Free Comics Monday: Miss Victory vs a Nazi Gorilla

During the Golden Age, many titles were anthologies featuring one character on the cover, but with multiple characters and stories in the book. In most cases, some of the characters inside the book never got a cover. A perfect example of this is Miss Victory who appeared in the pages of Captain Aero.

From Wikipedia...

The original Miss Victory was created in Captain Fearless #1 (Aug. 1941) by an unknown writer and by artist Charles Quinlan in an untitled, five-page story generally indexed with its opening words, "Introducing Miss Victory". She went on to appear in the second and final issue of Captain Fearless, and subsequently in Holyoke's Captain Aero Comics, beginning with issue #1 (Dec. 1941).

Given no formal origin story, it was left unexplained as to how Miss Victory was able to survive explosions, break free of ropes, or knock down walls. But is clear that in her introduction she had superhuman strength and durability.

She remained as star of a backup feature in the sporadically published Captain Aero Comics through that title's final issue, #26 (Aug. 1946). In 1984, she was revived by writer Bill Black and penciler Mark Heike in AC Comics' Femforce Special #1 (Fall 1984).

In this issue - Miss Victory does indeed fight a Nazi Gorilla



[ Captain Aero 15 ]

Now I usually turn a blind eye to the some of the more rediculous stuff I find in these Golden Age Comics. I consider them to be part of the charm of the comics. However, every once in a while, I uncover something that I can't ignore. This is the case with Captain Aero 17, wherein we find a Japanese Ghost pilot.

How do we know he's Japanese? Well, because his ghostly skull has slanted eyes...

Anyway, in Captain Aero 17, Miss Victory is pursuing a villain who is intent on of Leonardo Da Vinci's secret inventions to win the war. It's an interesting story as it highlights one of the problems with Miss Victory as I see it in that the writers seem to have a hard time pinning down exactly how tough she is.

At one point she is knocked out because she runs into a door. Later, a vase to the skull takes her out. In the end she survives a point blank explosion. Seems like someone wasn't reading the Holyoke Handbook entry on Miss Victory when they were writing that story. ;)



[ Captain Aero 17 ]

- Enjoy!