Monday, November 23, 2020

I'd be kinda mad if I was portrayed as a blonde bombshell on the cover of my one-shot...

Was she a blonde in the old stories? Well, in the main feature of this one she's not: from 2009, Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, "Shipyard Sabotage!" Written by Jen Van Meter, art by Andy MacDonald, color art by Nick Filardi.
Alongside her Liberty Legion teammates Blue Diamond and her fiance the Whizzer, Miss America recovers a missing spy from Brain Drain's mind-controlled slaves. The spy had learned the Nazis were targeting the new top-secret U.S.S. Markham, which was almost ready to leave the shipyard. She opts to get the spy back to report, then investigate the shipyard for enemy agents, since she's also cheesed that Whizzer's over-protectiveness is getting on her nerves. Undercover as reporter Maddy Joyce, she joins the female workers scrambling to finish the ship, before flushing out Madame Mauzer and her Ubermadchen: it's girl-on-girls action! Wait, that's not right...
This is a perfectly fun little story, with a lot of Nazi dames punched out: not an equality I'm thrilled to see, but yay? It must also kind of suck when you come up with good names for Ratzi characters that probably won't appear again, or will be reused in something way darker. An odd impression here: Miss America had the 'flying brick' powers like Rogue or Captain Britain, but because she seems more thoughtful, it's like she hovers more, checking out the situation. And her flight doesn't seem as zippy, more leisurely; which might have been to contrast with her contemporary Spitfire of the Invaders. (Or the Whizzer, I guess.) I don't think I had read many stories featuring Miss America before; partly because as the girl on the B-team to the Invaders I don't think she got a lot of face-time; but she was also killed off in 1974's Giant-Size Avengers #1. At one point she may have been believed to be Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch's mother; but no.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

And just like her husband, that death's stuck all this time. Although I'm sure if Roy Thomas had his way they'd both be brought back and all the WW2-era heroes would have ongoings right now. Idk, maybe some of them should. I know I REALLY enjoyed The Twelve myself.
Yeah that cover though...who fucked THAT up? (You had one job...)