PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Feature Comics #71

The Spider Widow and Phantom Lady, brought together to battle a menace threatening PL's father, US Senator Knight, have also developed a rivalry for the affections of The Raven.

Note: the order is changed this month as the Spider Widow tale comes first in story continuity.

Also, even though most sources list this as a Frank Borth job, it's not signed, as most of his work is, and the art style is a bit...off.

So while Borth probably wrote and penciled the story, he probably didn't ink it.

Now for the Phantom Lady installment...

Police Comics #22

The art here seems to be a combination of Frank Borth and Phantom Lady creator Arthur Peddy.

Both Spider Widow and Phantom Lady would make one more appearance in their respective series before being canceled.

While Phantom Lady was revived and revised at Fox Publishing, the Spider Widow hasn't appeared in a new story since.
interestingly, when DC revived the Phantom Lady as part of the Freedom Fighters in the 1970s, they brought back this version in yellow and green, not the later, notorious Fox/Ajax blue and red version!

We hope you enjoyed this look at the first version of Phantom Lady!

PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Part 2

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Police Comics #21

To that, we would add that the two heroines (and a hero) saved the life of Phantom Lady's father, Senator Knight!

Amazing, these crooks are yards away from the dueling damsels, yet they recognize Phantom Lady as Sandra Knight!

Her boyfriend in the Fox issues, Don, is even dumber than I thought!

Then the story continued in Spider Widow's home, Feature Comics...

Feature Comics #70

Scripter/artist Frank Borth was one of the under-appreciated craftsmen of the era.

He produced almost 100 stories, but never hit the "big time" with a major character or title.

Even his work on Phantom Lady is overshadowed by Matt Baker's more cheesecakey art on the later Fox version!

Be here next week for the final two chapters and a couple of surprises!

PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER-WIDOW Part 1

SuperHERO team-ups were rare in the Golden Age.

SuperHEROINE team-ups were rarer!

And multi-issue cross-over team-ups by anybody were practically non-existent!

Police Comics #20

You'll note a couple of differences from the Phantom Lady you're used to seeing on this blog including a differently-colored costume, a mask, no black-light ray, and no Matt Baker art!

That's because this is the earlier Quality Comics version of the character, before she began her run at Fox in All Top Comics and her own title!

Just go with the flow, and all will be made clear...

Feature Comics #69

Beginning in Phantom Lady's strip Police Comics #20 and carrying over to Spider Widow's series in  Feature Comics #69 (both cover-dated July, 1943), Frank Borth (who wrote and drew both strips at the time) tried something a little different, tying the two series together for three months with an ongoing plotline!
Personally, I enjoy the "breaking the 4th wall bits" including mentioning that they're actually in comic books and referencing other Quality Comics characters like Blackhawk!

Be here next week for Part 2 (of 3)

JET DREAM AND HER STUNT-GIRL COUNTERSPIES "D-Day for the Generalissimo" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...hired by the American government to "unofficially" bring a US-friendly leader safely back to his homeland, Jet and her team are confronted by the criminal organization CIPHER, which somehow knows what their supposedly-secret travel plans are!

Is there a traitor among the Generalissimo's people?

And thus ends the adventures of Jet Dream and her team.

Their tales have never been reprinted, nor have any new stories appeared since 1968!

Considering how Gold Key has licensed a number of their other properties like Turok, Dr Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, and even Doctor Spektor for reboots/revivals, it's disappointing they've never bothered with this group!
Maybe they don't think an international female crimefighting team would be a viable concept?

JET DREAM AND HER STUNT-GIRL COUNTERSPIES "D-Day for the Generalissimo" Part 1

We Open with Some Typical Swinging '60s Spy Action...

...but, you'll see that pulse-pounding scene a little later in our tale!

Right now, we'd like to introduce you to a particular pair of Jet Dream's team...

...for reasons that'll become apparent shortly!

Will Jet and her acrobeauts keep the Generalissimo alive?

Will CIPHER win, and take secret control of...hey, what is the name of that Central American country?

Some of the answers will be revealed...Tomorrow!

Oddly enough, the similarly-spelled C.Y.P.H.E.R. (with a "y") was the name of the sinister secret organization The Shadow battled in his 1960s paperback adventures!

(I wonder if the two criminal organizations sued each other for trademark infringement!)

Writer Dick Wood and illustrator Joe Certa finally had 30+ pages to play with in this 1968 one-shot comic, and took advantage of the extra length to detail things like Jet's "No Man's Land" headquarters and give some play to individual members of the team.