MISS AMERICA: THE REMAINING STORIES OF THIS 1940s SUPERHEROINE

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will conclude my look at Marvel’s 1943-1948 heroine from when the company was known as Timely Comics. For Part One and her origin click HERE.

NOTE: In the 1970s it became Marvel canon that Miss America was the mother of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver HERE, but that has since been retconned. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #64 (Jun 1945)

Title: The Story of Miss Bluebeard

Villain: Miss Bluebeard

Synopsis: Our high-flying heroine Miss America (Madeline Joyce) comes across an insurance investigator who was just murdered by a supervillainess who is called Miss Bluebeard by insurance agencies around the U.S. Miss America investigates and uncovers an entire network of accomplices run by the evil woman, real name Lorelei Ricciardi.

Our main character shuts down Miss Bluebeard’s operations, which involve her marrying older men and then getting their insurance proceeds after they seem to die from natural causes. Miss America also saves the woman’s latest husband and another insurance investigator from being killed, then turns Miss Bluebeard and her underlings over to the police.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #65 (Jul 1945)

Title: Clue of Witch’s Rock

Villain: The Witch of the Rock

Synopsis: In her secret identity Madeline Joyce, Miss America is driving herself toward a vacation with friends in New England. She must become Miss America when she spots a flying witch attacking a young woman on a precipice called Witch’s Rock.

The superheroine fights the witch, whom she suspects of using high-tech gimmicks to fake her powers. When the witch vanishes, Miss America learns that the Witch of the Rock is part of local lore but most people doubted her existence until recently, when she killed a man.

Our main character suspects the woman who runs a nearby hotel of masquerading as the witch since legends about the witch attract visitors to her hotel. Miss America instead learns that the owner was being framed by her nephew and his wife, who were using a costume and tech to play “witch” hoping to frame the owner for murder to inherit her hotel and her fortune. Our star defeats the science-based witch and her male accomplice. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #66 (Sep 1945)

Title: Hunting Lodge

Villains: Page & Morrow

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce is enjoying a winter vacation at the hunting and ski lodge owned by her wealthy guardian “Uncle” Jim Bennett. One day a hunter is found dead from a supposedly “accidental” shooting.

As Miss America, she uses her super hearing to learn that two lodge guests named Page and Morrow are up to something nefarious. Next, she calls upon her far-off police contacts in New York City to research Page and Morrow. It turns out they and their dead victim were fellow crooks fighting over $100,000 (equal to $1,773,000 in 2025) in criminal proceeds. Miss America puts the kibosh on them.     

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #67 (Nov 1945)

Title: The Fox and the Vixen

Villains: Fox & Vixen

Synopsis: A male and female pair of supervillains in fox masks call themselves Fox and Vixen and have been on a crime spree. They have unexplained superstrength and also wield handguns with deadly accuracy.

Miss America captures Vixen when the couple rob a post office. The villainess refuses to offer information about the Fox. Our heroine gets the cops to let Vixen escape so she can follow her to the hideout she shares with the Fox. In the final battle, Fox sprays bullets at Miss America, who of course is not harmed but she captures Fox and shows him his gunfire killed Vixen. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #68 (Jan 1946)

Title: Clue of the Chinese Ticket

Villains: The Lee Gang

Synopsis: Madelyne Joyce becomes Miss America to get involved in a Chinatown crime spree. As she clashes with the criminals a few times she gradually learns what is behind it all. Chinese gangsters robbed a bank of $250,00 in negotiable bonds – equal to $4,072,705 here in 2025.

The stolen bonds were hastily stashed in unwashed laundry sacks from a Chinese laundry and the crooks have since been preying on businesses of honest Chinese people to find the sacks containing the bonds. Miss America shuts down the gang. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #69 (Feb 1946)

Title: Jewelry Shop Robberies

Villains: The Butler, the Maid and the Chauffer

Synopsis: Miss America sets out to end the reign of terror of a trio of Butler, Maid and Chauffer themed supervillains. The ruthless gang has been robbing jewelry shops, using poisonous gas to kill all of the customers and shop staff.

The trio then steal all the jewels and cash in the store. Miss America must sleuth her way through the threesome’s attempts to incriminate the elderly sisters who employ them and capture the gang. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #70 (Mar 1946)

Title: The Sing Song Slayings

Villains: The Broadway Gang

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce and “Uncle” James Bennett attend a Broadway musical. Afterward, they are on hand when the Broadway Gang strikes again, killing a wealthy female attendee and making off with her jewelry.

Madeline becomes Miss America and spends the next few days trying to track down the gang. At last she realizes that some of the gang members impersonate blind street musicians as a distraction while the rest get ready to strike. Our heroine defeats and turns over the crooks to the police. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #71 (Apr 1946)

Title: Thrust of Death

Villains: The Fencing Master and his men

Synopsis: A bitter Nazi agent and his men commit revenge slayings of American military and governmental figures in Washington D.C. The underlings serve as accomplices while their leader, the costumed Fencing Master, assassinates his targets with his sword which has been immersed in his specially concocted poison, one drop of which kills the victims he pricks. 

In Washington again to keep learning how to run Uncle Jim’s business empire when he retires, Madeline Joyce becomes Miss America to end the long stream of slayings committed by the Fencing Master.

No matter how many times he stabs our heroine in battle with his poisoned rapier her incredible strength keeps her alive but increasingly woozy. She defeats the villain before it’s too late and easily mops up his men.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #72 (May 1946)

Title: Cyclops

Villain: Herr Cyclops

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce is still in Washington DC. Nazi fugitives led by a one-eyed supervillain called Herr Cyclops and his men plot to kill four British women who are to be honored at the White House for their wartime heroics.

Herr Cyclops, who should be called the Undertaker given his schtick, uses knockout funeral wreaths to accommodate abductions of the four ladies one by one. He uses a hearse to transport their unconscious forms. His HQ is in a crematorium where he uses incinerator death traps against Miss America when she bursts in to save the Brits.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #73 (June 1946)

Title: The Ghoul of the 13th Floor

Villain: The Ghoul

Synopsis: Alternating between her Madeline Joyce and Miss America identities, our heroine spends a few nights investigating a hotel with a supposedly haunted 13th floor. A Ghoul kills any guests who sleep in the rooms on that floor and steals one of their valuables.

Ultimately, Miss America solves the case. The Ghoul is just a rival hotel owner in a costume and gimmicks. He kept the stolen valuables and hoped the murders would prompt the hotel to shut down.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #74 (July 1946)

Title: Red is for Gore

Villains: Carnation Joe and his gang

Synopsis: A group of gangsters are led by a hood called Carnation Joe because he and all his men wear red carnations in their lapels. The gang has been committing a rash of gas station robberies for quite a while.

At last, Miss America gets a lead on the gang but is too late to stop their next heist. She clashes with them two more times throughout the city and during that final time she beats them all and turns them over to the cops. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #75 (Aug 1946)

Title: Message from the Dead

Villains: Casey, Marie and an unnamed accomplice

Synopsis: A young woman named Pat Borden receives word that her uncle in Australia has passed away and left her his fortune. Three crooks and con artists start manipulating Pat for their own benefit.

Miss America saves Pat Borden from committing suicide over her plight. She then defeats the three villains and turns them over to the authorities. As Madeline Joyce she befriends Pat Borden.

ALL WINNERS COMICS Vol 1 #19 (Sep 1946)

Title: The Crime of the Ages

Villain: Isbisa

Synopsis: Seven of Marvel/ Timely Comics’ heroes form a team called the All Winners Squad yet don’t seem the least bit embarrassed by such a lame team name. The seven are Miss America, her future husband the Whizzer, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, the original Human (android) Torch, Bucky and Toro.   

The Squad’s first adventure pits them against the costumed supervillain Isbisa, who commits multiple crimes based on the historical ages of the world. Isbisa has supervillain underlings called the Calcium Master, Shut-Eye, and Black Patch. All of them are defeated and Isbisa fails to obtain nuclear weapons.

ALL SELECT COMICS Vol 1 #11 (Sep 1946)

Title: Unlucky Seven

Villain: Roger Lawton

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce is, as usual, reading every single newspaper of recent weeks in search of a potential case. She finds one and becomes Miss America to fly into action.

Our heroine gets to the bottom of a series of newlywed bride murders. They were all committed by former actor Roger Lawton who would assume different identities, marry wealthy women and then kill them for their money. He dies fleeing from Miss America, who saves his intended 7th victim – her own cousin Mona. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #76 (Sep 1946)

Title: Chapter 1

Villains: Nazi war criminals Peter Carr, James Ilse, his wife and Mrs. Varnheim

Synopsis: The United States government asks Miss America to look into a network of escaped Nazi war criminals who are hiding down in Argentina. A federal agent sent to investigate the network has been killed.   

Miss America is happy to oblige and is soon in Buenos Aires. She smokes out a quartet of fugitive Nazis but they are about to snare her in a trap for the cliffhanger ending. This is only the first continued storyline for Miss America since her very first appearance in 1943.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #77 (Oct 1946)

Title: An Unwelcome Visitor

Villains: The above-mentioned Nazi war criminals

Synopsis: Miss America survives the trap and as Madeline Joyce she finds herself being romantically pursued by the Nazi Peter Carr. She plays along hoping to reel in more fugitives.

Feigning a headache when Carr escorts her back to her hotel room, she again becomes Miss America and flies off into the night. She clashes with a small army of Nazis serving the Big Four and beats them. Carr, the Ilses and Mrs. Varnheim resolve to kill Miss America once and for all. 

NOTE: I don’t know why they are idiotically drawing Miss America wearing Madeline Joyce’s eyeglasses now. They did it last issue, too.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #78 (Nov 1946)

Title: The Lights Go Out

Villains: Rex Herr plus the above Nazi fugitives

Synopsis: A new villain calling himself Rex Herr (subtle) enters the picture. As the action continues, Miss America and we readers learn that Rex’s Nazi fugitive network is clashing with Peter Carr and company’s Nazi fugitive network for control of an enigmatic secret weapon to launch a 4th Reich.

It also turns out that intelligence agent Ted Banning, believed dead since Chapter 1, is still alive but is a prisoner of Rex Herr and his faction. Amid a firefight that seems to leave Miss America dead, Rex and his agents obtain jewelry from Mrs. Varnheim’s sister, another of his agents, and they flee.

NOTE: This Miss America story seems more and more like an old Republic Serial.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #79 (Dec 1946)

Title: Vanishing Spies

Villains: Rex Herr and the competing Nazi fugitive networks

Synopsis: Naturally, Miss America isn’t dead and she flies after the fleeing teams of Nazis. Rex Herr’s group escapes with the bracelet obtained last issue.

Under threats of violence, Peter Carr explains to Miss America that one of the jewels on the bracelet contains microfilm. The microfilm depicts plans for a sun-powered secret weapon many times more powerful than the atomic bomb. With the threat of a 4th Reich hanging over the world, Miss America flies to the home of Elise Winters to search the rooms for any clues.

For yet another cliffhanger, two mysterious men show up at the room currently being searched by our heroine.

ALL WINNERS COMICS Vol 1 #21 (Dec 1946)

NOTE: All Winners Comics changed formats in issue #20 so there was no All Winners Squad story in that issue. For this final issue of All Winners Comics the Squad was back for their last adventure.

Title: Menace from the Future World (no matter what the cover says about some demented dwarf)

Villains: Future Man and Madame Death

Synopsis: Future Man, a supervillain from Earth of One Million A.D., has traveled to 1946 in his time machine to try taking over the world. Earth of his time period is dying and he wants to evacuate the few survivors to 1946 so they can rule the planet with him. 

Future Man teams up with international crime kingpin Madame Fatal, who will be his queen as long as she uses her global minions to help his conquest. Using his far future technology and the villainess’s criminal army, the pair nearly succeed but are defeated by the All Winners Squad.

BLONDE PHANTOM COMICS Vol 1 #12 (Dec 1946)

Title: Scourge of the Spiderman

Villain: Spiderman

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce is driving along when she encounters a police roadblock turning everyone away because the area up ahead is overrun by gigantic spiders. Madeline pretends to drive away as instructed but soon becomes Miss America.

She battles the enormous spiders and their creator, a mad scientist who calls himself Spiderman. He experimented on spiders to make them grow to incredible size and to spin webbing stronger than steel.

Miss America triumphs, of course. Plus, Spiderman gets devoured by his own creation and then potent poison gas in huge quantities is used to kill all of the giant spiders.

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #80 (Jan 1947)

Title: Flaming Death

Villains: Rex Herr and the others

Synopsis: The two men who showed up at the door at the end of issue #79 are revealed to be fascist spies from a dictatorship that wants to buy the Solar Weapon plans for their own use. A man named Velasquesa is the ring leader.

Miss America pretends to know where the plans are and suckers Velasquesa and his people along. At the villain’s lair, when our heroine must admit she doesn’t know where the plans are now, a massive battle breaks out. The villains try to burn her alive (along with the building) and flee, but she survives and flies off to follow them.   

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #81 (Mar 1947)

Title: The Password is Murder

Villains: Velasquesa and the rest

Synopsis: This long story is getting as repetitious as the big-screen serials from Republic and Columbia got. Miss America learns the location of Velasquesa and his men. Meanwhile, Rex Herr is furious to see that the microfilmed plans are fake and that the microfilm even includes a taunt that the plans were already sold to the highest bidder. 

Rex and his goons raid the home of Velasquesa and his goons, with the newly arrived Miss America caught in the middle. When Rex and Velasquesa learn they were both played for chumps, we see that Mrs. Varnheim’s sister has the real plans for the Solar Weapon and is on her way to sell the plans to an unnamed buyer. Miss A. is knocked out with industrial amounts of chloroform.

BLONDE PHANTOM COMICS Vol 1 #13 (Mar 1947)

Title: Burning Witness

Villain: Count Laxto

Synopsis: In a separate solo story for Miss America over at Blonde Phantom Comics, our heroine is trying to solve the murder of a high society woman. Constance Lane, another high society woman, insists she killed the victim, but our heroine thinks she is lying to protect the real murderer.

Miss America investigates and learns that the real killer is Count Laxto, with whom Constance is in love. The count killed the dead woman because she was threatening to expose his shady past. Our heroine survives the count and his chauffer’s attempt to kill her via an exploding gas pipe and brings in the bad guys.  

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #82 (May 1947)

Title: Ticket to Hades

Villains: Rex and the others

Synopsis: The Varnheim sister travels to nearby Brazil to auction off the plans to the Solar Weapon, contradicting what we were told – that she already had a buyer. Miss America regains consciousness to see that Ted Banning is alive but they are both in Rex Herr’s high-tech prison.

In Brazil, we learn that “Peter Carr” is really a Belgian Freedom Fighter from the war named Louis Reimens. He killed the real Peter Carr and then impersonated him to infiltrate the South American Nazi fugitives hoping to find and kill General Eric Kesselwolfe, a war criminal who killed his parents.   

Back in Argentina, Rex and his men take the still-bound Miss America and Banning to a mine. They load them and enormous amounts of explosives on a mine car then push it into the mine, where the tracks will eventually hit a wall and blow up our heroine and Banning.

BLONDE PHANTOM COMICS Vol 1 #14 (June 1947)

Title: Death Drops the Curtain

Villain: Paul Connors

Synopsis: Madeline Joyce attends a performance of the Broadway mystery play The Missing Corpse, when the lead actress seemingly shoots the male lead to death with a real gun, not a prop. She becomes Miss America and investigates.

It turns out that the actress and male lead were in love in real life and the actual murderer is jilted playwright Paul Connors, who framed the actress for dumping him. Miss America survives Paul’s attempt to kill her in a gas main explosion (yes, again) and arrests him.  

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #83 (Jul 1947)

Title: Danger Trail

Villains: Rex and the others

Synopsis: Miss America saves herself and Ted Banning from the explosion, but it brings down the mine on top of them. Our heroine’s super-strength lets her use steel girders to prop up the ceiling while she rests from the explosion.

Meanwhile, Nazi fugitive Elsie Winters escapes the Buenos Aires hospital where she’s been since getting shot several issues back. She soon learns that the Varnheim sister has betrayed them all and is in nearby Brazil to sell the Solar Weapon plans. She kills Velasquesa when he tries to set up a “buy” with the Varnheim sister.

Miss America, rested enough, digs herself and Banning out of the collapsed mine and flies him to safety. She then flies off for Velasquesa’s lair, unaware he is already dead. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #84 (Oct 1947)

Title: Beginning of the End

Villains: The Nazi fugitives

Synopsis: Miss America arrives at the Velasquesa Mansion, where she totals his remaining agents and finds his dead body. She does quick investigative work to learn that a deal for the Solar Weapon plans is going down in Brazil at the Casa de Lutiro hotel.

Our heroine flies there from Buenos Aires under her own power and arrives as Elsie confronts the Varnheim sister about the double-cross. Miss America intervenes, but then Rex and his men burst into Room 405 where it’s all taking place.

Shooting and fights break out in multiple rooms as Elsie gets shot to death by Rex’s men, Rex and his goons escape to go find the Solar Weapon plans, and Miss America finds “Peter Carr” tied up in the hotel by the Varnheim sister’s men. She frees him and learns he is really the Belgian Louis Reimens. 

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #85 (Feb 1948)

Title: Final Reckoning

Villains: General Eric Keselwolfe and Nazi fugitives

Synopsis: Miss America and Louis sort through all the double and triple crosses to at last find the real formula, which has fallen into the hands of Louis’ target – General Eric Keselwolfe and his men. Eric goes by Mr. M. as the head of the South American Nazis. 

Amid Miss America clashing with Eric’s men at his sprawling estate, Rex and the other surviving Big Four members show up, too. Our heroine defeats all the soldiers plus Mr. M. and the others. Louis helps her stop Eric from escaping and she turns the estate and the captured war criminals over to U.S. espionage agents.

Epilogue: Back in Washington a few days later, Miss America recaps the adventure for U.S. intelligence, who claim they will keep the Solar Weapon plans to make sure nobody ever uses them. Uh. Yeah.

SUN GIRL Vol 1 #1 (August 1948)

Title: Death Makes a Record

Villain: Mary Collins 

Synopsis: In this final solo Miss America tale of the Golden Age, our heroine looks into the seeming suicide of popular singer Lois Anders. She dives into the tangled web of recording contracts and other complications to try learning what really happened.

In the end our heroine corrals the person who killed Lois and made it look like suicide – her cousin Mary Collins, who was jealous of Lois’s fame and wealth.

*** And so, with a whimper and not a roar the Golden Age stories of Miss America came to a close. Like so many of Marvel/ Timely’s other 1940s characters she was given more backstory during the 1960s and 1970s to tie the Timely Comics period in with the Marvel Comics era. 

FOR MY LOOK AT THE BLONDE PHANTOM’S 1946-1949 STORIES CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT SUN GIRL (1948-1950) CLICK HERE.