BEYOND MARY JANE.
Welcome to the world of the professionally pretty career hostage.

In simple terms, modern audiences are not satisfied with any story that lacks a love interest. A touch more romance is something we all crave in our lives. In comic books, it's no different. Every superhero must have his gal. The girlfriend is there to tie the hero to the real world, give him something to fight for, and all too frequently, to give him someone to save. This month in Beyond, we pay homage to the girlfriend.

MARY JANE - Spider-Man has always had one of the best supporting casts in comics. From doting and dotty Aunt May to eternal nemesis J Jonah Jameson, by way of Flash Thompson, Ned Osborne, Felicia Hardy, Robbie Robertson, and dear old Otto Octavius. The standout among all these, of course, is Spidey's beautiful and long-suffering wife, Mary Jane Watson Parker. When MJ first made her play for Peter's affections in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42, she did so with one of the most deservedly famous lines in comics; "face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot". From there on in it was a soap opera lifestyle for MJ and Petey, living through high school, abductions, clones, aliens, birth, marriage and death - not to mention MJ's stint on an actual soap opera (from which, of course, she was abducted). Through it all, MJ has been the perfect superhero wife and girlfriend - sparky, dynamic, and ready to take almost anything in her stride.

LOIS LANE - Lois Lane - or, as she's officially known, SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND LOIS LANE - looks remarkably good for a woman in her sixties. Lois is the first and longest lived of the superhero girlfriends, having originated in 1938 in exactly the same issue of ACTION COMICS as her beau. She was not created as the lover of the man behind the mask, but as the lover of the mask itself, and the nemesis of Clark Kent. The Daily Planet reporter was also meant to be a mean-spirited bitch, making her the founder of the classic superhero love triangle, whereby she was obsessed with Superman, and Superman's alter ego was obsessed with her. In time, she softened, and earned a comic book of her own, where she developed a range of super powers, bitterly fought with rival Lana Lang, and was at different points wed to both Superman and Clark Kent, not to mention Batman and Lex Luthor.

DIAN BELMONT - In the DC universe of the present day, Dian Belmont is old enough to be Lois Lane's grandmother. Ironically, she was originally created a year after Lois, as the hapless girlfriend of wealthy playboy Wesley Dodds, aka the original Sandman. In those classic wartime tales, she was the typical girlfriend-come-hostage, stumbling into all kinds of trouble, and forcing Wesley to come to her rescue. In Matt Wagner's SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, Dian came back to the public eye as a slightly portly belle dame of New York society. The Dian Belmont of the forties, as seen through the eyes of the nineties, was a far more independent, intelligent and strong-willed woman, and a constant aid in Wesley's fight against crime.

GWEN STACEY - Gwen Stacey was Spider-Man's first serious love interest, and the original woman in the refrigerator. That is to say, when the villainous Major Force murdered Kyle Rayner's lover Alexandra DeWitt in an issue of GREEN LANTERN, and stuffed her body into Kyle's refrigerator - to the shock of the reading audience - the Major was only revisiting old territory. Gwen Stacey's death at the hands of the Green Goblin in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #121 was a genuine shock in its day, and was ably recaptured in an issue of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's MARVELS. Her death is seen by many fans as a watershed in comics evolution; the day the romance hit home. For so many people that loved Gwen Stacey - and the romantic ideal she represented - this was the day the emotion became real. To find out more about women in refrigerators, visit the unofficial website.

DALE ARDEN - Ask your grandfather about Jean Rogers. The actress who played Dale Arden in the FLASH GORDON television series in the 30s, opposite Buster Crabbe as Flash, was a major sexbomb in her day. Of course, Dale and Flash first appeared in the funny pages, as the earth-born hero and his gal, facing nefarious space menaces like the mighty Ming the Merciless. The stories in FLASH GORDON loved to play to the conventions of adventure, so as dashing as the hero was, and as merciless the villain, so Dale Arden was required to be the archetypal damsel in distress. In fact, the more distressed she was, then by inference the more merciless Ming was, and the more dashing Flash was. Thanks to the curvaceous Jean Rogers, Dale Arden helped cement the modern perception of the hero's girlfriend. She can undoubtedly be regarded as the forbear to Mary Jane and the girls.

HAWKGIRL - Shiera Sanders was a girlfriend first, and a superhero second. That is to say, when she first appeared, she was not kitted out in the wings and helmet. Rather, she was the definitive romantic love interest. As the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman, she was forever destined to reunite with the reincarnation of her beloved, Carter Hall, aka Hawkman. When she eventually did become a hero in her own right, her first adventure inevitably led to her being captured and incarcerated by the villain, leading the hero to come to the rescue. For some, the elevation from girlfriend to hero is a slow and arduous route. Like Batgirl, Supergirl, and Krypto the dog, Hawkgirl's creation owes a lot to the frequently embarrassing franchise mentality so popular at pre-Crisis DC.

ALICIA MASTERS - Alicia Masters has become something of a serial-girlfriend. The daughter of the Fantastic Four villain Puppet Master, blind sculptress Alicia fell in love with the noble spirit of The Thing, whose physical grotesqueness she could not see. Then, when he was off defending the universe (as heroes so often do), Alicia fell for The Thing's buddy, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. Except it wasn't her, but a Skrull impersonator, and the real Alicia returned from suspended animation only to fall in love with the Silver Surfer, and soar off into the cosmos to sail the spaceways with him. Alicia Masters is truly the Rick Jones of womankind.

SHEENA - Co-created by the legendary Will Eisner for one of the leading newspaper strip syndicates of the 30s, in response to the popularity of the TARZAN strips, SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE was a huge hit in its day. Beautiful and alluring in her leopard skin bikini, Sheena was not a feminist icon like her near-contemporary Wonder Woman. Expertly portrayed by Mort Miskin, she was clearly designed to appeal to the boys, and in this capacity she was entirely successful, spawning a string of imitations, up to and including Marvel's Shanna, wife of Ka-Zar. However, as much as Sheena was a dream girlfriend for many an adolescent boy, she never conformed to the Dale Arden stereotype. Instead, she had a male companion, Bob, to fulfill the 'girlfriend' role, by falling over, getting kidnapped, and generally being a ditz.

KIT - The things girlfriends can do include being rescued by the hero, marrying the hero, and fainting in the hero's arms. The things they certainly can't do is be smarter than the hero, be more interesting than the hero, and they definitely cannot dump the hero. HELLBLAZER's Kit did all of these things. Kit was the creation of Garth Ennis, and the lover of John Constantine's mate Brendan. When Brendan died, she ended up with John himself. As any of John's friends might have told her, this was a seriously bad move. Except they couldn't, because they were dead. Kit, a funny, beautiful, tough and intelligent Belfast girl, was way too good for John. That's probably why she left him, and that's probably why she survived. Kit is no more the standard hero's girlfriend than John is the standard hero. Sadly, few girlfriends have followed in her footsteps, with the one notable exception of gun slinging Tulip in PREACHER. Another Garth Ennis creation.

SUSAN STORM - Technically, the Fantastic Four all have equal billing. In reality, Sue Storm was often relegated to fourth place. She went up in the same spaceship as the rest of the team, and modern writers tend to agree that she has far and away the best powers, but in the early days, Sue Storm still fell into the standard role of the woman in peril. She was forever being taken hostage or falling through trapdoors, and it would inevitably be up to her genius boyfriend Reed Richards to save her. Then she went through two big changes. She experimented with her dark side when possessed by the wicked Malice (picking up some wicked bondage gear along the way), and she married Reed and gave birth to their son, Franklin, giving her new maturity and responsibility. The girlfriend-as-superhero became the superhero-as-mother.

Next month: The Justice Society of America.

Andrew Wheeler is Editor in Chief of PopImage.

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