Magician from Mars: The first comic book superheroine

As I mentioned before in this blog, one of the very first female superheroines came to us among the pages of Amazing Man comics issue number 7. Magician from Mars is a very peculiar character, a half-human (mother) and half-martian (father), she developed superpowers after being exposed to cathode rays as a baby. This gave her super strength, the ability to fly, she's super smart and she can make things appear out of nowhere by her will, she also flies spaceships and planes. Magician is kind of overpowered but they deal quite well with this in the short run of the character by having her first couple of stories be about her showing her character and then challenging her powers with more threatening villains later.

Created by two veteran illustrators and writers in the medium: John Giunta, known for his work in Chamber of Chills, Tomb of Terror and Marvel’s Weird Tales. He also did work in series like The Fly, Cisco Kid and Mad Hatter. A co-creator was Malcolm Kildale, mostly known for Planet Stories, Ivanhoe and The Three Musketeers. Two experienced pulpmakers who would be best remembered for their original female creation for Centaur Publications.  

She began in issue 7 and her story stopped at issue 11, leaving us with only 5 stories to revise and not much else since she's rather obscure for such a historical character, her story started and ended in Amazing Man comics. The very first one shows her origin story in detail. Jane (6ᴇᴍ35 or Q-X3 as her last name changed in the second issue) leaves home after being abused and locked up by her aunt Kanza (her parents died), the escaped girl then proceeds to explore earth, she saves a spaceship and steals gold. The gold goes to a doctor who is searching for the cure for child paralysis and she also keeps a little bit to herself.

This is interesting because it shows some selfishness, although in a much minor degree than her generosity, that isn't normally added to heroic characters in media, instead of a squeaky clean ultra-benevolent wet blanket, Magician is a character who saves the day and fights against evil but her human side is also there, looking out for herself and making relatable decisions that never undermine her heroism.

The second story is far more relaxed, it shows a more casual side to her adventures. She stops a man from commiting suicide (saving men is another interesting new thing for comics of this time), punches the crook that pushed the man into suicide, fights a rogue bull, blows a train back into the tracks and prevents a robbery by helping a poor man who was about to steal from a bank. All of these problems convince our heroine that planet earth needs her and ultimately decides to stay and aid poor humans with her powers. 

In her third story we are introduced to a fully formed supervillain known as The Elemental, a demon-like bald monk who grows in size and battles Jane, she eventually solved the case by punching the men responsible for bringing him into this dimension with music, after the fiend vanishes, Jane destroys the building the villains inhabited. 

The next issue shows Jane being ambushed by mind-controlled air force men, she investigates and finds out there's a villain known as The Hood who is after her. She makes the lair of the villain crumble but the Hood escapes. 

This is an action-packed story with more average superhero tropes than the last few, we also see more of Jane's personality, she's portrayed as feisty and somewhat sarcastic, having a few quips directed at her enemies here and there. 

In the final story things get messy. At the verge of a civil war, the king of Mars sends one of his men to reach the Magician from Mars, the man tells her about the crisis and dies. Jane gets some government officials to give her a rocketship and go to Mars. Once there, she is greeted by the handsome prince Taal.

The king tells the Magician that The Hood is behind all of this. The king's men retreat as they take refuge at the castle. Jane commands the army to attack and fight for their kingdom. She shines in battle with her amazing strength.

Arriving at The Hood's lair, prince Taal is struck by the villain, falling to his death. Jane fights The Hood and much to her surprise, the villain is a villainess, her dreadful old Aunt nonetheless. The old hag vanishes when discovered, while unable to take over Mars, the witch took Jane's only love away from her.

The soldiers suppress the revolution, the kingdom of Mars is safe but Jane must say goodbye to her love, she swears revenge.

A quick and unintelligent comic that starts as a heroic coming of age story for young female readers, turns into a slice of life and ends as a tragic tale. So economic in its storytelling and art that it becomes charming and sweet for its brevity and simplicity. Not a bad start for the genre of superwomen in media.

Jane had powers few other heroes had in the same magazine, not even the strongest supermen were as all powerful as she was, typically the other guys from Amazing Man comics fell into the category of being John Carter or Tarzan but slightly modified, Magician from Mars showed us that female heroes could be just as strong, if not more than the average superjoe while also creating an astounding woman who was capable of being a scientist, a fighter, a hero and a savior. Magician from Mars is without a doubt the first powerful role model in feminine comics. 

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.