August 1948: One Brief Shining Heroine

A wave of superwomen arrived toward the end of the 1940s, just as the tide turned against superheroics.

Among them was Sun Girl, a jiu-jitsu expert who came armed with her signature wrist-mounted light projector (making her the Phantom Lady’s opposite number, in a way).

“Sun Girl didn’t seem to have a secret identity, or in fact, any name other than the one in her logo,” recalled comics historian Don Markstein. “As Sun Girl, she was apparently a popular personality throughout the world. No explanation was given as to why she wore a costume to fight crime… She was adept at various forms of martial arts, but again, no explanation was given. It was implied she’d been superheroing for a long time.”

She was capable enough. During her brief tenure, she handled an army of crystalline monsters, a 30-foot-high Brazilian ape, an alpine giant, a huge heat ray, ghostly aliens, a crook who leaped great distances, weaponized humor, lethal lollipops, a two-dimensional villain, a sphere-creature, Cube Men working for a monstrous brain and invaders from Jupiter (armed with one of those several “hate rays” Marvel superheroes would eventually encounter).

“The year is 1948,” recalled Capeworld Comics. “The Golden Age is about to shut down for the ’50s and enter an era where Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel are virtually the only active superheroes amid a rising tide of genre comics – horror, science fiction and romance. 

“Timely sees females as an untapped market, and so — similarly to (what) Marvel would later try … during the Bronze Age with Night Nurse, Tigra and She-Hulk — Timely focuses on female characters: Namora, Venus, Blonde Phantom, Golden Girl and Sun Girl. Most of these were sidekicks to established male heroes.”

Although the heat-themed Sun Girl was a natural partner for the Human Torch, she didn’t debut in that role. She was introduced in her own title.

The Mysterious Beauty also appeared in Human Torch and the company flagship Marvel Mystery Comics.