Misty Knight – 28 days of Black Super Heroes – Day 14

 

Previous (Day 13) Super Hero – Triathlon!

Day 14 of 28 Days of Black Super Heroes, today’s hero is the Marvel Comics’ character Misty Knight.

Ahhh, sweet Misty Knight. Who couldn’t love her? Actually a lot of the time she’s not so sweet, but she is bad-ass. So very bad-ass. A bad-ass martial arts expert. The kind of chick you want watching your back when sh*t starts going down.

If she’s good enough for Power-Man and Iron Fist, then she’s good enough for me.

WHO IS SHE?

Misty Knight is a former cop in New York city.

When an injury from an explosive caused her to lose her right arm, she was given a replacement bionic arm from Stark Industries (Tony Stark’s company at the time). Unfortunately, the bionic arm forced her into a desk position on the force, so she quit the police and went out on her own.

I didn’t actually read these old issues, and I don’t remember The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe explaining exactly why a cop in New York was the recipient of a multi-million dollar bionic arm from Tony Stark.

Maybe it was just a publicity stunt from Stark to help a hero cop? Or did anyone ever allude to a relationship between Stark and Misty? Anyone know?

DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON

Misty’s partner in crime is Colleen Wing, a detective who’s also a master samurai. Since the two were such bad-ass masters of martial arts, they came to be known as the Daughters of the Dragon.

Hey this stuff was right around (or near the end of) the blaxploitation movie era, so they’re kind of a product of the times.

For the longest time, I never even knew they were called that. I used to read the old Power-Man and Iron Fist series in the 80’s, and it just seemed like whenever those guys got in trouble, they could always count on Misty and Colleen to get their backs.

Although they weren’t very super-powerful, Misty and Colleen always kicked ass when necessary.

Misty was obviously a reaction to the Pam Grier “Foxy Brown” type of blaxploitation movies. I know people have problems with those movies but they always cracked me up, and I have good memories of those films, so I was a bit predisposed to like the character.

THE IRON FIST

Misty has been on and off involved with Iron Fist for years now.

Very recently she thought she was pregnant with his baby, but it turned out to be a phantom pregnancy. After this was revealed her and Iron Fist split up (again).

They’ll no doubt get back together. After all, how does a girl top a mystical immortal weapon from a magical city of other-dimensional kung-fu experts, of which he is the BEST of the kung-fu experts?

I remember as a kid thinking, hey shouldn’t the black chick be with Luke Cage? Very simplistic thinking, I know, but damn I was like 9 or 10 years old.

HEROES FOR HIRE

Power-Man and Iron Fist were out there hiring themselves out issue by issue. I don’t remember exactly, but did we ever see Misty get a cut of the cash when she helped out the boys?

After the initial run of Power-Man and Iron Fist: Heroes For Hire, I only picked up the title sporadically. It was relaunched a couple of times but it never seemed to “take”. I really don’t think the title can work.

After Civil War (I keep referencing this one, can you tell this title was important?), Misty headed up officially sanctioned version of the Heroes for Hire.

This time she and Colleen cobbled together a band of ragtag misfits and were charged with hunting down heroes who refused to register with the government.

I started reading this one right around the World War Hulk time. Misty wasn’t directly involved, but even their peripheral involvement almost proved fatal for the team.

Realizing they were outmatched, the team disbanded. It was kind of a shame because I was enjoying the title.

Actually, the cover shown above became the focal point for a controversy over “tentacle rape”. SHEESH. I have to admit, that was the first time I ever heard of tentacle rape. Somebody always thinks of some crazy isshhh…

HEROES FOR HIRE: PRESENT DAY

Now there’s a new Heroes for Hire comic out, with Misty in control of operations, while she works with assorted heroes to accomplish different goals each issue.

Right now Misty’s in some terrible danger, and it was kind of a twist I didn’t see coming. I won’t spoil it for those of you interested. Go check out issue one if you get a chance.

It has a very 1970’s feel to it, but I’m still not sure this is going to be a viable series. It just doesn’t seem like Heroes for Hire can ever gain any traction. I’m enjoying it so far but I don’t want to get too invested because I suspect it’ll be cancelled soon.

THE WRAP UP

So Misty’s a very solid black female character. I won’t say that I go looking for her appearances, but I’m rarely disappointed when she’s on the scene.

I feel like the writers over the years have tried to promote this character but nothing really stuck. Hopefully her latest book will strike a chord with the readers. I’ll have to remember to ask my “comic shop guy” how the sales are on this one.

Well time will tell on that one, but until then here’s the pencil art on Misty. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s hero!

Next (Day 15) Super Hero – Icon!

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