FemForce #1

Overview

First historic issue of this long-running independant comics smash hit from the creative genius of Bill Black (The Invaders). Initial offering of the only successful ongoing series ever to feature a team of super-powered women, only the 229th title in all of American comics to eventually surpass the 100-issue mark. This is the first color appearance of the FemForce team, "Trek For A Time Twister", introduces Ms. Victory, She-cat, Nightveil,( who mystically reverts to her Golden Age persona of the Blue Bulleteer for this adventure) and Tara Fremont.

The girls recruit new member Tara, and head down to South America to help out the neice of FF founding member Rio Rita. There, they encounter dinosaurs, primitive Amazons, and the villain known as Rip-Jaw, all while trying to return an experimental time-travel device.

Probably the first modern "good girl art" comic, harkening back to the great pinup traditions of 1940's comics artists like Matt Baker, Bill Ward and Bob Lubbers, and the top magazine cheesecake illustrators such as Vargas, Petty and Driben..

Story, layouts and inks by Bill Black, pencils by Mark Heike.

First appearance of Rita Farrar, Rip-Jaw, Satch and Wallow, Dr. Carlos Jimenez and his time machine.

Also, a solo story of Colt, the weapons mistress, as she has her first encounter with a most bizarre villain in "The Menace Of Montague Moon".

Written and drawn by Don Secrease, inked by Kevin Dzuban.

Synopsis

Ms. Victory, leader of FemForce, is contacted by an old teammate—Rio Rita—now head of Brazilian Counter Intelligence—with an urgent mission. A place carrying the country’s top physicist (Dr. Carlos Jimenez) and his latest invention was sabotaged by terrorists and crash-landed in the Amazon Jungle. The Brazilian government wants the doctor and his invention back safely, but Rio Rita has a more personal angle to the mission: her grand daughter, Rita Farrar, was also on the plane as a security agent.

Meanwhile, deep in the Amazon…

Rita Farrar and Dr. Jimenez awake amongst the rubble of the plane. They barely have enough time to collect their bearings and check on the status of the doctor’s time machine—which was activated in the crash—before they and the crew are assaulted by a wave of arrows.

Back in civilization…

Tara Fremont is called in to a building concerning a matter of national security. She finds the building strangely empty, then suddenly finds herself sliding down a steel chute, a trap door having opened beneath her. She lands in the dark and is quickly attacked. Tara fights back, and when the lights are finally flicked on her assailant is revealed to be none other than She-Cat, a founding member of FemForce. Ms. Victory enters the room and chastises She-Cat for insisting on testing Tara’s fighting skills—they’re more concerned with her tracking abilities. Tara is understandably confused, so Ms. Victory explains: they need Tara to travel with FemForce into the jungle to find the sabotaged plane and its survivors. Tara agrees, and the group is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Nightveil, another founding member of FemForce.

Back in the jungle…

Rita and Doctor Jimenez find themselves tied up by a group of giant Amazon warriors. They speculate that Dr. Jimenez is being kept alive because the Amazon’s witnessed him tending to his machine. Rita explains that the Amazons think the machine is magical, though she is puzzled as to why she is still alive as well.

At FemForce head quarters…

Nightveil talks privately with Ms. Victory, expressing her desire to leave the world of the mystic arts. It turns out that practicing magic has slowly been stealing her humanity, and so she wants to return to life without magic. She wants to return to FemForce as Laura Wright/The Blue Bulleteer. Ms. Victory agrees, and The Blue Bulleteer joins the group headed to the Amazon.

He group lands the V Jet in the river near the location of the sabotaged plane’s last transmission and set of tracking the fallen plane. Tara scouts ahead and finds the crash sight—along with the murdered crew. She also finds herself grabbed by the throat and flung through the jungle, back towards the rest of FemForce. Four Amazon warriors quickly follow, plowing through the group of women. They are poised to make short work of the special squad. Suddenly, a roar fills the air and the Amazons quickly scatter. To the amazement of FemForce, a Tyrannosaurus bursts through the trees. The Blue Bulleteer fires a few shots at the dinosaur, then FemForce does the only sensible thing: run away.

75 miles North…

A group of terrorists led by a chrome jawed man named Rip-Jaw are busy planning their attack. It is revealed that they are the group responsible for the sabotage in order to steal the doctor’s invention: a time machine. Rip Jaw wants the device in order to go back in time and prevent his mouth from being blown off during a botched heist.

Meanwhile…

The members of FemForce are sprinting through the jungle, the dinosaur hot on their heels. Tara swings onto the scene Tarzan style, wrapping a vine around the dinosaur’s neck and stopping it dead in its tracks. Ms. Victory congratulates Tara while The Blue Bulleteer stops for a rest. She sits on a log, only to find that it’s actually another dinosaur. The women take off through the jungle once again.

Unbeknownst to them , in the jungle ahead lies the walled city of the Amazons. In front of their temple they’ve suspended Dr. Jimenez’s machine, believing it to be a new god. The Amazon’s escort the doctor and Rita to the edge of the temple. An Amazon guard lifts Rita over her head and tosses her from the temple, straight down towards the doctor’s machine. Rita drops into the center of the device, but does not exit the other side. The Amazon’s believe they have witnessed the workings of a god, but Jimenez knows the truth: Rita has been thrown back in time.

Back at the crash sight…

Rip Jaw and his band of men have found the sabotaged plane—as well as the trail left by FemForce and the Amazons—just as FemForce arrives at the walls of Amazon City. As the women work out a plan to get past the guards, She-Cat takes matters into her own hands, scaling the walls and quietly knocking the Amazons out.

Ms. Victory, The Blue Bulleteer, and She-Cat sneak into the city and quickly locate Doctor Jimenez…only to be captured by Queen Arachna, who orders the prisoners to be prepared for sacrifice…