20 Lethal Ladies to Simultaneously Lust and Fear
In response to @kingvenus' new list, I felt inspired to share my top 20 favorite lethal ladies, femme fatales, and bad-ass mamas.
List items
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And then there's # 1. Again, the Greg Land Sisterhood interpretation was amazing, but unlike Deathstrike, I have always been fond of her. I like her Kali-like appearance, her wild and sorcerous ways, and her steadfast devotion to cultivating chaos in the Marvel Universe. Thank you, Arthur Adams, for one of the most wonderful attractions to ever escape from the Mojoverse!
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My second-to last pick is Typhoid Mary. From her first apparance in the Nocenti and John Romita JR run on Daredevil to more recent appearances, the machete-wielding pyrokinetic has burned her way deep into Daredevil's mythos and into my imagination. She cray-cray.
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Nash is only # 3 because she's dead. Dead as doornails. Dead as a stack of dead hobos. DEAD. She raped a dude, carried his baby to term, and then wrote him a letter to tell him he would never hold that child in his arms. The daughter of the Mist, also created by Tony Harris, exploited Mary Marvel's innocence, murdered her way across the pre-52 DCU, and looked good doing it. Bad. Ass. Mama.
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Many comic writers and artists have imagined and reimagined this mythological gorgon, that it is impossible to name a single favorite interpretation. Punished for basically "allowing" herself to be raped by Zeus, the snake-tressed Medusa is alternately remorseful and ruthless from interpretation to interpretation in how she handles her "affliction."
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The top 5 begins with Lady Shiva. From her first appearance to Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter to later impaling Katana in The Outsiders, to her recent Birds of Prey appearances, Shiva has been deadly, attractively rendered, and deserving of an appearance on Arrow or Gotham (Ahem).
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The other Malice I love. When the Psycho Man and John Byrne made the Invisible Woman evil, I kinda sorta wished that it had kept. Sue Storm was vicious and hateful, years of neglect at the hands of various writers and Reed Richards finally boiling to the surface. Also, leather and spikes everywhere. Mmmmm...
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Up until now, I have tried to avoid the recent trend of naming a villainess after a previously established heel and setting her loose. She needn't the Lady since a "bullseye" is really a gender neutral object. Bleh. Ahem! Still, recent artistic interpretations of her have been extremely nice, and Lady Bullseye's origin and "power set" make her a fun character to read. # 7 on the list, she is.
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I used to get Madame Slay and Malice confused because both of them had connections to Erik Killmonger, BUT! I ultimately prefer this Black Panther Femme Fatale and she earned her place on this list with her campaign of vengeance on T'Challa during the Priest run on BP's book. I'd love to see this character emerge again. She deserves better than # 8.
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I love Tony Harris' art, and Trouble is certainly one of the reasons why. Yes, she looks like a base-jumping BDSM enthusiast, but trust the neghead--the Ex Machina issues featuring Trouble were F-U-N. Pick them up and get into Trouble.
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'Nuff said?
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I love the punk. From her first appearance in WildCATS # 21, Ladytron had a piece of my heart... which she probably needs. There seems to be confusion whether or not Algorithm in the recent Teen Titans story is Maxine, and she's attractive and dangerous too, but nothing in the dialogue or in their respective power sets suggest that they are one and the same. Oh, well. I want Ladytron back. Make it happen, Jim Lee.
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There have been some foxy interpretations of this Kirby classic, from Frank Cho's in The New Ultimates to Olivier Copiel's Thor. The goddess of death's green headdress and armor evokes an earth-mother gone bad vibe, while ruling her realm with an iron fist. She fills out the armor very well, though, doesn't she?
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Lucky # 13 on my list is Bendis and Maleev's Scarlet, who visually resembles their take on Typhoid Mary (below) and/or Sin from Captain America. Not really a villain, she still uses violence and terror in order to further her agenda... and she's a hot, gun-totting ginger. ~sighs contentedly~
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Getting away from my leather fetish, Princess Python is the first female villain Stan Lee and Steve Ditko ever pitted Spidey against. My # 14 generally wore green fishnets and a snake! In recent years, she has been shuffled off into obscurity and replaced by her daughter, but really, even though she hung with the Circus of Crime, I always kind of regarded her as Catwoman with a snake motif instead of felines. Also, none of the romantic hang-ups on any heroes to screw with her broken moral compass.
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Yes, please. May I have another? The first time I ever laid eyes on this character was at the tail end of Captain America # 189, in which she has brainwashed everyone on the SHIELD Helicarrier dressed like ole neghead's Friday night delight. I like that she is a strong black female character, in spite of usually being subordinate to other villains. Her personality and appearance--both in more practical dress and this middle finger to Breakfast at Tiffany's--makes her distinctive and memorable.
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Frieda Ratsel IS an actual Nazi, but she has been consistently cruel since her early appearances in The Invaders. Visually, she's Chyna in dominatrix gear with a whip. Sorry, young readers, but she appeals to my kink, as does the next entry...
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While I am a little put off by the Nazi-influenced uniform, this doppleganger of Courtney Ross, Captain Britain's lost love, is sexy and totally ruthless. For one, she killed Ross in order to impersonate her, as well as anyone she encountered in early issues of Excalibur to help her escape. Alan Davis' art sometimes leaves me wanting more; like John Byrne, there isn't a lot to distinguish his female forms from one another, but I really did wince when she pushed a dagger into the ribs of whiney Nigel Frobisher.
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Yeah, yeah. Selina Kyle is # 18, This is because DC has retconed her origins so many times that I'm not sure what she's really all about. However, the recent Jae Lee covers as well as her appearances in Batman/Superman have made me re-evaluate my feelings for the character. Purrr.
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I always thought her origin was compelling, but her long-standing brown and white threads were anything but visually appealing. However, I have liked both the more traditional Japanese appearance she adopted in Greg Land's Sisterhood storyline in Uncanny, and then the subsequent Dia de los Muertos-inspired look a la Terry and Rachel Dodson. SHe seems much more seductive AND deadly now.
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Coming in at # 20 is the terrifying bounty hunter from Saga, Vol. 1. I am a Boba Fett fan, but I think she was more deadly. ~sighs!~ WAS. Also, I have no hentai tentacle fetish, but I gots to say that her exotic arachnid appearance was kinda, um, well you get the idea... Thanks, Fiona Staples.
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