Sheena: Peril Adventures

[Dr. Grizzard]

Sheena’s African home is a jungle paradise, where animals can roam freely and happily. One leisurely Sunday afternoon, the nature girl relaxes near her favorite waterfall with precocious chimp companion Tiki. “I cannot lie,” she says partially to the grape-gulping monkey, and partially to herself. “The outside world has certain advantages. I must visit it from time to time, to speak against Otwani and fight for animal rights…” After a moment, the Jungle Queen’s tone softens and a smile spreads across her beautiful face.

“Still, I shall always prefer our home, a place of paradise, so alive with natural splendor…” Just then, a little hedgehog trundles out of the brush and looks up at Sheena, unsure of which direction to move next. Queen Sheena throws her head back and laughs heartily, catching Tiki’s attention in the process. “Well, that is true most of the time!”

A sumptuous palace in Tigora is bathed in mid-afternoon sunshine. “Good news, Countess. Grizzard’s invented a soundwave that turns wild animals into household pets!”

“Are you serious?” Zanda quizzes her cousin the King, who always seems to be giving Ms. Z a soothing rub-down, even with his brain buzzing with top-level business matters. “I kid you not, dear lady. Our friend Grizzard’s a genuine genius, you oughta know that by now. Weird, anti-social, but incredibly prolific, like Dr. Frankenstein with unlimited funding.” Zanda just rolls her sultry dark eyes, having heard it all before. “Anyway,” the King blithely continues. All we have to do is aim his ray dispenser gizmo and press a button. The doc says our four-footed friends will be as docile and compliant as gurgling newborns, just waiting to be hauled away for some high-powered sales!”

“Otwani, once again I must raise my fist against you!” shouts Sheena upon hearing about the King’s dastardly plan to tame/subdue wild animals en masse and sell them to foreign zoos. “And, once again, it is your evil companion Grizzard, the dark wizard, who threatens us with captivity and mindlessness. Oh, if only I had a few moments alone with --“ Sheena finally stops herself, lowering her clenched fist and furrowing her brow. “I do not have the luxury of anger,” she says softly, remembering the Shaman’s wise teachings. “Anger blurs my special powers…and now, to save all my animal friends and thwart this monstrous attack, Sheena needs her special powers more than ever!”

Two hours later…

Enraged by Grizzard’s mood-shifting ray that is making pussycats out of ferocious jungle lions, Sheena jumps into Otwani’s camp and relieves her frustrations with an energetic physical workout. Five strapping, sadder-but-wiser henchmen/trappers become pummeled playthings for the vine-swinging adventuress. As always, Sheena is a streamlined and deceptively sweet-looking force of primal female nature, acrobatically kicking bad guy butt and looking absolutely beautiful doing it. But unfortunately for the jungle warrior, Grizzard’s “tamer” ray is eventually turned in her direction by the not-so-good doctor himself, with a delighted Otwani and Zanda cheering from the sidelines…

“It is getting…hard to think!” the statuesque jungle protector says aloud, her words breathy and difficult. “My mind, it’s…going…” drones sleepy-eyed Sheena in a weak, slurring voice. “What mind?” replies Zanda derisively, pleased that her opposite number, the jungle-bred wild child, is swiftly succumbing to Dr. Grizzard’s latest invention. Bemused Otwani, circling the now-stationary, glazed-over superheroine, is having a grand old time. “Aww, don’t be so mean!” he tells his no-nonsense cousin. “This is a great day for everyone, Queenie here included. After all, jungle babes should be seen, not heard. Especially ones with <i>her</i> scenic advantages!” King Otwani laughs at his own pathetic joke while Zanda raises a contemptuous eyebrow at her stymied female rival, now standing like a voluptuous statue.

Otwani and Zanda couldn't be happier...Grizzard’s sonic weapon has successfully tamed a group of valuable animals, enabling them to be easily captured, and the royal duo's fiery, vine-swinging nemesis, jungle queen Sheena, has also been quelled into mindless servitude. How could a perfect day become that much better? Zanda suddenly gets an idea, smiling wickedly as she approaches the stationary superheroine. "Sheena, are you still able to make use of your animal-summoning powers, even though you're currently hypnotized by Grizzard’s ray?" she asks her glazed rival directly. "Yes" is the docile warrior's bland reply. Zanda's face lights up and she beams wickedly from ear-to-ear. "Perfect! I want you to summon as many jungle beasts as possible to this place..."

Tickled by an ironic turn of events, King Otwani saunters over to his gleefully wicked cousin. "Honey, you're an even bigger genius than Grizzard...and a lot easier on the eyes," he quips. The beautiful dragon lady smiles nastily in agreement. Then Zanda turns full attention back to her helpless, hypnotized rival. “Sheena, get out there and summon every last animal…now!” she commands, pointing a finger to a nearby rock outcropping. “Sheena obeys” is the heroine’s spiritless reply as she walks forward, eyes glazed like a zombie.

Standing where all can see, and watched by her gloating adversaries, Sheena raises hand-to-head in her familiar summoning gesture. Instantly, all over the jungle, animals of every species and stripe lift their heads and began to move toward camp…the foul capture plan is beginning!

Seeking revenge for being beaten by Sheena, Otwani’s grizzled henchmen punish the now-obedient jungle girl by ordering her to push her considerable physical skills to the max: hand-stands, cartwheels, jumping jacks and back-flips are all part of a strenuous, torturous workout, and the guys watch this amazing and somewhat revealing display with drooling interest. Meanwhile, Otwani and Zanda have been making final arrangements to transport all of the calmed-down, obedient animals they have nabbed, thanks in large part to Sheena. And what is next for the captured Jungle Goddess? The royal duo look in her direction and grin. Now on the ground doing rapid fire push-ups, with henchmen hovering over her and barking orders like drill sergeants, sweat-glistened Sheena bobs up and down mechanically. “I have become…my enemy’s tool…” the horrified heroine thinks to herself, distantly aware of what is going down but unable to resist the commands of others…

What a dastardly development! Have Otwani and Zanda found a monstrous method of capturing wild animals, with quelled Queen Sheena their unwitting accomplice? Will the now fully-obedient jungle crusader become nothing more than a sexy plaything for Otwani's gloating henchmen?

TO BE CONTINUED!

[Centurion]

A very interesting idea... but you need to work on detail. Sheena arriving, beating up a bunch of henchmen, and then being captured, all in just two paragraphs? Her struggle with the mind sapping ray should have gone on longer, with a wealth of detail.

[Dr. Grizzard]

Thanks so much for responding! You've got a good point about two overview paragraphs not really doing justice to Sheena's battle and hypnotic capture; naturally, savoring each and every detail is far more satisfying. Although Tanya Roberts never used super-athletic fighting skills to beat up henchmen in SHEENA (the early '80s still considered fisticuffs "unladylike" in mainstream movies), I always thought Ms. Roberts had considerable "fighting tomboy" in her DNA, being a tough Bronx girl with attitude. In truth, she worked out tremendously for the part, and flexes an impressive bicep whenever she raises arm-to-forehead for that summoning gesture. I also thought TR's melodramatic style of acting was ideal for my campy peril approach, with her voice ranging from childlike little girl ("Fur! You have fur!") to almost masculine ("Bring your bows!"). Like Yvonne Craig's Batgirl, this Tanya-Sheena can derive sassy fun out of beating the crap out of macho henchmen, but still reeks of squareball, self-righteous dedication to law and order, the purity of the jungle, animal rights, even female empowerment/athletics. And as with the BATMAN TV series, funny-nasty villains Otwani and Zanda, with the help of my namesake Dr. Grizzard, seem to continually delight in humiliating and mocking their do-gooder adversary in every way imaginable. Any amusing thoughts along these lines?

[Centurion]

That's a fascinating analysis! I remember Tanya Roberts of course, but personally the movie didn't otherwise impress me much, because there was too little of what I would call "peril". If as you say having her fight would have been "unladylike", obviously having the female lead captured and tied up would have been too sexy for a mainstream movie. I've never seen the comic strip at all. I look forward to seeing more stories from you!

I have to admit, I don't often fantasize about jungle goddesses. When I do, it's usually in the context of finding her bathing under a secluded tropical waterfall, just the two of us. In superheroine context, how about having her wrestle a python? (Come to think of it, though, if you feel like hunting for it, I once posted "Wonder woman vs. the Mandrake" which takes place in a jungle...)

[Dr. Grizzard]

Bondage is an automatic, and the more outrageously conceived and staged the better. Sheena can easily summon help from her four-footed friends telepathically, so I created the notion that she must be able to raise arm-to-forehead in order to do so. Since the lithe superwoman truly enjoys her henchmen-bashing physical workouts (the gleeful little girl side of herself), Sheena rarely "calls out" for assistance. But she's inevitably overwhelmed (usually by some newfangled weapon invented by Dr. Grizzard) and tied-up so that she can't raise her arm for animal-summoning. Many of my friends are fans of the old BATMAN series, and have asked me to put Tanya through similar perilous deathtraps. Connecting this to the bondage theme, I can picture captured Sheena being trussed up and "roasted" on a revolving spit over special heaters created by Grizzard, perhaps designed to somehow absorb her jungle-bred physical and psychic skills (later to be transferred to Otwani himself). Why not up the ante by having all this happen at an exclusive dinner hosted by Otwani and Zanda, a dinner attended by criminals of every stripe... many of them formerly nabbed by do-gooder Sheena. Putting the captured heroine on display would a) show all these baddies that Otwani's evil empire is indeed unstoppable, and b) provide all the guys with a mostly-naked bimbo to gawk at (who needs a broad emerging from a cake when Sheena's around?). What a wonderful opportunity for our self-righteous crusader to threaten her gloating enemies ("You evil men will pay for this outrage!") even as she continues to revolve, providing everyone with a terrific view of that world-class bod. So, yes; not only is bondage "a must" for obvious titillation reasons, but it's actually necessary in terms of SHEENA's mythology!

[Dr. Grizzard]

Setting: the art studio of famed African sculptor Jeremy Todd, in truth one of King Otwani’s old criminal buddies. He and his absent royal partner are in the process of stealing a shipment of rare statues and replacing them with perfect replicas.

“Get a move on, guys, our first group of forgeries must be ready by dawn,” Todd tells the blank-faced musclemen provided by Otwani, who continue to load and unload various sculpted figures. “Man, what a cool set-up. Nothing can stop this operation from raking in a fortune,” the bogus artist says aloud, mostly to himself.

“Nothing… except the hand of Justice!” a female voice rings out. The henchmen turn around and all eyes look up.

Standing on a landing behind them is the unmistakable female form of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, drop-dead gorgeous and imperiously self-righteous as always. She juts out an accusing finger.

“You will not deceive those innocent patrons who wish to admire great artistic works. In the name of the Shaman, is there no end to your treachery?”

Jeremy breaks into a huge grin. “Well, well. If it isn’t that vine-swinging bimbo my pal Otwani keeps talking about. How nice to meet you – in the flesh.”

“Soon, evil man, you will be meeting my fist!”

With that, Sheena launches herself into action. She spins in the air, lands before the assembled henchmen, and girds herself for a revitalizing physical workout. Not surprisingly, Africa’s lithe wild child easily dodges the ham-fisted swings of her adversaries, gracefully vaulting over the brawny goons and playfully smacking plaster casts over their dumb heads at every opportunity. “You boys are too clumsy!” she needles them, pointing and laughing.

Hoping to take advantage of Sheena’s childlike glee, Otwani’s humiliated henchmen strike back with primal vigor. POW! -- a perfect right cross to the chin sends one of these thugs slamming into the other…and before Creep #2 can clear his head, Sheena swiftly twirls and sends a lightning-fast foot to his mid-section, followed by a devastating uppercut. Both macho goons are down for the count!

Still, that leaves two more. “Come on, come on!” Sheena eggs them on, gesturing with enticing fingers and sporting a devilish grin as she stealthily surrounds her prey. But the baddies decide to rush their adversary at once, and at first it seems as if sheer brute strength will force the Jungle Queen into submission.

Fat chance!

Within moments a female fist shoots upward, belting the grizzled goon on Sheena’s right. He collapses in a heap on the studio floor. Then the furious hellcat grabs her other oppressor and savagely head-butts him (gotta hurt!).

As Jeremy Todd watches from the sidelines, mouth agape, Sheena grabs that very same goon and sends him swinging ‘round and ‘round…until he torpedoes into a nearby work table with a CRASH!!!

Sheena laughs and shakes her head. Although bringing crooks to justice on a regular basis is serious business for this selfless crusader, she cannot help cutting loose with a fun bit of exercise every now and again… especially if Otwani’s boorish bullies are on the other side of her lightning-fast fists! Still, the young woman is clearly winded. After all, there are four downed and groaning musclemen at her feet, the victims of a jungle-bred heroine’s far superior athletic skills.

Meanwhile, the eyes of bogus artist Todd dart upward…and a wild idea flashes in his desperate brain. Directly above semi-dazed Sheena is a vat of quick-drying plaster!

Hurling himself into action, Jeremy jumps up and yanks the rope-like release mechanism. Instantly, a waterfall of liquid plaster comes careening down on the standing jungle heroine with a tremendous SPLASH!

“Ha! Ya got her!” Henchman #1 shouts with a big smile across his grizzled face, as he joins the utterly relieved Todd in gawking at their now-immobilized foe. Sheena just stands there like a statue, her pert, upswept breasts dripping freely with plaster.

“That’s a new compound she’s drenched with,” a pleased Jeremy reports. “It’ll form a second skin around her within minutes.”

“Is she dead?” the second Henchman queries.

Jeremy grins. “No. As a matter of fact, she’ll be able to breathe inside that plaster coating for the next few days,” he explains. “And that’ll certainly give Otwani and I enough time to figure out to do with her."

Todd’s smile turns more pragmatic. “All right boys, enough of this diversion,” he announces to the now-recovered henchmen. “Let’s get back to work. We have a schedule to meet…”

And so they do just that, returning to the packing and unpacking procedures they were busy with before Sheena’s untimely arrival. As for the female super-hero herself, she stands helplessly like a white-painted figure in the corner of the room, arms by her sides, still dripping with plaster.

“The fiends!” Sheena thinks to herself, aware of everything that’s happening from within her unique form-fitting tomb. “If only I could free myself, I would eagerly beat Otwani’s helpers once again. But my arms… I cannot move them! This stuff they call ‘plaster’ is strong!”

Indeed it is, Sheena… Can this (gasp!) possibly be your ignominious fate? Will an amused Otwani and Todd decide to ship you off somewhere to die within that makeshift shroud, while your curvaceous beauty lives on forever as a super-sexy statue?

[Centurion]

Your use of detail is getting a lot better, but I was disappointed you didn't continue with theoriginal story.

[Dr. Grizzard]

I see your point... What villain or henchman wouldn't want a tamed, puppet-like Sheena around for entertainment purposes? Always looking for highly-unethical profit opportunities, Otwani and Zanda could make a small fortune renting the obedient jungle heroine out to revenge-seeking baddies she formerly put in jail. Everybody wins! Well, almost everybody...