TG Mainstream Comic Book Characters

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I am feeling a bit better, but nowhere near recovered. Bleah.

While surfing around on the net I cam across a 1950's Strange Tales of Suspense for sale in which the seller claimed it was the ONLY occurrence of mainstream transgenderism in comics.

[Not so. There are dozens!], I immediately thought to myself, and two names were at the top of the list as major characters, even. So I looked up some biography links for them and sent them along to the seller as a friendly gesture. Then I thought, [Well! I'll bet the folks over at BCTS would be interested in info like this!], and so I provide it here:

  1. Courier
  2. Shvaughn Erin

And there are others. And not just MtFs... For example, the new Spider-Woman (who happens to be J. Jonah Jameson's niece!) masqueraded as Spider-Man when Parker had given it up (yes, again) until he felt guilty about someone else risking themself in his stead and picked up his webs. Then he confronted "him" and found that it was a young girl in a padded suit.

Can anyone think of other major examples? My flu-addled brain isn't running on all cylinders quite yet.

Skrulls

erin's picture

Skrulls seem to have a loose concept of sex and gender, anyway. One group of apparently male green shape-changers apparently spent a decade or so hypnotized by Reed Richards into being dairy cows. :)

Since the Spanish word for milk is "la leche" how does lechery translate?

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

I seem to remember...

...reading an issue of The Mighty Thor in the early 1970s with a brief, one-off "what if" storyline where instead of Dr. Donald Blake accidentally discovering Thor's disguised hammer, his girlfriend finds it first and it turns her into The Mighty Thora. I also remember being quite disappointed with how shabbily the other Norse gods, particularly Odin, treated her upon her "return" to Asgard.

Thordis, I think it was

erin's picture

Yeah. More recently, Loki returned from wherever-dead-comic-book-gods-go as a female. And this is mainline continuity, not what if. :)

Mythically,
- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Lots

erin's picture

Jimmy Olsen used to go undercover as a girl back in the 1950s, four times, I think. Superboy was transformed into Super-Sister by red kryptonite during the same era. Mr. Mxyzptlk (who nearly fits the description of Kaleigh's Yallery Brown) changed the sex of ALL Superman's close friends, including the Justice League. This was quite a stunt since Wonder Woman's origin was based on fallout of a war between the sexes among Olympic gods. :)

More recently, Hawkman and Hawkwoman had their identities swapped by a body swapping enemy. By the way, the story of Shvaughn Erin on that page given has been retconned. In the original story, S.E. swapped sexes because of a crush HE had on a Legionnaire. (Why the heck are there two ns in Legionnaire?)

There are lots more. In one JLA episode GL used his ring to disguise the Leaguer's as each other, I think Batman was disguised as Wonder Woman.

- Comical Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Yes...

But also in the original story, everyone found out her secret when FemPro became illegal. No one knew that she'd been Sean before that... that plot arc was AMAZING... very advanced writing for the era.

The JLA has had several... mishaps, as well.

can't remember the name

but I remember a friend when I was about 12 having a comic book where King Arthur and his round table are brought back to life. but two were mutated. One of them in to a neaderthal, the other into a woman.......it was my first introduction to a TG theme. It had always been in my head, but to see it mainstream was 'miraculous' to me. anyone remember the name?

A.A.

Camelot 3000

Really wonderful example... but not mainstream. Though there was another comic line where the Arthurians were "reincarnated" -- esentially possessing people and Sir Tristan ended up a woman (which is probably the one you're thinking of)

There's also one along the same lines of that last one, with the Olympians instead of the Arthurians, and instead of "normals" it's superheroes and the goddess doing it thinks it amusing to put Hermes into a 15 year old girl's body.

Mainstream?

erin's picture

Well, it was published by DC, the biggest mainstream company but it had no connection to their superhero universe. And Camelot 3000 was the one where Sir Tristan ended up a woman and could not understand why a re-incarnated Isolde didn't want to be a lesbian. :) I think it also got reprinted, perhaps with a different title.

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Shazam!

Thanks for posting this link Billie Sue! This was the first I've read this version. Not a bad tale at all with just a TG angle added, sweet!
Hugs!
grover

Speaking of Shazam...

I seem to remember an issue where Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel were reversed due to being tangled up or something when they both said it.

I Loved That Captain Marvel

joannebarbarella's picture

"He" was my favourite superhero in about 1950+. I can remember buying the comics for three pence before I went to the Saturday morning cinema for sixpence, which left me three pence from my pocket money to spend on other goodies, like lollies. The TG Captain Marvel is a real eye-opener. I think I would have liked her even then, although she would probably have been one of those guilty secrets that I read under the bedcovers by torchlight,
Joanne

Re: Shazam

This may or may not be good news but the Big Red Cheese is heading back to the big screen. We all know the crap shoot good stories risk in the process of becoming a movie. This is Peter Segal's first movie of this type having previously directed "50 First Dates" and "Anger Management" The only good news I find in this is Peter Jackson was new to the genre of "Lord of the Rings" and that turn our very well. Looks like Black Adam is going to the Heavy played by the "Rock" Dwayne Johnson.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448115/
Hugs!
grover

Lovely Laika

joannebarbarella's picture

YOU, talk too much, never! Ramble,hmmm, maybe. Entertain, always,
Honeybunny