Marvel Mystery Comics #49

Marvel Mystery Comics #49 (1943)
written by Otto Binder
pencils by Al Gabriele (Part 1) and “Charles Nicholas” (Part 2)
cover by Syd Shores

When it comes to creating the earliest superheroines, Otto Binder is the one you need.
After creating Mary Marvel for Fawcett Comics but long before creating Supergirl and Saturn Girl for DC Comics, he also gave Marvel Comics its first successful female hero.

That would be Miss America, not to be confused with the one from the DC Universe.
Also notice she pre-dates Saturn Girl’s skirt-over-pants look.

Since Miss America will be associated with adult superheroes, it’s a common misconception that she’s one: she started out as a teenager.
Also, apologies for the quality of the scans: Marvel has yet to digitize the issue.

It’s pretty clear that Binder was fascinated by the idea of teenage girls becoming superheroes, given how many he created (and we’re not even done with them yet).
But they’re clearly products of their time.

She immediately proves her hero credentials for standing up against bullies.

The girl is accompanying her millionaire uncle when he’s visiting a scientist he’s financing.

All sings point to this machine being able to give people superpowers, but nobody seems to believe that. Among the powers, the ability to “pierce solids with your eyes” is mentioned… if that’s referring to X-Ray vision, it’s kind of weird since Miss America won’t get THAT power.

This gives the idea to return to the place of the experiment during a nicely drawn thunderstorm.

Obviously this means that she runs the machine on herself…

…and the scientist just BLOWS UP THE ENTIRE MACHINE because he thought she’s dead.
Well if you set up an explosion she’ll be even MORE dead!!!

And that’s the origin of Miss America.

However her first act of heroism is not in costume, but rushing with her car to save a guy from being hit by a truck.

This is because the driver is too distracted by his son being injured at the “Defense Plant”.

This looks like a job for Miss America, SOMEHOW.

Where she happens to run into attempted murder. She doesn’t have super-hearing, by the way.

And that’s already the end, because this is just a 6 page story.

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But let’s check in Marvel Mystery Comics #50 to see the conclusion.

Also, did you think that only the 90s could have no idea of how to draw a woman? The 40s could do that too!

I’m a bit disappointed that we’re not explicitly told these are saboteurs, but they’re identified as Nazis.

Miss America can fly, has super-speed and super-strength… but not invulnerability, or at the very least not Superman level invulnerability.

When I said Miss America doesn’t have X-Ray vision, I meant generally. She randomly has it in a few early stories.

Considering she is shown to be struggling several times during the story, I would say Miss America is not trying to copy Mary Marvel; she’s her own thing.

Eventually she defeats the Nazis and recovers all the bombs they planted around.
Not really sure why they wanted one guy dead by making it look like an accident if they were already planning to blow up several factories.

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Historical significance: 6/10
Miss America has a surprisingly enduring legacy at Marvel, even if she’s not exactly well-known.

Silver Age-ness: 7/10
You live in the same world of the Human Torch and Namor. At least CHECK if the machine really does give you superpowers?

Does it stand the test of time?
First part only: 3/10
Complete story: 7/10
I really have to make the distinction here, because the first part isn’t a whole story: just the origin and a little addendum. With the rest of the story, it’s way better.
As an origin it’s nothing new, but I do appreciate the effort to really show that she’s a good person BEFORE she gets powers. Really made me think of the first Captain America MCU movie, especially with the emphasis on bullies.
And it’s quite refreshing to see a Golden Age hero who is not all-powerful but actually has to struggle against her adversaries.
The artwork is also starkly different, as the second story is SIGNIFICANTLY better. The only notable part of the first (by Al Gabriele) is the panel with the thunderstorm, but the second by “Charles Nicholas” has several gorgeous depictions of Miss America flying (despite the teaser page having terrible anatomy).
As we have discussed before, however, “Charles Nicholas” is not a real name: that’s a pen name used by different artists at several times.
Jack Kirby was one of them, but those really don’t look like Kirby pages to me; it’s probably either Charles Cuidera or Charles Wojtkoski.

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How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?

In case you are wondering: yes, the Miss America beauty contest predates the character. Miss America 1943 was Jean Bartlemeh, the 17th winner.

Marvel’s own Miss America was relatively successful: she stayed on the pages of Marvel Mystery Comics for four years, without ever getting the cover.
What she DID get was her own series with Miss America Comics #1; this is certainly a milestone, considering that up to this point Wonder Woman was the only superheroine with her own title.

It’s, uhm, it’s certainly a 1943 comic.

It’s also definitely trying to get into the “girl comics” genre.

And it has a very interesting layout for a couple of pages (with Ken Bald artwork), almost a two-page spread which is nearly unheard of in the Golden Age.

It also has an INCREDIBLY early appearance of the Daily Bugle!!!

But from issue 2, the series is re-titled as Miss America Magazine which features both comics and articles, since it becomes an actual magazine.
We will have a look at the second issue next time, as it’s the debut of a Marvel character: Patsy Walker.

I’m guessing the magazine was successful, because after the first series of 6 issues… it just continues all the way up to 1952 with MANY numberings, the latest being Volume 7.
Just in case you thought that relaunching a series with a new #1 every other year was a modern thing.

The series is once again retitled Miss America and it lasts all the way from 1952 to 1958, but by this point the titular Miss America is long forgotten: it’s really the Patsy Walker book.

But back to Miss America: she was popular enough to be a founding member of the only Marvel superhero team with legitimate roots in the Golden Age, the All-Winners Squad, in 1946.
It’s also one of the most short-lived teams, managing only 2 stories in the Golden Age proper.

She was also the backup feature on Blonde Phantom Comics for a while.
Most notably in Blonde Phantom Comics #26, she fights Spiderman.

I am utterly AMAZED that this hasn’t been tied to Spider-Man yet. He’s basically both Spider-Man and Lizard at once!!!

The last Miss America story was in 1948, and she would most likely be a historical footnote if it wasn’t for… do I even have to say it? Of course it’s Roy Thomas.

Who in 1974 on the pages of Giant Size Avengers #1 revealed us that she eventually married fellow superhero Whizzer.

That’s the story that revealed that Miss America and Whizzer were the parents of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, something that has been retconned A LOT.
See the Whizzer and Scarlet Witch reviews for the complicated history.

While that has been retconned, the fact that Miss America died shortly after given birth has never been contradicted.

While Roy Thomas didn’t have her join the Invaders, in 1976 he put her in his OTHER Marvel superhero team set in the 1940s: the Liberty Legion.

The original Miss America has been acknowledged multiple times in-universe as the first female superhero, due to the questionable status of the original Black Widow and the fact that nobody cares about Silver Scorpion.

You’re certain to find her in any flashback to the Golden Age, but there hasn’t been any attempt to resurrect her. The name “Miss America” has been re-used only twice: once by a superhero for The Initiative, an extremely minor character who later changed her name anyway…

…and it’s TECHNICALLY supposed to be the codename of America Chavez, but she goes almost exclusively by her real name anyway.

Well “America” IS her real name.

I wonder if the reluctance to having a superheroine called “Miss America” is an attempt to get some distance from the beauty pageant? I guess it would make things more difficult to advertise, trademark-wise.

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Miss America also has a WEIRD history when it comes to adaptation.

She was (pretty randomly) in the 90s Spider-Man animated series, where she was re-powered in her old age as well.

And speaking of Spider-Man: in 1979, after the VERY successful “““adaptation””” that Spider-Man received in Japan, Toei Company decided to partially base their “Battle Fever J” on other Marvel characters.
The series followed a team made of characters representing different countries… and the US representative was called Miss America.
I barely know anything about Japanese tokusatsu, but from my understanding it’s an important series for the genre and it was popular in both Japan and Hawaii.

It’s a flimsy connection to be sure: it looks to me that they kept the name and the symbol but NOTHING ELSE about the character. But it’s so absurd that I just HAD to mention it.
Japanese Spider-Man has had a resurgence of popularity in the last decade, so who knows, maybe they’ll find a way to integrate THIS Miss America in the Marvel Universe!

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What else was in Marvel Mystery Comics #49?

We have the Human Torch…

…against possibly Australia’s first supervillain: the Kangaroo.
Who figured out how to turn blood into fire, SOMEHOW.

He doesn’t have that name just because he’s from Australia. He’s some sort of mutant.

Namor is fighting the Saber Tooth.
Not to be confused with Sabretooth, of course.

Remember how I said Marvel has not digitized the issue yet? They probably will with the Miss America story… but I’m guessing they’re not in a rush to remind people how the Japanese were depicted.

The highlight of the story is Namor taking a nap in a tub.

We also have the Terry Vance serial, where the titular “school boy sleuth” is also fighting Nazis. Because 1943.

We also have The Patriot (who is really newspaperman Jeff Mace) and The Angel.

Remarkably for the era, especially for a book that introduces a female hero, The Angel is the ONLY superhero of the book to get himself captured.