WOMEN OF MARVEL (in comics and behind the scenes) Appreciation 2019

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Rogue, Storm, Wasp, Captain Marvel

Spider-Woman and She-Hulk

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Uncanny X-Men #180 Apr 1984
"Whose Life Is It, Anyway?"
After months of practice, Charles Xavier has managed to beat the psychosomatic
feedback his mental powers had created preventing him from walking in his new body.
He decides to enjoy this newly acquired ability by playing basket ball.
However, his game is ended when he's struck by yet another powerful
mental scan and wonders what the alien force causing it could be.
He is then visited by Storm who has come with her concerns over her lack of control
over her powers, and her new more savage attitude and it's effects on Kitty.

She wonders if she is going insane. Probing her mind, the Professor reveals that there is nothing wrong with her mentally.
He points out that he doesn't know what's causing her change in personality and ethically
cannot bring himself to alter her mind with his powers as it could do more harm than good.

Elsewhere in Salem Center, Kitty Pryde is out at the arcade with her friend Doug Ramsey playing in an arcade.
after ranking the top score the game fries and the two are kicked out by the owner,
telling them they are not welcome back as they hog the machine for hours and hardly spend any quarters.
Going for lunch, Kitty confides in Doug about her feelings about Storm.
She explains that with all her changes, the woman she cared for like a sister
has become someone who frightens her and she doesn't know what to do.
Doug pledges to be her friend as well, and then tells her that he has an
appointment at the Massachusetts Academy and asks Kitty about her time there.
Kitty explains that she hated it there, however secretly recalls that it was run by the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.
She wonders if her friend Doug is a target of the X-Men's enemy and wonders what she can do about it.

Back at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Colossus spends time recovering from his injuries by chopping trees on the property.
He is trying to come to terms with his feelings over Kitty. When Wolverine comes and forces him to talk about them,
Colossus worries about their future given how she almost gave herself to the Morlocks and her new friendship with Doug Ramsey.
He admits that he is insecure that Doug is everything Kitty could want and fears that he might lose her.
Logan tells him that if he thinks that, then he's lost her already.

Storm has traveled to the Bronx Botanical Garden to spend some time enjoying the plants in the greenhouse.
She comes upon a group of muggers attempting to rob an old couple and confronts them.
When they attempt to stab Storm with knives,

she unleashes her powers on them, sending them fleeing.

When she goes to help the elderly couple, they are frightened by her mutant nature.
She is then called back to the X-Mansion where she and the other X-Men
are briefed about Doug Ramsey's invitation to the Massachusetts Academy.
With the Hellfire Club currently in disarray and the White Queen seemingly in
a coma, Charles agrees to let Kitty accompany Doug to find out if he is at risk.
During the conversation, Xavier reveals that Doug is really a mutant that has language translation powers which surprises everyone.

After the meeting, Kitty is walking through the halls of the mansion when she is swept up a wind into the sky by Storm.
Up in the air the two come to terms with their feelings about Storm's recent changes in personality and style.
Ororo explains to Kitty that she is going through changes that frighten her and that she needs to go through them to find out who she really is.
After some conversation about the changes, Kitty and Storm promise to be there for each other no matter what.

A week later, Kitty and Doug are boarding a plane to Massachusetts, and Kitty's mind has already gone to another worry:
the aloof behavior of Peter making her wonder if there is anything wrong with him. As she boards the plane with Doug,
her worries change when they are greeted on the plane by the White Queen. When Kitty tries to alert the Professor telepathically,
she cannot reach him as at that very moment, the Professor, Colossus, Wolverine and Storm are drawn to Central Park.
There a giant construct has appeared in the location and as they all approach it they are teleported away to a far off place....

The fate of the X-Men continues in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1....

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by John Romita, Jr., Bob Wiacek and Dan Green.

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The Silver Age of Marvel Ladies and they Look Like Movie Starlets!

All three of these 'wonder women' have been depicted in the pages of the Avengers and Force Works series as likable leaders in the late 70's, 80's and 90's.

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Uncanny X-Men #243 Apr 1989
Inferno: Part 6 of 7 - "Ashes!" Guest-starring X-Factor.
Story continued from X-Factor #38...

On top of the Empire State Building, the X-Men mourn for Madelyne Pryor and talk about everything that happened during Inferno.
Suddenly Jean Grey cries out. She forms a telekinetic bubble around herself and lets nobody in.
Psylocke uses her telepathy to bring herself, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine inside Jean's mind.
There they are at the Blue Area of the moon and witness the last instants before Phoenix sacrificed herself.
She perishes shouting Scott's name. The X-Men see that her energy does not dissipate, but rises towards earth.
Cyclops wonders how Jean knows of these events since she is in suspended animation at Jamaica Bay at the time.

Suddenly a large fist appears and smashes the memory. It is Sinister.
Psylocke tells the others that if he destroys all memories, Jean's soul and mind will be completely obliterated.
The X-Men float through more shards of memories, which are clearly Madelyne's.
In the center, they find Jean's memories loosely assembled around an image of the mansion, which is guarded by a redheaded figure.
As the X-Men approach she looks like the Goblin Queen and fires a blast. She then turns into Jean as Marvel Girl and asks for forgiveness.
Betsy understands that Jean's condition is a result of trying to integrate two powerful individual psyches.
Storm suggests to bring Rogue into the mindscape too, since she faces a similar effect each time she uses her powers,
but Psylocke discovers that an outside force blocks her from going outside of Jean's mind.
A huge image of Sinister appears and he destroys another memory shard. The X-Men try to fight him, but physical powers are useless.
Only Betsy's telepathy stands a chance and she succeeds in building a barrier, keeping Sinister at bay.
The others try to talk some sense into Madelyne's personality, who gained the upper hand again.
Both Scott and Logan fail. She refuses to help and is glad that the X-Men might die along with her.
Storm realizes that this isn't Madelyne at all, it is Jean who is about to give up;
she was terrified about the Phoenix force's offer and denied it with her every being.
The results were Dark Phoenix and the Goblyn Queen. Maybe it would be better if things ended right now.

Psylocke's shield breaks and Sinister gets through again. He heard the last part of Jean's fears and offers
her to break the terrible cycle by stripping her of memories and identity that have caused nothing but pain.
Madelyne refuses. She changes into Dark Phoenix, then into Jean and tells him that this is
her mind, her soul, her life and she means to keep them herself and she blocks Sinister out.

In Xavier's mansion, which he uses as a hideout, Sinister tells Malice to alert the others, since the X-Men are on their way.
Jean learned of his location during their final battle for her mind. The X-Men and X-Factor have split up into smaller teams.
The first, consisting of Jean, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine and Archangel enter the mansion through Storm's former attic.
Psylocke and Rogue use the hangar bay as their way in.
Meanwhile Beast and Longshot brought Mr. And Mrs. Grey and baby Christopher to the X-Factor ship.
They argue which one stays behind to guard the Greys and who may go to help to fight Sinister.
The remaining mutants, Colossus, Iceman, Havok and Dazzler, approach the mansion through the Morlock tunnels beneath the Xavier estate.
They cover forty miles without a problem, but right before the mansion, they run into a demon-transformed Blockbuster.
He is faster and stronger than they remember and knocks Colossus and Iceman out before they can do anything.
In the narrow tunnels, Dazzler shoots a full force laser beam, but she has no effect.
Blockbuster grabs her, but suddenly Havok unleashes a plasma beam and kills him. Alison wonders,
because he was always afraid of doing that. Alex replies that Inferno changed him.
In the hangar bay Sabretooth sneaks up on Betsy and slams her into the ground.
He wants to rip her throat, but Psylocke reaches into his animalistic mind and stops him in mid-air and fries his mind.
Upstairs in the mansion, the first group discovers that Sinister has searched
through everything, personal and private rooms, even the Professor's office.
While they are most distracted Malice strikes

and hurls metallic debris around and Jean and Ororo quickly defeat her.

The X-Men gather in the main room and start to interrogate Polaris/Malice, who is held in one of Jean's telekinetic fields.
She refuses to reveal any information about Sinister. Storm orders Psylocke to mind-probe her
and then try to separate the two women, but Malice says that would surely kill her because the bonding is permanent.
She turns to Havok, claiming that she still loves him, and Alex asks her to prove it by giving them the needed information.
The mansion explodes, all lie around unconscious. The only one who is unhurt is Malice.
Ironically the field that held her shielded her from the impact.
Sinister comes out of hiding and pulls Jean from the debris, now he has the original to tamper with
and he orders Malice to kill the other members of the X-Men and X-Factor as Longshot arrives on the scene to stop them.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Marc Silvestri and Hilary Barta.

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X-Factor #39 Apr 1989
Inferno! Guest-starring the X-Men. Part 7 of 7 - "Ashes to Ashes!"
Continued from Uncanny X-Men #243...

Mr. Sinister and the Malice controlled Polaris stand in the ruins of the X-Mansion.
The members of the X-Men and X-Factor defeated and Marvel Girl his captive.
The only person standing in their way is Longshot, who despite his doubts, is able to create
a distraction with his luck powers long enough for the Beast to recover and try to fight back.
This in turn allows Cyclops to revive. Scott easily defeats Polaris and tries to turn his powers against Sinister.
However Sinister has some form of control over him.

When Rogue and Psylocke revive and attempt to fight Mr. Sinister, Betsy's mental attack is fended off,

and when Rogue attempts to absorb his mind and powers, Sinister actually takes full control of her body.

During this brief possession, Cyclops sees Sinister standing over him and recalls a lost memory from his youth,
where Mr. Sinister experimented on him as a young body. As Polaris tricks Havok into "helping" her only to bind him,
Sinister explains that he had been manipulating Cyclops from the start. That he was in charge at the orphanage
and stifled Scott's early powers and implanted false memories. As Havok is binded in metal by Polaris,
he warns her that Inferno has changed him and that he is no longer afraid of using his powers.
Sinister explains that he also attempted to manipulate Jean Grey knowing that their combined DNA would create the ultimate mutant.
However when Jean had seemingly died, he instead cloned Madelyne from Jean's DNA in order to fullfill this purpose.
As Scott struggles to free himself, Colossus attempts to attack and is similarly held at bay by Polaris.

As Mr. Sinister continues to explain how he manipulated Scott at a young age, Psylocke establishes a psylink between
the scattered members of the X-Men and X-Factor, and they begin to formulate a counter attack plan.
They note that Sinister appears to be keeping Scott under his power, as though he is afraid of Scott's powers,
and figure that might be the key to defeating Mr. Sinister. Havok tells the others to let him deal with Scott and they launch their attack.
As the X-Men pile on Mr. Sinister, Storm uses her wind powers to sweep up Marvel Girl

and uses rain to revive her as the others continue to pound Mr. Sinister with their mutant abilities -- however none seem to have an effect.

As the X-Men fight on, Sabretooth comes out of the rubble of the X-Mansion
prompting Wolverine to deal with him by impaling his rival with his claws.
Havok goes to his brother and while taunting him for being weak begins to bombard Scott
with his atomic energy powers, charging Scott up with a massive amount of energy.
Sinister manages to collect Marvel Girl back and begins kissing her, the final thing to push Scott over the edge.
When the Beast pulls Marvel Girl to safety, Scott breaks through the mental barriers
and manages to blast Sinister with a full power optic blast, seemingly destroying his enemy.

In the aftermath of the battle, Alex reports that Polaris escaped and he and Scott make amends.
With the battle over, the X-Men depart from X-Factors company, telling Scott that they will
continue to fight Xavier's dreams in their own way and the two groups part as friends.
Left in the rubble of Xavier's school Scott once more reflects on how he let his dead wife down so badly.
However they all agree that they managed to save young Christopher and they will be committed to raising him together.

Story by Louise Simonson. Art by Walter Simonson and Al Milgrom.

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Aunt May's Mother's Day Eggs Benedict

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Daredevil #109 May 1974
"Dying for Dollar$!"
The book starts with a quick recap of events so far. On Christmas Eve 1973,
Daredevil has knocked out Beetle who was trying to steal some money printing plates.
Suddenly there's an explosion of gas that temporarily disorients Daredevil while a group calling themselves Black Spectre steals the plates.
When the smoke clears, soldiers accuse Daredevil of being in cahoots with Beetle and stealing the plates.

Beetle comes to and attacks the soldiers and DD. Daredevil and Beetle battle to a nearby rooftop where Beetle
loosens a chunk of roofing and sends it plummeting down towards a young couple walking along the sidewalk.
Daredevil swings down to save them and though he's successful, Beetle gets away.

Fast forward two month later, Matt is discussing Black Spectre's recent activities with Foggy Nelson.
Foggy describes photos from recent Black Spectre crime scenes (instigating a race riot at the statue of liberty,
placing a swastika on the top of the Washington Monument, draping Independence Hall in black and adding Adolph Hitler to Mount Rushmore)
and notices that there's a strange airship in each of the photos.
They are interrupted by a nurse who tells them that someone's throwing money off the rooftops down on Wall Street.
On his way to Wall Street, Matt bumps into Candace Nelson who invites him out on a date.

We're then treated to a great two page splash panel showing Matt dressing as Daredevil
while we're given a great breakdown of the inner workings of his billy club.

We cut to Black Widow in San Francisco. She's pining for DD but she tries her best to put him out of her mind.
As she swings across the city, her line snaps and she starts to fall. She luckily grabs a nearby ledge,
but her hand is stepped on immediately by none other than Nekra. Nekra asks BW to join Black Spectre.
Widow refuses and she throws her all against Nekra,

but Nekra knocks her out and carries her away.

On Wall Street, Matt is swinging to the scene of the chaos.
He sees Black Spectre throwing cash off the rooftops and notices that they are filming the chaos.
He grabs a dollar bill to examine it and then daydreams about Candice.
He quickly forgets about her and drops in on Black Spectre.
As he fights them they prattle on about him joining them and he starts thinking that there's something odd about these Black Spectre Soldiers.
He's about to reveal his thoughts when Beetle shows up to pay Black Spectre back for knocking him out months ago.
Daredevil and Beetle fight side by side until Daredevil mentions that they are fighting side by side and Beetle knocks him out.

When Daredevil comes to, Police Commissioner O'Hara is standing over him. Cut to later, Commissioner O'Hara, Foggy and Matt
are looking over the blown up photos pondering the blimp and wondering who's behind Black Spectre,

when they are interrupted by someone who knows...Shanna The She-Devil!

Continued in Marvel Two-In-One #3 - Thing & DD track down the blimp and then in DD #110

Script by Steve Gerber, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Don Heck

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Ka-Zar #3 May 1974
Bobbi Morse guest-stars in "Night of the Man-God"
After Maa-Gor becomes the Man-God, he and El Tigre, set out to conquer the Savage Land.



Ka-Zar and Bobbi Morse team-up in order to stop them.

Script by Mike Friedrich, pencils by Don Heck, inks by Mike Royer.

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Marvel Two-in-One #3 May 1974
"Inside Black Spectre!"
Mister Fantastic runs a number of physiological tests on Wundarr, determining that there is a limit to the amount of energy he can store.
This is dramatically proven by an explosion. Nearby, Daredevil witnesses the explosion and learns it's source.
Later he stops by and visits Foggy Nelson and Shanna O'Hara,

who tells Daredevil about the Black Spectre's involvement in her father's death.

Daredevil -- as Matt Murdock -- attends a play with Candace Nelson, during which two of the actors die, victims of Black Spectre.
Daredevil is stopped from following the culprit by a surprise attack from the Black Widow.
Daredevil requires the use of the Fantasti-Car to go after Black Spectre’s Airship, and the Thing comes along.

Catching up to the Black Spectre's zeppelin, the Thing and Daredevil break in and attack.
Inside they face Nekra, his army of enthralled females, and the Black Spectre himself. When Thing rips off the Spectre's mask,

he suddenly loses all control over his body and Daredevil is defeated as well.
They are then loaded back up in the Fantasti-Car and dumped off the zeppelin.

Regaining control of themselves, the two heroes prevent themselves from crashing and Daredevil vows to stop his enemies.

Continued in Daredevil #110.

Script by Steve Gerber, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott

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Probably Invisible Woman or Storm I would guess.

Regarding the MCU Sue Storm or MCU Storm I hope your guess will come true.

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Wicked Ones: Ladies of MARVEL | Reaction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CZBct-0xvA

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I used to have that book! I loved the cover!

I do too Jazzy Johnny Ring-A-Ding Romita's rendition of the women of marvel is, to me, always top notch!

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38 -- Red Sonja
(Note: Stamp spells the character's name as "Red Sonia")

Issues Containing this Stamp:
(Adventure into) Fear #24, October 1974, p.19.
Jungle Action #10, July 1974, p.19.
Ka-Zar #8, March 1975, p.19.

Stamp Artwork From:
Cover of Conan the Barbarian #24.

Stamp #38, Red Sonja, is lifted from Conan the Barbarian #24's epic battle cover by Barry Windsor Smith.
On the stamp shown, Red Sonja's name is apparently misspelled.
This issue is also the first comic book cover appearance of Red Sonja (Her first story appearance was in the preceding issue, #23).

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91 -- Hela, The Goddess of Death

Issues Containing this Stamp:
(Adventure into) Fear #25, Dec. 1974, p.32. (affects story)
Conan #41, August 1974, p.19.
Fantastic Four #146, May 1974, p.32.(affects story)

Stamp Artwork From:
Cover of Thor #186.

Hela, Goddess of Death, prematurely ages the immortal Thunder God on the John Buscema cover from Thor #186.

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Ladies of Marvel - Move your bodies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3EWlXjEgZY