Miss America (DC Comics)
Miss America is a
DC Comics superhero. She was first created by
Quality Comics in
Military Comics #1 (
1941), and was carried over to DC Comics when they purchased Quality in the
1950s.
Pre-Crisis
Miss America was originally
Joan Dale, a courageous reporter who had a dream in which the
Statue of Liberty appeared to her and, giving her the power to transmute elements, instructed her to battle evil. Joan awoke to find that she now had these powers; adopting a patriotically-themed costume, she began fighting evil as Miss America. She had a brief run in
Military Comics #1-7, then faded into obscurity to a degree that Timely (later
Marvel) Comics soon felt free to create
an unrelated character with the same name.
Initially Miss America did not have a super-hero costume, largely using her powers surreptitiously. In later stories she wore a costume comprising a sleeveless red blouse, a red and white striped skirt, and a blue cape fastened with a silver star. This costume continually changed in appearance, possibly because she used her powers to create it. Following her initial run, later appearances of the character added a red domino mask.
In the
1980s, writer
Roy Thomas revived the character. She was briefly referenced in the first appearance of the
Freedom Fighters in the pages of
All-Star Squadron, when she was said to have been a member of that group who was thought to have had been killed when
Uncle Sam attempted to prevent the
attack on Pearl Harbor from occurring on Earth-X.
In pre-Crisis continuity, Wonder Woman had become a member of the Justice Society in
1942, and with
Steve Trevor was the mother of the Fury.
Post-Crisis
In the post-
Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, in the late spring of 1941 on Liberty Island, reporter Joan Dale had a dream that the Statue of Liberty came to life and granted her the power to alter the nature of matter. Regardless of the dream, she created a colorful costume and became Miss America, one of America's first heroines. In truth, she had been abducted by the top secret government agency, Project M, and her powers were actually the result of a secret experiment. They believed the experiment to be a failure and had returned her to whence she had been taken, leaving her none the wiser. (
Military Comics #1,
Secret Origins #26)
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Miss America debuts in Military Comics #1. |
Later that year, the Japanese would plot their attack on Pearl Harbor. Uncle Sam got wind of the attack and assembled a group of heroes to prevent it. This group, called the Freedom Fighters (with Hourman, the Invisible Hood, Magno, Neon the Unknown, and the Red Torpedo). The mission was doomed and all but Uncle Sam seemingly perished in the fight. Sam would later discover however that three of his allies had survived: Miss America among them. She was reclaimed Project M. (
All-Star Squadron #31)
When Robotman and the Young All-Stars visited Project M, they discovered that Miss America was indeed alive, albeit comatose. A battle with the Ultra-Humanite broke out, which awakened Joan from her coma. She promptly returned to the defense of her country and in late May, 1942, she joined the Justice Society as the group's secretary. (
Young All-Stars # 12-14,
Annual #1).
Miss America and her husband, Admiral Derek Trevor, are the adoptive parents of the modern-day
Fury (Hippolyta "Lyta" Trevor Hall), formerly of
Infinity, Inc. In early post-Crisis stories, Miss America and the original Fury (Lyta's biological mother) were portrayed to have replaced
Wonder Woman in several adventures of the
Justice Society that Wonder Woman had originally been involved in. In post-Crisis continuity, Wonder Woman had not debuted until relatively recently, leaving several stories and origins in chaos. Miss America was said to have taken Wonder Woman's place as recording secretary of the JSA.
However, several months after Miss America joined the JSA,
Wonder Woman debuted on the scene and also joined the JSA. It is still unclear how Hippolyta's membership affected Miss America's status with the JSA, if at all. (
Wonder Woman v.2 #130-133)
Miss America was last seen in a
flashback in
JSA, where she was once more working with the Freedom Fighters.
Later, as was shown in Phil Jimenez's run on Wonder Woman, Diana had attempted to crossover into her own time after a dimension hopping adventure and had taken the mantle of Miss America (using her powers of disguse) to fight along side Queen Hippolyta (who had recently died in the present) in the 1940s.
Diana and
Trevor Barnes leave
Skartaris and arrive in Virginia in early October 1943. Leaving Trevor to watch the dinosaurs and
Villainy Inc., Diana goes scouting, only to come upon a battle between Queen Clea (the one from 1943) and Hippolyta. Seeing Clea get the upper hand, Diana decides to intervene. To avoid damaging the timestream (too late), she disguises herself as "an obscure heroine during the war" - Miss America, and remembers that Hippolyta mentioned meeting her once. The two women trounce the Nazis and Clea, but one of the Nazis gets away, finds Trevor and takes Poseidon's Trident from him.
Later that same day, Hippolyta and Diana return to Washington, where Diana sees for herself the impact her mother had on the women of the city - or at least her neighborhood - including Hippolyta's roommate, Diana Prince. As night falls, Hippolyta and Diana go hunting for Armageddon, the leader of the saboteurs. While Hippolyta defeats Armageddon, Diana recovers Poseidon's Trident and disappears. By that time, however, Hippolyta has figured out that the woman she fought with wasn't the real Miss America. Either that night or the next night, Hippolyta makes a phone call to the real Miss America and confirms her suspicions. So the whole adventure really takes place over the course of one day.
After Diana returns to the present, she does tell Philippus that she saw her mother, but what she gasps is "Hera help me, Miss America!" This wasn't explained, but it's probably because Diana realized that all her mother had to do was contact Miss America to figure out the whole thing - which, of course, she did.
Infinite Crisis
How the recent changes to the
DC Universe resulting from the
Infinite Crisis storylines have affected her history have not yet been addressed.
When Dan DiDio was asked
"Is Hippolyta's time as Wonder Woman still be part of the revised continuity?", his reply was
"Diana is the first Wonder Woman, who appeared prior to the formation of the Justice League." [
1]
Miss America had the powers of transmutation on a molecular level. Her own inexperience with the physical sciences curtailed her use of the powers, usually using it for simple changes that were not permanent. There appeared to be an upper limit to the size of matter, and the duration of its transmutation, but this was not ever made specific. After the war, her abilities either weakened or faded all together.
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Miss America meets her grisly demise in the Elseworlds tale The Golden Age. |
Outside of regular DCU continuity,
James Robinson and Paul Smith featured the Miss America in 1993's
The Golden Age. Joan Dale was the girlfriend of
Tex Thompson, also known as Mr. America.
Later in the story, disturbed by the increasingly moody and abusive actions of her lover Thompson, she makes off with Thompson's locked journal and heads to her friend
Paula Brooks, the reformed costumed thief once known as the Huntress. Paula picks the lock and soon Joan, Paula and Paula's lover
Lance Gallant are made aware of the same ugly fact that
Paul Kirk has finally remembered: that Tex Thompson is really the
Ultra-Humanite. The journal, however, holds even worse revelations, prompting Paula to call
Johnny Chambers, whom the story has characterized as the one superhero that everyone else came to with their problems.
In the story's final chapter, a hasty war council is convened of the few mystery-men who know Thompson's secret, and a plan is made: during the upcoming ceremony at which all of America's superheroes are supposed to go to Washington to swear their loyalty, another new recruit will be named to Thompson's camp, who will then expose the truth about Thompson before the superhero community and the eyes of the world.
However, to withstand the strength Thompson has at his disposal, the whistleblower has to be one of the big guns, and
Rex Tyler is elected. Nearly every mystery-man and superhero turns out at the nation's Capitol for the ceremony, and before things can begin, Joan takes to the podium and exposes Thompson herself, but before she can tell the entire truth,
Robotman brutally and permanently silences her.
*
Cosmic Team Profile*
Fanzing: Retroconvention (Miss America's JSA Retcon)*
Fanzing: The Many Deaths of Miss America*
Faux! DC Who's Who Profile*
International Catalogue of Superheroes Profile*
JLA Watchtower Profile*
The Unofficial Miss America Biography*
Who's Who in the Golden Age DC Universe
