Saturday, March 31, 2007
Comic Art
Continuing our series on the Speedsters we will look today at Joanie Swift. Sadly, this is the only image and link I could find for this character. Of course she wasn't around much or for very long back in the Golden Age, but I think she is kind of cool.Comics are reflective of society, almost always, and Joanie Swift is a fine example of that. She accidentally discovered Johnny Quick's secret formula and gained her powers. So why the blatant rip-off? - you might ask. Well, at the time family life predominated society and society's view of itself. The sidekick phenomena that we have looked at before lead to a trend where some super-heros had whole "families." There were, in the '60's and earlier, titles like "The Batman Family" or "The Superman Family" and Captain Marvel also has a whole legion of "family" members.
One of the reasons I am fascinated with the speedsters to this day is that it is one of the few titles to retain that "family" tradition. Even speedsters unrelated by blood band together into kind of a family unit. Admittedly it is a broken and untraditional family, but at least they try. Batman also has hangers-on, but they are so dysfunctional as to challenge the adjective.
Besides - how can you argue with a lady who has a waist that preternaturally thin. She has got to be wearing a corset. Now there is a super-power, super speed running in a corset!
Related Tags: comics, comic books, comic art, speedsters, Flash, family, Joanie Swift, Johnny Quick
