Sun Girl #1 (1948)
written by unknown
pencils and cover by Ken Bald
Just like Golden Girl, we have another female Marvel sidekick that nobody remembers. But unlike her, Sun Girl started out as a solo hero.
In typical Golden Age fashion, we’re not told anything about our protagonist. She’s just out there fighting crime.
And she’s a pretty hands-on physical fighter.
She’s also very efficient, delivering criminals to the police and then immediately rushing off to set up a trap.
It’s a pretty smart plan: first she announces she’s going to give a speech at a radio station, knowing well that she’ll get ambushed… and getting the attention from the would-be assassin just in time.
Reckless, sure, but well choreographed.
Her main gimmick, a wristband that emits a blinding light, gets a surprisingly low-key introduction as a simple flashlight when she goes back to the chief of police. We’ll see more of it later.
We don’t actually see the chief of police, but only his secretary… who turns out to have been the mastermind behind recent crimes.
Surprising for a 1948 story to see a male secretary, but I’m guessing that was one of the few secretary positions not considered to be “a woman’s job” back then.
As you might have guessed, the reason why she deduced he was the crime boss was that she didn’t actually tell anyone else about the radio announcement.
The writer of the story is not officially known, although it might be the artist Ken Bald.
I kind of wonder if the writer is Stan Lee (who was editor at the time), considering Sun Girl pre-dates Spider-Man as the original broke Marvel superhero.
Historical significance: 0/10
It seems Sun Girl has been completely been forgotten. At the time of this writing, her series has not even been digitized by Marvel yet.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Nope!
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
An extremely simple 7-page story, but incredibly efficient at what it sets out to do… show a competent and good-looking superhero.
Quite impressive that there isn’t even an ounce of sexism in this.
Before I cover the rest of Sun Girl’s history, let’s first have a look at her other stories in this issue.
In her second story, her wristband gets a proper introduction.
She’s already a very well-established hero, at least in-universe, confronting the police about releasing a mad scientist for good behavior.
And the Silver-ageness increases rapidly because she has to fight the GIANT MONSTER summoned by the mad scientist!
She’s no match for the monster physically, but she defeats it with her Sunbeam(patent expired).
After locating the scientist’s lair with her Super-Sensitized Tracer™, she makes him shut off the monster-summoning machine.
Only to be tied to the machine for ONE PANEL before she uses it to send him to the bottom of the ocean!!!
In the modern era this wouldn’t even make it to page five of the Daily Bugle, but in 1948 there weren’t a lot of superheroes around.
Finally we have a third story, where Sun Girl takes custody of a kid about to be sent to reform school.
First Guardian and the Newsboy Legion, now this… was this a thing in the 40s? Could a random adult authority figure just show up like this and become a kid’s legal guardian?
She uses the opportunity to trick a criminal to confess. It’s not as impressive as that sounds.
However the kid ends up getting shot under her watch (!!!)…
…but he’s now a judge.
Wait, if he was 16 during that encounter, how old is Sun Girl supposed to be now?
That’s not the last time in this review that her age will come into question.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
I’m guessing her series wasn’t a big hit, since it only lasted 3 issues.
She fights aliens again, this time summoned by a good scientist by mistake.
She’s also almost killed by mistake by ANOTHER scientist in a different story.
This might just be the very earliest comic I’ve seen that treats radiation as harmful.
It’s not the only story in the second issue that talks about the dangers of radiation.
In the third issue she fights Not Kong.
It also has easily the most embarrassing moment of her career.
Superman has Kryptonite, Silver Age Green Lantern has yellow, but Sun Girl’s secret weakness… is peanuts.
The same story also has aliens. Because why not.
A month after issue 1, she shows up in Human Torch #32.
Without any explanation, she has replaced Toro as the sidekick.
Issue 33 even lets her meet Captain America. Good luck understanding which Cap this is supposed to be today, thanks to the countless retcons.
(sorry about the abysmal quality of the scan)
The relationship between the Torch and Sun Girl is not clear. Issue 34 shows them living together, but that’s about it.
To say issue 34 is a weird story would be a massive understatement.
Surprisingly, issue 34 also has a solo Sun Girl story. She’s kidnapped and worshipped by weird aliens…
…and she ultimately has to fight their leader, who is A LIVING NIGHTMARE.
Replacing Toro with Sun Girl was apparently an attempt to revitalize the series, but it clearly failed: issue 35 is the last one before it stops publishing for 5 years.
Outside of the human Torch stories, she has a five more (Captain America Comics #69, Sub-Mariner Comics #29, and Marvel Mystery Comics #88-91).
Marvel Mystery Comics #91 in particular contains the last Golden Age stories featuring Sun Girl, Blonde Phantom, as well as being the last issue to feature Namor, who has consistently appeared in every issue since the first.
Weird to see the Golden Age Human Torch use the Silver Age one’s catchphrase, isn’t it?
Sun Girl would completely disappear for 41 years (!!!) until she shows up in the miniseries “Saga of the original Human Torch” that recaps the Golden Age stories of the titular character.
And it’s written by, of course, Roy Thomas.
I believe this might be where Sun Girl gets her civilian name of Mary Mitchell; I did not see it mentioned in any of the Golden Age stories I’ve read.
She’s re-introduced as the Torch’s secretary.
And she decides she’s going to be a superhero, naming her predecessors.
I understand Thomas was working off the Golden Age material, but it’s weird how she just decides to pick a superhero identity and doesn’t care at all about keeping it secret.
She’s not even wearing glasses!
The Human Torch himself is narrating this part, and he points out something that does distinguish Sun Girl from her contemporaries: aside from her heels, that’s a remarkably practical costume!
But once Toro is back in action (in this retcon he was with his sick mother), she’s immediately kicked out of the superhero business.
After that, the only other proper appearance I could find is a cameo in 2015’s “Ant-Man: Last Days” among the other superheroes in a retirement home that get rejuvenated.
There’s an incredibly random appearance in 2010 in the all-ages Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #21, of all places!!!
She’s apparently ageless in this continuity.
She asks the Avengers to help her defeat a scientist from her Golden Age days that turns into a monster. It’s not from any actual story I could find, which is odd because as you saw she met PLENTY of weird mad scientists.
This has basically nothing to do with Sun Girl besides the name, but it’s a neat concept.
It’s also a pretty damn good story, despite the bad artwork. Turns out the scientist wasn’t bad at all, he was in a Jackyll & Hyde situation and was even sent to Germany to fight for the Allies.
There is a modern day Sun Girl, who debuted on Spider-Man in 2013 and was briefly a member of the New Warriors.
While she shares the name with the Golden Age heroine, they have nothing else in common. She’s a tech user with various gadgets.
She’s not a bad character, but I wish they either established a connection with the original or used a different name.
I hope Marvel remembers her the next time they do a story set in the Golden Age, because I think there’s untapped potential there.
She’s kind of the complete opposite of Phantom Lady, isn’t it?
She uses a ray of light instead of a ray of shadows, she’s fully dressed instead of being a walking wardrobe malfunction, and she’s completely forgotten instead of receiving multiple relaunches.
I guess that whole wardrobe malfunction stuff plays a part.
What else was in Sun Girl #1?
The only other story here stars Miss America.
For this one the writer is supposedly Stan Lee, but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the artist.
I should point out that in this period Miss America wears glasses in her superhero identity, but as a civilian she doesn’t always wear them. She’s kind of a reverse Superman!
That story is actually Miss America’s final Golden Age appearance.
In fact, this was the last entry in the retrospective that can be called a Golden Age character.
Next time I’ll start covering the heroes in the interregnum between the Golden and Silver ages, but for classification purposes you will still find them under the Golden Age category.
I believe the panel shown above of the Human Torch asking Captain America to take care of Sun Girl is from the amazing “The Ray of Madness,” from Human Torch #33, though I first encountered it when it was reprinted in Giant Size Avengers #1 for some unfathomable reason. The Torch is preparing to fly to Jupiter to square off against Kleezar, the parasite of eternity. He doesn’t need a spaceship to accomplish this, and makes the trip to Jupiter and back in a few hours. One of the most incredible tales in comic history!!!
Yep, that’s the one!
The new Sun Girl is daughter of Lightmaster Spider-Man foe!
I like the idea of Sun Girl’s existence being tide to the actual sun rising and setting.