THEM!

History

The introduction of THEM! is where Diana returns to her boutique shop and finds a young blonde girl scream “Oh dear GOD – it’s THEM!” Top Hat, one of the members and the leader throws a dog collar towards the young blonde, named Cathy Perkins and orders her to put it on. Diana demands the hippies to leave and asks Cathy to explain herself. Cathy says that she had escaped home because she felt her parents did not understand her and wanted to find what she was looking for. But she never did, and instead found THEM! She looked for a place to live and found three hippie girls that offered her a room. Soon after, her clothes started disappearing and the group later told her that she had to work for her room. They made her do all these menial jobs and Top Hat would put the collar on her, treating her like a dog and the beatings are evident on her back. One day, Moose Momma had taken some pills and fallen asleep and escaped, finding her way to Diana’s boutique. The gang, in desperation to get her back, vandalised Diana’s store and did not appear to be intimidated by a local tough guy called Tony Petrucci.

One night, Diana contacted the Missing Persons Bureau and THEM! set fire to Diana’s store and they both escaped, staying at Tony’s house. But in the morning, Diana discovered that Cathy had returned to THEM! Diana confronts the gang and then Top Hat orders Diana to put on the dog collar herself. Just then, Tony and his men appear and attack the gang, and Diana says that Top Hat is hers. She punches Top Hat into a wall and out her of her hat comes jewellery. Cathy then becomes Diana’s store assistant and is reunited with her parents, and the gang never attack again.

Controversy

It has been said that THEM! are lesbians due to their cross-dressing ways and typically S&M behaviour. These characters were written during the Comics Code Authority time and during that time, homosexuals were to be depicted as negative. It is also said that the story is a modern Cinderella, where THEM! are the three wicked step-sisters, Diana is the godmother and Cathy is Cinderalla.