VENUS: MARVEL/ TIMELY’s 1948-1952 SUPERHEROINE

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the Marvel Comics heroine Venus, from back when they were known as Timely Comics.

VENUS

Created By: Stan Lee and Lin Streeter

Secret Identity: Vikki Starr

First Appearance: Venus #1 (August 1948) Her final Golden Age appearance came in 1952.

Origin: The Golden Age Venus was the alien ruler of the planet Venus. For centuries she ruled over a planetary paradise protected from human eyes by the perpetual cloud cover of that planet. Wearying of being revered, adored and obeyed she decided to start dividing her time between her home world and Earth, where she hoped to try leading a simpler but more challenging life.

She teleported to the Earth, where her beauty made her such a sensation that she was hired as a model and editor for Whitney Hammond’s fashion publication called Beauty Magazine. Venus had a series of adventures ranging from mild fantasy to world-saving as she learned Earth ways and battled sci-fi and horror menaces.

Powers: Venus could teleport at will between Earth and her home planet. She could levitate, walk through solid objects and could transport herself into photographs or paintings to observe things without her presence being suspected. She could psionically understand any language. This heroine was immune to all diseases and could heal from almost any injury. She was stronger than any Earth woman and could run at 60 miles per hour.

Comment: Venus ruled her home planet from her castle on Mount Lustre. Marvel at times implied that Venus was just a super-powered Venusian and other times implied she really was Venus/ Aphrodite from mythology. Ultimately the latter was the explanation Marvel stayed with.

VENUS Vol 1 #1 (Aug 1948)

Story 1: Venus Comes to Earth   Synopsis: Venus, the ruler of our solar system’s 2nd planet from the sun, wearies of being worshiped, adored and obeyed and teleports herself to Earth. Under the name Vikki Starr she becomes an editor for the fashion publication Beauty Magazine, run by Mr. Whitney Hammond.

Story 2: The Ten Goddesses   Synopsis: Lovely Lady Magazine, a rival publication of Beauty Magazine, outdoes Venus’ employers with an issue featuring the 10 most beautiful women in the world modeling new outfits. Our heroine teleports back to Venus and has her 10 most beautiful subjects come to Earth with her. Beauty Magazine beats Lovely Lady with their next issue.

NOTE: Actual adventure stories are coming, trust me.

VENUS Vol 1 #2 (Oct 1948)   

Story 1: Way Out West   Synopsis: Office rival Della Mason tries to sabotage Venus’ career by sending her to Cactus City out west instead of to Atlantic City. Venus is such a hit in Cactus City that a newspaper runs a front-page article about it (slow news day, apparently). The publicity saves Venus’ job.

Story 2:  Venus Stops the Presses   Synopsis: Whitney Hammond takes Venus to the site where Beauty Magazine is actually printed. Her beauty inspires the men to double their productivity. With the world once again safe for hot women, this story ends.

Story 3: Between Two Worlds   Synopsis: Della Mason hires a pair of private detectives to follow Venus and to investigate her mysteries. Our heroine turns the tables, defeats the detectives and warns Della to stop scheming against her.

VENUS Vol 1 #3 (Dec 1948)

Story 1: The Handsomest Man in the World   Synopsis: Whitney Hammond assigns Venus to get an exclusive interview with movie star Rodney Radiant, whose physical appearance reminds her of Narcissus, her fellow figure from Greco-Roman myths.

Venus not only gets the interview, but she reignites Rodney’s romance with the hometown woman he dumped when he became famous. Rodney even lets Beauty Magazine announce his engagement to his hometown honey by story’s end.

Story 2: The Day the Sun Stood Still   Synopsis: We get closer to adventure tales in this story about Apollo tracking Venus to Earth, where he expresses outrage that she is neglecting her rule of the planet named after her. 

When our main character refuses to permanently return to her throne, Apollo tries to force her hand by having the sun stop moving across the sky. This causes the expected disasters all around the Earth, so Venus pretends to return to her Mt. Lustre castle only to summon Apollo there and defeat him so that he never challenges her again.

VENUS Vol 1 #4 (Apr 1949)

Story 1: Whom the Gods Would Destroy   Synopsis: Venus’ alter ego Vikki Star takes a vacation from Beauty Magazine to rule over the planet Venus for a few weeks. When she returns, she takes Samson (no idea what he is doing on that planet) along to make her boss Whitney Hammond jealous.

This results in Samson and Whitney clashing but when Della lures Samson away to get a haircut, he loses his massive strength, of course, and the odds are now even between him and Whitney.

Story 2: Oh, Doctor!   Synopsis: Vikki Starr reveals her true identity to Whitney Hammond while they’re alone in his office. He refuses to acknowledge her as the actual goddess of love and asks her to see a psychiatrist. Even that doctor refuses to believe any proof of Venus’ powers for a supposedly funny ending. 

VENUS Vol 1 #5 (Jun 1949)

Story 1: Her Perilous Quest   Synopsis: When Jupiter summons Venus to return to Mt. Olympus (don’t bother trying to reconcile the continuity in this series) she refuses because she is in love with Vikki Starr’s boss Whitney Hammond.

Jupiter sends Apollo and Daphne to Earth to bring Venus back but through a series of maneuvers and schemes our title character defeats the pair and outsmarts Jupiter. 

NOTE: Story 2 was a non-Venus tale.

VENUS Vol 1 #6 (Aug 1949)

Title: Wrath of a Goddess

Villain: Loki

NOTE: Yes, this issue at last goes all-out action and adventure for our title heroine. It also features a 1949 appearance by Loki from Norse myths for some cross-pantheon activities.

Synopsis: When Beauty Magazine enters a float in the Mardi Gras Parade, Whitney Hammond, Della Mason and Venus’ alter ego Vikki Starr all travel to New Orleans for several days to oversee everything. At one point a massive dark cloud fills the sky over New Orleans and our heroine notices that Loki and a band of Frost Giants are in the city and the Earth is in danger.

Over the next few days, Venus juggles maintaining her Vikki Starr secret identity (I guess she mind-wiped Whitney and her psychiatrist) and fighting Loki and his Frost Giants as Venus. Eventually, she confronts Loki in Niflheim in the Norse Realms.

He defeats her and imprisons her there, then returns to Earth to unleash all the havoc he and his Frost Giants can. Venus ultimately manages to escape back to Earth and lures Loki – disguised as a powerful business man – away with a promise to marry him.

Once off the Earth, Jupiter steps in, unwilling to sacrifice his pantheon’s goddess of love to the evil Loki. He saves Venus and, presumably with Odin’s agreement, bars Loki from the Earth. Vikki Starr returns to New Orleans and reconciles with Whitney about her irresponsible comings and goings during Mardi Gras. 

VENUS Vol 1 #7 (Nov 1949)

Title: The Romance That Could Not Be

Villains: Joya and Loki

Synopsis: On Mt. Olympus, Jupiter’s daughter Joya nags her father about the way Venus gets to stay on Earth but she is forbidden from going there. She pushes the matter to the point where she uses Vikki Starr’s declarations of love for the mortal Whitney Hammond as proof that Venus will abandon Mt. Olympus for the Earth.

Jupiter at last gives in to Joya’s nagging and summons all the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses to an isolated courtroom for the trial of Venus. Hermes (though it should be Mercury if we’re using Roman names like Jupiter and Venus) is sent to Earth, where he abducts both Venus and Whitney Hammond to the godly courtroom.

As the trial goes on and on, both Venus and Whitney defend their love for each other. Meanwhile, from Niflheim, Loki has noticed that all of the Greco-Roman deities are distracted by the trial, so he leads an army of Frost Giants, trolls and Storm Giants in an invasion of Mt. Olympus. 

With no gods or goddesses at their side, the armies of Mt. Olympus fall to Loki and his army, who occupy the realm before the Greco-Roman gods notice and can mount an effective defense. Loki still has the hots for Venus, however, so Joya makes herself look exactly like Venus and offers to marry Loki if he and his army leave Mt. Olympus. 

The Greco-Roman deities get Mt. Olympus back from Loki and Joya keeps her word to marry him back in Niflheim. Jupiter allows Venus to stay on Earth but makes her wipe Whitney Hammond’s mind of everything that just transpired.

VENUS Vol 1 #8 (Feb 1950)

Title: The Love Trap

Villain: George Huston

Synopsis: As Vikki Starr, our heroine convinces Whitney Hammond to once again trust her to root out a story for Beauty Magazine even though that’s usually what reporters are paid to do. (Hey, it’s only a comic book!)

As Venus, she tries to reunite Rona Sanders, a lovesick woman, with her lost love George Huston. Unfortunately, our title character’s investigation shows that George is a con artist who has wrangled a fortune out of many, many women before Rona and then abandoned them.

Venus uses her powers to defeat all of Huston’s previous con games and restore the ripped-off money. Rona, meanwhile, has attempted suicide and lost the will to live without the scoundrel George, who doesn’t love Rona and won’t marry her.   

Our heroine saves Rona’s life and grants her a tiny fraction of her powers over love to make George Huston fall for her. George and Rona marry and “Vikki Starr” gets her magazine story. Such as it is.

VENUS Vol 1 #9 (May 1950)

Title: The Man She Dared Not Love (No matter what the cover says.)

Villains: Zoroba and Loki

Synopsis: Apollo (in purple on the cover) gets the hots for Venus, so he descends to the Netherworld to convince Zoroba (in red), one of Pluto’s subordinate demons, to impersonate him back on Mt. Olympus so Jupiter doesn’t notice he’s gone. Meanwhile, Apollo goes to Earth and begins making progress in seducing Venus.

On Mt. Olympus, Zoroba contacts Loki and hatches a plot for the two of them to take over Jupiter’s kingdom. Still disguised as Apollo, Zoroba pressures Jupiter to believe that his brother Pluto is planning an invasion and that Mt. Olympus will need someone underhanded like Loki to defeat Pluto and his forces.

Venus travels to Mt. Olympus to beg Jupiter to order Apollo to leave her alone and she catches on to the fake Apollo and his plan to help Loki infiltrate and take over the home of the Greco-Roman gods. Our heroine uses her powers to defeat Zoroba, who winds up back in Hades.

VENUS Vol 1 #10 (Jul 1950)

Story 1: The Son of Satan   Synopsis: So, now the Christian pantheon gets into the act as we meet the Son of Satan by a demonic wife. The Son convinces his father to let him go to the Earth, take Venus as his woman and force her to obey him so they can unleash all the despairing, destructive power of Love.

As “Mr. Satin“, the Son confronts Vikki Starr at Beauty Magazine. To protect her secret identity, she holds a parlay with the Son up in the clouds as Venus. She refuses to have anything to do with the Son of Satan, so he tries to make her submit by unleashing typhoons, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes on Earth.   

After saving lives from the Son’s attacks all around the world, Venus at last outmaneuvers the Hellspawn by having one of her lovesick simps, Apollo, trap the Son of Satan inside the sun forever. Venus turns back into Vikki Starr, who spends a romantic night with Whitney Hammond.

Story 2: Trapped on the Moon   Synopsis: Whitney Hammond, with Vikki Starr’s help, has bought out rival publication Lovely Lady Magazine. Now Beauty Magazine has exclusive rights to have editor Vikki Starr ride along with wealthy inventor Randy Dover as he flies his new rocket ship to the moon. (It’s only a comic book.) 

On the moon, our heroine must become Venus and use her powers to save her and Randy from moon dragons called Luna-Things and from moonquakes. Randy’s spaceship has proven too fragile and is so damaged it cannot return to Earth.

Venus calls on Mercury to return her, Dover and the spacecraft to Earth, where it will look like the damage was caused by the vessel failing to reach the moon and crashing. Because Randy saw Vikki become Venus and use her powers, she adjusts his memories to think the rocket ship never reached the moon and he gives up on the project.

VENUS Vol 1 #11 (Nov 1950)

Story 1: The End of the World   Synopsis: Vikki Starr and Whitney Hammond are among the worldwide witnesses to the way the Earth is gradually moving closer to the sun. Heat is increasing and scientists are baffled about what to do.

Chaos reigns as humanity panics, riots and/or loses themselves in partying and debauchery. Venus goes to Mt. Olympus to ask Jupiter what is going on. He says the gods are helpless to save the Earth because their own science, which has come to replace the power of the gods in human minds, is what has caused the Earth to head for the sun.

Jupiter tells Venus that hate-filled scientist Michael Templar (at right) created a device that is sending Earth to its doom. Venus confronts Templar but he refuses to save humanity or himself. Our heroine is convinced that the power of love can change Michael’s mind but the woman he loves, Elsa, doesn’t love him back and tells Venus she’s content to just party until the Earth burns up.

SHALLOWNESS ALERT: Templar’s lab assistant Maria loves him, but she is plain, so he feels nothing for her. Venus uses her powers to make Maria beautiful. Now knowing love, Michael Templar reverses his machine, saving the world by sending Earth back to its proper orbit.

Story 2: Beyond the Third Dimension   Synopsis: Vikki Starr interviews eccentric scientist Professor Buffanoff (below left) for Beauty Magazine. (I guess some people really DO buy it just to read the articles!) He claims his new device can make contact with the 3rd Dimension.

As Venus, our main character returns to Buffanoff’s lab after dark. He catches her and angrily uses his invention to trap Venus in the 3rd Dimension, which is filled with Lovecraftian monsters she must battle to survive.

Venus learns that Buffaloff’s work has made his own mind a portal from the other dimension and he is about to unleash all those creatures on the world. Our heroine reroutes the portal to Mt. Olympus but even the power of the gods is not enough to defeat the hundreds of monsters.

Horrified at what he’s done, the professor kills himself. Venus again reroutes the portal, this time from Mt. Olympus to Buffaloff’s dying mind. The portal closes with his death. Venus destroys his device and warns his colleagues that such research is too dangerous.

VENUS Vol 1 #12 (Feb 1951)

Story 1: Trapped in the Land of Terror   Synopsis: We’re firmly into straight superheroing now, so my recaps will be simpler and briefer. At Beauty Magazine, Whitney confides in Vikki Starr that he accepts her frequent disappearances because she always gets pictures of Spider-Man great articles for the magazine. 

Sultan Khorok has his men abduct our heroine and bring her to his dictatorship of Cassarobia to join his harem of wives. Venus plays along, intent on ending Khorok’s tyranny when she sees how he treats his subjects. He even uses his former wives as beasts of burden to pull his carriage.

Venus leads an uprising during one of the inhumane Gladiatorial Games that the Sultan holds periodically. Khorok is deposed and his former primary wife Shalomar plus her true love Ali Bahr are elected as Cassarobia’s new heads of state.

Story 2: The Lost World   Synopsis: Vikki Starr, Whitney and Della Mason are on a business cruise to Hawaii. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean the ship is attacked by subaquatic fishmen mutated into being by atomic bomb tests on Pacific Islands.  Venus defeats the fishmen and saves Whitney from dying from radiation sickness.   

VENUS Vol 1 #13 (Apr 1951)

Story 1: The King of the Living Dead   Synopsis: Venus takes action when a Gypsy Mystic named Roberto uses his powers to enthrall living women like they are zombies and sends them out to commit robberies and otherwise do his bidding. Our heroine defeats him and he goes to prison. 

Story 2: The Last Day on Earth   Synopsis: John Dark, a former U.S. Army officer thrown out for embezzling funds for his own projects, has manufactured his own army of robotic tanks. Venus manages to defeat that army with help from Mars and the Norse god Thor for no apparent reason. Why not use Hercules? 

Story 3: The Creeping Death   Synopsis: A strange shell that resembles an oyster shell is found at the bottom of an upstate New York lake. A strange, gelatinous alien mass emerges and begins absorbing/ feeding upon everything around it, growing larger all the while.

Even the army is useless against the Creeping Death because it eats all the shells and missiles it is hit with. It now covers hundreds of square miles.

Venus has Jupiter send the Norse god Thor to help her once again and the two annihilate every molecule of the alien life form. I’d prefer to think it was Ulysses Bloodstone helping Venus in this story.

VENUS Vol 1 #14 (Jun 1951)

Story 1: Fountain of Death   Synopsis: Venus travels to Mars with insane German rocket scientist Franz Heinrich in his spaceship. No one believes the loony scientist, so his trip is going unnoticed, especially because Heinrich is convinced he will find the Fountain of Youth on Mars.

After several days, Franz and Venus arrive on Mars and spend more days searching for the fountain. At last, they find it, but Azrael the Angel of Death has beaten them to it in order to keep the waters out of human hands so that death continues to come to humanity.

Venus and Franz escape Azrael (at right) and fly back to Earth, where she causes Heinrich to fall back in love with his neglected wife Anna. This way he will give up his dangerous obsessions and trash his spaceship.

Story 2: Hangman’s Horror   Synopsis: Venus becomes involved when a supervillain called the Hangman (Raoul Hamud) uses his mystical control of ropes to remotely hang whoever he pleases while he is nowhere in sight. The police think they are suicides. Venus proves otherwise and the Hangman hangs himself.

Story 3: Venus Meets the Lady-Killer   Synopsis: Adonis has amnesia and has been wandering around New York City causing all manner of romantic chaos by stealing the hearts of all the women who are either involved with movers and shakers or who are movers and shakers themselves. Venus gets to the bottom of things and restores Adonis’ memory by teleporting with him back to Mt. Olympus. 

VENUS Vol 1 #15 (Aug 1951)   

Story 1: The Empty Graves   Synopsis: When a rash of grave robberies plagues the area, Venus investigates and learns that a squat, supernatural, subterranean race called the Underneath Men are burrowing up under the graves, stealing the corpses and implanting their brains in the bodies as part of their plan to conquer the surface world.  Venus rather ruthlessly kills off all of the Underneath Men by exposing them to sunlight. 

Story 2: The Day That Venus Vanished   Synopsis: Photographer Jerome Lenz gets Vikki Starr to pose for a photographic portrait for him. His occult camera traps our heroine interdimensionally. She fights back but it takes the arrival of Whitney Hammond and Della Mason – who is now Vikki’s friend – to help restore her to normal via the same camera. Jerome disappears forever.   

Story 3: The Living Dolls   Synopsis: Venus investigates when a traveling entertainer called Professor Zorsky performs with his troupe of Living Dolls who resemble missing children and seem very lifelike. The dolls do elaborate dances for Zorsky’s audiences and in a VERY macabre touch, the Living Dolls are made out of metal and plastic but are animated by human blood inside them. Venus’ interference causes Zorsky’s death and when he passes away the dolls cease all motion.

VENUS Vol 1 #16 (Oct 1951)

Story 1: Where Gargoyles Dwell   Synopsis: When Vikki Starr discovers a secret 13th Floor in the Corpo Construction Corporation building she investigates as Venus. That “missing” floor is filled with stone gargoyles which come to life and attack her, led by their King Gara.

Venus is caught in a war between Gara and his gargoyle army and Sylvia Corpo (at right), Queen and creator of the gargoyles. After a massive battle, Sylvia, Gara and all the gargoyles fall to their deaths down the elevator shaft.

Story 2: The Ashes of Death   Synopsis: In the city of Corona Way, a homicidally insane crematorium owner called Mr. Natas not only cremates the dead but also incinerates the bodies of the family members who come to pick up the ashes. Venus gets involved, using Whitney Hammond and Della Mason as her Scooby Gang. They expose Natas, who throws himself into his own incinerator to die.

Story 3: The House of Terror   Synopsis: Venus investigates when Beauty Magazine employee Betty Williams thinks her stepfather is driving her mother insane by convincing her their house is haunted. Venus finds and exposes all the special effects equipment that the stepfather was using to gaslight his wife. The villain flees and falls down the stairs, breaking his neck.

VENUS Vol 1 #17 (Dec 1951)

Story 1: The Tower of Death   Synopsis: England’s Lord Etherington convinces our heroine to accompany him back to his castle in Great Britain because he thinks it is haunted by his late daughter Cathy, who drowned in the nearby river years earlier. It turns out Cathy is still alive but was imprisoned by her insane father after he killed her mother. The skeletons of some laborers that Etherington killed after they built Cathy’s prison cell return and scare the villain to death. 

Story 2: The Cartoonist’s Calamity   Synopsis: Jimmy Rogers, the cartoonist for Beauty Magazine, is being plagued in his home by horrific figures that came to life from horror illustrations he has been doing. Venus helps him defeat the monstrosities and Rogers vows never to draw for horror magazines again. 

Story 3: The Stone Man   Synopsis: Whitney Hammond asks Vikki Starr to marry him but withdraws the offer when she is obviously reluctant. Distracting from this situation is a worldwide invasion of large stone mer-beings that emerge from the oceans and begin rampaging through cities. Venus takes action and the Stone Titans, as they call themselves, retreat back into the depths but threaten to return some day.   

VENUS Vol 1 #18 (Feb 1952)

Story 1: The Sealed Specters   Synopsis: Vikki Starr and Whitney Hammond go to Coney Island and wind up riding one of the boats into the Tunnel of Love. They are abducted by the caretaker Old Joe and assorted subterranean goblins. The villains unseal long-dead specters to try occupying the bodies of Venus and Whitney, then many more. Our heroine foils their plan.

Story 2: The Mad Mountain   Synopsis: Vikki Starr boards a plane which crashes into the side of a mountain. Her powers as Venus save her and the other passengers. They find a lost city where they are attacked by plant creatures. Our heroine prevails.

Story 3: Tidal Wave of Terror   Synopsis: Neptune’s daughter Neptunia is furious at human beings for the atomic bomb tests on Pacific Ocean islands. She sends a series of massive, apocalyptically destructive tidal waves at Atlantic coast cities (?). Venus clashes with her and Neptunia dies during the battle, ending the deadly attacks.

VENUS Vol 1 #19 (Apr 1952)

Story 1: The Kiss of Death   Synopsis: Venus and Whitney Hammond meet a medium who really is capable of contacting the dead and summoning them for their clients to speak to.

This lands them in the middle of a macabre tale of dead World War Two soldiers and the now dead woman they all loved. 

Story 2: Demon from the Deep   Synopsis: Venus and Whitney are on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. The ship is being preyed on by a former passenger who murdered his brothers on board for an inheritance, then dove overboard and transformed into a monstrous entity. Venus puts an end to the undead creature’s reign of terror.

Story 3: The Box of Doom   Synopsis: Vikki Starr is working late at Beauty Magazine one night when a delivery man brings her a mysterious box. The box has supernatural qualities and when the delivery man opens it over Venus’ objections it turns him into a vampire. The vampire fights with Venus, who kills it.

*** And thus ended the Venus series. The character would not appear in Marvel stories again until the 1970s when she guest starred in Sub-Mariner. 

FOR MY LOOK AT MARVEL’S 1940s SUPERHEROINE MISS AMERICA CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT MARVEL’S BLONDE PHANTOM STORIES CLICK HERE.