Beauty Is A Superpower?

Supergirl creator Otto Binder got his inspiration for Superman's cousin from one of his earlier creations, Mary Marvel. Similar to She-Ra, she was the long-lost twin sister of an already established male hero, could transform into her super mode by saying the magic words, and had was considered to be the strongest mortal girl in each of their stories. Mary Marvel was Mary Bromfield after she was adopted by rich parents, and was really Billy Batson's sister who she reuinites with after revealing his secret indentity as Captain Marvel. Mary says the word "Shazam" and becomes the first female member of the Marvel Family, and its revealed she could harness the powers of six mythical heroines where as Capt. Marvel got his from six other heroes, the acronym for which spelled out Shazam. One of Mary's superpowers that were different from her brother was they replaced the courage of the Greek hero Achiles with the beauty of the Roman goddess of the dawn Aurora. Now, beauty is an interesting concept for a superpower, even though its hinted that Wonder Woman had a similar ability granted to her from Aphodite but that was with a strong heart giving her the divine conviction to fight for peace. Mary Marvel on the other hand is strange to be granted beauty, and not a even a specified kind of beauty, just plain your average everyday beauty. The thing is, Mary's appearance doesn't really change at all when she transforms aside from her red and white super-cheerleader duds, where as her brother turned in to an adult version of himself, but she's still physically the same age in either form. If the ancient powers of the Rock of Eternity are implying that all a girl needs to look better is a flashier outfit makes you skeptical about what passed for beautiful back in the days of high fantasy. Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but to imply that beauty alone could allow you perform superhuman feats like being bulletproof or flying doesn't really seem to add up as being helpful the next time Fawcett City is being attack by the Monster Society of Evil. Maybe the next time Mary can get some heat-vision or something instead of materialstic beauty.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Super Science Isn't White Magic

Image
Vernon Miller headed up Maple Leaf Publishing which was the first comics publisher in Canada which opened its doors during the Golden Age, the majority of which were called Canadian Whites because they were mostly all done in black and white to save money. One of Maple Leaf's titles started out being called Name-It Comics which they allowed the readers to vote on the ongoing name for that eventually became Rocket Comics. One of the regular features in this anthology was by Spike Brown titled Cosmo And His White Magic about a rich scientist named Cosmo Grant that used his parents' old creations to fight evil as a freelance defender alongside his partner Captain Tom Hadden with the nickname of Hoot, so Cosmo and Hoot where the Dynamic Duo of their time. Similar to Batman, most of Cosmo's arsenal of freedom were given his own personal branding often referred to something with moniker of "Cosmo-" at the beginning of it. One of Cosmo's cases in Issue 9 had him thwa...
Read more

Hitler Vs. The Walking Dead

Image
Aside from its hit Vampirella magazine, Warren Publishing also had a few other horror anthologies. The creators of Famous Monsters Of Filmland had a comics publication titled Creepy hosted by the ghoulish Uncle Creepy, and there was a sister title called Eerie with the equally cryptic Cousin Eerie as its acting emcee. Russ Jones acted as the first editor after convincing publisher James Warren to come out with its first horror compilation in the spirit of Tales From The Crypt while avoiding the highbrowed Comics Code by printing the stories in black and white magazine format. One short but memorable story in Issue 35 got right to the point that many comic fans look for, zombies vs. Nazis! Army Of The Walking Dead came out over thirty years before Robert Kirkman's iconic urban horror comic and was drawn by former Captain America artist Syd Shores. Taking place during WWII, Nazi egghead Dr. Tumbler has developed a way to reanimate dead soldiers as zombies with augmented strength much...
Read more

This Ain't Your Dick Tracy Wrist Radio

Image
Dick Tracy might heighten the concept of the wristwatch radio, but only the Honor House Products Co. had the coconuts to really try to make a working one for fans of the comic strip detective. Edwin Wegman's mail order company ran from the 1950s-80s that was responsible for some of the biggest scams in comic book ads including Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs, and the outdoor child-sized Polaris Nuclear Sub, so their place in exaggerated advertising is cemented in infamy. Their "Amazing Wrist Radio" was not really a watch, but a miniature radio receiver that was powered by a germanium diode which does emit low level radiation, so hopefully nobody actually got cancer from this little doodad. It comes with a private earphone which probably could get lost really quickly in the bustling era of the Space Age. The $2.98 price wasn't much for when this ad ran in the 1960s, which nowadays would be around $30.00, even though the plus is it had a broadcast range of at least 50 miles. H...
Read more