1970's Superheroine peril

[Ernie]

Ah, the 70's. When Superheroines could be shown in peril on the covers of their own comics.

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[tmon]

GREAT COVERS!

[Ernie]

Here's another 70's cover, from Superman Family. I made a few (admittedly ham-fisted) changes to this one to bring it more in line with my personal tastes. Longer hair, deeper vee cut, slit skirt instead of shorts and minor expression change.

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[Supergirllegend]

Ah, the 70's. When Superheroines could be shown in peril on the covers of their own comics.



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WOW! They are hot! Especially enjoyed the Supergirl cover.

[shevek]

Fantastic covers - great posts! The 80s were peril-filled, as well. The whole Bronze Age was just excellent.

This isn't a cover, sorry, but it's from Doom Patrol in 1987.

The beautiful Celsius (the first Indian superheroine in Western comics!) is struggling in her tight costume while in the clutches of her evil father, Desai (aka Kalki). There are even tentacles involved!

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[Mr. X]

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[Ernie]

Another 1970's cover, and a panel from the book. I've always loved Wonder Woman's fearful expression on the cover. The panel I'm including is one of my favourites in all of comicdom. It always bothered me how messy the colouring was in the panel, so now that I've experimented a bit with 3D Paint I decided to clean it up.

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[DrDominator9]

The bad guy in the comic panel above sure looks like the inspiration for the Martians in the movie "Mars Attacks."

[Ernie]

Yeah, one of the silliest villain ideas I've seen - he gets turned inside out and becomes evil. Ughh. But it certainly provided an amazing opportunity for a peril shot of Wonder Woman. Seeing the normally proud and confident heroine this helpless and at the mercy of a villain...wow!

[Ernie]

Here's a panel from Infinity Inc. from the mid-80's. I changed the dialog and made some small alterations to the art, but damn!

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[DrDominator9]

Pretty damn strong talk from a guy in yellow tights, no?

[Ernie]

Sheesh, any more comments like that and I'll start developing a complex about wearing my yellow tights around town.

[Mr. X]

Pretty damn strong talk from a guy in yellow tights, no?

He's the Reverse Robin. Like the Inside Out Man, hist tights are reversed.

[Ernie]

Another fantastic 1970's cover.

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[WonderSlave]

Two of my favorite Wonder Woman covers of all time!

I love how she looks like she's getting an over the knee spanking!!!!!!!!!! Her pose, her pained expression, and her "Wonder Pain" tingling are all perfect to display how much agony she's in at the moment of impact.

Wonder Woman Volume 1 #263 has a cover date of January, 1980 but it was published on October 8, 1979.
Wonder Woman Volume 1 #264 has a cover date of February, 1980.

[shevek]

Not to detract from this amazing period of Bronze Age peril art, but I remember distinctly that one of my favorite things about comics from that time period like Adventure Comics, Superman Family, Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, and several others was that you would get two solid stories per issue, or even three if the issue was double-sized (as shown above). [This is always what I do with my comics, as well.]

And that gave the comic book time enough to introduce *more* characters, many of which were gorgeous and female in tight costumes (Supergirl...but also Zatanna! Lois Lane..but also Rose & Thorn! Green Lantern and Green Arrow..but also Black Canary!). There was no 'decompression' or 'writing for the trade' - everything immediately went to the setup, the action, and the conclusion, bing bang boom, and hopefully with a few sexy elements in the middle somewhere (and sometimes even sexy villainesses, or sexy transformations like in Wolfman & Infantino's Dial H for Hero). I don't remember this being quite a true in the Marvel books of the time, as it was in DC Comics, but maybe I'm biased.

There was so much beauty and power for a young mind to absorb in those books. Whereas today, I don't blame kids for not wanting to pick up a boring comic where the heroines aren't attractive and the art looks terrible, or they sit around talking about feelings and food and politics, or there's some kind of incomprehensible crossover plot that nobody can immediately understand. If they want the bing bang boom, they can go play video games, or watch a cartoon, or read manga.

Thanks for the Memory Lane!

Now, back to 1977, we have a book that makes its intentions known right on the cover: "Planet of Peril"!
In this book, Supergirl has the gorgeous 1970s "feathered" hairdo in common with all of the Farrah Fawcett posters on your bedroom wall.
The unremarkable Iris Allen and Jean Loring seem just along for the ride.

This book is typical of what I was talking about..a long tale with several chapters, and it's not until the fourth chapter (around page 30) that we meet the villain T.O. Morrow who takes the Flash, Supergirl and Atom to that peril planet, where Supergirl gets in several pages of trouble:

-Tentacles
-Knocked out
-Chained up for a couple pages
-Grabbed by a tree (but only from afar - alas, there is no closeup shot like what's indicated on the cover)

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[Ernie]

You left out the best part of that book!

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There's so much here to love. Supergirl gives the robot a full power shot to no effect, then gets knocked flying and ends up entangled in some machinery. Best part - she thinks "In a knock-down, drag-out fight I'm pretty sure I could win..." Let me tell you, the teenage me absolutely loved that she said "pretty sure". That Supergirl herself wasn't positive she could take the robot in a straight up fight was very exciting to me.

[shevek]

You left out the best part of that book!
There's so much here to love. Supergirl gives the robot a full power shot to no effect, then gets knocked flying and ends up entangled in some machinery. Best part - she thinks "In a knock-down, drag-out fight I'm pretty sure I could win..." Let me tell you, the teenage me absolutely loved that she said "pretty sure". That Supergirl herself wasn't positive she could take the robot in a straight up fight was very exciting to me.

OK...I can definitely see why you would enjoy that part - it just wasn't out-and-out peril, so I didn't include it, sorry.

But here's a question: why, when she changes from Linda Danvers to Supergirl, does she think *nobody* will realize it?
She's the only other woman there, along with Iris and Jean.
So, when Iris and Jean wake up, and they only see Supergirl but no Linda, they're of course going to realize that Linda is Supergirl.

[Ernie]

The other two women were unconscious. They had no idea Linda had been transported with them.

[Mr. X]

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[Ernie]

These three were all released within a year or so...

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[Supergirllegend]

Can I just say a big thank you for this thread. So awesome!

[DrDominator9]

Can I just say a big thank you for this thread. So awesome!

Agreed! Love it, too.

[Ernie]

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[Ernie]

Here are a couple of Ms. Marvel panels to show that the peril wasn't just on the covers.

These are slightly retouched.

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[Mr. X]

The people who made Superfriends had to be one of us.
One thing you could count on with this show was when Wonder Woman pulled out her lasso half way through an episode she'd end up tied up with it. When your weakness is "tied with her own magic lasso", someone was thinking like us. Plus I love how they are all grinning (or looking at Wonder Woman). Aquaman always seemed like he was smoking blunts.

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[Ernie]

I had a go at slightly altering this amazing cover.

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[Ernie]

I've given in to the huge demand and added slit skirts to three of the previously posted images. (There has been absolutely zero demand, but I've enjoyed the challenge of learning a little more about 3D Paint.)

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[tmon]

I prefer the slit to be in the front. :p Nice work

[Mr. X]

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[Ernie]

I can't seem to stop messing with this cover.

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[Ernie]

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[Ernie]

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[DrDominator9]

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This "Supergirl dragged" cover may be my all-time favorite one of any SG comic ever!!

[Ernie]

I agree! I can hardly believe it was made. One little thing - Supergirl's hair looks so realistic I've always wondered if the artist had someone model the pose so he could get it just right.

I'm including a before and after of the image I modified to showcase the little changes. In this one I also altered the little Supergirl icon at the top left.

And yeah, I'm aware these alterations are silly and crude. I think I'm done now.

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[DrDominator9]

Not completely sure but this could be Will Eisner art and if so, I've met his daughter who used to model for him when she was a teenager.

[Ernie]

I think it was Bob Oksner.

[DrDominator9]

Damn, you're right. It was Oskner's daughter.

[Danorian]

This always draws my eye.

[Ernie]

Couldn't resist. I lent a helping hand to this cover. Actually a couple of strategically placed helping hands!

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[tmon]

Sweet!!

[DrDominator9]

Love the placement of demon hands. Expertly rendered!

[Ernie]

Thanks Doc! After groping around for a while I finally latched onto the idea of the hands!

[DrDominator9]

Thanks Doc! After groping around for a while I finally latched onto the idea of the hands!

No pun intended?! Groping. I doubt that!

[tamonicus]

For perspective, these comic books images of the 1970s weren't an anomaly. They were par for the course. These covers are from the tame detective magazines of that time.