Another Fury, another cat

• 30.03.2021 10:52 UTC+02:00
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Writing for BBC Culture, Nicholas Barber marks the imminent 80^th anniversary of the introduction of the world's first great superheroine. No, not Wonder Woman, she arrived six months later; Miss Fury made her comic strip debut in April 1941. Not only was Miss Fury the first superheroine in print, but she was also the creation of, fittingly enough, a woman: June Tarpé Mills. In Mills's hands, Marla Drake, a New York socialite by day, becomes a Catwoman wannabe at night;* donning a magic leopardskin jumpsuit and bounding into action, as you do.

Admittedly, this was 1941 and WWII was in full swing—although at the time the United States had yet to receive its formal invitation to the party—so there's a certain propoganda vibe. Two of Miss Fury's early antagonists were laughable caricatures of the contemporary European bad guys. Baroness Erica Von Kampf had a triangular fringe that hid a swastika on her forehead; while General Bruno was a monocled Nazi who lost an arm in an explosion after he taped a bomb to Marla's pet cat.

Natasha Fatale and Boris Badenov were pretty grounded in comparison.

The strips, printed in newspapers as well as comics, were aimed at children. Consequently, any semblance of reality was given over to escapism and derring-do, so as to engage a young, casual readership. Nevertheless, the idea of a Nazi general losing an arm when taping a bomb to a cat made me laugh harder than was probably intended! (LMAO)

And when [Mills] died in 1988, Miss Fury was all but forgotten – a cruel fate for such an iconic superheroine. "Honestly, I think it's because she's not part of a large, well-known universe [like Marvel and DC's superheroes]," says Bechko. "And also because she kind of gets swamped by Catwoman, who is a very different character even though she sometimes has a similar look."

Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture

The outlandish plot devices may also have had something to do with it. Recent attempts have been made to revive Miss Fury, after all, she's not much older than Wonder Woman; much younger, in fact, if you compare Diana Prince's backstory to that of the New York socialite. Hopefully, though, those attempts have given her a more grounded antagonist.

I'm assuming that, like Bruno's arm, the cat didn't survive. What is it with Furys and their unfortunate relationship with cats?