War Nurse: The Original Wonder Woman

Aside from Black Cat, Harvey Comics had another scantily clad superheroine, War Nurse. Originally created by Jill Elgin and Howard Reed through Brookwood Publishing, Harvey bought out the publisher and added the character to their anthology of Speed Comics in May of 1941 months before DC Comics first premiered Wonder Woman. Pat Parker was a redhead British military nurse who had a trio of cases where she prevented Nazi invaders from conquering her home country. After her endeavors started getting the attention of newspapers, Pat decided to come up with an alter-ego as the superhero War Nurse, just prior to when Diana Prince began her own career as an army nurse. Parker dyed her hair brunette and put together a skimpy outfit with a white crop top, blue hotpants, red books, and a flossie cap mixed with a mask. As War Nurse, she went on to have a colorful crusade protecting Britain by crossdressing as German soldiers, rescuing children, and good ol' fashioned Nazi-punching, all while gaining a love interest in RAF pilot Don Fraser. War Nurse had a decent solo run considering she had no superpowers, a revealing uniform, her own modified hot rod and seaplane, plus her medical/scientific skills along with whatever fighting prowess she gained from military training including piloting. This went on for a while until Barbara Hall took over as the new comic's writer and had Pat lose her War Nurse persona and began her own all-female task force called the Girl Commandos, no relation to Gale Allen's Girl Squadron. After assembling an international roster of espionage specialists, Pat and the other four commandos dawned matching blue uniforms while occasionally running afoul of the wicked Madame Intrigue, and for some reason Pat bleached her hair blonde possibly to distinguish herself from the rest of her team. The Girl Commandos stuck together for a good few months even after WWII concluded, but Pat Parker eventually faded into obscurity. From being a lone wolf adventurer, a masked vigilante, and then leader of her own A-Team, Pat Parker didn't leave behind a legacy like Wonder Woman, but she did cover much ground in her five-year comics run partially thanks to her sexy superhero duds.

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