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Joan Dale is a reporter who falls asleep
while visiting the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe Island. Joan has a dream in
which the statue comes alive and grants her superpowers to use for the
benefit of America. Waking up, Joan discovers that she does indeed have
powers. She can alter, shrink, or create matter out of thin air, fire bolts
of energy from her hands, and in one adventure displays the power to shrink
to a tiny size a la Doll Man. Joan's costume initially consists of a red
short sleeved blouse, a red and white striped short skirt, blue cape and
blue boots. Near the end of her seven issue run in Military Comics (#1-7
were her only golden age appearances), the red and white stripes move from
the skirt to her blouse, and her skirt is now blue with a fringe of yellow
stars along the bottom. Debuting six months before Wonder Woman, Miss
America's costume near the end of her run looked awfully similar to a
certain newly debuted Amazon's costume.
In All Star Squadron, Miss America joins the
original Freedom Fighters team that tries to prevent Pearl Harbor.
Pre-crisis, Miss America is killed when a Japanese kamikaze pilot slams into
the Red Torpedo's vessel, but post-crisis she is revealed to have survived.
Found comatose and floating in the pacific Ocean by a Navy ship, Miss
America is taken to Project M in New York. Miss America eventually reawakens
from her coma, joins the Justice Society, and her powers are revealed to
have been given to her through an experiment at Project M. Originally
intended to be a post crisis replacement in the Justice Society for the no
longer in existence golden age Wonder Woman, Miss America's team status has
been clouded by the recent revelation that Hippolyta traveled back in time
to the 1940's to assume the mantle of Wonder Woman and serve with the
Justice Society. I'm not going to even try to explain the Miss America -
golden age Fury - modern age Fury relationship situation, which is even more
muddled. |
