women who have worn the mantle alongside the iconic Sandra Knight.
BEHIND EVERY GREAT WOMAN…
…is a tumultuous beginning. Or so it would seem to have been the case for our heroine. Phantom Lady first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) published by Quality Comics, debuting alongside the likes of Plastic Man, the Human Bomb, and Firebrand; all later acquired by DC Comics along with the entirety of Quality’s catalogue, and finding various degrees of success over the years.
“The society columns record the activities of Sandra Knight, debutante daughter of Senator Henry Knight… no one suspects that frivolous Sandra is also the Phantom Lady, whose battles against spies and public enemies constantly make the headlines,” reads the title page of Phantom Lady’s first adventure. For the longest time, there would be nothing more to find out–in more ways than one. Not only had Phantom Lady’s debut foregone an origin and made it clear that it was not her first outing under her superheroic moniker by any means, but there was no writer credited. In fact, the page only bears cartoonist Arthur Peddy’s signature, and whether he’s the man wholly responsible for the Lady of the hour can only really be approached as mere speculation. What is, however, clear is that Phantom Lady is a product of the Eisner & Iger Studio, and a prime example of the kind of work done by the period’s foremost comic book packager–an outsourcing service that would produce comics by commission for the publishers of the 1930s and ‘40s, a now bygone phenomenon.
If that first story was standard superhero fare for the era, Sandra saving her father from an assassination attempt and gaining a taste for adventuring in the process, Phantom Lady’s look was anything but. In the hands of Arthur Peddy, Sandra Knight arrived on the scene in a yellow one-piece bathing suit with a green cape and matching boots. She was a sight to see, and she had the brains and power to live up to it–especially armed with her “black light projector,” which allowed her to become invisible at a moment’s notice.
Occasionally assisted by her fiancé, Don Borden of the Secret Service, Phantom Lady lasted a grand total of twenty-three issues at Police Comics. After Peddy departed with issue #13 (Nov. 1942), a teenage Joe Kubert took over art duties for a spell. He was succeeded by Frank Borth in issue #17 (Mar. 1943), which also marked the debut of a slight redesign of Phantom Lady’s costume; she was now sporting a plunging neckline and heeled boots. Posed against the silhouette of a black cat in the title page of Borth’s premiere issue, Sandra Knight looked like she’d made it. Peddy’s art was expressive but not especially dynamic, he’d made Sandra poised and polished but hadn’t quite managed to sell readers on her being the kind of woman who took up crime-fighting in a swimsuit. Kubert had followed suit–competent, although still juvenile. Borth’s Phantom Lady had it all, she was every bit the socialite who’d heard the call of justice and answered.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. Arthur Peddy returned for Phantom Lady’s second-to-last Police Comics appearance in issue #22 (Sept. 1943), and Rudy Palais briefly took the helm for her very final story. As far as Quality Comics was concerned though, Sandra was practically done for. She found a starring role in one last adventure in Feature Comics #69-71 (Jul.-Sept. 1943), an unusual crossover with Spider Widow and the Raven in the days when such things were far from common. It was, indeed, the only crossover Quality would ever publish.
For four years, it seemed like the world had seen the last of Phantom Lady. However, the wheels were still spinning behind the scenes. With the character no longer being published by Quality Comics, Iger Studio–now operated solely by Jerry Iger, Will Eisner having famously departed to focus on The Spirit, a weekly feature at the time– seemingly sold the rights to Fox Feature Syndicate; a move that would later cause significant confusion over the ownership of the copyright.
In August 1947, Fox’s take on Phantom Lady hit the stands, and Sandra Knight took on the mantle for the second time that decade. The feature had undergone some changes though; to begin with, it was now a self-titled solo. Phantom Lady #13, the first issue of the Fox Feature Syndicate version, had actually taken up the numbering from the seldom-remembered humor anthology Wotalife Comics. Publishers often continued the numbering from older, unrelated series under a different title as periodicals were subject to extensive registration fees by the postal service, but the complete turnaround in this particular case certainly spoke volumes. Clearly, tastes were changing.
Phantom Lady’s new costume attested to that. Under the artistic direction of illustrator Matt Baker, the costume became red-and-blue, her plunging neckline turned even more revealing, and she gained high-cut shorts. In other words, Phantom Lady had been made an icon of the infamous ‘good girl’ art style–a movement summarised by Richard A. Lupoff in The Great American Paperback: An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book (2001) as, “a cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for erotic stimulation.”
Although best remembered for redesigning and redefining Phantom Lady’s visual appeal, Matt Baker was an icon in his own right. One of the first known African-American comic book artists active in the Golden Age, Baker was also a gay man–according to artists Frank Giusto and Lee J. Ames, as quoted in Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour (2012)–and a leading figure in the aforementioned art movement. If the combination appears paradoxical in any way, it only speaks of Baker’s immense talent. His artwork cemented Phantom Lady’s rightful place in comic book history; these were dynamic, jaunty, fast-paced stories with a real hook.
But even in the capable hands of a trailblazer, Phantom Lady’s solo feature would once again end with issue #23 (Apr. 1949), although she’d make some guest appearances in All-Top Comics #8-17 (Nov. 1947-Sept. 1948). Fox Feature Syndicate filed for bankruptcy soon after, but it wasn’t quite curtains for the Lady this time around either.
For one thing, Matt Baker’s work on the character had attracted attention. It was the wrong kind of attention, but attention nonetheless. In April 1954, five years after Sandra Knight had vanished from newsstands, the cover of Phantom Lady #17 (Apr. 1948) was reprinted in Dr. Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent–and comics would never be the same again.
The cover shows an indignant Phantom Lady attempting to escape the ropes tied around her, and Wertham’s caption on page 212 of Seduction reads, “sexual stimulation by combining ‘headlights’ with the sadist’s dream of tying up a woman.” Thrust in the midst of the censorship crisis, Phantom Lady was consequently featured in the hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and inadvertently contributed to the birth of the Comics Code Authority. Of course, Phantom Lady #17 was just one example of the many used by Wertham but ironically, this indictment of the morality of comics seemed to bring the character back in the spotlight. Like clockwork, a new solo manifested into existence.
Published by Ajax-Farrell Publications, Phantom Lady’s third series lasted four issues this time around. Running from December 1954 to June 1955, the influence of the CCA was near-instant and remarkably clear. Sandra Knight’s costume was still action-ready but had become markedly less revealing, now featuring a sleeveless turtleneck and longer shorts. The majority of the stories featured in the new series seemed to be slight rewrites of old plots. In fact, “Yankee Doodle Luck’ from Phantom Lady #3 (Apr. 1955) was a redrawn version of “The Mystery of the Monkey Cult,” which had run in All-Top Comics #17 (Sept. 1948), the only major difference being a change of costume. Three years after the would-be end of the Phantom Lady, Ajax-Farrell Publications went out of business, and their assets were eventually acquired by Charlton Comics.
The Golden Age had been an especially troubled time for Phantom Lady, and it had left her with a history marred by censorship and a series of false starts, but it had also made her one of the most historically significant female characters in the medium. The era lives on in the form of the reprint volumes published by PS Artbooks, formally appearing under the title of Roy Thomas Presents Classic Phantom Lady.
Speaking to BACK ISSUE about the reprints and his history with the character, writer and comic book historian Roy Thomas recalls, “As a kid, I came along too late for the Quality Phantom Lady appearances, but I did pick up issues of the Fox Phantom Lady because there were so few other superheroes surviving into the latter 1940s. It was never a favorite comic–I was probably still too young to appreciate the sexiness of the artwork–but it was better than nothing. It’s the larger part of a decade now, I think, since I persuaded PS Artbooks to release the entire Quality/Fox run of Phantom Lady–including auxiliary titles–as a series of first hardcovers, followed by softcover editions. That was mainly because, at the time, PS Artbooks was reprinting mostly horror comics. After we did The Heap, I thought Fox titles like Phantom Lady and Rulah, as well as Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, were the next best thing when it came to public domain comics, since my main interest was/is in continuing characters, not in horror or crime one-off stories.”
FOURTH TIME’S THE CHARM
When Phantom Lady first appeared on the cover of Justice League of America #107 in October 1973, no one could have predicted she’d finally be here to stay. The heroine had been absent from public consciousness for seventeen years. It was just as likely that the younger readers picking up that week’s JLA had never as much as caught a glimpse of her ever before.
And yet, there she was, wearing her Frank Borth-era threads and accompanied by Uncle Sam, the Human Bomb, Doll Man, the Ray, and the Black Condor–bright, dynamic, exciting figures pencilled and inked by series regulars Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano, and decidedly never before seen at DC Comics. The now-iconic JLA #107 wasn’t just another crossover, and despite starring Golden Age heroes, it certainly wasn’t just one of the many Justice Society of America reunions the book had become famous for. The issue marked the introduction of Quality Comics characters into the DC Universe at large. The way it had gone was simple in theory, but it had taken a long time to be put into practice. When Quality Comics went out of business in December 1956, DC Comics–then National Comics Publications– purchased the majority of their trademarked catalogue. They chose to keep four ongoings running, presumably the best-sellers of the bunch, and more obscure fare like Phantom Lady was kept in limbo until that fateful day in 1973. The group of Quality heroes reintroduced to the world by Len Wein in Justice League of America formed what was called the Freedom Fighters, and as was customary with acquisitions from other publishers or 1940s holdovers, their locale was a parallel universe–in this case, Earth-X, where Nazi Germany had won World War II to devastating consequences.
The Freedom Fighters gained their own eponymous series three years later, running for fifteen issues from March 1976 to August 1978 with various creative teams at the helm. It was during this time that the Fighters relocated to Earth-1, DC’s mainline universe, and Phantom Lady gained something of an origin story–a rehash of her first Golden Age adventure, now reimagined as her actual first taste of superheroics rather than one of many previously unseen nights of crime-fighting.
After the series came to an end, Phantom Lady next appeared in All-Star Squadron (1981). A recurring character in the now-iconic book, it is this association with the Justice Society of America that Phantom Lady is most often remembered for among fans and casual readers alike. If not to the extent of the main cast, Sandra Knight’s characterization and background was expanded on more than ever before–she and Ted Knight/Starman became cousins, united by their last names; and a fun little character piece in Squadron #44 (April 1985) detailed a double-date between Phantom Lady and Hourman and Firebrand and Tarantula, offering a glimmer of personality that Sandra had never been afforded before.
Recalling his time on the book, writer Roy Thomas tells BACK ISSUE, “When I began All-Star Squadron, I persuaded DC to let me use Quality heroes such as Plastic Man and Phantom Lady, the latter because there were so few female heroes in DC’s comics in the early ‘40s, and it allowed DC to establish a primacy over the character at a time when Bill Black’s AC Comics were reprinting the old stories. But I soon decided that Phantom Lady just wasn’t enough of a character, and I moved back toward a cast that was almost entirely DC- oriented, except for the Quality-derived female Firebrand, who was essentially a new character. I would probably have used Quality’s Wildfire character instead of inventing the new Firebrand, except that the Legion of Super-Heroes already had a Wildfire. In retrospect, it might have been a good idea to develop Phantom Lady further, since I tied her in with Starman because both of their civilian names were ‘Knight.’”
AC Comics was doing more than just reprinting classics. The copyright confusion that followed Phantom Lady around in the 1970s and ‘80s was another troubled chapter in her history, but at the very least not one that threatened her existence or her home at DC. Believing that the copyright had lapsed into the public domain, Bill Black of AC Comics had started publishing books featuring an even more risqué version of the Matt Baker Phantom Lady. The character bearing that name appeared in titles such as Fem Fantastique and Bizarre Thrills, and it wasn’t until DC threatened legal action that Black’s Phantom Lady became known as Nightveil and later the Blue Bulleteer.
Although appearing throughout the remainder of All-Star Squadron, as well as Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) and Young All-Stars (1987), Phantom Lady’s next major role wouldn’t come until the ground-breaking now-classic Starman (1994). Thrust back into the spotlight in Starman #44 (July 1998), Phantom Lady gained new layers in the hands of writer James Robinson and penciller Mike Mayhew. One of the infamous “Times Past” instalments in the series, “1943: Things That Go Bump in the Night” is a radical take on what could have been a by-the-books Golden Age thriller: Phantom Lady travels to Opal City in search of the Prairie Witch, who’d previously hit a Halloween party Sandra had been attending as her civilian self in Washington, and captures her with Starman’s assistance. It’s a deceptively simple set-up, yet Robinson’s execution is anything but. His Phantom Lady is strong, self-assured, delightfully tongue-in-cheek, with a well-developed sense of identity.
Speaking to BACK ISSUE about his first sight of Phantom Lady and the inspiration behind the Starman issue, James Robinson recalls, “I suppose my introduction to the character came in two ways so close that I forget which came first. Now, I should probably begin this by saying that as a kid I was always fascinated by Golden Age superheroes. This is before the internet, mind you, so finding out about them required finding books about the Golden Age of comics, of which there were next to none. Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes book and the two large Steranko’s History of Comics come to mind, although even those came a bit later for me. The bulk of my search was hunting down Marvel and DC comics which had Golden Age superhero reprints in the backs. Now this was before comic stores were around in the UK, so even this wasn’t easy. A lot of what I discovered were in second-hand bookstores, usually on the bottom shelves in piles. DC had done some 52-page comics that had Golden Age reprints in them. For example, the Kirby Fourth World comics when they had reprints were all Golden Age Simon/ Kirby stories featuring Sandman, Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, and Manhunter. Other books had Golden Age stories that in some way pertained to the main character of the book.
“And at the same time, DC began publishing 100-page specials with no new stories in them, just a mixture of Golden and Silver Age stories all pertaining to that 100-pager’s overriding theme. For example, it was in a Superman 100-page featuring ‘flying heroes’ that I first encountered both the Ray and Black Condor, two other heroes originally published by Quality Comics (with an amazing Neal Adams wraparound cover!). And in that same way in another 100-pager, this one focusing on Supergirl and other female superheroes, I first made the acquaintance of Phantom Lady. The story had originally been published in Police Comics #17, March 1943 and had all the charm stories of that era usually had. The art was great too. It was by Frank Borth, a friend of Reed Crandell, but who unlike Crandell is all but entirely forgotten today. Anyway, I loved the story, although even as a kid I noted how somewhat impractical her costume was in terms of keeping her breasts covered, during fights and such.
“Also at that time, a new comic that I encountered was Justice League of America #108. It was the second issue of the annual JLA/JSA two-part crossover (with no comic stores growing up, it took me years to find the first part) and along with the guest-starring Justice Society, the story featured the Freedom Fighters, a newly-named team created by Len Wein featuring six of the old Quality heroes. The heroes were Uncle Sam, the Human Bomb and Dollman as well as my old friends Black Condor and the Ray, as well as Phantom Lady–the logic of whose costume I still questioned even when drawn by Dick Dillin and inked by Dick Giordano. Now as a kid I knew nothing about Will Eisner’s Quality Comics being a separate company back in the 1940s, which was subsequently absorbed into DC Comics, and I was just excited to see these characters I’d enjoyed as Golden Age reprints now brought into current continuity. From then on, I snapped up any Freedom Fighter stories I could, with all of them featuring Phantom Lady.”
The story shows a refreshingly blunt, no-nonsense attitude to the character’s infamous sensuality–Sandra Knight identifies her enjoyment of “showing off” as her “undoing with being a superhero”. It reads as a necessary nod to Phantom Lady’s history, and it makes for a radical take in framing it as her in-universe choice. Discussing his approach, Robinson explains: “I was aware of Wertham’s wrath directed at Phantom Lady but that wasn’t my main influence for how she was depicted in Starman #44. Instead, I wanted to capture that independent free-spirit sort of female that you’d see in romantic comedies of that time–heiresses who did as they pleased and got into scrapes and antics. Like Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey, or Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby. Irene Dunne too, in The Awful Truth. Tying that to New York cocktail society at that time and the soirees and galas to support the war effort, filled with the rich, bored, young looking for fun and adventure. Even after the closure of the Federal Theatre Project New Deal Program under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) there were still earnest playwrights writing about the working-class struggle, and I tried to reference that too. I wanted her to be a bit more of a realist, however, not too zany. She goes on that adventure for the money she’d get to buy war bonds. Even in her Golden Age stories she comes across as a strong, independent woman, not some ditz or merely a crime-fighting pinup, so I wanted to get some of that feel across. I definitely wanted to give the sense that I respected the character. There’s nothing wrong with being sexy, but I wanted to give an intelligent integrity at the same time. I wanted the costume to make sense, not apologize or get into explaining that choice overly.”
If that is the highlight of Sandra Knight’s long career, if Starman #44 understands and embodies all that had come before and all she had meant and represented, then it certainly isn’t the end of Phantom Lady’s legacy.
CARRYING THE BANNER
Past the Golden Age associations, the Phantom Lady mantle has been used by three other women: Delilah ‘Dee’ Tyler, Stormy Knight, and Jennifer Knight. The latter two were products of Infinite Crisis and The New 52, and despite being effective reinventions of the concept with no real relation to Sandra Knight, they make for compelling characters in their own right. However, it’s Dee Tyler that really stands out among the trio, and for good reason too.
Created by Len Strazewski and Chuck Austen and first appearing in Action Comics Weekly #636 (Jan. 1989), Dee is the daughter of the U.S. Attorney General and like the original Phantom Lady, she joins the ranks by rescuing her father. In fact, she’d been trained by Sandra Knight and gifted her original costume and equipment, closely resembling her mentor with the sole exception of her wild ‘80s hair. Yet, against all odds, Dee Tyler developed a very distinct personality–she was dynamic and fun-loving, carefree and ingenious, a real forerunner of the kinds of characters that would later inherit Golden Age legacies.
Recalling his introduction to the character, artist Chuck Austen tells BACK ISSUE, “I was a huge fan of Dave Stevens’ early Rocketeer, and someone– maybe Terry Austin... he was very generous with sending me old comics he thought I would enjoy, as we were both fans of old humor books like The Kilroys–gave me some beat-up old copies of Phantom Lady done by Matt Baker, noting it was a huge influence on Stevens. I read them and thought how cool it would be to do a satirical version of those stories. One story in particular about her fighting a world of zombies and a weird doctor as the villain with an uncomfortable love for his main zombie was just amazing–action-packed, and so ridiculous that the comedy would write itself. I even started a version of that years ago, thinking about doing it as a comedy one-shot somewhere.”
But all the same, the new Phantom Lady was not well received. Discussing whether the six-issue run in ACW meant the feature was being primed for a solo, Austen explains, “I bet they’d have loved it if that had happened, but it was never mentioned. It may have been a tryout without me being told it was a tryout. Reigniting an IP and a book that sells is always the goal. I don’t know how fans took it, but internally I was told they hated it. Mark Waid called me after the first few pages had been delivered, and said, ‘the women up here hate you. She’s super hot and basically naked.’ He gave me some other ‘women hate you’ specifics, then laughed and said I needed to do ‘something more comedic, something more like Plastic Man.’ But my approach to Phantom Lady was as we had discussed, so I was confused by the hatred. If they wanted her in a less sexy outfit, that’s what I would have drawn. I was a hired gun hoping for more work. Unfortunately, I had also apparently misinterpreted the story as satire and drawn it accordingly. I even wrote some sample new dialogue over the top of my pencils as an example of how the satirical humor could be pushed, and it was not appreciated. It wasn’t intended as satire, and I think they thought I was making fun of  the material. I had completely misread the intent. Phantom Lady was a lot of fun to draw though, and I’d do it again if I could do it as satire–for real, this time.”
Despite a complicated history, short-lived heirs to the mantle, censorship, and ever-changing publishers, Phantom Lady remains one of the most iconic and polarizing female characters in comics. Empowered superheroine or oversexualized bombshell, the one thing that’s clear is that her historical significance cannot be overstated.

A Mel Ramos color screenprint of Phantom Lady, printed in 1990 after the original 1963 drawing. (inset) Our first glimpse of Phantom Lady on the cover of Police Comics #1. Art by Gill Fox. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

(left) Arthur Peddy’s splash page for the first Phantom Lady story in Police Comics #1. (right) Joe Kubert draws Phantom Lady in Police Comics #14.

(top) The Frank Borth Phantom Lady debuts in Police Comics #17. (bottom) Phantom Lady joins the Spider Widow for an adventure in Feature Comics #69. Art by Frank Borth.

(top) The Matt Baker era begins in Fox’s Phantom Lady #13. (bottom left) Phantom Lady was revived in her own title starting with issue #13. (bottom middle) Phantom Lady #15. (bottom right) Matt Baker’s most famous, and infamous, Phantom Lady cover, #17.

roy thomas

© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

(left) Phantom Lady gets another shot at a series. Artist unknown. (right) Original cover to Phantom Lady #2 for Ajax Farrell. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

(left) Justice League of America #107 introduces us to the Freedom Fighters. Art by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano. (right) Phantom Lady makes DC her home in Justice League of America #107. Cover by Nick Cardy.
TM & © DC Comics.

(top left) The Freedom Fighters would go on to get their own title. Art by Ernie Chan.(top center) Phantom Lady is prominently featured on the cover of All-Star Squadron #26. Art by Mike Machlan and Jerry Ordway. (top right) Date night goes awry in All-Star Squadron #44. Cover by Arvell Jones and Tony DeZuniga. (bottom) Bill Black’s version of Phantom Lady left little to the imagination. Cover by Joe Staton and Bill Black.
TM & © DC Comics.

(top) Phantom Lady steps into the spotlight in Starman #44. Cover by Tony Harris. (bottom) Phantom Lady in action in Starman #44. Art by Mike Mayhew and Wade von Grawbadger. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © DC Comics.

james robinson

chuck austen

Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons.

(left) A stunning Phantom Lady by Kevin Nowlan graces the cover of Action Comics Weekly #639. (right) Phantom Lady in the heat of battle from Action Comics Weekly #638. Art by Chuck Austen and Gary Martin.
TM & © DC Comics.

A bombastic Ken Landgraff illustration featuring Phantom Lady, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and Miss Masque putting the smackdown on various Axis baddies.
Wonder Woman and Catwoman
TM & © DC Comics.

ALISSA MARMOL-CERNAT is a London-based aspiring filmmaker and freelance writer. A longtime reader of DC Comics, she spends most of her time hunting down back issues.

by Stephan Friedt

Tank Girl in all her glory by Jamie Hewlett. (inset) Tank Girl’s first appearance, on the cover of Deadline #1.
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

(left) A page from Tank Girl’s first appearance in Deadline #1. Art by Jamie Hewlett. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (right) That Aussie’s back on the cover of Deadline #4.
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

“NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE IF YOU’RE INSANE ENOUGH.”
–Tank Girl
Tank Girl made her debut in 1988 in the British anthology book, Deadline. In this punk art influenced series, the young lady Rebecca Buck, born “Fonzie Rebecca Buckler” wanders around post-apocalyptic Australia in her tank that doubles as her motor home. She is first introduced as an agent of a mysterious organization, but as retribution for missteps on her part, she is marked an outlaw for her drug use and sexual deviations with her mutant kangaroo boyfriend, Booga. The creation of writer Alan Martin and artist Jamie Hewlett, she’s been written primarily by Martin, but also by Alan Grant (Judge Dredd, Batman) and Peter Milligan (Human Target, X-Static).
The list of artists who have illustrated her adventures has grown over the years and includes Jamie Hewlett, Philip Bond, Glyn Dillon, Ashley Wood, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Jim Mahfood, Brett Parson, Jonathan Edwards, Craig Knowles, Rufus Dayglo, Andy Pritchett, and Mike McMahon.
The series revolves around a cast of characters:
Tank Girl: A tank driver and a bounty hunter. She is prone to random acts of sex and violence, hair dyeing, flatulence, nose picking, vomiting, spitting, and more than occasional drunkenness. Tank Girl wears cut-off T-shirts or simply a bra, along with shorts and plenty of earrings and necklaces. Her natural hair color appears to be blonde, though she has appeared in many different hairstyles.
Booga: A mutated kangaroo, formerly a successful toy designer of “products Santa would’ve sacrificed a reindeer for,” and presently Tank Girl’s devoted boyfriend.
Three talking stuffed animals: Camp Koala: A stitchy, brown, gay, koala-shaped stuffed toy. Squeaky toy rat: A squeaky toy rat. Mr. Precocious. A “small Shakespearean mutant” who looks a bit like a mini bipedal pink elephant,
Stevie: Tank Girl’s ex-boyfriend and a wild-haired blond Aboriginal man who owns a convenience store and chain-smokes.
Barney: Busted out of a mental hospital by Tank Girl, she is more or less insane.
Sub Girl:. A friend of Tank Girl’s since childhood, she pilots a submarine.
Jet Girl: A talented mechanic who flies a jet.
Boat Girl: You got it…she drove a boat.
BEGINNINGS
The British comics magazine Deadline ran from 1988 through 1995. Featuring comic strips and written articles primarily geared towards a mature audience, it was the result of the collaboration between 2000 AD artists, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon. It grew out of an earlier magazine, Strange Days, a similar anthology magazine created by Brett, Brendan McCarthy, and Peter Milligan. Strange Days reached out to the alternative and indie music fans. The counterculture loved the subversive nature of the comic strips. It also reprinted and introduced the British fandom to the independent American series Love and Rockets, Flaming Carrot, and Milk and Cheese.
Deadline enjoyed the same audience and was intended as a forum for new comic talent. Tank Girl, Johnny Nemo, Hugo Tate, Wired World, and many more strips debuted there.
Martin and Hewlett met while attending The West Sussex College of Art and Design (later named Worthington), and the origin of Tank Girl grew out of their love of and performing of music. Martin was in the band “The University Smalls,” and had a crush on a girl that resembled a character from Love and Rockets, that they nicknamed “Rocket Girl.”.
Alan Martin revealed in an interview for Review Graveyard (2016): “During the mid-eighties I was in a band with the then unknown Philip Bond. I was studying at Worthing at this time, which is where we met up with Jamie.
“The three of us then worked together on the comic/fanzine Atomtan. While working on this Jamie had drawn a grotty looking heffer of a girl brandishing an unfeasible firearm. One of our friends was working on a project to design a pair of headphones and was basing his design on the type used by World War II tank drivers. His studio was littered with loads of photocopies of combat vehicles. I pinched one of the images and gave it to Jamie who then stuck it behind his grotty girl illustrations and then added a logo which read ‘Tank Girl’.”
Alan also talked about their process for creating the story arcs: “We had about a month to create each part, so of course we’d leave it until five days until the deadline and then we’d stay up all night. I’d be filling in the boxes as soon as Jamie had completed the drawings. A lot of the time we wouldn’t know how it was going to end until Jamie started drawing the final panel.”
In a 2008 interview with Nicole Powers for Suicide Girls website, when asked about the original concept for the series, Alan revealed: “It was just a hotchpotch of ideas, of things that we liked. There was no real formula to it. Everything that went in just had to tick the cool boxes, you know. Did it look good? Did it sound good? Did it taste good? If it did, then it was OK to go in our comic. “
Tank Girl quickly became a mascot and role model of women in the counterculture scene, especially the punk rock culture and its growing empowerment of women.
The spreading presence of “Tank Girl” merchandise (posters, t-shirts, and underpants) and the “Tank Girl” references as the public rebelled against the then anti-homosexuality legislation of the Margaret Thatcher government even included weekly lesbian gatherings being referred to as “Tank Girl Nights.”
All this publicity and public rebellion led to publishing companies trying to jump on the band wagon. Penguin bought the rights to reprinting the strip in Britain, which led to Tank Girl showing up in Spain, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Argentina, Brazil, and Japan.
In America, publishers were fighting over her. Dark Horse beat everyone else and began reprinting the strips in 1991, stopped in 1992, and resumed in 1993.
DC through Vertigo Comics took over with a graphic novel Tank Girl: The Odyssey (1995) and released it in four issues, written by Peter Milligan and loosely inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce’s Ulysses, and a considerable quantity of junk TV. Next was another four issue series, Tank Girl: Apocalypse (Nov. 1995- Feb. 1996) written by Alan Grant and published by Vertigo.
“LIFE IS HARD, BUT IT’S HARDER IF YOU’RE STUPID.”
–Tank Girl
The feature movie in 1995 was the next incarnation. Directed by Rachel Talalay and written by Tedi Sarafian, the film starred Lori Petty, Ice-T, Malcolm McDowell, and Naomi Watts.
The film is set in a drought ravaged Australia years after a catastrophic impact event., We follow the antihero Tank Girl (Petty) as she, Jet Girl (Watts), and genetically modified super soldiers called the Rippers fight Water & Power, an oppressive corporation led by Kesslee (McDowell).
Rachel Talalay was gifted a copy of Tank Girl the comic by her stepdaughter while she was shooting her first film Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. She read it and sought Deadline to get permission to direct a film adaptation. Rachel, with production designer Catherine Hardwicke, worked closely with Martin and Hewlett when making the film. Courtney Love assembled the critically acclaimed soundtrack. Stan Winston headed the prosthetic team, and his studio had so much fun they cut their bill to the studio in half. According to Frank Wynne’s The Making of Tank Girl (Titan Books), the film was pitched to Amblin Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, who both passed. Rachel turned down an offer from Disney because of her fear of the edits they would insist on. An offer from MGM was accepted and the film began.
The movie bombed at the box office, had mixed reviews from the critics, and according to Talay, the final edit was a studio- destroyed version of her film. Despite all that it’s become a loved cult film. Like the character of Tank Girl, the film became a favorite of fans of lesbian culture and a “real feminist cult film” according to the book Cult Cinema by Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton.
Alan Martin summed it up in his Review Graveyard interview in 2022: “We had hardly any involvement until the very last minute when they realized that it really didn’t look anything like the original comic and then they pulled in Jamie and Philip to pad it out with comic panels. Up until that point we’d kind of hoped that they knew what they were doing. They made a lot of noise as though they did know what they were doing, but when it came down to it, it didn’t look that way.”
In Collider (Sept. 10, 2019) Jeff Sneider reported that a reboot of the film was in early development with Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who optioned the rights from MGM. Like many other projects, everything was put on hold during the initial COVID-19 pandemic.
IN A WORLD FULL OF SHEEP, BE A FREAKIN’ WOLF.
-Tank Girl
Tank Girl returned in Tank Girl: The Gifting (IDW 2007) written by Alan Martin with art by Ashley Wood. IDW also published Tank Girl: Visions of Booga (2008) by Martin and artist Rufus Dayglo
Alan wrote the novel Tank Girl: Armadillo and a Bushel of Other Stories for Titan Books in 2008.
Tank Girl has surfaced regularly in one-shots and limited series, published by either IDW, Image Comics, or Titan Comics ever since.
Tank Girl has been featured in trade paperbacks over the years. In 2002, the entire back catalogue was reprinted by Titan Books in “re-mastered” anniversary editions, stripped of their subsequently added computer coloring, and the line work was repaired.
In 2018, the entire Hewlett and Martin back catalogue was once again reprinted under the “Tank Girl Color Classics” banner, this time as collectible hardbacks, with all-new coloring and extra material.

(top) Tank Girl lands the cover of Deadline #6. (bottom) A double page spread from Deadline #7 featuring Sub Girl and Jet Girl. Art by Jamie Hewlett.
Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

Tank Girl brings down the house party in this page from Deadline #3. Art by Jamie Hewlett. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

(top left) Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl cover for Deadline #33. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (top right) A Jamie Hewlett pin-up of Tank Girl and Booga from Deadline. (bottom) Is that a kangaroo in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? Deadline #50.
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

(top left) Brian Bolland provided the covers for Tank Girl: The Odyssey. (bottom) A peek inside Tank Girl: The Odyssey #1. Art by Jamie Hewlett. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (top right) Bolland was back on covers for Tank Girl: Apocalypse.
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

(top right) The Tank Girl movie poster. (bottom right) John Bolton’s cover for the adaptation of the Tank Girl movie. (left column) Three of the storyboards Jamie Hewlett drew for the production of the 1995 Tank Girl movie. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett,
Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

(top left) Ashley Wood takes on our hero in Tank Girl: The Gifting from IDW. (top right) Tank Girl: Action Alley #1 cover by Brett Parson. (bottom) A Jamie Hewlett illustration for a 1989 issue of Commodore User magazine. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
Tank Girl TM & © Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, and Deadline Publications, Ltd.

STEPHAN FRIEDT has been around comics for more than 50 years and writing about them since his first letter was published in a Marvel comic in 1973.

by Jarrod Buttery

BACK ISSUE #158 (Apr. 2025) featured a quite-good retrospective of Mr Fantastic, leader of the Fantastic Four, and one of Marvel’s most significant characters. Yet beside him, for over 60 years, has stood the person who keeps Reed Richards in check.
THE MARVEL AGE BEGINS
As previously noted, the first page of Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961) introduces us to Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and her brother, Johnny Storm. One by one, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby present our stars, starting with Sue. Page two has Susan Storm enjoying tea when a flare appears in the sky, spelling out the words: ‘The Fantastic Four.’ Fading from sight, Sue muses, “So it has happened at last! I must be true to my vow! There can be no turning back! It is time for the world to meet… The Invisible Girl!”
As the fantastical foursome assembles, we flash back to one of comics’ great origin stories: Dr. Reed Richards has built a starship. Pilot Ben Grimm is worried about cosmic rays. But Sue declares, “Ben, we’ve got to take that chance… unless we want the commies to beat us to it! I… I never thought that you would be a coward!” Sue has spoken. She joins the flight, telling Reed, “I’m your fiancée! Where you go, I go!”
The ship blasts off. Our quartet is bombarded by cosmic rays. They crash back to Earth. One by one, they find themselves with more power than any humans have ever possessed. The Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, the Thing, and Mr. Fantastic vow to use their powers to help mankind—and from that moment on, the world would never again be the same!
Interviewed in Comics Scene 2000 #1 (May 2000), Stan Lee recalled: “I liked Plastic Man. That’s a great power, and nobody was using it. So I gave Reed Richards Plastic Man’s power. The Human Torch I always felt had been a great character. We weren’t using him. So I brought him back. As for the Invisible Girl, she’s a girl so I don’t want her to be strong. I don’t want her to be Wonder Woman and punch people. So what power should she have? I figured, ‘Gee, what if she’s invisible?’ I knew there had been invisible people. There was The Invisible Man, the movie with Claude Rains. All I was trying to do was think of four powers that were totally different.”
Web of Stories (dot com) presents online video interviews. Amongst those, Stan describes Sue Storm and how he aimed to buck the clichés: “Instead of the obligatory female who always has to be rescued, and doesn’t know who the hero really is, she was the hero’s fiancée. She knew who he was—they all knew who they were—and she also had a superpower that was as good as anyone else’s, so she was a fighting member of the team.”
Reprinted in various publications, Stan’s original synopsis for Fantastic Four #1 was discussed by Roy Thomas in Alter Ego Vol. 2, #2 (Summer 1998). The synopsis is headed “July ‘61 Schedule” and commences with “Story #1. Introduction. ‘Meet the Fantastic Four’. This story is told in 2 chapters. Chapter one is 6 pages long. Chapter 2 is 5 pages.” Stan lists his four main characters, including: SUSAN STORM (Invisible Girl) She is Reed’s girl friend (sic). She’s an actress. Beautiful, glamorous.
After describing the spaceflight and crash- landing, Stan writes, “Suddenly, they can’t see Susan. But they know she’s there! They can HEAR her. They realise she has become invisible. She can not become visible again. Later, she will buy a mask with a face like the one she had and she will have to wear that mask in order to be seen. Her clothes of course can be seen, so it is only her flesh that is invisible. When she takes her clothes off, she is completely invisible. (I hope this won’t seem too sexy in art work. Better talk to me about it, Jack—maybe we’ll change this gimmick somewhat.)”
Roy explains that he asked Stan about the synopsis. Roy writes: “Since the 11 pages allotted for the first part had become 13—with the flashback-origin squeezed into a mere five—I’d asked if Jack had added the action-packed 8-page intro on his own; it shows Reed summoning his three comrades with a signal in the sky, to which they respond in ways that reveal their powers to the reader. Stan said that might have been Jack’s idea, or his own later suggestion; he didn’t remember, after so many years, though he tended towards giving Jack the credit.
“Surprisingly, Susan Storm was originally intended to be a beautiful, glamorous ‘actress.’ Stan suspects that, since the page-count given to the actual origin had been more than cut in half, and nothing in Jack’s pencils overtly indicated an acting career, he probably dropped that notion when writing the dialogue. (Jack’s artwork would have supported scripting Sue as either actress or simply ‘the girlfriend.’)
“Re the idea of Sue remaining permanently invisible and having to wear a humanoid face-mask to be seen—well, Stan’s note at the end of that paragraph indicates he was already re-thinking that bit; he asked Jack to talk with him about it because ‘maybe we’ll change that gimmick somewhat.’ Since the writer/editor and artist probably discussed this point before Jack started drawing, any number of other changes—including the notion of starting with a multi-page action sequence—may have been suggested then, as well, by either man. In any event, Sue gained control of her invisibility almost at once.”
Indeed, in the aforementioned five-page origin- flashback, after the crash-landing, Sue is the first one to demonstrate her newfound abilities. Subtly—but importantly—Sue’s flight-suit turns invisible and visible as she does (in the same way that Reed’s flight-suit stretches and Johnny’s isn’t incinerated). The flight-suits were affected by cosmic rays too, becoming molecularly unstable. Reed is able to utilise this effect for other garments. On page two, as Sue shows the readers why she is called the Invisible Girl, her street-clothes turn invisible with her.
Fantastic Four #3 (Mar. 1962) sees Sue designing the FF’s iconic costumes: “If we’re a team, we should look like a team!” Still later, in Fantastic Four #6 (Sep. 1962), Reed explains that his costume stretches as he does because it is woven from chemical fibres containing unstable molecules that shift in structure when he stretches. Johnny uses the same explanation in issue #8 for his costume. (As does Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #35 (Sep. 1962).)
But we’ve jumped ahead. In the second half of issue #1, the Fantastic Four meet the Moleman! In this 12-page story, Sue’s powers hardly allow her to go on the offensive, but she’s an active member of the team as the FF travel to Monster Island. In issue #2 (Jan. 1962), the Fantastic Four meet the Skrulls from Outer Space! Our heroes are framed, and thrown in jail, but Sue escapes on her own without needing to be rescued. As the Fantastic Four fight back, the Invisible Girl is part of the fray as she is able to wallop Skrulls while unseen. As the FF are humiliated by the Miracle Man in issue #3 (Mar. 1962), Sue bravely tells the others to fall back, stating, “One Invisible Girl can sometimes accomplish more than a battalion!” and she turns invisible to follow the villain and locate his hideout. Unfortunately, she is discovered, hypnotised, and made a captive.
Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962) boasts a classic cover—featuring the return of the Sub-Mariner—but it does succumb to the cliché of an image of a villain carrying off a helpless damsel. Sue fares better inside. Amnesiac for years, Namor—the Sub-Mariner—regains his memory and returns to his undersea kingdom of Atlantis, only to find it in ruins. Swearing vengeance on the human race, the Sub-Mariner uses the ancient Horn of Proteus to summon a sea-monster to smash New York. Once again proving that stealth sometimes has benefits over brawn, an invisible Sue snatches the horn from Namor. But while Sue is invisible, the horn she is carrying is not, and Namor grabs what he cannot see. As Sue turns visible, Namor suavely declares,“Well! Here is a prize worth catching! You’re the loveliest human I’ve ever seen! If you will be my bride, I might show mercy to the rest of your pitiful race!”
Today’s Susan (or Jan, or Jen, or Jean, or Carol, or…) probably would’ve taken Namor down a peg or two, but this was 1962 and Fantastic Four was being produced by two men in their forties—one of whom literally co-created the Romance Comic genre. Nothing they did was wrong, and Fantastic Four inarguably revolutionised comics, but the times were certainly different. Many of these early plots could generously be described as quaint.
Sue again becomes a captive—this time of Doctor Doom (who appears to be a fan of John Willie)—in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). Regardless, it’s a bound-Sue who manages to free Reed, Ben, and Johnny from Doom’s death-trap.
Johnny discovers that Sue is keeping a photograph of Namor, in Fantastic Four #6 (Sep. 1962). Admitting that Namor was previously hostile, Sue also recognises that there is something gentle about him. When Namor appears, Sue—quite rightly—counsels talking over tussling. In issue #9 (Dec. 1962), under the guise of making a ‘Fantastic Four Film’ (as if such a thing would ever happen…), Namor buys a movie studio and orchestrates traps for Reed, Ben, and Johnny. He tells Sue, “Now that the others are out of the way, I want you to be—my bride!” Sue responds: “You ask me that? Oh! You—you fool! Perhaps if you hadn’t deceived us—if you had been honest with us, I might have answered you differently!” and she holds Namor off until the others escape their traps.
FAN MAIL
Tom DeFalco’s book: Comics Creators on Fantastic Four (Titan Books, 2005) interviewed Stan Lee (amongst others). Stan explains: “After Fantastic Four #1 came out, something new happened. We started getting fan mail. We had never gotten fan mail before Fantastic Four. I mean, maybe we’d get a letter from a kid complaining because there was a page missing in a book he had bought. Even letters like that would thrill us because they indicated that somebody was reading the books. Suddenly, with Fantastic Four, we got real fan mail that was talking about the stories and artwork. It was wonderful!”
“Fantastic 4 Fan Page” first appeared in issue #3. The very first letter was from future professional comics artist Alan Weiss! The Letters Page in issue #6 contained comments regarding issue #4, but also the following: “DEAR EDITOR: It’s the greatest! But I think Sue Storm ought to be thrown out. She never does anything.” An editorial reply states: “Well, this is the first anti-Invisible Girl letter we’ve received! What do the REST of you fans think?”
An editorial update in the Letters Page in issue #10 (Jan. 1963) states: “Some issues back a reader suggested eliminating the Invisible Girl from FF. You fans were definite in your reaction. Eight letters favoured dropping Sue Storm, BUT 639 demanded that she remain one of the team!”
Stan and Jack chose to address this directly in issue #11 (Feb. 1963). In “A Visit with the Fantastic Four” our heroes read fan mail and reminisce about their backstories. Sue specifically says, “I… I hadn’t wanted to mention it, Reed, but I’ve gotten some letters lately—some disturbing letters! A number of readers have said that I don’t contribute enough to you… you’d be—better off without me! And perhaps they’re… right!” Understandably, Reed and Ben hit the roof, prompting Reed to remind everyone that the most important person in the world to Abraham Lincoln was his mother: “She didn’t help him fight the Civil War! She didn’t split rails for him! She didn’t battle with his enemies!” However, “All that he was… all that he ever hoped to be… he owed to her.” Somewhat cheered, Sue is quickly overjoyed to discover that the others have organised a surprise birthday cake for her.
In his introduction to Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 2, Stan writes about that issue: “But the main point concerned Sue Storm. Once and for all, I wanted to show how essential she was to the team. It was important for our readers to realize she wasn’t merely a ‘token’ female as some of the fan mail had suggested.”
In the Letters Page for issue #11, in answer to a fan question, we are told: “Mr. Fantastic and Ben Grimm are both in their late thirties, having graduated college when they were very young. Sue Storm is in her twenties, and Johnny was just seventeen. (We can’t tell Sue’s EXACT age because, being a female, she’d never talk to us again!)” Cheeky and sexist—but another sign of the times.
Sue is in bondage again—this time on the cover of Fantastic Four #14 (May 1963)—as she is kidnapped by the Sub-Mariner, who is being mind-controlled by the Puppet Master. Via the machinations of the Mad Thinker—in issue #15 (June 1963)—Sue is given the opportunity to star in a Hollywood movie. She soon laments, “And I always thought acting would be fun! What a fool I was!” In issue #17 (Aug. 1963), Sue uses Judo to singlehandedly best Doctor Doom in unarmed combat! And it’s Sue who is able to invisibly sneak-up on the Super-Skrull and attach a power-jammer in issue #18 (Sep. 1963). Then Sue is abducted by the Sub-Mariner—again—in Fantastic Four Annual #1 (Sep. 1963).
Soon we come to Fantastic Four #22 (Jan. 1964) and probably the most important development for Sue—certainly in terms of her abilities—in the past 60 years. Reed is studying Sue’s powers (as she mimics a Vargas pose), Ben and Johnny are fooling around, Ben discharges a fire extinguisher—and Sue reflexively erects a shield of invisible energy! Sue tells Reed: “Your theory was right! My invisibility is a form of energy, and once I learn to control it, I can turn it into a protective screen!” Not only can she bend light, she has discovered her ability to make force fields. Sue also discovers that she can make other things invisible (but not while she’s invisible herself). Both of these newfound abilities allow her to escape death-traps set by the Mole Man (no longer ‘Moleman’). Many years later—in Fantastic Four #400 (May 1995)—Reed’s father, Nathaniel Richards, speculates that Sue’s ‘invisible force energy’ originates from hyperspace.
In 2006, Joe Casey, Chris Weston, and Gary Erskine produced the superb six-issue miniseries Fantastic Four: First Family—providing more information, and filling in the gaps, about what happened to our heroes immediately after the spaceflight that gave them their powers, and their first few months afterwards. In issue #2 (June 2006)—set before their first encounter with the Moleman—Sue reflexively erects a force field to protect Johnny from attack. She erects force fields again several times throughout the miniseries. When Reed asks how she is doing this, Sue responds, “I have no idea.” The miniseries ends as the FF debut their new costumes—corresponding to Fantastic Four #3—but it is implicit that Sue possessed force field powers from the start. All of the examples shown occur between original continuity. (Sue does not use her force fields against the Skrulls, for instance.) None of the original stories are altered, but new ‘in-between’ examples are established.
Marvel’s most persistent stalker returns in Fantastic Four #27 (June 1964) as the Sub-Mariner abducts Sue AGAIN! Reed, Ben, and Johnny pursue— with help from Doctor Strange—but the fighting ends when Sue tells Namor, “Reed is the only man for me… nothing can ever change that.” The FF secretly assist Namor against Attuma’s forces in issue #33 (Dec. 1964) but don’t directly interact with him again for several years, as Namor becomes busy with his co-starring feature in Tales to Astonish, from issue #70 (Aug. 1965).
BACKSTORY
BACK ISSUE could conceivably present an entire article dedicated to Sue’s kidnappings alone (13 times in the first 45 issues), but we’ll try to move things along. Sue is held hostage by the Mole Man in Fantastic Four #31 (Oct. 1964) and is critically injured during her rescue. Rushed to hospital, Reed is told, “No man on staff would attempt the operation required!! There’s only one man who’s ever successfully performed such an operation! [But] he stopped practicing medicine years ago! He had been in prison! In fact, he escaped only recently! He’s not likely to give himself up… just to save another!” Suddenly, the man himself—Doctor Franklin Storm—arrives. He is Sue and Johnny’s father. Johnny exclaims, “B-but all these years… Sue told me you were dead!” Reed states, “You and Sue never mentioned your parents… I always assumed you were orphans!”
The operation is a success. Sue will recover. And the police arrive to arrest Doctor Franklin Storm. We discover in the next issue that Franklin and Mary Storm—Sue and Johnny’s parents—were involved in a car accident years ago. Franklin emerged unscathed and tried to save his injured wife—without success. He gave up his medical practice, descended into gambling, and lost all his money. He defaulted on a loan shark, fell into an altercation, and the loan shark was accidentally killed. Guilt-ridden, Franklin offered no defence and was sentenced for manslaughter.
Now back in jail, Franklin Storm is visited by the Super- Skrull! The Super-Skrull banishes Franklin Storm to the Skrull homeworld and takes his place. The Super-Skrull then masquerades as the Invincible Man and overpowers the FF. Reed determines the deception and, as the Super-Skrull is returned to his homeworld, Doctor Franklin Storm is returned to Earth—with a booby trap! Franklin rolls onto the bomb, sacrificing his life to spare the FF.
Five issues later, in Fantastic Four #37 (Apr. 1965), Sue is concerned that her father’s murderers remain unpunished. Reed calculates a trip through sub-space to the Andromeda Galaxy—and the Skrull homeworld. They discover that Warlord Morrat arranged for Franklin Storm’s death AND is planning a coup against Skrull Emperor Dorrek VII. In the ensuing melee, Morrat is killed but Sue saves the life of Emperor Dorrek’s daughter, Anelle. Détente is achieved and Sue muses, “Now that it’s over… I realise revenge isn’t so sweet, after all…”
MARRIED… WITH CHILDREN
But we have skipped over Fantastic Four #36 (Mar. 1965) and the commencement of probably the most important development for Sue—in terms of her personal life—in FF’s history. Her engagement to Reed is publicly announced and they subsequently marry in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (Oct. 1965).
Sue has fainted by the splash page of Fantastic Four Annual #5 (Nov. 1967). A dozen pages later, we all discover she’s pregnant. Reed insists that he and Sue leave the FF on the final page of issue #71 (Feb. 1968). This lasts 11 pages into the following issue, as Reed is drawn back into the fray. Sue is sidelined in issue #74 (May 1968) and is admitted to hospital in issue #78 (Sep. 1968). There, the doctors express concern regarding the cosmic radiation in Sue’s blood. Things come to a head in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (Nov. 1968), where Reed determines that the element that can save Sue and her unborn child can only be found in the Negative Zone— but first, they must survive an encounter with Annihilus—the living death that walks!
Reed, Ben, and Johnny return from the Negative Zone with a treatment, and Sue delivers a healthy baby boy. Sue and Reed’s son is named Franklin Benjamin Richards in issue #94 (Jan. 1970).
Crystal temporarily replaces Sue on the team, from issue #81 (Dec. 1968) but Sue is back to save them all from Doctor Doom in issue #86 (May 1969). Sue also saves the day against the Mole Man in issue #89 (Aug. 1969). Ben is kidnapped by a Skrull in issue #90 (Sep. 1969). Reed mounts a rescue in issue #92 (Nov. 1969) and invokes the ‘she’s the mother of my son’ excuse to order Sue to stay behind. And, unfortunately, that becomes somewhat of the status quo for the next few years.
Jack’s final issue is #102 (Sep. 1970). Stan took a break from issue #115 (Oct. 1971), returned for issue #120 (Mar. 1972), then left for good after issue #125 (Aug. 1972). It would be remiss of us not to mention Archie Goodwin’s short interim stint as scripter—particularly when he turned the focus onto Sue in issue #116 (Nov. 1971). From beyond the stars has come the Over-Mind—and he shall crush the universe! Reed is mind- controlled, Ben and Johnny are defeated, and the Avengers are in space dealing with the Kree-Skrull War. Sue turns to the one man who may be able to save our planet—Doctor Doom. When Doom declines assistance, Sue tells him, “The Doctor Doom I remember may be ruthless and cold… but he had honor and nobility too. Instead, I encounter posturing and pettiness… or perhaps just a man a little afraid.” Just as she swayed Ben Grimm— exactly ten years prior (our time)—Sue now convinces Victor von Doom to help.
Roy Thomas commenced as scripter with Fantastic Four #126 (Sep. 1972) and, almost immediately, Sue went from, “Reed… my darling… only you could have saved us!” to, ‘I’m Franklin’s mother but I’m also your wife and a member of this team—my place is here, with the Fantastic Four!”
In Fantastic Four #128 (Nov. 1972)—Reed tells Sue to stay behind and she refuses: “I’m a woman, Reed, but that doesn’t automatically make me Sue Barton, Student Nurse! I’ve faced danger as often as you have, Mister Fantastic!”
Johnny leaves the team in issue #129 (Dec. 1972) to be with the woman he loves (Crystal). Reed maintains that it’s too dangerous. Sue retorts, “Reed, I love you so much, but in some ways it’s you, not Alicia, who are truly blind.” And Ben thinks, “Ulp! No two ways about it—Suzie’s all thru bein’ the shrinking violet on this team.” Later, Reed says that he’s busy in the lab, and Sue shouts, “And naturally that comes before your duties as a husband, let alone a father! Well, don’t worry, Mister Fantastic… I’ll go pick up our son alone. In fact, from now on… I may just do a lot of things alone!”
We hit boiling point in FF #130 (Jan. 1973). When the Frightful Four attack, Reed orders Sue to grab Franklin and get out of here! In the aftermath, Sue tells Reed, “In the heat of battle, you didn’t think of me as a member of the team—not even as a wife—only as the ‘mother of your child’! I won’t accept that, Reed. Not now—not ever. So, until you feel you can treat me as an equal, I’ve made up my mind. I’m taking little Franklin—and I’m leaving! Leaving you—leaving the FF!” Medusa fills her place.
Thomas told DeFalco that he was… “Trying to shake things up a little bit.” He told BI that he used plot devices to… “Put characters through their paces and give them obstacles to overcome.” Thomas soon became busy as Editor-in-Chief and Gerry Conway took over as scripter with issue #133 (Apr. 1973). The following issue, we see Sue—for once—not being a superhero, or a wife, or going shopping for ‘frilly, funky, fun-things.’ After leaving Reed, we are told that she has returned to her beginnings. She is staying with her friends, Carol and Bob Landers, on their farm in rural Pennsylvania. Sue is riding a horse (‘Zelda’) as if she’d never left.
Annihilus returns in issues #140-141 (Nov.-Dec. 1973) to steal power from Franklin. Ben and Medusa defeat Annihilus but the tampering has unleashed Franklin’s dormant mutant mental energies. Reed recognises that those energies are building towards an enormous psychic blast that will kill every living creature in the solar system. Using an experimental anti-matter gun, Reed blasts his own son to shut down Franklin’s mind. Sue subsequently serves divorce papers in Fantastic Four #147 (June 1974).
In BACK ISSUE #74 (Aug. 2014), Conway explained, “I wanted to shake things up and, to put this into historical context too, the early ‘70s was a period of tremendous upheaval in male/female relationships. The divorce rate was skyrocketing, women were really pushing to be taken seriously as equals in their relationships with men, it was the cultural flowering of Women’s Liberation. It was when Women’s Liberation was really gaining steam as the next step in Civil Rights, the next big cause on a domestic level in the country. So that was part of the zeitgeist, and part of what we were all thinking about.”
With help from Namor and the Inhumans, Sue and Reed reconcile in Fantastic Four #149 (Aug. 1974) and Franklin recovers in the following issue. “It’s the illusion of change,” states Conway. “You basically begin at Point A, and you start moving in this great circle that brings you back to Point A. Ideally, you want to feel that the characters have gone on a journey and that, at the end of that journey, they’ve arrived somewhere new—but ultimately, it’s the same place that they started out; hopefully refreshed, hopefully more interesting, with a little more depth to their characters, but ultimately the circle closes.”
Sue was back with Reed but, with Medusa on the team, what about Sue’s place? A news item in Legion Outpost #7 (Spring 1974) reported that an upcoming Gerry Conway story would have the FF evicted from the Baxter Building, Ben and Johnny would share a Greenwich Village apartment, and Sue would open a detective agency with other unidentified Marvel characters assisting her. Conway’s last issue was #152 (Nov. 1974) but Roy Thomas writes a scene with Reed and Sue in issue #158 (May 1975). Sue admits, “I just don’t know if I’m ready yet to become a full-time team member again.” Reed assures her: “And I’m not trying to rush you, dear. I know you’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a private detective on your own… and who’d make a better Sam-Spade type than the world-famous Invisible Girl?” However, with Inhumans #1 (Oct. 1975) on the horizon, Medusa was required elsewhere and Sue rejoins the FF in issue #159 (June 1975). Therein, the villainous Xemu has procured the Thunder Horn: a weapon which amplifies sound or mental energy. Sue connects to the Thunder Horn—sabotaging Xemu’s plans—and mentally amplifies her own abilities in the process. Reed notes that Sue can now make both herself and other things invisible at the same time.
Tests in issue #164 (Nov. 1975) confirm Sue’s increased powers, as new artist George Pérez ably demonstrates. Sue uses her force fields to nudge aside pedestrians (issue #164), provide a fireman’s pole (#166), and almost suffocate the Hulk (#166). She makes a bridge (#167), a parachute (#171), a battering ram (#185), and uses her force field to clobber a prison guard and escape a cell (#186). Future-professional Kurt Busiek has a letter published in issue #186 (Sep. 1977), theorising that Sue could easily take-down the other members of the FF.
In issue #188 (Nov. 1977), as the Molecule Man possesses Reed, Sue propels herself through the air using an invisible platform. Recovering from his possession, Reed—who has lost his stretching powers—leaves the FF, and Sue goes with him, declaring, “I’ve already deserted my husband once! I’ll be damned if I’ll do it again!” As the team disbands, Sue is offered the lead in a Hollywood movie, in issue #191 (Feb. 1978). Wouldn’t you know it, this is the same movie studio that Namor bought in Fantastic Four #9 and never sold.
Fantastic Four #195 (June 1978), by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, and Pablo Marcos, is the title’s first true solo Sue story. It is alternately beautiful and frustrating. Sue and Namor have an intelligent, respectful conversation. Namor is having problems in his undersea kingdom of Atlantis, and confides, “Susan, you are my friend… perhaps my only friend. Even in the beginning you understood what manner of man Namor is. I revealed my heart to you… and for too many painful years, I—I loved you—until Richards claimed you as his, and Namor gallantly stepped aside. I cared for you too much to interfere with your happiness.”
Sue tells him, “You’re right, Namor. We were friends and I still want to be yours. But you’ve always covered yourself with a shroud of secrecy. You’ve maintained your regal posture for so long that you’ve separated yourself from those who want to help. Namor, please understand—I’ve always loved you as a good friend… I know how you helped Reed and me when our marriage was in trouble… now, let me help you.” It’s a lovely, mature conversation between two good friends.
Filming proceeds. The crew are enchanted with Sue. The director suggests, “Perhaps a little more cleavage. Remind me to call Bob Mackie.” Those interested in pursuing further research might note that Bob Mackie designed many of Cher’s iconic outfits. Suddenly, the Retrievers of Atlantis come for Namor. He and Sue fight them off. Sue acquits herself admirably—saving Namor several times—but, frustratingly, she spends much of the battle thinking, “If only Reed were here with me—he’d know what to do,” and, “What would Reed have me do? C’mon, Sue—think, blast it, think!” She later admits, “I’ve felt out of place ever since I came to Hollywood. But now I realize what’s been upsetting me—it’s living without Reed—it’s being without the man I love.”
Sue’s powers had increased. Her relationship with Namor had matured. But she was still dependent upon Reed. For the moment.
It was exceedingly rare for Sue to be featured anywhere—Fantastic Four or not—without the rest of the team. She had occasionally appeared in Strange Tales with Johnny, and Marvel Two-In-One with Ben, but those—of course—included other members of the FF. One rare external appearance was in Marvel Team-Up #88 (Dec. 1979), by Chris Claremont, Sal Buscema, and Eduardo Barreto. In a solid, down-to-earth, single-issue story—with no supervillains—Franklin is kidnapped and Sue is extorted. Fortunately, Peter Parker overhears and an invisible Spider-Man is able to assist—as foreshadowed by Rich Buckler and Al Milgrom’s eye-catching cover.
BACK TO THE BASICS
John Byrne took over as writer and artist of Fantastic Four with issue #232 (July 1981). In Comics Interview #25 (1985), Byrne tells Jim Salicrup, “Whenever I do a book, I pick one character to be the one I’m going to ‘adopt’—my character in the book. And I picked Sue. Really nothing had been done with Sue in twenty years
In Focus on John Byrne (Fantagraphics Books, 1984), Peter Sanderson mentions that Byrne has made Sue more aggressive. Byrne replies, “Actually, she’s no more aggressive, she’s just more sensible now. She’s just doing things. Everybody has approached Sue with the idea that, ‘Well, we have to scrap the character.’ And my approach to Sue is that we take the character and deal with her as she is. And all I did was give her a mind, which she never really had before. She’s always been this sort of vacuous character who depended entirely upon Reed to come up with things for her to do.”
Indeed, as Sue is attacked by a rock monster in Byrne’s debut issue, she instinctively uses her force field to propel herself out of the hairdressing salon and down the street. This soon becomes a routine mode of transport for her and the team.
As Byrne intended, Sue becomes more and more proficient with her powers. When Terrax, Herald of Galactus, uses his control over rock and earth to lift Manhattan into outer space, Sue uses her abilities to turn Terrax’s invisible energies visible—maintaining the entire island of Manhattan within an opaque cocoon—in Fantastic Four #242 (May 1982).
Salicrup referred to Byrne’s solo Human Torch story (in issue #233), and asked, “Did you want to do a solo story with each character?” Byrne replied, “Yes. We eventually did Sue in the ‘Childhood’s End’ story.”
‘Childhood’s End’ in Fantastic Four #245 (Aug. 1982) is a masterclass in responding to criticism. The issue opens with Sue being interviewed for the TV show Woman to Woman. Host Barbara Walker introduces Sue as Susan Storm. When Sue comments that her title is Mrs. Richards, Walker accuses Sue of being subservient to her husband. Sue politely corrects her, saying, “Oh, I’d hardly call it subservient. I love my husband very much, and I know it makes him proud that I have chosen to take his name, just as I am proud to bear it.”
When Walker comments on Sue’s uninspired name and rather ineffectual powers of the Invisible Girl, Sue replies, “My name is of my own choosing and as for my powers being ineffectual… well, I can slide a molecule-thick invisible force field under your chair, and by merely expanding it into a column… but I don’t really have to show off, do I? My record stands for itself,” as Walker and her chair are lifted several meters into the air.
Walker retorts with: “Your record? Anyone who studies the history of the Fantastic Four would quickly realise your primary function has been to be captured and terrorized by your foes.” In turn, Sue points out that Reed, Ben, and Johnny might never have survived their first encounter with Doctor Doom, but for her… “And, of course, I did once knock out the Incredible Hulk.”
Desperate for an opening, Walker probes about Sue’s ‘much publicised love affair with the super-chauvinistic Sub-Mariner’. Sue calmly points out that, “‘Love affair’ is hardly correct. I was young and easily awed by Prince Namor, who is after all a much more flamboyant individual than my husband—by Reed’s own admission.” Sue goes on to say that Namor is a dear friend— harkening to their heartfelt discussion in issue #195.
The interview finished, Sue returns to the Baxter Building to find that Reed, Ben, and Johnny have been incapacitated by a seemingly-amnesiac man with vast psionic powers. Sue perseveres solo—utterly outmatched—until she realises that the immensely powerful stranger is her son, Franklin, physically (but not mentally) aged to adulthood by an accidental manifestation of his mutant powers. Upon Sue’s recognition, Franklin remembers his identity and de-powers and de-ages himself. Franklin self- installs mental blocks to restrict access to his powers, with no memory of what occurred.
Byrne continues to showcase all of the team, but particularly ‘his’ character. Sue takes out a (distracted) Gladiator in issue #250 (Jan. 1983). She and Reed spend some together time in issue #254, and she discovers she’s pregnant in issue #257. They move to the suburbs in issue #259. Namor reminds her of times past, but when Reed goes missing—Sue automatically takes command of the FF—both occurring in issue #261.
A SMALL LOSS
Ominously, Sue experiences debilitating spasms in issue #264 and a sudden, almost explosive, burst of hard radiation in issue #265. She had experienced complications with Franklin but never anything like this. Despite the efforts of the best scientific minds that Reed can assemble, Sue loses the baby in issue #267 (June 1984).
Byrne tells DeFalco, “I often say that story happened because they wouldn’t let me kill Franklin. When I first got on Fantastic Four, I had a bunch of questions and one of them was could I please kill Franklin? I thought that Franklin was like this millstone hanging around the FF’s neck at the time. Ultimately, Franklin turned out to be a fun character and I’m glad that I didn’t kill him. But I had pieces of a story and they wouldn’t really fit anywhere else, because my stories are so character-driven. So I thought, let’s have Sue get pregnant again and have her lose the baby, and I can have essentially the same emotional impact.”
A new Hate-Monger makes his presence known in issue #278 (May 1985). He is a creation of the Psycho-Man. Between them, they use their emotion-manipulating powers to enthral Sue, who emerges as Malice, Mistress of Hate. Outfitted dominatrix-style (or—as She-Hulk puts it—in the latest ensemble from Fredericks of Hollywood), the masked mistress nearly kills the rest of the FF with her force field powers unleashed, until Reed snaps her out of her mesmerism.
Byrne explains to DeFalco: “I kept calling her Dark Invisible Girl. I wanted to do a story that echoed, without imitating, the ‘Dark Phoenix’ saga. I really wanted to show how powerful Sue could really be, and the best way to do that was to remove all the restraints.”
Violated by the Psycho-Man, Sue grieves: “He reached down inside me. He grabbed a hold of my heart, Reed. And he twisted it, turned it inside out.” Byrne posted on his webpage: “[Malice] was not Sue’s ‘dark side’ brought out, she was something the Hate-Monger DID to Sue. If Shooter had allowed me to use the word ‘rape’ metaphorically, that would have been made even more clear.”
Sue demands vengeance. The team goes after the Psycho-Man. They are captured and tortured, until Reed frees himself and the others. Sue seizes Psycho-Man’s emotion control box but tells him that she’s not going to kill him. “I could, Psycho-Man. Lord knows I want to. But that would put me even below your level. No, Psycho-Man. I’m going to pay you back in kind.” The Psycho-Man screams off-panel, and Sue tells her teammates, “He won’t bother anyone… ever again.”
This all occurs in Fantastic Four #284 (Nov. 1985). Acknowledging her maturation, and a change in who she is, Sue states, “There is no Invisible Girl anymore, Reed. She died when the Psycho-Man twisted her soul. From now on, I am the Invisible Woman.”
Byrne left the book a few months later, but he had achieved his goals. Prior to his tenure, Sue Storm essentially obtained invisibility powers, obtained force field powers, got married, and had a baby. Now, the Invisible Woman was recognised as the most powerful member in the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!
Stan had originally established that Reed was a decade older than Sue. Just prior to Byrne’s departure, with Reed suspected dead—in Fantastic Four #291 (June 1986)—Sue thinks back to when she was ‘twelve years old and meeting for the first time the shy, bookish college freshman who has taken a room at her aunt’s Manhattan boarding house.’ Explained in BI #158, this was deliberately retconned in Fantastic Four (Vol. 4) #4 (Apr. 2013) such that Reed and Sue are much closer in age (she is an undergraduate and he is a graduate).
In that same issue, in the modern day, Reed introduces his wife as Dr. Susan Storm. Years later, in Fantastic Four (Vol. 7) #12 (Dec. 2023), Sue explains, “I studied archaeology. And it was before I got my powers.”
This correlates nicely with the cute three-issue miniseries: Before the Fantastic 4: The Storms (Dec. 2000 - Feb. 2001). Before the Fantastic Four, Sue and Johnny were staying with their Aunt Marygay in Long Island. Sue’s neighbor and best friend is Cammy Brandeis. Cammy’s father—Professor Henry Brandeis—dies mysteriously while researching the Amulet of Zarathos. Cammy’s (young, hunky) uncle—Max Brandeis, also an archaeologist— investigates. Sue is somewhat taken by Max; his studious intensity reminds her of when Reed Richards previously boarded with Aunt Mary. Sue, Johnny, Max, and Cammy counter a scheme by Dracula (!) to obtain the amulet. The miniseries ends with Sue moving to California to pursue acting. One could extrapolate that this early adventure changed her focus to archaeology…
It’s difficult to compress nearly 65 years of history into a few pages but we should mention a few other points. When Reed was presumed dead (again) in Fantastic Four #381 (Oct. 1993), Sue automatically assumed leadership of the FF—for over two years (our time). Prior to that, the “Infinity War” crossover pitted many of our heroes against their evil counterparts—and the Malice personality resurfaced in issue #369 (Oct. 1992). Sue absorbs Malice into her own psyche and instantly starts acting more aggressively. Two issues later, Sue debuts a new costume, which raised a few eyebrows…
DeFalco was scripting the series and co-plotting with artist Paul Ryan. In DeFalco’s book, Ryan recalls Sue’s ‘special’ costume: “Oh, yeah. She was taken over by the Malice persona and that had affected her mind. You wanted a costume that would visually reflect the change in personality. If you look at the FF costume she wore, that very brief one, it has the same elements as the original Malice costume. It has the long sleeves and the high boots, with bare legs and a cut-out in the abdomen area.”
When asked, “What do you see as the core idea of Fantastic Four?” all of the interviewees in DeFalco’s book replied, “Family.” Most of them touched on the quartet of mom, dad, kid brother, and grumpy uncle.
PERFECT STORM
In Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #49 (Jan. 2002), Franklin tells Sue: “That baby you said was lost wasn’t lost at all. I went back… I saved her, sent her someplace else…” and suddenly, Sue is heavily pregnant. In Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #54 (June 2002), Sue gives birth to her daughter. Reed is trapped elsewhere and so Doom assists in the difficult—but successful— birth. Sue agrees to Doom naming the child Valeria.
Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo produced a highly regarded run on Fantastic Four. Amongst the many gems is a gentle moment between Reed and Sue in FF (Vol. 3) #62 (Dec. 2002). Sue asks Reed to remind her how she can see him whilst he is invisible. Reed explains, “Ordinary retinas register objects using reflected light. Your retinas also interpolate shapes based on reflected cosmic rays always present in the atmosphere. Optically, they bypass your rods and cones, which is why I’m not in color.”
Waid later wrote the 2019 Invisible Woman miniseries—the first time Sue had been given a starring vehicle. In issue #4 (Dec. 2019) Sue is temporarily blinded by a villain named Vetivier, who (incorrectly) believes this will render her helpless. Sue muses, “Here’s what Vetivier isn’t taking into account: My entire optic structure, nerves and all, is unique. Ordinary retinas register objects using reflected light. But mine also interpolate shapes based on reflected cosmic rays, which permeate the atmosphere. It’s how I can see my own force-fields, or anything else you’d call ‘invisible’. By that same principle, if I concentrate hard enough, I don’t need light to ‘read’ contours… shapes… people.” As she concentrates, the silhouettes of her captors come into form and Sue lashes out! Despite earlier books mentioning that Sue cannot ‘see’ her force-constructs, here it definitively states that she can.
In DeFalco’s book, Waid reminds us that, “Sue had the responsibility of raising Johnny. I think that during the day Sue would help Johnny with his homework and be the perfect big sister/mom to him, never once shirking her responsibilities, but on the occasions where she could come out to play, so to speak, the kids her age called her Stormy. She was a different person in front of them: a hot, funny, adventurous, and daring individual! Instead of internalizing any anger or resentment, her way of coping was to just have fun whenever she could. Bam—instantly, in my mind, she becomes a complex, faceted woman… which relates directly to her powers.”
Invisible Woman #1 (Sep. 2019) opens with a flashback ‘Ten Years Ago’ as Sue (in a black wig) helps S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Aidan Tintreach to smuggle a defecting scientist across the Bahzelstan border into Hungary. Sue explicitly states that she’s engaged, is learning how to manifest force fields, and has a ‘day job’ with the Fantastic Four. She only takes espionage missions because Nick Fury agreed to her one rule: she won’t kill anyone. Aidan tells her, “It’s a stupid rule, Stormy.”
In the modern day, Aidan goes missing. Sue messages Reed: “Been awhile, but I got a call from our mutual Uncle. Headed out, will tell you all about it when I return. Love you.” Reed replies: “Stay safe, Sue. Love you.” Reed understands and completely trusts her. This secret life is not a secret to the man she loves. Sue meets with Nick Fury and sets out after Aidan.
The series is a showcase not only for Sue’s powers but her mindset. This is a side of her that we’ve not seen before, in situations that we don’t typically associate her with. But she’s a natural. When a sniper opens fire, Sue has force fields. When the sniper tries to evade her by running into a building, Sue turns the building invisible. When questioning someone, she muses, “When I was younger, I wanted to be in the movies. I took some acting classes then… and took even more once I became a part-time spy. I can tell when someone’s performing.”
Needing a disguise, Sue recalls, “Last week, Val and I got to talking about how my powers work. Essentially, I told her, invisibility is the manipulation of light waves. ‘So is color,’ she said. ‘Color is determined by how different surfaces reflect light waves.’ And that is how my teenage daughter taught me a new trick. Tanning without the risk of cancer. Hair dye minus the chemicals.” And Sue becomes a bronzed brunette.
Spoiler Alert: Aidan is the real villain. He’s a double-agent and utterly amoral. He mocks Sue for her ‘no-kill’ rule. As Sue rescues hostages in a jet, Aidan flies at her on a suicidal collision course in another jet—taunting Sue by radio that her only option is a force field barrier: “Poor thing. It must be awful to finally have to consider killing.”
Sue erupts: “‘Finally’? You ass! Think about what I can do! Give you an instant embolism from a hundred yards out. Crush your windpipe. Fill your lungs. Spike through your heart without blinking. I’m a living weapon. I’m ‘finally’ thinking about killing? I have to think about it all the time! I never worry about being strong enough to take a life, Aidan. I worry about being strong enough not to. You’re the one with the choice here. Your suicide is not on my conscience,” as she maintains her force field barrier.
Fantastic Four (Vol. 7) is currently under the guidance of writer Ryan North, who surprises and thrills with every issue. Original ideas abound, but we’ll choose issue #18 (May 2024) as one example: With the Earth under threat from a barrage of invisible asteroids, travelling upwards of twenty kilometres per second, all seems lost. However (stay with us), Johnny generates fire, which also generates light—which Sue can bend, or focus—into coherent light. Sue realises she can create the world’s biggest, and deadliest laser, able to hit targets at the speed of thought!
Sue has contained an exploding Gamma Bomb (Infinity War #3 (Aug. 1992), made an entire planet invisible (Annihilation – Scourge: Omega #1 (Feb. 2020)), and driven a force field spike through Galactus (Fantastic Four #391 (Aug. 1994)). But she’s also a mother to two of the most extraordinary children on Earth, as well as a wife, a sister, and a friend. She’s one of the most powerful and respected characters in the Marvel Universe. She was modern Marvel’s first female character and remains… Marvel’s First Lady.

Susan Storm by Mick Austin for a poster included with Fantastic Four #488, published by Marvel UK, 1982. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Sue Storm in action in Fantastic Four #1. Art by Jack Kirby and George Klein.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Sue gets carried away by the Sub-Mariner. Cover by Jack Kirby and Sal Brodsky. (inset) Reed ponders Sue in Fantastic Four #27. Art by Jack Kirby and George Roussos. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Invisible Girl by Mike Manley. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (inset) Comic Creators on Fantastic Four. Art by Mike Wieringo.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Sue creates a force shield for the first time in Fantastic Four #22. Art by Jack Kirby and George Roussos. (right) Sue and Johnny’s father returns in Fantastic Four #31. Art by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(top) Reed and Sue tie the knot in Fantastic Four Annual #3. Art by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. (bottom) Franklin is named in Fantastic Four #94. Art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Sue gives Doctor Doom a piece of her mind in Fantastic Four #116. Art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. (right) Sue tells Reed what’s what in Fantastic Four #130. Art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Things get serious in Fantastic Four #147. Art by Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott. (right) Sue finally gets a solo story in issue #195. Cover by George Perez and Joe Sinnott.
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The Invisible Girl joins forces with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #88. Art by Sal Buscema and Eduardo Barreto. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (inset) The cover by Rich Buckler.
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(opposite page)The Fantastic Four by John Byrne from issue #250. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (left) The Invisible Girl gets the spotlight in issue #245. Cover by John Byrne. (right) Sue discovers a new way to travel in Fantastic Four #232. Art by John Byrne.
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(left) A tragic ending to Sue’s second pregnancy. From the emotionally-charged Fantastic Four #267. Art by John Byrne.
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(left) Sue as Malice. #281 cover by John Byrne and Jerry Ordway. (right) Sue in action as Malice in issue #281. Art by John Byrne and Jerry Ordway. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
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(top) Sue becomes the Invisible Woman in issue #284. (bottom) Sue gets an interesting new costume in issue #371. Art by Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi.
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A quartet of fantastic Sue Storm pieces of art. (top left) Invisible Woman by Bill Sienkiewicz. (top right) Sue Storm by Joe Sinnott. (bottom left) Invisible Girl by Joe Jusko. Original art scans courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom right) Sue Storm by Steve Rude. Art courtesy of Roger Ash.
TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) The Invisible Woman by Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel on the cover of Fantastic Four #53. (right) 58 years after her creation, Sue gets her own miniseries in 2019’s Invisible Woman #1. Cover by Adam Hughes.
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The author would like to thank Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, and Roy Thomas.
Jarrod Buttery lives in Western Australia and has penned over two dozen articles for BACK ISSUE. He is looking forward to seeing the appropriately named Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm: The Invisible Woman.

We’ve got two issues to cover this month, so let’s get to it. Here are some comments on issue #162.
MAD ABOUT THE HATTER
I really enjoyed your article on the Mad Hatter. The only version I consider definitive is the Jervis Tetch with the red hair and stache. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up with this version watching reruns of the four episodes he appeared in on the Batman tv series. I lobbied for McFarlane toys to make an official Mad Hatter figure for their Batman ‘66 line. Sadly, they never did so I had to have a custom one made for my collection. It’s really too bad that DC Comics wanted to distance itself from the TV series in the 1970s and they had to invent different Hatters. David Wayne’s portrayal of the Mad Hatter was indelible and iconic for me.
Chris Krieg
Hey Chris! Thanks for sharing your custom figure. It looks awesome!
I enjoyed the “Mad” issue, #162. One note on Brian Martin’s excellent Mad Hatter article—he mentions that in Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Robin: Year One, Tetch was kidnapping young girls and selling them. I think it was a small error not to have mentioned Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum graphic novel (1989), which first posited that the Mad Hatter had pedophile/pervert tendencies. I don’t think before that this creepy aspect of Tetch was discussed or even alluded to.
Frank Balkin
MORE FRANKNESS
Back Issue #162 had more than its share of laughs.
One was a quick answer to an unspoken question. When I looked at the Mad #204 cover, shown near the editorial, I wondered why you’d use such a marked-up copy. A minute later, after reading the guest commentary, it made perfect sense and displayed additional meaning and charm.
I watched the TV show Bob during its run. I only recalled it being on a year but perhaps I simply stopped watching when they edited out the comic book aspects in the second season? I was unaware of the Mad Dog comic issued at that time. What gave me a big grin was the blurb on the cover to #1: “Based on the character on the hit TV series Bob.” Hit series? I take it whoever wrote the blurb wasn’t under oath.
Also, amusing: Evan Dorkin’s honesty. He noted, “It’s probably my least favorite thing I’ve ever worked on.” How often do we hear that?
Some of the Snappy Answers were still amusing. I always far preferred those to the Fold-Ins. Unless you wrote in your own captions, the magazine wasn’t damaged. Loved the analysis that, “The feature was like a guidebook for sarcasm…”
Confined to the feature, it was a vicarious thrill. If utilized in real life, hurt feelings or a broken nose.
The many superhero parodies in Mad were fun to explore.
“Bats-Man” (from #105) has been reprinted innumerable times and for a good reason: it’s still a great satire, capturing the nonsense of the show brilliantly. My sole complaint some sixty years later? I wish Mort Drucker had drawn a couple background cameos of some of the series’ villains.
Here, though tiny, you printed the funniest panels for me: Mort’s unique caricatures of Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara.
Also clever and justifiably well regarded: the super-early “Superduperman” (from #4) by Wally Wood. It worked well and it was amazing to see the astoundingly detailed art. Still a thrill to examine your original art page. Plus, how many readers, in 1953, realistically expected to see Superman in the same story as Captain Marvel? Fighting, not in court, but in the streets of Metropolis. Belly laughs and wish fulfillment.
While I appreciate that Prince Street News conveys so much information in a terse two-page format, if the topic is distinctive lettering, printing it so microscopic undercuts reader comprehension. Or tiny type with a red background in some panels. It is difficult to decipher even with a magnifying glass.
Joe Frank
(opposite page) We had a humdinger of a Mike Allred piece of art from Superman Madman Hullabaloo #2 that we just couldn’t fit into BACK ISSUE #162. We are pleased to give this image its due here. Now let’s head into issue #163.
AN ANGELIC TITLE
When I saw BI #163’s “Monkeying Around” theme, I was lukewarm. Even as a kid, I never understood DC’s obsession with Bizarros, baby versions of heroes… and simians. What was the deal with talking gorillas??
Then I noticed there would be a look at Angel and the Ape. That sold me. I read the original 1960s incarnation after much curiosity over the “halos and bananas” ads. While the short-lived series tried a little too hard to be cool and clever, it’s still a fun read. The most well-developed character (no pun intended) was Angel O’Day: beautiful, confident, and she could handle herself quite well in a fight. When the duo turned up in Showcase #100’s big anniversary blowout, I was disappointed. That self-assured woman was inexplicably reduced to a dizzy “blonde bimbo” stereotype, a spacey, simpering dope who cowered in the face of battle and relied on pure luck to get her out of trouble.
I suppose I’m in the minority on this, but Phil Foglio’s miniseries was A & A’s finest hour. Angel went back to her roots as a butt-kicking heroine. The story deposited the characters directly into the DC Universe in logical ways (Sam and Grodd are related? Angel and Dumb Bunny are related? Genius moves!) The side plot about Athena’s crushing self-esteem issues was touching. Angel and the Ape, and the Inferior 5, were treated as real characters. I feel like this mini should have gotten a lot more love than it did, and I would have loved to have seen Foglio’s follow-up take on the Inferior 5.
The other articles were… well, they were monkeys. DC sure does love its monkeys …
Michal Jacot
Phil Foglio’s miniseries was my introduction to Angel and the Ape, so it is the baseline for what I think the characters should be. I don’t see that as a negative thing as it’s an excellent miniseries.
Had more fun than expected with BI #163, the ape issue.
Even the beautifully drawn Art Adams cover was entertaining with the 7/90 notation, well before his Monkeyman and O’Brien work.
Speaking of which, I wondered why that title, so enjoyable, wasn’t a long run that was given his all. Adams noted it wasn’t like a mainstream book that he always wanted to do. I’d read those sentiments before, I believe by John Byrne in conjunction to Alpha Flight when he departed. Yet, in innovating their own series, from scratch, they’re making memories for others along with setting their own parameters for the gig.
At least Art mused, with other ideas on hand, he should get back to it. I’d welcome that.
Former workers/staffers have noted that gorilla covers sold particularly well for DC. Could that, in part, be the reason for innovating Gorilla Grodd and his various returns? Was that a real sales incentive for fans? I tend to view it with skepticism, since other companies didn’t immediately jump on the bandwagon.
Covering You-All Gibbon made me laugh as even the real thing, Grape Nuts eater Euell Gibbons, died in 1975. I remember him, vaguely, saying certain kinds of pinecones were edible. A clever idea by Scott Shaw, but with a very limited shelf life.
Enjoyed the Gorilla-Man coverage from Marvel. Interesting five-panel cover. Must not have been a great seller as, otherwise, they’d have stuck him in a costume and made him a superhero. They did reuse the notion of trapping a brutish monster on a space flight, shown here, in Hulk #3.
My favorite feature, by far, was the coverage of Angel and the Ape. Not that I was nostalgic. I remember seeing it, in passing, at the time, but never read it. The article simply raised so many interesting points.
First off, midway through, they cover-emphasized the Angel, alone, and downplayed the Ape? Why? A duo where the unusual aspect is overlooked?
Marvel’s X-Men had a hero called the Angel. Yet, DC is spotlighting that name?
Gorillas and DC doesn’t see it as a selling point?
Or including monsters who, according to you, don’t even appear? What’s that all about? Did it help sales on Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis? If so, why aren’t they the stars? Is it ever a good idea to overshadow the featured players of a book?
The book had different approaches in its short run. Why was nothing established and built on? Why so many authors? Why no sustained commitment?
What particularly caught my attention is, early on, Wally Wood came aboard to ink. That was like a missing puzzle piece connecting the timeline to the fading Tower Comics projects. It might be worth reading just for that.
Typically, with so many new books at once and a nervous publisher, they didn’t last long. Yet, this title, in addition to the Showcase issue, survived seven issues. Most were six. The Geek was two. Did any show promise or were they subject to high expectations and low commitment?
Regardless, an intriguing look at something I know of, vaguely, but never stopped to investigate. Thanks.
Joe Frank
I’m glad you enjoyed the issue more than you expected to. I included You-All because I wanted a character who wasn’t a gorilla. I remember enjoying the character when I first discovered him in my early days of comic reading. It seemed like a fun idea to revisit him and, perhaps, introduce readers to a character they were unaware of. Angel and the Ape seems to have more fans than I realized. Glad you enjoyed the article.
Next issue: We’re sailing into uncharted waters with our “Here There Be Dragons” issue. There’s sure to be danger ahead with Killer Croc, Savage Dragon, Lockheed, Bone, Daughters of the Dragon, and more. Featuring the work of Jeff Smith, Erik Larsen, Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, Chuck Dixon, Dan Mishkin, Ron Randall, Louise Simonson, June Brigman, and others. Lockheed and Kitty Pryde cover by Paul Smith!
Don’t ask—just BI it!
Roger Ash, editor

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