thismomentsforwomenincomics:

I wanted to dedicate my first submission to This! Moments for Women in Comics to one of my favorite little-known characters of the DCU.
Ma’ Hunkel is a Golden Age character believed to be the first female superhero in her identity as Red Tornado (she first appeared in her civilian identity in All-American Heroes #3, June 1939, and later as Red Tornado in All-American Heroes #20, November 1940).
While her character was also one of the first superhero parodies published by a major company, she’s evolved since her Golden Age days and was used successfully as a supporting character in a couple of Modern Age JSA books.
The moment I chose is from JSA #55, February 2004, written by Geoff Johns, pencils by Leonard Kirk. This is the issue that reintroduces Ma’ Hunkel in the JSA, when Green Lantern Alan Scott, Hawkman Carter Hall, Flash Jay Garrick and Wildcat Ted Grant ask her to join the JSA as curator of their museum. This sweet, relaxed moment comes a few pages after Ma’ has saved the day (and a bunch of mall customers) dressed as Santa.
I love this page because it uses such a mundane moment, a few old friends having tea and sharing memories, to say something about the nature of being a hero, and it does so with only a few choice words and without any cliches. Here we have a woman who is not fanservice in the slightest, she doesn’t have superpowers, she doesn’ have tricks or gadgets or any special skills except her giant heart. She did not end up saving the world, but, as Alan says, she did just fine doing what she did: making the world a better place to live in through little, sincere and genuine acts of goodness.
It would be wonderful to see more women of this kind in comics, especially in DC comics. DC is doing anything they can with their current reboot to make everything newer, edgier and “cooler”: in a continuity where Amanda Waller needs to be a skinny supermodel and there are no senior superheroes to speak of, Ma’ Hunkel seems to be a distant memory. But we need more plain, simple, kind and generous characters, especially female characters, like her: because superheroing means doing good, and you don’t have to look like a movie star, have supercool powers or emanate angst all the time to do good. Sometimes all it takes is wanting to do the right thing, even if your helmet is an old stewing pot.

I love the JSA…& I love Ma Hunkel.