Retro Rerun: Female Masks in Comic Books

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By Brittany Rose

A Change of Face: Female Masks, Mask Hysteria!

Female masks, as they appear in comics, are our ultimate wish fulfillment. Instead of the hours spent trying to make our faces look feminine, with all-too-often mixed results, we simply pull a mask on. Presto! In seconds our faces are transformed into the beautiful woman of our dreams and no one suspects a thing. In our final look at female masks in comics, we will be looking at a villain who’s particularly good at masks, a mask as a bad plot device, and a superheroine known for her masks.

I’m Here With Your Shot

In the ’80s, Marvel Comics came up with an interesting gimmick. In the middle of a story, the action would shift to some villain making plans to attack our hero. Suddenly someone who appeared to be an innocent bystander would pull out a gun, shoot and kill the villain, and announce “Justice is Served”. Then the shooter would reveal that he had been in disguise. Often he would remove a latex mask, leaving his face in shadows. This event was repeated over and over for several months in a variety of comics, with Scourge showing up out of the blue, killing a villain, and disappearing. For a long time no explanation or identity was given, except the name, Scourge, and that he was male. As would be expected, such a master of disguise would have to cross the gender barrier at some point.

In Captain America #311 (November 1985), the Captain is visiting the hospital to interrogate an injured Constrictor, a reptilian villain, about the evil Serpent Society. A blonde nurse steps into the room and asks Cap to step out while she gives Constrictor his medication. When Cap leaves the room, she pulls out a gun, but before she can fire, Cap steps back in to ask a question. He spoils her aim and she only hits Constrictor’s shoulder with the shot, before leaping out the window. Cap stays with Constrictor until help arrives, but by then she’s gone. But he does find a nurse’s uniform, padding, and a latex mask and wig in a trash can.

In Captain America #320 (August 1986), we have one other brief masking moment for Scourge. His source calls him on a video receiver. So that even his contact can’t identify him, he quickly pulls on a latex mask of a beautiful blonde female. There is an interesting panel of him stretching it to pull it on, but it is a very brief scene. Eventually, Captain America does catch up to him, but the story ends with the implication that there is more than one Scourge.

There is one other possible crossgender appearance for Scourge in Thing #33 (March 1986). A female wrestler named Golddigger kills a villain with the cry, “Justice is Served”. However, we never see her remove her disguise, and it is later hinted that some of the other Scourges may be female.

I Always Carry a Spare Outfit for Emergencies

I guess my biggest complaint about female masks is that if the writer needs a plot device he can just have the character put on a mask. A perfect example showed up in Daredevil #358, (November 1996).

Daredevil’s friend and law partner, Foggy Nelson, takes his girlfriend, a beautiful blonde, to a society event sponsored by a businessman named Peabody. Mysterio, a villainous master of special effects, crashes the party and fights Daredevil, who just happens to be attending. Their fight results in smoke and general mayhem everywhere. Afterwards, in the midst of the chaos, Foggy finds his girlfriend, who was a little shaken up and eager to leave. Foggy chooses that moment to swear undying love. However, before he can get the words out, Daredevil slugs her and pulls off her mask to reveal that she was really Peabody, Mysterio’s partner, in disguise!

We are expected to believe that Peabody brought a mask and wig of Foggy’s girlfriend to the party (and apparently a body suit, based on the obvious cleavage). He also brought identical copies of her dress, shoes, and jewelry, which he somehow knew she’d wear. Then during the fairly brief battle he completely changes into her double. Finally he perfectly mimics her voice and fools Foggy. Daredevil was only able to capture him because his super-senses saw through the disguise. It seems to me that Peabody must not have thought much of Mysterio’s chances for success if he made escape plans that were that elaborate.

Mask Hysteria

Finally, we look at the all time champion in the use of female masks. Although it’s a female superhero, Black Orchid certainly deserves a special mention. She was a little-known DC heroine in the ’70s whose costume resembled a black orchid. She appeared in several issues of Adventure Comics and Phantom Stranger. She was invulnerable, could fly, and used rubber masks extensively as disguises. She usually went after small-time crooks, seeking justice where the police couldn’t reach. Years later Neil Gaiman created an origin and a new life for her as a type of plant goddess, and all of the masking and heroics went away, but in her first incarnation she used masks in almost every appearance.

We are highlighting one particular appearance in Phantom Stranger #36 (Apr-May 1975), partly because masks are all over the place, and partly because it’s so overly complicated. Previously a man has been framed for a murder, and Black Orchid proved his innocence. We discover that the syndicate that framed him wants revenge on Black Orchid. Their business is murder for hire and framing innocent people with the help of a supercomputer that devises their plots.

This story opens with the supercomputer unable to determine Black Orchid’s true identity. Then a Mrs. Cleo Barry comes in with the request for the syndicate to kill her mother-in-law. The computer confirms her story, and produces a plan to make the hit. Her mother-in-law, an old woman, lives on a secluded estate with a nurse. One agent will distract the nurse, while the other suffocates the old woman in her bed. Once she is dead, he will put on a mask of the old woman and attract the attention of the delivery boy, claiming that the nurse is trying to kill “her”. Then they will leave, having framed the nurse for the murder. The super computer is so impressive it even makes the mask and costume of the old woman for the agent to wear.

All goes as planned as they watch the pretty young nurse take the old woman in her wheelchair on her daily constitutional and back up to her room. Then while one agent sends the nurse into the garage for pesticide, the other goes up to the old woman’s bedroom. It’s at this point that Black Orchid puts her sting into motion. When the second agent tries to suffocate the old woman, he discovers that she is really a robot, whose pincer arms suffocate him instead. The first agent, wondering what’s taking the nurse so long, goes into the garage and finds the nurse’s head on the floor. He panics, but the Black Orchid swoops in, telling him that there never was a nurse, it’s just a mask. Based on this information the police arrest the boss of the syndicate. He starts to name Cleo Berry as an accessory, but the mask Black Orchid used as Cleo Barry drops nearby, and he realizes he’d been set up. We’ll assume the raid on their headquarters revealed enough information on their other crimes, since it’s hard to imagine they would be charged for attempted murder on a robot and trying to frame a fictitious person.

Let’s see, for her plan Black Orchid created two fictitious personas, complete with masks, and a robot that could impersonate an old woman, with the ability to smother the villain. Could the Black Orchid have come up with a less complicated plan? Probably. What moves this story into the realm of the truly amazing is the answer to the one question the syndicate boss asked. He wanted to know how, in this case, his supercomputer kept giving out wrong information. The response? Black Orchid reprogrammed the computer using x-rays. Sure she did.

Tags: comics, crossdressing, featured, impersonation

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment