It was originally posted on the blog Crisis on Earth Prime, which looks like it would be a rather entertaining blog if you still follow DC Comics these days.
I glommed the pic because I'm pretty sure it's the first 'catfight' I saw in a mainstream comic. It was drawn by Mike Sekowsky. I put 'catfight' in semi-quotes because although it is, technically, two women fighting, or sort of fighting, I'm not sure it rises to the minimum standard of being a catfight.
The combatants are Wonder Woman, obviously, and her evil Earth-3 counterpart, Superwoman. (She was from Earth-3 in 1964, anyway. I think she's from somewhere else now. DC has rebooted its continuity so many times, I have no idea what the hell is going on. It's part of the reason I quit reading mainstream comics.)
This was about as hot as comic book catfights got in those days. Even in their skimpy superheroine outfits, most of the women in 60s DC comics looked like your math teacher, especially if Sekowsky drew them. But, we had to take what we could get.
It's interesting to ponder that while Sekowsky was drawing his "Up you go, dearie!" Wonder Woman with the 52-inch-hips, in another part of New York City, the man who should have drawn this fight, Eric Stanton, was cranking out – well, who knows what? Some cheesy paperback cover, or a four-pager for Klaw.
In the same web search, I came across this double truck from a 2008 book called Batman Confidential:
Imagine me saying "uh..." in Butt-head's voice. This is, apparently, really Batgirl really wrestling Catwoman in the nude in some Gotham City swinger club. Obviously, the standards at DC have changed since '64.
Some sort of flowers are strategically scattered across the scene. I have seen Batgirl and Catwoman fight at least semi-nude before, but they were always 'unsanctioned' matches, and there were always tiny white squares floating in all the best places. (If you've been as dedicated to collecting catfight art as I have, you know what I'm talking about.)
But yeah.... this is OK. Really, really OK.
Um... are all comic books like this now?
I read this story(batgirl) a couple years ago and was just flattened by the work. My comic nerd friend recommended it. The amazing Kevin Mcguire did the art. I guess comics makers have to go all out now with so few people reading. Poor Eric was born 40 tears too soon.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I'm kind of a comic fanatic. This appears to be a sign of things to come. LOL I suspect that there's a lot of catfight fans that work a DC because this thing appears to be more and more common in the "New Mature" DC comics.
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