What's With the Name?

When I was a kid, I loved superheroes.  Specifically, the kickass female superheroes of the late 70s/early 80s.  (well, and KISS, but that's another story)

Wonder Woman was my absolute favorite.  I had the underoos, the Wonder Woman utility belt (tiara, bracelets, belt and magic lasso) and I used to walk around with my long dirty blonde hair all wet because I thought it made it look dark like Wonder Woman's.

I also was really into this coloring book, "Wonder Woman and the Menace of the Mole Men."  Upon tracking down and shelling out an embarrassing amount of cash for a couple of these on eBay, I discovered that the plot was a little...shall we say...risque?  At least for a Kindergartener.



It involves Wonder Woman and several members of the UN Womens Marching Band (yeah, I don't know) being swept into a crack in the Earth and captured by the Mole Men.  The Mole Men are blind, so they have enslaved a bunch of women to do the seeing and the hard labor for them.  Everyone's all chained up and the Mole Men threaten all of the ladies with whips.  At one point Wonder Woman is punished by being forced to don iron shoes and dance on an electrified plate.  If she stops, she dies.

Anyway, Wonder Woman somehow ends up turning the tables on the Mole Men, and performing surgery on the Mole King so he isn't blind anymore, who then proceeds to propose to his main slave and she says YES because what kind of spoilsport would reject her oppressor when he offers to make her the Mole Queen?  It somehow manages to wrap radical feminism up with some sort of neo-biblical slave apologia....well, if nothing else, I'm pretty sure this coloring book is the origin of some of my adult proclivities *ahem*

By my prime Saturday morning cartoon watching days, Wonder Woman was reduced to a bit part in Super Friends, which was kind of a bummer and wasted way too much time on the Wonder Twins and their stupid monkey.

I preferred Spiderman and his Amazing Friends -- one of whom was Firestar, aka Angelica Jones.  Her name was close enough to mine that it piqued my interest and I seem to remember her getting more equal screentime with Spidey and Ice Man.

The episode with her origin story made me kind of sad...the nasty little Nellie Oleson girls taunting her on the playground "Angelica is a Jinx!  Miss Angelica Jinx!  Miss Angelica Jinx! (It's right at the beginning of this video)




Remember when you were little, and you were convinced that your superpowers or royal lineage or secret (true) identity were going to be revealed to you any minute?  I guess I never got over it.

UPDATE:  Hey Corporate Hive Mind...if you're going to bust someone for copyright violations why don't you post shit yourselves?  All I want to do is watch stupid clips from my childhood cartoons once in awhile. Is that too much to ask??? 

Anyway -- here are some officially-sanctioned details on Angelica Jones that the offending YouTube clip would've shown you.