Sheena
- Score
- 4
Formulaic, amiable fluff.
By Tym Stevens
The jungle regent, co-created by Will Eisner in 1937, was the first female hero lead for a comic book, four years ahead of Wonder Woman.
Inspired by Haggard's "She" (1886), Rima The Jungle GIrl from Hudson's "Green Mansions" (1903), and Tarzan Of The Apes (1912), the blond badass changed the nascent industry as an empowered female lead who sold strong and quickly inspired many clones. The leopard imprint of Sheena swings across time from rivals Fantomah, Nyoka, and Princess Pantha, onward to ancestors like Shanna The She-Devil, Leela ("Docter Who"), Vixen, Dhalua Strong, and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker".
Sheena swung into living rooms with the fondly remembered 1956 TV show, starring the striking Irish McCalla. After Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) made Golden Age serial cliffhangers cool and lucrative again, Tanya Roberts ('Charlie's Angels') raced like a gazelle through the breezy 1985 movie, a light and earnest action soap that met a cool reception. Another TV series followed in 2000, fully going for the titillation angle with 'Baywatch' star Gena Lee Nolin.