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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Madam Fatal </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=326 WIDTH=300 ALT="Madam Fatal gives 'em what-for. Artist: Art Pinajian." SRC="fatal.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>MADAM FATAL</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Comic books <BR><B>Published by:</B> Quality Comics <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1940 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Art Pinajian <FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> <A HREF="tornado1.htm">The Red Tornado</A> has racked up a fairly impressive number of "firsts". She was <A HREF="dc.htm">DC's</A> first ongoing female <A HREF="glossary.htm#superhero">superhero</A> (tho a few months too late to be <B>quite</B> the first altogether). She was also the first superhero parody, and the first to use red long  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> johns as a superhero outfit. But despite popular impressions, she has only a clouded claim, depending on your definition, to being the first cross-dressing superhero. If Madam Fatal, who debuted in the first issue of <I>Crack Comics</I> (May, 1940, six months before the Tornado) qualifies for the genre by virtue of fighting crime in comic books while wearing an identity-concealing costume, then Madam Fatal was the first cross-dressing superhero. <P> Madam Fatal's first story, written and drawn by <A HREF="glossary.htm#cartoonist">cartoonist</A> Art Pinajian (who also created <A HREF="hoodedj.htm">Hooded Justice, aka The Invisible Hood,</A> for the same publisher, <A href="quality.htm">Quality Comics</A>, and <A href="wasp39.htm">The Wasp</A> for Lev Gleason) told how actor Richard Stanton had turned to transvestism to further his crime-bashing activities. Years earlier, while he was amassing his vast fortune, he married the woman loved by gangster John Garver. Two years later, the jilted Garver got his revenge by kidnapping Stanton's daughter, which caused his unnamed wife to die of heartbreak. Stanton retired from the stage and disappeared from public view for the <B>eight years</B> it took just to track down Garver's address. Garver was killed in the ensuing fracas, but the equally unnamed daughter still didn't turn up. <P> "Madam Fatal" wasn't exactly a secret identity for Stanton in the usual sense. He was actually living as an old woman all that time with no companion but a parrot, Hamlet, while his real identity dropped off the face of the earth. (Later stories, however, showed him switching between identities.) His reason for the masquerade, and why he continued it after Garver's death, was unrevealed. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the good ideas for superheroes were rapidly getting used up. <P> Pinajian continued to write and draw Madam Fatal as long as the series lasted — which wasn't all that long. The character's final appearance was in #22 (March, 1942), after which she was replaced with <A href="penmillr.htm">Pen Miller.</A> Meanwhile others that went back to the first issue, including <A HREF="blcondr1.htm">The Black Condor,</A> <A HREF="clock.htm">The Clock</A> and <A HREF="spider.htm">The Spider,</A> were still going strong. Quality never featured "her" in another comic book story. <P> And DC Comics, which bought properties from Quality in 1956, never put her in a story at all. The only one who did was <A HREF="glossary.htm#comix">comix</A> writer/artist Kim Deitch (<I>Hollywoodland</I>), who did a new story in 1972 that purported to be about Madam Fatal. But inasmuch as she did things in it that it's hard to imagine a mainstream comic book character doing, there could be some question about the character's identity. <P> DC did, however, once mention her in a story. A 1999 <A HREF="jsa.htm">Justice Society of America</A> story had a scene at <A HREF="sandman1.htm">The Sandman's</A> funeral, which took place at the cemetery where the transvestite hero had been buried earlier. <A HREF="wildcat1.htm">Wildcat</A> mentioned the earlier funeral, at which, he alleged, nobody showed up but the touring cast of <I>La Cage aux Folles.</I> <P> How he knew is another thing that wasn't explained. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! 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