Recently in Lethal Ladies Category

Hulk: Raging Thunder features a really cool story by Jeff Parker, featuring my favorite Femizon, Thundra!  As you can see in the backup story, Thundra first appeared in Fantastic Four #133, coming from an alternate dimension (where women ruled the world) to challenge Ben Grimm in super-powered battle of the sexes.  In this new story, Thundra challenges the Hulk, but it's not what you expect at all!

Parker actually takes the silly events of the past Thundra stories and makes something a little deeper out of them!  Thundra is making trips into Marvel Earth and filming her battles against super-powered males to appease the United Sisterhood.  As Thundra's assistant says:  "These encounters boost morale all the way to the borderlands.  They do not need to know the real purpose."  Thundra's past encounters with the Thing, which developed into a friendship, were kept hidden from her subjects.  The videos taken with her recorder are edited into a propaganda type of film that makes Thundra look like the victor, no matter what transpires.

Thundra trades some good blows with the Hulk.  But it really is not a fight that Thundra can hope to win, she has an ulterior motive.  I can't spoil the ending (let us say it has something in common with Skaar), but I was genuinely surprised.  If you're a Thundra fan, pick up this book.  Jeff Parker rocks!  Nuff said.

Link: Jeff Parker Inteview on Wizard World about Thundra.

Link: Jeff Parker's website.

Anthro, the first Cro-Magnon boy in the DC Universe, is one of those obscure characters from the 1960s that aging fanboys remember.  He only appeared in seven comics on his own: Showcase #74 and Anthro #1-6.  His creator, Howie Post, isn't that well known today.  So why do aging fanboys love Anthro?

It's all because of this single issue, Anthro #6 (published in 1969), which introduced a generation of geeks to the pleasures of a catfight.

This cover has everything a man or a boy (in my case back in 1969) craves to see.  Two women fighting over him.  One is a blond, the other is a brunette, the classic Betty vs Veronica dynamic exploding into physical violence.  Hair-pulling, legs tangling...even in my pre-pubescent state, something stirred in my loins.  Anthro's smirk as he watches these women fight to mate with him is just the cherry on top of the cake. 

The plot is pretty simple: through a comedy of errors, Anthro is somehow pledged to marry two pre-historic women, Embra and Nima.  There is an Archie-like quality here, as Embra is depicted as blonde-wholesome, while Nima is brunette-wicked.  The elders who interpret the law declare "...the females in challenge must fight with their bare hands till one fails to rise!  She, who stands, shall be the bride of Anthro!"

It's a nasty catfight.  As you can see, the evil-brunette Nima fights really dirty.  Wally Wood inked this issue, and you can see influence on the pencils.  I wonder if Wood also influenced the storyline?  He's the man who gave us Power Girl, after all!

The fight comes down to a draw when both women fall off a cliff and lose consciousness.  Fortunately, when the Elders were drafting the laws of Cro-Magnon society, they spent time thinking about female catfights and their possible outcomes.  The law states that in the case of a draw, Anthro must marry both bitches!  Oh yes! 

My imagine ran overtime about what we would see in Anthro #7.  Would the splash page feature Anthro waking up in his cave, with both Embra and Nima under bear-skin blankets?  Sadly, it was not meant to be...Anthro #6 was the last issue.  Anthro's Wikipedia entry states that "Embra lives to bear his child" but I don't know where that happened in DC history.

This scene probably was inspired by the classic B-movie One Million Years B.C. that came out a few years earlier in 1966.  You've probably seen the classic poster which featured Raquel Welch in a loincloth.  There was a scene where she fought another cavegirl played by Martine Beswick (who had another classic catfight in From Russia With Love). 

Women are no doubt disgusted by this, but here it is, our dirty little secret revealed, why DC Comics fanboys love Anthro.  Nuff said.

Fucking hell, I blew it on that Cyclops-Dick article, didn't I? How can I possibly redeem myself? WITH THE MOST X-RATED POST IN PHOTON HISTORY! These outrageously hot pics of Vampirella by Bruce Timm should do the trick. Vampirella was always my favorite seductress, although her stories never lived up to the covers in the old Warren Magazines. I was always fond of Vampi's legs and buttocks, and apparently, so is Mr. Timm.

This drawing, with the erotic come-here gaze in Vampi's sweet little face is right up there with the Satana pic that Kid Flash posted. Bruce Timm did draw a short story in Vampirella Monthly #20, where she was naked, in similiar poses to this one.

Warren Magazines' other two big publications were Creepy and Eerie. Here you see another fantasy fulfilled, Vampirella dancing at a strip club while the mascots of these two titles drooled in ecstasy.

Here's one that will send fanfic writers gushing to their keyboards: Vampirella versus Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No Freudian overtones in this picture. What could that stake possibly represent? Nuff said.

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Birds of Prey has a history of taking on artists who prove themselves on the title and then go on to bigger and better things. Gary Frank, Greg Land, Ed Benes, and now this new fellow, Paulo Sequeira. I really like both this artwork and his panel layout. As Cousin Dick said last time, his artwork in various panels has touches of Chaykin--is it the drawing or the way the blacks are inked in? I'd love to know Sequeira's influences. I think I see some Golden in there as well.

The story by Gail Simone is fun--Black Alice is on a rampage, fighting the Birds with her magic-stealing powers. I think she may be one of the most powerful people in the DCU. Talia, Cheetah, and Felix Faust are there to cloud up Alice's teenage mind. Canary makes a great comment about Talia:

Batman doesn't talk about Talia. Word around the JLA was that she was his one blind spot. The one evil he couldn't bear to fight. And now his fabled judgment may have doomed us all. But to me, unimpressed by her lineage and hetero to the bone--she's just another witch in a push-up bra.

Can't wait to see what happens in BOP 100 and the identity of the mysterious Batgirl--is it Barbara Gordon? Nuff said.

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I think it was Keith Giffen who recounted the story about Wally Wood and Power Girl. Wood drew several issues of All-Star Comics during the 1970s, when PG made her first appearances. With every issue, Wood made Power Girl's chest bigger and bigger, thinking some editor was going to tell him to stop. No one ever did. I think this tradition continues until today! PG looks ginormous in this double-page spread from Supergirl #9.

Despite the massive cleavage, the story in this issue of Supergirl is the best one since the book started. Joe Kelly really gets into Supergirl's character and how she feels about being a misplaced teen on DC's earth. Supergirl has a fun, flirtatious date with a mysterious red-headed stranger--you'll see his identity at the end, I won't spoil it for you here. In various flashbacks we see the repercussions to Kara's moral compromise in the bottled city of Kandor as well as her various relationships in the DCU (Wonder Girl, Batman, etc). Kelly's off to a good start, if he keeps this up then Supergirl will become a solid monthly comic. Nuff said.

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The idea to talk comicdom's finest and slowest artists into illustrating two-page origin tales in DC's weekly 52 series is a brilliant idea. Having Adam Hughes draw this dynamic view of Wonder Woman flying through the sky and nearly spilling out of her décolletage really puts a yin in man's yang. Is it worth $2.50? I think so. Something worthwhile actually happens in this issue. Black Adam has seen the light in Adrianna Tomaz (the woman who spit in his face a couple chapters ago) and has decided to turn her into the modern incarnation of Isis. The only barrier is, he needs Shazam's approval, and the old wizard has been replaced by Billy Batson. Billy's been driven batty by the Seven Sins in his head, especially that demon called Lust. Adrianna does become Isis, but we'll have to wait to see if power corrupts as Adam mentioned--the look on Isis' face on the last page suggests that it does.

Meanwhile, we have to dream about All Star Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes. Panel after panel of silicone breasts, perfect glutes, and powerful thighs. Better than any issue of Playboy! Nuff said.

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When I first saw the Scarlet Witch in X-Men #4 (the original series in the 1960s for you young pups) I thought she looked like a European nursemaid. That nutty head thing, the cloak, the boots--they all covered up her best assets. Little did I know that years later I would develop a crush on Wanda Maximoff. Let's take a trip down memory lane to see Wanda's development. Click on the pics to expand...


Wanda became one of the first villains to become a hero, as she joined the Avengers alongside her brother, Quicksilver. As the years went by, artists like John Buscema and Rich Buckler would make that costume more dynamic by shrinking the headpiece, getting rid of the cute little booties, and having her cape blow around to reveal a sexy little body.


When Steven Englehart took over the Avengers, he gave Wanda more personality than she ever had before. She became a spitfire when Pietro was temporarily lost.

During the Englehart years, Wanda explored her mutant hex power with Agatha Harkness. As a result, the Scarlet Witch took down Thor (inside a giant robot) during Giant-Size Avengers #2. As Wanda's powers grew, so did her chest.

DC's May 2006 solicitations came out today at Newsarama, CBR, and Comics Continuum. Here's the cover to Supergirl #8, click to expand...

Good thing Power Girl has super-strength, otherwise she'd never be able to lift herself off the floor with those balloons. Dave's Long Box had a great article called Boob War where he gave us a pictorial history of PG's chest. I can't recall them ever looking so...ripe. Supergirl #1 (with the first fight between Power Girl and Supergirl) must have sold a ton of copies for them to repeat this stunt so quickly. Nuff said.

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