Shortly after The Archies established the first ongoing comic book love triangle, the idea found its way to of all things the mystery men of the Golden Age, or in this case two mystery women and a dork in a bird outfit. Spider Widow started out her career in the pages of Feature Comics with the preternatural ability to somehow control spiders, which was a semi-common ability among superheroes of the time, but she went the extra mile by wearing a scary mask making her look like a green-skinned old witch, so aside from the creepy crawlies she also used Scooby-Doo villain tactics. When she wasn't fighting Nazis, Spider Widow teamed up with the costumed vigilante known as The Raven who unlike numerous other bird-themed heroes could actually fly at least with the working wings he had on his back. Even though Raven was sometimes billed as Spider Widow's sidekick, he was really her partner in crimefighting, and they went on to fight Axis agents as well as the original Spider-Man, plus they also saved Christmas. This was all wine and roses for the budding couple, but then a third wheel was added to their bicycle of love, the one and only Phantom Lady. She had already become the poster child for Fredrick Wertham's anti-comics crusade as being one of the most scantily clad superheroines, but when she was still owned by Quality Comics they decided to have her cross paths with their lovey-dovey superhero duo. Phantom Lady gets a note from Raven who was captured by some criminals that she saves in her own segment from Police Comics. Afterwards, Raven later acknowledges to Spider Widow that Phantom Lady comes from a different comic, which makes you wonder if these characters were aware that the world they lived in was really a comic book. After breaking the fourth wall, Raven reveals that he knew Phantom Lady's identity from reading her comic, and the two superheroines spent the trio's next few adventures trying to outdo each other for Raven's attention. The most surreal part is when all three of them are riding the subway in their full superhero regalia which gets them spotted by an informant, and then Raven crashes the scene using the Blackhawks battle cry giving away the fact that the special military air force takes place in the same fictional universe as them. Widow and Lady decide to have a fencing match to settle who was the better heroine, although they do it without their masks for some reason as two thugs try to bump them off. The feud gets so bad that Raven receives petitions from fans demanding that he end the debate once and for all which he sets up a fake incident which some genuine crooks get wind off that causes the heroines bury the hatchet with Phantom Lady going back to her own comic. The dueling dames caused such a ruckus in their multi-chapter catfight that Spider Widow's spider-telepathy gets completely left out of the story which is bizarre as she was the only one who out of all the three heroes that actually had a legit superpower. Widow only went on to have one more adventure on her own with Raven absent from the whole affair, which makes you wonder if he left just to form another love triangle with Black Cat and Sheena. Dare to dream!
Comments
Post a Comment