Miss Fury is a fictional

superheroine A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, o ...

from the

Golden Age of Comics The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known chara ...

. She first appeared as ''The Black Fury'' on April 6, 1941, a Sunday comic strip distributed by the

Bell Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

, and created by artist June Tarpé Mills (writing as Tarpé Mills). Trina Robbins, ''A Century of Women Cartoonists''. Northampton, Mass.: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993. (pp. 62, 67–70,83).

Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author. He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...

, ''The Adventurous Decade: Comic Strips in the Thirties''. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1975, (p.180-1) The strip was retitled ''Miss Fury'' in November 1941.

Overview

The character's real identity is wealthy

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having tradit ...

Marla Drake. She has no innate superpowers, but gains increased strength and speed when she dons a special skintight catsuit when fighting crime. The panther skin was bequeathed to her by her uncle, who said that it was used by an African

witch doctor A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...

in voodoo ceremonies. Miss Fury combats several recurring villains, including mad scientist Diman Saraf and Nazi agents Baroness Erica Von Kampf and General Bruno. Drake was also involved in a love triangle with her former fiancé, Gary Hale, and Detective Dan Carey. A complicated figure, Marla doesn't seem to like being a superhero, resenting the need for a secret identity and the danger it poses. She is sometimes accompanied by an albino Brazilian named Albino Joe. Although ''Miss Fury'' was popular, the revealing outfits worn by the female characters provoked some controversy at the time. When Marla Drake was drawn wearing a bikini in 1947, 37 newspapers dropped the strip in response. The ''Miss Fury'' strip ran until 1952.

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

(then known as Timely Comics) reprinted her Sunday strips in comic book form from 1942 to 1946 in eight issues published from Winter 1942 to Winter 1945. In 1979 Archival Press reissued her early adventures in

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

format, with a new cover by Mills. In 2011, IDW's " The Library of American Comics" put out a collection of strips covering 1944–49 and they also published another volume containing the 1941–1944 ''Miss Fury'' strips in 2013.

Other appearances

Tarpé Mills's Miss Fury was revived in a four-issue mini-series published in 1991 by

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

(an imprint of

Malibu Comics Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Malibu Graphics) was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. Notable titles published by Malibu included ' ...

). In that series, Marlene Hale dons a cat outfit from her family's attic as a Halloween costume only to end up rescuing a thirteen-year-old being assaulted by a drug dealer, after which her grandfather Dan Carey reveals that she is the granddaughter of the original Miss Fury. A caped and bare-legged gun-wielding version of Miss Fury appears calling herself "Black Fury", extorting drug dealers and committing murders. At the same time, Marlene's aunt Stephanie (daughter of Erika von Kampf and Dan Carey) also adopts a jacket-wearing version of the Miss Fury persona. Marlene and her grandfather independently suspect that Stephanie is the Black Fury, while Stephanie suspects the same of Marlene, and a battle between the two ends when both fall into a vat of chemicals. On another night, Marlene defeats Stephanie, who concedes the mantle of the Miss Fury to Marlene, and they realize that the Black Fury must be a third person. As the true Miss Fury, Marlene tracks down and defeats the Black Fury, who is revealed to be the drug dealer Marlene originally fought. This version of Miss Fury, now with increased strength and aggression from falling into the vat of chemicals, would return in issues 10–12 of

' '' Protectors'' series. Black Fury, who Marlene again suspects of being a similarly chemically enhanced version of her aunt Stephanie, has kidnapped the grandson of President Brian O'Brien (the former

Clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and ...

). Miss Fury helps the Protectors rescue the grandson, but Black Fury slips away. Miss Fury would continue to appear in the pages of ''The Protectors'' until the series ended with issue #20 in 1994. The original Miss Fury also saw a brief cameo reappearance in 2008 when Marvel Comics published the first issue of the series '' The Twelve''. She was depicted as part of an army of 1940s costumed heroes storming

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the final days of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In November 2012, the Golden Age Miss Fury appeared in the eight issue

Dynamite Entertainment Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptations ...

mini-series ''Masks'', where she joined with other comic and pulp-magazine heroes (including

Zorro Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...

the Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

and the

Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of medi ...

) to combat the villainous "Party of Justice". In April 2013, Dynamite began publishing a comic book series with an updated version of the Golden Age Miss Fury, which ran for eleven issues through 2014, collected as ''Miss Fury: Anger is an Energy'' and ''Miss Fury: Walk Through the Valley''. During the same period, she appeared alongside the Sparrow (of ''The Shadow'') in the five issue mini-series ''Noir'', collected in ''Noir: The Mohawk Templar''. In 2015, she reappeared in ''Swords of Sorrow: Miss Fury and Lady Rawhide'', the six issue ''Swords of Sorrow'' mini-series, as well as the six issue sequel, ''Masks 2''. A second volume of the ''Miss Fury'' series, collected as ''Miss Fury: The Minor Key'', ran for six issues in 2016. A three-issue third volume titled ''Miss Fury: Joy Division'' was announced in 2018 for an October release, but was delayed again in favor of a September 15, 2019 release, before finally being announced for an early 2021 release as a trade-paperback following a successful Indiegogo campaign. The new volume was written and drawn by Billy Tucci and Maria Laura Sanapo. She also appears in ''

Die!namite In comic books, an intercompany crossover (also called cross-company or company crossover) is a comic or series of comics in which characters, that at the time of publication are the property or licensed property of one publisher, meet character ...

'' (2020–2021) as an elderly woman in a modern day retirement home, who is prompted by a zombie outbreak to again don her costume.

References

External links

* {{Avengers characters Golden Age superheroes 1941 comics debuts Adventure Publications titles American comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1941 American comic strips Dynamite Entertainment characters Timely Comics characters Comics about women Female characters in comics Female superheroes Fictional socialites Fictional World War II veterans

Overview

Other appearances

References

Further reading

External links