One of the first martial heroines in popular fiction, the Golden Amazon, also has one of the most convoluted histories.
Created by British writer John Russell Fearn, the Amazon, a.k.a. "Violet Ray," began as the heroine of four novelettes in the pages of the American pulp mag FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, appearing from 1939-1943. The character seems to have combined aspects of Tarzan and John Carter, in that as a child she was abandoned in the jungles of Venus, yet grew into a powerful crimefighter due to the effects of Venusian environment on her human body, giving her some measure of super-strength. I've read just one of these stories and can attest that it included a lot of knuckle-busting action.
In 1944 Fearn sought to remodel his character for a somewhat more upscale, and perhaps less evanescent, market. The author succeeded, for the Revised Amazon enjoyed twenty-four novels from 1944 to 1960, many of which were published, in whole form or in serialization, in American and Canadian periodicals.
The first appearance of Golden Amazon sparked enough positive reader response that it virtually guaranteed Fearn with a regular berth at the Toronto Star Weekly. However, the first novel is not exactly the adventure of a hero. I speculate that Fearn wasn't exactly sure if his new approach would prove popular, not least because the story wraps up with the apparent death of the main character.
In place of following the model of Tarzan, the Amazon borrows some pages from Frankenstein. This time she starts out as a baby separated from her parents during the London Blitz. Obsessed scientist James Axton uses endocrine-gland experiments to transform the child so that as she matures she will become a veritable superwoman. with superior strength and intelligence.
Some analysts have wondered if William Moulton Marston might have chanced across the early stories before he published Wonder Woman with DC Comics in 1941. There's no evidence of this. Oddly, though, the Axton character from 1944 sounds much like an inversion of Marston's credo as expressed in the 1940s WONDER WOMAN comics. Marston frequently reiterated the belief that not only were women going to win equality with men, they were going to bring to civilization a new era of "loving kindness." Axton sounds somewhat similar, telling a colleague that "there is a beauty of soul, a depth of understanding altogether lovely, which the finest of men can never attain." Axton hopes that his "new woman" will become a leader that will eliminate the world's dependence on the masculine propensity for violence. However, his mutation of the child will have two consequences. First, her accelerated metabolism will burn her out at a young age. Second, because she has to some extent become "masculinized," she grows up with no interest in sexual encounters.
By assorted contrivances Violet is adopted by a regular British family and grows up alongside the couple's natural child Beatrice. Upon reaching maturity in the year 1960-- ironically, the year of her actual creator's passing-- not only is Violet stronger than an average woman her size, she also displays a ruthless desire for temporal power. And here Fearn ingeniously draws upon another "upscale" genre for his revision: what I will call "the tycoon narrative." Stories about big-business "captains of industry" (a term coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1833) had become such a genre in the 20th century, CITIZEN KANE being the most well-known. Violet uses her great scientific acumen to create products that propel her to become an industrial magnate, and her golden-tinged skin gains her the nickname "Golden Amazon."
However, the Amazon makes many enemies. Some are business rivals who try to have her killed, and she's no less ruthless in retaliation-- in one instance, wiping out a planeful of innocents to get one enemy. Other adversaries are her own sister Beatrice, who recognizes Violet's iniquity and turns on her, as does Beatrice's boyfriend Chris Wilson. It's through a literal brawl with this square-shooter that the reader sees that this Amazon does not have literal super-strength, but simply has the optimal strength of a woman, which still gives Wilson a good tussle before he subdues her with judo.
To speed to the end, Violet uses her resources to become a virtual dictator in Britain, thus dedicating her first character arc to the halls of villainy. She is, interestingly enough, undone largely by women, particularly sister Beatrice. She seems to perish of her accelerated metabolism, and that seems to end the matter-- until readers wanted more.
The revised AMAZON is a good melodrama. Fearn never explores the gender politics very deeply, but he makes a fair case for the once canonical idea that women were fundamentally different from men. From this one adventure it's impossible to judge whether or not Fearn has much to say about Marston's favorite subject, female empowerment. But I have the next two books in the series and will make some effort to find out.
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