Night Nurse - Marvel Comics

The Night Nurse, Linda Carter (no, not that one, she spells her name with a Y), the "EMT to the superheroes" actually first appeared way back in 1961.
You have to admit, if superheroes were real, this would be the woman to know!
I think this would have made a better TV show than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Can you imagine "House" and "Arrow" mixed together?

Night Nurse, Claws of the Cat and Shanna the She-Devil were all launched together in an effort to draw in female readers.
But Night Nurse was not a superhero book and people weren’t even sure if it took place in the Marvel Universe.

It was about Linda Carter...yeah I know, but it's okay and you'll see why in a minute. Linda was a nurse at a hospital called Metro General in New York City. The series was created in 1972 and Lynda (with a y) Carter rose to fame in 1975. Plus, this Linda Carter actually was in a series called Linda Carter, Student Nurse back in 1961.

Anyway, Night Nurse didn’t run long, only four issues and Linda would have faded into obscurity. Except some of the writers at Marvel love tying things in as much as I do!

Turns out after Night Nurse ended, Linda was saved by a superhero. (Hey...she lives in New York...probably half of the cities population has been saved by superheroes) But that incident made Linda the EMT to super-powered beings. Similarly to the way Mob people can't go to hospitals when injured, you cant take a hero to the hospital without risking their secret identity. Which is where Night Nurse comes in. And yes though people call her Linda, her codename really is "Night Nurse".

Some of her patients include, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange (she dated him for a while) and Elektra. She even helped run SHIELD safe-house number 23.

One really cool thing I thought was she actually had a catch-phrase. If a wounded hero or someone seeking aid for a hero came into the hospital she would say,"go to the room on the right" which meant she would take care of them.

Though she doesn’t have any superpowers, she is a tough lady and doesn’t have a bit of trouble telling a patient to sit or lie down and shut up no matter how powerful said patient is. And she doesnt need powers. With all the heroes she has taken care of, if a supervillain even THOUGHT about laying a hand on her...can you imagine the world of hurt he would be in for?

Oh yeah...and since she first appeared, she went on to become a full-fledged Doctor...specializing in "Superhero Medicine" maybe? But Dr. Night sounds like a bad guy...so she still uses Night Nurse.

Namora - Marvel Comics

Namor the Sub-Mariner's not so little cousin, Namora was created in 1947.
She's 5'11 with blonde hair and blue eyes, she has superhuman strength, speed, durability, agility, reflexes and she can lift up to 100 tons underwater (75 tons on dry land).
What's not to love?

Namora has got the jump on DC's Mera by quite a bit considering that she was created by writer Ken Bald and artist Syd Shores way back in 1947. So she had a sixteen year jump on Mera.

And if you are like me you probably went, "Namora? Really? Why didn't they just call her Sub-Mariner Girl?" Well actually, her name as created was Aquaria Nautica Neptunia which allowed the writer to use all the Latin sounding underwatery terms he could think of. She took the name "Namora" to honor her cousin Namor. Namor (in Atlantean) means "Avenging Son" and Namora means "Avenging Daughter"...so it's not as bad as it sounds. In comic book terms at least.

Namora has your basic butt-kicking Atlantean abilities. She is five foot eleven, 189 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes. Namora has super-strength, limited invulnerability, she can swim at superhuman speeds, and she has those little wings things on her ankles that allow her to fly like Namor.

Side Note: No she doesn’t. Those little hummingbird wings on her feet are not gonna make her fly! Sorry...they may have bought that in the 40s....but no. She has to have some kind of psionic ability.

Anyway... besides all those powers...it's possible she has an even worse attitude than Namor when she gets angry. So that makes her pretty rough in a fight.

Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) - Marvel Comics

Ms. Marvel aka Kamala Khan.Kamala caused a little bit of a stir because she is a teenage Muslim-American from Jersey City, New Jersey.

I know right?
A superhero from Jersey?

No...actually the interest was that Kamala was a Muslim-American.
Now this is not by any means Marvel's first Muslim superhero.
Dust showed up in 2002, the mutant M way before that in 1994 and The Arabian Knight way, way back in 1981.
So Marvel has had Muslim heroes.
But this is the first Muslim character in Marvel to have her own comic book.

The character is not bad and if you removed the religious ties, you have a hero worthy of the 1960s Marvel style.
Teenager, doesn’t fit in, is different because of something, is VERY different because they have superpowers.
It's the classic Spider-Man template.

And to make sure the stories are authentic, she was created by Muslim-Americans Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson.

Pushing religion aside, we come to the meat and potatoes of every superhero.
Powers.
Well...before that, let me state that she does have a pretty well done costume...and that is very important.
Anyway, Kamala has an Inhuman heritage (see Medusa) and because of that has shape-shifting abilities.
Which is kind of a letdown for me because I have never really been a big fan of that power.
And yes I know that Mister Fantastic is a great hero, but who yells, "I wanna be Reed!" when kids play superheroes?
Kamala is kind of a cross between Reed and Mystique.

By the way, she came by her name honestly, having been a huge fan of Carol Danvers, the original Ms. Marvel.

Ms. Marvel - Marvel Comics

Marvel character Carol Danvers has been through a lot. She was created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan and first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 in 1968. At that time she was a supporting character in the Captain Marvel (later Mar-Vell) saga. Carol was injured when a Kree device blew up and was in a coma. And since this is comic books, explosion + alien radiation + coma = (you guessed it) superpowers!

Yes Carol emerged from that coma like a butterfly from a cocoon. The explosion had her into a human-Kree hybrid, with that hybrid being Mar-Vell. So this was a seriously butt-kicking butterfly. She called herself Ms. Marvel (it was the 70s) and she did some serious superheroing.

But like most superheroines, the writers just seemed to like to mess with her. I really think a LOT of them are grown men with the mental capacity of adolescents. Or worse.... In Avengers #200, Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, brainwashed and raped. Yep. What did the Avengers do? Not a damn thing. The story line got so much attention that comic book critics all over went after the writing staff for it. Of course they kinda shrugged, wondering what all the fuss was about. It took over a year and comic book writer Chris Claremont to fix it. He retconned the whole incident in Avengers Annual #10 in 1981.

Chris also gave us the story where Rogue permanently absorbed all of Carol's abilities and memories. This is what originally powered Rogue in the comics. Flying, smashing Rogue is brought to you courtesy of Ms. Marvel.

As female characters are run through the wringer, Carol was Binary and then Warbird before finally winding back up with her powers and the name "Ms. Marvel".

Now the Ms. Marvel name is gone and she has a new costume, haircut and name....Captain Marvel.

As far as powers go...Carol is a pretty tough lady. She has superhuman strength (she can lift 70 tons), enhanced durability, she can fly at around 400 mph and she has a "Seventh Sense" kinda like Spider-Man's "Spidey Sense". She can also fire power blasts out of her hands. Her ability to absorb energy allows her to boost all all of these powers...with possibly no upper limit... Oh yeah and due to her military and SHIELD training and hanging out with the Avengers, X-men etc, Carol is a pilot, marksman and very good hand to hand fighter.

Mera - DC Comics

She's hot.
She's a redhead.
She's got a fish-scale catsuit.
She's the Queen of Atlantis and in the Young Justice cartoon, she was the head of the underwater version of Hogwarts, the Atlantis Conservatory of Sorcery.
I wonder why I like Mera.....

Yep she's usually just considered a background player and supporting character with Aquaman. Where Mera should be with Aquaman like the Invisible Woman is with the Fantastic Four, Mera is really pretty much DC's whipping girl. You know those DC writers are kinda sick. But...she is a redhead....
Originally Mera was the Queen of Dimension Aqua (aka Xebel). When her kingdom was seized she fled here and met Aquaman and Aqualad, here in this dimension, they helped her, Aquaman and Mera got married. Later they had a kid, Arthur Curry, Jr., aka Aquababy. Yeah I know....I know....
Of course DC has hacked up her origin to make her more "grim, gritty and edgy" now. DC really needs to chill.

Black Manta kills Aquababy. Yep...they did that. Mera gets put in an insane asylum in Atlantis. She escapes the asylum and Aquaman accidentally kills her. Mera gets better and goes back to Xebel.
Then they change their minds again... Mera wasn’t a good guy escaping Xebel, she was a trained assassin sent to kill Aquaman. But she feel in love with Aquaman and they had a kid, kid died, Mera went crazy, etc. Her people were actually the ones that created Kaldur'ahm (Young Justice's Aqualad) by breeding Black Manta and a woman.

But thanks to The New 52 relaunch...none of that ever happened! So it's all cool now. Actually Aquaman and Mera were one of the things DC DID do right in the relaunch. You actually get the sense with her, that she IS the great woman behind a great man.
Let's just move on to her powers okay?

Mera has Aquakinesis or Hydrokinesis. That means she can increase the density of water and then create any structure with it. Swords, knives, whips, battering rams, kinda like Green Lantern and his Power Ring constructs. She has limited telepathy, super strength and the ability to travel to Dimension Aqua (aka Xebel).

Outside the comics, she fairs MUCH better on TV. She appeared on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure television series in 1967, Justice League in 2001 and in Batman: The Brave and the Bold in 2008. Her best animated appearance I think was in Young Justice where she was Aquaman's wife, the Queen of Atlantis AND the head of Atlantis Conservatory of Sorcery (think underwater Hogwarts). And we had the very hot Elena Satine show up as Mera in the final season of Smallville.
They were all MUCH happier than the comic book version.

Maxima - DC Comics

A superheroine that's kind of overlooked.
Gorgeous, red-haired, able to go toe to toe with Superman and one of the few superheroes that could actually hurt Doomsday.
The late Maxima.
Although with DC's the New 52...she could come back...

No it's not a car made by Nissan. It's another gorgeous red-haired superhero! Seems to be a lot of them huh? Or maybe it's just me.....
Anyway, Maxima is an aristocratic alien from another planet. She happened to see Superman (I guess on intergalactic TV) and she decided the Man of Steel would be her ideal mate. So she came to Earth to claim him. Unfortunately Supes saw it differently and battle ensued. A battle in which she held her own with Superman.
Like a lot of other redheads (Black Widow, Medusa) she started off as a bad guy, then turned good. She even joined the Justice League though sometimes her motives seem a little cloudy.
But even then, she gave her life to stop Brainiac 13 from destroying the Universe, so she wasn’t all bad. Though she died then. We have no idea what (if any) position she holds in the New 52.
Maxima's superpowers all came from her incredible psionic powers and a little biological enhancement. She could use her psionics to enhance her durability, speed, stamina and strength. It also gave her a force field, mind control, psychic blasts, telekinesis and flight.
She was one tough lady.

Maxima and Superman from the animated series

Besides comics and cartoons, Maxima has shown up in live action as well.

On Smallville...

...and Supergirl...

maxima, maxima dc, maxima dc rebirth, maxima dc animated, maxima dc supergirl, maxima new 52, maxima smallville, almerac dc, maxima vs superman, maxima vs wonder woman

Does Avengers Assemble Equal The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

I know I hated this new cartoon from the getgo.
They lied when they said that "Avengers Assemble" would be a continuation of the vastly superior "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes".
Or did they?
Look at these screen caps from the flashback in episode 8, "Molecule Kid"....

Those are The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes designs....in the new show!

Was I Wrong About Avengers Assemble?
http://www.bubblews.com/news/2732593-was-i-wrong-about-avengers-assemble

Medusa - Marvel Comics

Yes another gorgeous red haired superheroine.
The Queen of the Inhumans Medusa.
She may have started off as a bad guy, but she did alright for herself.

I always liked Medusa. Black Bolt's significant other, the Queen of the Inhumans, never had a bad hair day in her life..... It has nothing to do with the fact that she is a redhead. Nothing. Really.
Anyway, she first appeared in Fantastic Four #36 way back in 1965 and was created by the Marvel dream team, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In Medusa's first appearance she had amnesia and was a member of the Frightful Four. She was a pretty darn good villain, going toe to toe with the then Invisible Girl and beating her several times. Medusa even took the Human Torch out once.

But Medusa finally got over her amnesia and regained her rightful place as a hero. Her catfights with Sue Storm ended and they became good friends, even subbing for Sue a few times in the Fantastic Four when Sue had family emergencies.

Medusa has a pretty unique power. It's her hair. Each strand is as strong as iron, her hair is over 6 feet in length and she can control it through psychokinetic ability. They use what I call "The Batman Rule" with her hair. Ever notice how sometimes Bats cape is 5 feet long and sometimes it's 20 feet or more? Same with her hair, they say she can stretch it to twelve feet.... She can even lift close to two tons with it. And she's not just limited to picking things up with her hair. She can snap it like a whip, spin it like a fan, shuffle cards (she did it with the Thing and company at one of the infamous Fantastic Four poker games), pick locks, squeeze someone with it like an anaconda and even control it if it is cut off!
This lady is multi-talented!

Mary Marvel - DC Comics

Created in 1942, Mary Marvel predates Supergirl by almost a decade.
And MM has gone through a LOT of changes.
Or she *did* go through a lot of changes.
The New 52 kinda wiped all that out.....

Superman has Supergirl, Batman has Batgirl and Captain Marvel (I am not calling him Shazam) has Mary Marvel. (Or should it be Mary Shazam now DC?) Though actually, Mary beat most of the other female counterparts. Supergirl first appeared in 1959 and Mary appeared in 1942.
Mary was created by Otto Binder and Marc Swayze and was actually based on Judy Garland, and if you look at old pictures of Judy and Mary's original appearances, you can see that.
From 1945 to 1953, Mary was pretty popular with her own comic for many years. Then came the DC lawsuit thing and the Marvel family went into limbo until 1973.

She reappeared in comics in 1973 because DC bought the rights and started up the "Shazam!" comic book. Of course all of this is moot because of the New 52 and never happened.
Now Mary is part of Billy's foster family and she becomes MM when Captain Marvel directs his power into her during a fight with Black Adam.

Originally Mary had her own female pantheon that she drew her powers from like Billy did.... Selena for grace. Hippolyta for strength. Artemis for skill. Zephyrus for speed and flight. (actually...HE is the Greek god of the west wind...ooops) Aphrodite for beauty. (I really didn’t know beauty was a superpower...but okay) Minerva for wisdom.

Mary has appeared on TV a few times... She was in the 1981 Shazam! Saturday morning cartoon, she appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold twice, she was supposed to be between seasons one and two of Young Justice as Sergeant Marvel.

But her coolest "kind of" appearance was in the 2010 film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. In that...the hot (and crazy) Superwoman, voiced by Gina Torres, is a grown up Mary Marvel and a member of the Crime Syndicate of America.

Madame Mirage - Top Cow

Another of the coolest comic book superheroines, and again she is neither DC nor Marvel.
Paul Dini's Madam Mirage.....

Another superheroine you may have never heard of is Top Cow's Madame Mirage. It's funny how a lot of the best female superheroes aren’t done by the mainstream companies.

Madame Mirage is a vigilante that fights crime with mind control, magic and shape-shifting. She was created by Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond) and the character herself is physically based on his wife, professional magician. Misty Lee. Besides magic, Misty is trained in cognitive interview techniques and is pretty much a real life Cal Lightman from "Lie to Me" having trained CIA, ATF, and Scotland Yard agents.

But anyway, back to Madame Mirage, her adventures are set in a world where superheroes are all created by technology and bio-engineering. The whole hero thing got out of hand and the heroes had to go underground.

Madame Mirage is kind of a Shadow/Batman character and she even has her own sidekick, her sister Harper. Or is Harper really her sidekick? Yeah...it's one of those comics. Like the "Ghost" comic I mentioned in an earlier post, nothing is quite what it seems.
But it is totally worth checking out.

Misty Knight - Marvel Comics

The "Kevin Bacon" of the Marvel Comics world.
You should be able to link anybody in the Marvel Universe to Misty Knight in just a few moves.
I'm hoping Misty will show up on the Netflix Marvel series....

She didn’t wear a costume. She sported a righteous 'fro, a .357 Colt Python and a bionic arm. She was the BFF of lady samurai Colleen Wing and the girlfriend of Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. Mercedes "Misty" Knight was just one of those comic book characters I loved because she was one of the great tie-in characters of all time.

Misty was NYPD until she lost her arm stopping a bomb attack. She resigned from the police force and Tony Stark (Iron Man) gave her a super-powered bionic arm. Misty's roommate for a while was Jean Grey aka Marvel Girl/Phoenix. She and Colleen set up the "Knightwing Restorations Ltd" detective agency that helped Heroes for Hire (Power Man and Iron Fist) out quite a bit. Misty teamed up with the X-Men, reformed Heroes for Hire with a whole new roster, and has fought a whole host of supervillains.
Of course now Misty's bionic arm is way overpowered with all kinds of weapons by Stark Industries. But I really preferred her as a martial artist, incredible marksman and amazing detective that just happened to have a bionic arm.
It was a simpler concept.
I am wondering if Misty will show up in the Netflix Iron Fist or Luke Cage series. It would be a shame if she doesn't.

Jubilee - Marvel Comics

Jubilee has been through a lot in her career.
I think she was the happiest in the 1990s on the X-Men cartoon on Fox.
But even though she gets a some hate, some fans still love "classic" Jubilee.
But I don't remember her looking like this....

Poor Jubilee. Like a lot (most) Marvel Characters she has had her life and her background mangled and twisted over time by the writers. She was a mutant. Lost her mutant powers and became a technology based superhero called Wondra. Then got turned into a vampire and now from what I understand she is an orphaned baby.

The best, happiest Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee (and my Jubilee) was on the 1990s X-Men animated series. Before she appeared there she was created by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri. I was under the impression that she was created for the TV series but I was wrong. She showed up in Uncanny X-Men #244 in 1989 before she showed up in the 1992 TV series.
A lot of people really didn’t like Jubilee and I cant blame them. One...she was used as a replacement for Kitty Pryde. Why not just use Kitty? Two...she shot fireworks out of her hands, big deal. Dazzler did that way better.

But as usual with the X-Men writers, they figured out a way to make Jubilee more powerful and of course, "one of the most powerful mutants in the WORLD!" They all are right? Anyway it was discovered that Jub's little firecrackers, well....with concentration she could create that same effect on a sub-atomic level. That would cause a detonation like a thermonuclear bomb. Boom. She could also project her little fireworks into a human brain, giving the target basically a massive stroke. Boom.
Of course with Marvel changing everything all that is gone. But it is fun to think that little teenage, bubblegum bubble blowing Jubilee could flatten an entire city if she had to.

Invisible Woman - Marvel Comics

One of the most overlooked "heavy hitters" in the Marvel Universe, the Invisible Woman.
Hey...she went from "Girl" to "Woman".
How many other female superheroes have done that?

 

Susan "Sue" Storm Richards was created in 1961 with the rest of the Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. But while most people point to Wonder Woman as a role model for young girls in comics...you have to consider Sue.

She started out as the Invisible "Girl" and managed to make the name change to the Invisible "Woman".
Not that easy of a feat.
Look at Supergirl and Batgirl.

She is a superhero, the "mother" of the FF (and also second in command), a real mother to her own children, a "sister" to other superheroes (the Wasp, She-Hulk), a career woman and arguably one of the most power beings in the Marvel Universe. To qualify that last thing....Dr. Doom is wary of her and has said she was the most powerful member of the FF. When you can worry Victor Von Doom.....

Of course Sue can turn invisible. Not only herself, but also the area around her up to several miles. She can project forcefields that can withstand direct blows by Thor's hammer and the Hulk.
The "ugly things" she almost never does.... She could project a forcefield inside you (or armor) and quickly expand it causing you/it to explode. Sue can also encase your head in a forcefield and see how long you last without oxygen.

See? The Invisible Woman can mess you up.

So when people point out female role-models in comic books, don't forget the Invisible Woman.

Huntress - DC Comics

How can you go wrong if you are the incredibly hot daughter of Batman and Catwoman?
Well you can't.
But that wont stop DC from messing around with you and your origin!

Like Hawkgirl, the name "Huntress" has been used in the DC Universe for years and with a lot of different ladies. A lot of people like the Helena Bertinelli version of Huntress, but to me it's a toss-up with the Helena Wayne version. Why? Because she was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Of course it was the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two, so it actually didn’t count in the "real" DC Universe, but hey....I liked her anyway.

This Huntess was not only killed but also erased from history (kinda harsh DC) in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12. But as DC is want to do, they brought her back, not the character...well yeah the character....kinda... in 1989 as Helena Bertinelli. They used almost the same costume, almost the same name and a different origin.

The Helena Bertinelli Huntress went on to join the Birds of Prey, the Batman Family and was even in the Justice League for a bit. But she had to leave the League after Batman stopped her from killing a supervillain. Yes BATMAN thought she was too unpredictable and violent! I knew I loved her for some reason.

But now...DC...(give me a moment to faceplam, shake my head and roll my eyes) DC with its New 52 has brought back the Earth-2 Batman's daughter, Huntress. Yes....after all that they went back to the first version. Now Huntress is once again Helena Wayne.

I swear I think sometimes they sit around in their meetings and say, "Hey Guys! Wouldn't it be cool if...." and just change everything just for the sake of changing it

Before Watchmen - Adam Hughes

I wasn't crazy about the idea of "Before Watchmen".
But I am crazy about Adam Hughes and I LOVED this cover.....

Satana - Marvel Comics

Whose idea was it to make Satan's children superheroes?
Well...it was a simpler time.
A time when Daimon Hellstrom and his Sister Satana could be heroes.
And Satana could actually join a superhero group!

Yeah I thought I would do this one just to show how far comics have come. I guess you could call it that... Sometimes you don’t need to come from another planet, be a mutant, have a tragedy occur in your life or have a lab accident to be a superhero. Sometimes all you need is for your daddy to be the Devil. Like Daimon Hellstrom and his Sister Satana. Yep, the son and daughter of Satan are superheroes in the Marvel Universe.

Well...they retconned it later to make their father not actually Satan, but a demon named Marduk Kurios who isn’t really Satan but Lucifer. Yeah...I know....why mess with it? I have no idea. Marvel just does things like that.

Anyway...Daimon rejected his father and Satana embraced him so one grew up "good" and the other evil.

She is a succubus that killed a lot of people until she turned semi-good and started teaming up with Spider-Man (who will evidently team up with anyone) and Dr. Strange. Then she turned bad again....then turned kinda good and finally joins the superhero team, The Thunderbolts, that is mainly reformed supervillains.

As far as "super-powers" go Satana can feed upon the psychic energy of human male souls, teleport, levitate, fire bolts of hellfire, hypnotize people, and use the mystic arts.

Hawkgirl - Justice League

This is part of what made the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons so good.
They could take a nothing happening DC comics character like Hawkgirl and turn her into one of the baddest Leaguers ever.

The name "Hawkgirl" has been used by a lot of DC women. But my favorite Hawkgirl out of all of them was the one on the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited TV show.

Of course since this Hawkgirl is based on the "Silver Age" Shayera Hol Hawkgirl....I like her better.

The cartoon managed to transform this girl that just flew around into a real bird of prey. You didn’t want to get her angry, because she had a temper and a berserker rage right up there with Wolverine.
The main differences between this Hawkgirl and the one she was based on in the comics was that this Shayera had organic wings (as opposed to strap-on ones) and carried a mace that was made out of Nth metal.

Nth metal would disrupt energy that it came in contact with it, so Hawkgirl could smash your psionic, energy or mystic force fields, all with equal ease. This freaked a lot of her over-confident opponents out when this winged girl could hit them right through their "impenetrable" shields.

And Shayera was another red head. Which was another point in her favor.

So Hawkgirl could fly, she had some level of super-strength, agility, she was a trained Thanagarian military officer, and she had that mace. Oh yeah....and she could also beat Batman at chess.

Her story in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited was quite complex so I would recommend watching it from the beginning to see how well the writers crafted her character. You don’t see writing like that on a "kid's show" every day. The reincarnation episode with Hawkman was done especially well

Glory - Image Comics

Created by Rob Liefeld in 1993, Image Comic's version of Wonder Woman broke all the Liefeld rules.
No giant pockets, no thighs the size of redwoods and no giant anti-aircraft guns as sidearms!

Like Ghost, Glory is not very popular but worth mentioning.

For one thing, she was created by Rob Liefeld in 1993 and does not have huge pockets all over her costume and doesn’t carry a gun the size of a Buick. Okay...unless you follow comics that doesn’t make sense. But to those of us that know Liefeld...that’s quite an accomplishment for him!

Secondly, she's pretty much Wonder Woman. Just more "fun". Since Glory was an Image Comics character and not DC, Liefeld had more latitude with her. She was born in Amazonia and trained by Amazons (though her father was a demon making her half Amazon, half Demon), she went to the world of man in WW2 and fought the Nazi. What was even more fun was that she got to fight alongside not only the Image version of Superman (Supreme) but also the Image version of Captain America (SuperPatriot). So here in their WW2, you had an alternate version of WW, Supes and Cap all fighting the Axis forces.

Of course like WW, she carried over into the modern world and fought crime, demons etc. Well as much as she could. The series only ran for 34 issues.

As far as powers go, she had Wonder Woman level strength of course, flight, a demon spawned berserker rage and she could teleport through reflective surfaces, which I thought was kinda cool.
Another tie-in to WW was that artist Mike Deodato drew Wonder Woman from 1994 to 1995, then went to Darkhorse and drew Glory from 1995 to 1996.

The character was recently revamped and is now an albino giantess. ::sigh::

Ghost - Darkhorse Comics

One of the best series Darkhorse Comics ever put out, Ghost.
The cover art by Adam Hughes and Terry Dodson didn't hurt any....

Although you may have never heard of Ghost, she was/is a pretty cool character. Ghost was created in 1993 for Darkhorse Comics by Team CGW (Team Comics' Greatest World) which was comprised of Darkhorse creators Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, Barbara Kesel, Jerry Prosser and Chris Warner. And "Ghost" is considered to be one of the best written comics out there.

The book is about Reporter Elisa Cameron who is apparently dead. I say "apparently" because...well..in this book nothing is really as it seems. As a "Ghost" Elisa can pass through solid objects (ghosting) and teleport. She also carries two Colt 45s and looks a lot like the old pulp heroes of the 30s. Fantastic cover art by Adam Hughes and Terry Dodson added to that image quite well.
Although Darkhorse isn’t "mainstream" Ghost has managed a few high level cross-overs. Her first was with another Darkhorse character Barb Wire. Then she teamed up with The Shadow, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Hellboy and The Mask.

Gamora - Marvel Comics

No it's not a giant atomically mutated turtle.
It's the "Deadliest Women in the Galaxy", Thano's adopted daughter, Gamora.

The green-skinned adopted daughter of the Mad Titan Thanos was created by Jim Starlin and first appeared in Strange Tales #180 back in 1975.
Kinda hard to believe that was three years before 1978's "Superman" hit the screen isn’t it?

Gamora is the "Deadliest Woman in the Universe". She is a trained assassin plus she has your standard heightened speed, strength, agility, durability and of course an accelerated healing factor.
I mean..you just have to have all those things right?
Though seriously...this woman is bad. She can go toe to toe with the "Big Boys" and has taken out entire armies by herself.

Gamora has also been the girlfriend of Adam Warlock and Nova.
The more eagle eyed among you may have spotted Warlock's cocoon in the Collector's ship at the end of Thor: The Dark World.
So....he may not be far behind in the MCU.

Caitlin Fairchild - Wildstorm and DC Comics

Although I really prefer the Caitlin Fairchild aka Fairchild from the original Gen13 in Wildstorm comics, I guess I am happy she is still around in DC's New 52.
I guess.....

Another of the infamous red haired superheroines is Caitlin Fairchild aka Fairchild, from the Wildstorm series Gen 13. (You know...maybe I should just do a series of red haired superheroines...)

"My" Fairchild is the one from that series. I know that DC has the rights to her and she is in the New 52 as a totally new character. Bleech.

I really liked the idea of the quiet, shy, unassuming computer geek that overnight was transformed into a 6'5 red haired Amazon that could hold her own against the most powerful characters around. The story there with someone that was insecure and not at all confident being thrown into that had a lot of potential. "But I can't...wait...I can throw tanks now....yes I can!" Caitlin started out unsure of herself, but quickly grew into the team leader of Gen 13.

Fairchild was also a fanboy favorite because...well because she was a 6 foot 5 red haired Amazon! Duh!

She was created by Jim Lee, Brandon Choi and J. Scott Campbell back in 1994 (Geez...that long ago) and first appeared in "Deathmate Black". Her main power was her size, super-strength, heightened agility and limited invulnerability.

Now Fairchild is a supporting character in the Superboy series.

Elektra - Marvel Comics

Though her name was actually misspelled on the cover of her first appearance (Daredevil #168), Marvel Comic's Elektra has gone on to be quite popular....

Elektra is one of the most beloved female superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Despite the fact that next to Dark Phoenix, she has probably killed more people than any other female "hero" in Marvel Comics.

You see she is an assassin. Actually a GREEK female ninja. Yeah....

She was created by Frank Miller in 1981 and first appeared in Daredevil #168. Even though Frank wrote and illustrated that issue, her name was misspelled on the cover as "Elecktra". See kids, proof-reading IS important!

Elektra was supposed to only be in one issue, but popular demand brought her back until she was killed by Bullseye in Daredevil #181, stabbed through the chest with her own sai. Marvel promised Frank this would be a "final death" and she would not be brought back. That lasted about ten years and they brought her back. Since then, she has shown up everywhere like a good little Marvel stock character.

Like I said earlier Elektra is an assassin. She's trained in Ninjutsu and she is an Olympic-level athlete. She also can hypnotize people, "possess" people and has weak telepathy.

The live version of Elektra showed up in 2003's Daredevil and the sequel, 2005's Elektra, both times played by Jennifer Garner.

Now Elektra will show up in the Netflix Daredevil series played by Elodie Yung.

Daredevil and The Defenders On Netflix

I am trying very hard not to get too excited over the new Marvel Netflix series with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the "Defenders"
I remember what happened with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.".....

Good News for Marvels TV Series on NetFlix
http://www.bubblews.com/news/2560502-good-news-for-marvels-tv-series-on-netflix

Dazzler - Marvel Comics

Do you know how close Marvel Comic's Dazzler came to being the first big multimedia Superhero?
Had this worked, we might have been looking at a reboot of the Dazzler film series by Marvel Studios today!

The Dazzler was a pretty unique concept and could have been a HUGE success. I mean this could have put superhero movies on the map and may have actually beaten Richard Donner's "Superman" to the big screen. But alas it didn't work. Because the idea sucked.

Marvel Comics and Casablanca Records were going to create a superhero. In case you have no idea who Casablanca Records is, they were the label for HUGE 70's acts like Donna Summer, Village People, Cher, and Kiss. Marvel would create the hero, Casablanca would find a singer and make her the hero, make albums and then Filmworks Studios would make a movie about her! On paper it looked like pure gold. A real life superhero that had big albums and was in a major motion picture! That was as far as it got.

Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter came up with a character named "Disco Queen". And sent the idea to the writers and artists. No one wanted anything to do with it. The rumor is that no one was willing to work on the project until they were pretty much forced to. So Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. were forced into working on the now re-named "Dazzler".
Originally Dazzler was supposed to be Grace Jones, but then Filmworks wanted Bo Derek to play her on the big screen. And Casablanca wanted Dazzler to show up in The X-Men (because she was a mutant), The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man.

Then Disco started dying a quick death and Casablanca Records pulled out completely. That left Marvel with a hyped character and nothing to do with it.
So Marvel launched it as a comic book only and Dazzler actually did pretty well from 1981 to 1985. It was the first comic sold directly through comic book stores. But sales fell off and Dazzler was limited to appearing in other titles.

As far as powers go, Dazzler can turn sound into light with sometimes devastating effect. She can fire that light in beams as powerful as lasers or even create 3-d Holograms. And in a nod to her 70s creation, she occasionally moves about on roller skates that magnetically attach to her boots.

Dawnstar - DC Comics

I like Dawnstar but I always had the same problem with her that I had with the original Angel in Marvel Comics....

I always liked Dawnstar as a character, but I always wondered about her worth as a superhero. The concept is pretty cool...

She is an Anasazi Indian...from space. Yes, in the DC Universe what happened to the Anasazi Indians is that they were abducted by aliens and resettled on a distant planet. Considering the name "Anasazi" translates from Navajo as "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy"...there's a whole storyline there that could be explored.

Anyway, She is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century and has been since 1977 when she was created by Paul Levitz and Mike Grell.

Her powers...well here is where I have problems. She has wings and can fly. Really fast actually. She can fly at faster-than-light speeds in deep space but holds it down in solar systems. And she can track across targets through space. No matter how deep it is.
So see...she is kinda like a hyped up Angel with Lobo's tracking ability. Nice to have in a group, but pretty much useless on her own.

"Ha Darkseid! I have tracked you down across the cosmos! Now I will....will...call other people to beat you up....."

But visually and since she was one of Mike Grell's creations, I still like Dawnstar. Even though she would be worthless in a knife fight in a phone booth.

Black Widow - Marvel Comics

One of my favorite superheroines of all time.
The Black Widow.
Red hair?
Check.
Skintight black catsuit?
Check.
Russian accent?
Check.
Bad?
Check.

Oh yes, the Black Widow (Natalia Romanova). Long before Scarlett Johansson brought her to life in Iron Man 2 in 2010, she was a comic book crush of mine. Why? Well probably the red hair, black skintight catsuit and Russian accent that I imagined she had. No...Scar Jo wasn’t who I would have picked. My ideal Widow would have been a 1960s Raquel Welch but hey...you work with what you have right? Also "my" Widow was a far cry from who they have now.

Mine was Natasha Romanoff, Russian spy and bad guy turned hero. She was evidently rich and had a chauffeur named Ivan. This was the way she appeared in Amazing Adventures 1 through 8 and The Amazing Spider-Man No. 86. That Black Widow has been retconned pretty much out of existence I think.

As far as characters go...the Widow is pretty bad in the comics. Besides being a peak level athlete, gymnast and acrobat she is a martial artist trained in pretty much every style. Add to that the fact that she is an expert marksman and has had extensive spy training. That enough? Nope. She also has been given the Russian version of the Super-Soldier Serum that created Captain America. That means she is immune to most (maybe all) infections and diseases and has an enhanced healing factor.
She is also a brilliant strategist, almost on the level of Cap himself. So yes, she is a hotter, female version of Captain America in many ways.

She is also armed with the Widow bite, which in the comics was far more than a taser. It could fire distance blasts and also fire a webline that allowed her to swing like Spider-Man.

The Comics Buyer's Guide's ranked her 31st on their "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list, but I think she deserves a lot higher.

Batwoman - DC Comics

A DC character I really wasn't too fond of when I first saw her, but I've gotten quite attached to her.
Now if they would just leave her alone and let her be a character....
(As in the New 52)

No...this is not Batgirl all grown up. Or the late 50s, early 60s incarnation.
This is Kate Kane who rose to pretty quick prominence as the "biggest ticket" lesbian superhero around.

Now there had been other gay superheroes before Kate.
At Marvel, Northstar came out as gay in 1992 and Stormwatch had Apollo and Midnighter.
But this was "Batwoman"...an extended member of the Batman Family.

By the way....to be such a loner....Batman sure has a LOT of friends and allies.
Superman is supposed to be way more outgoing and that dude has like three or four friends.....

Anyway, Batwoman's origin is way too complex and complicated to really go into in detail here.
And with DC switching realities...it changes.
So let's just shoot for she's a female counterpart to Batman and is actually a pretty cool character in her own right.
She even took over for Bats for a while when he went MIA.
And now she has her own sidekick, her cousin Flamebird (Mary Elizabeth Kane).
Not too crazy about that name but hey....what does DC care?

Black Cat - Marvel Comics

Did you know that Anne Hathaway almost played the Black Cat in Sam Raimi's Spider-man movies?
I wonder how that would have went?

And here we have another cosplay favorite, one of the sexiest women in comics, the second hottest "cat based" female comic book character and one third of the Mary Jane/Peter Parker/Felicia Hardy triangle, the Black Cat! And she's also living proof that Mr. Parker despite everything else is one of the luckiest guys on the Earth.

Felicia Hardy was created by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 in July 1979. Interestingly, the Black Cat was based on an old Tex Avery cartoon (Bad Luck Blackie, 1949) and was originally created to be a nemesis for Spider-Woman. And though his is not credited, her costume was designed by the late Dave Cockrum.

Like most Marvel and DC characters, Felicia has been through the wringer.... Originally she was just a costumed acrobat. Then she got the ability to affect probability fields. Then she lost that. Then she got cat-like abilities, including night vision, claws in her fingertips, plus your standard enhanced speed, strength, agility, and endurance. Then she got her "bad luck" powers back. Then she got a LOT of gadgets from the supervillain, the Tinkerer. Yeah...that's his name. But in all fairness he used to be "The Terrible Tinkerer"..... Moving on....

The Black Cat has shown up in a few animated Spider-Man series, Spider-Man (1981), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) and The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008).

She was also "supposed" to be in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 and his projected Spider-Man 4. Get this....Rami wanted Anne Hathaway to play Black Cat if Spider-Man 4 was made. I guess feline comic book characters were in Anne's future either way.....