Giant women from The Iron Skull (1939)

1939 and 1940 were two good years for female characters in comics, this very issue of Amazing Man Comics (number 7) gave birth to one of the first ever female superheroes, but that's another story. Today we are going to give a special mention to two villainesses, the giant women from The Iron Skull. This was a very typical superhero who fought in an alternate history version of WW2 and after an accident he was gifted super strength, resistance to bullets and telepathy.

In this issue, women have gone missing and inspector Bradley is on the case. He gets a special call by the criminal responsible for these kidnappings. The Iron Skull and his sidekick listen to the call and trace the caller with their equipment. They find a woman being kidnapped by a robot but the mechanical being self-destructs. 

Soon after, Iron Skull is given a newspaper that tells the news of female giants who robbed a bank, one of them being recognized by her father. Skull theorizes that the women were injected with something that controls the gland muscles. He goes to Dr. Toyat, a gland expert that happens to be in town, who in fact is the evil mastermind behind the crimes. 

The mad doctor puts the heroes in a cage with the gigantic women. The guys fight the tall ladies as they break down the villain's lair and their surroundings. 

The Iron Skull defeats them by using his amazing superpowers and the colossal women retreat. 

Iron Skull beats up the villain and saves the day, bringing the girls back to their original sizes with no casualties. Well, only the villain, who commits suicide by electrocuting himself. 

Quite an interesting little story, possibly one of the earliest depictions of giant women in comic books, predating the likes of Giganta, Garganta, Natalie Furst, Titaness and Masada. Lovely designs and fun little superhero adventure overall. The concept of a mad doctor using women for his evil plans will also be repeated many times in pulpy stories, that's a favorite of mine, weaponizing the victimized female characters against a hero, it's pretty cool stuff.