The Numerous Loves Of Miss Masque

Normally, socialite Diana Adams is seen around town with her occasional boy toy Ross Bowman, himself a swanky society reporter who considers himself a ladies' man. When she's not pretending to be a regular highbrow hottie, Diana is secretly the masked vigilante with the original name of Miss Masque in her look which obviously went on influence Carmen Sandiego. She was among a myriad of other debutante superheroines like The Woman In Red and Phantom Lady, but something about the character has endured over the decades into making her one of the most recognizable Golden Age figures. She only had a little over a dozen appearances in Nedor comic book titles, but she was frequently used on the covers of various issues drawn by Alex Schomburg who was an artist that Stan Lee appraised regularly. The covers Miss Masque would appear on would always feature her with either Nedor regular heroes Black Terror and Fighting Yank, or sometimes with both. That's right! Miss Masque would not only two-time between different superheroes, but she would also force them to double-date if they wanted to get any screentime on the covers with her. Masque was usually seen with Black Terror more than she was with Yank as she only had one event with him on the cover of Issue #22 of his own series where the two of them fought dinosaurs. The rest of Masque's appearances were shown on the front of issues of America's Best Comics of which Issues #23-25 have her hanging with both caped crusaders in separate stints, one is her winning a beauty contest, the other is her getting rescued by the other two heroes, and the last is of her striking a pose while some kooky swami shows her two love interests in a crystal ball. Issues #26-31 has Masque just teaming up with Black Terror where she's either just riding by on her motorcycle, getting a parking ticket, painting her own version of the cover, halting a bad guy's plans for World War III, freeing a kidnapped man, and for some reason putting on an impromptu circus act outside the big tent with flaming hoops and trained tigers. Most of Masque's cover shots had her sporting her space cadet look with an exposed midriff, red cape, mini-skirt, plus a cute little cap with a fin on it, and not her wide-brimmed hat with monogrammed trench coat. Hard to say what the fine folks at Nedor had in mind with Miss Masque trying to get a in threesome with two bulky super-studs, but it helped gained her a momentous spot as a public domain legend.

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