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FemForce#13
Cover: Don Secrease & Bill Black

FemForce #13

May 1988 · AC · 1.95 USD; 2.95 CAD
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“Step Out and Away”
★ 1st appearance — Jason Burke★ 1st appearance — David Burke
About this Issue

FemForce #13 is a pivotal chapter in the book's most consequential ongoing arc: the corruption of founding heroine Miss Victory (Joan Wayne) into the antisocial renegade Rad, triggered when the villain Black Commando force-fed her the unstable V-45 serum. The issue advances the team's ensuing identity crisis by putting government liaison Tom Kelly on the doorstep of Joan's daughter Jennifer Wayne-Burke to conscript her as the new government-sponsored paranormal — a reluctant succession that would define the title's character dynamics for years. Set against the backdrop of Nightveil being weaponized by the witch Alizarin Crimson, it demonstrates AC Comics' willingness to run genuinely serialized, multi-threat storylines at a time when most independent superhero books were largely episodic. As part of the first and longest-running all-female superhero team comic in American publishing history, the issue is a building block of a run that would surpass 200 issues.

writer Wes Covington · artist Don Secrease · inker John Dell · inker Bill Koch · colorist Bill Black · letterer Walt Paisley · cover Don Secrease, Bill Black

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History

FemForce was the flagship title of AC Comics (originally Americomics), the publishing house built from the ground up by writer/artist/editor Bill Black, who had been producing 'good girl art' comics under the Paragon Publications imprint since the late 1960s. The ongoing series launched in 1985, blending original characters with public-domain heroines from the 1940s and 1950s Golden Age. By issue #13, the creative reins on the main story had passed to scripter Wes Covington, with pencils by Don Secrease and inks by John Dell and Bill Koch — a rotating creative team typical of AC's small-press, owner-operated production model. The Alizarin Crimson/Rad storyline running through this period represents AC's most ambitious sustained narrative, weaving multiple villains and a leadership succession across consecutive issues.

Trivia · 8 facts

  • Published August 1988 by AC Comics (Americomics); 28 pages.
  • Lead story 'Step Out and Away': script by Wes Covington, pencils by Don Secrease, inks by John Dell and Bill Koch.
  • Central plot thread: government agent Captain Tom Kelly visits Jennifer Wayne-Burke to propose she step into the Miss Victory role, setting up the extended Jennifer-as-Ms.-Victory arc that would run through 1992.
  • Rad (the corrupted Miss Victory Joan Wayne, transformed by villain Black Commando's V-45 serum overdose) returns to familiar territory, where Tara waits to ambush her — a key beat in the team's effort to neutralize their former leader.
  • Black Commando, the villain directly responsible for Miss Victory's transformation into Rad, is revealed to be free — raising the stakes of the issue's multi-threat structure.
  • Nightveil (Laura Wright, the former Blue Bulleteer) appears not as an ally but as the mindless puppet of the witch Alizarin Crimson, compounding the Femforce's crisis.
  • She-Cat's psychological deterioration without her psychic bond to Joan Wayne runs as a parallel subplot, reflecting AC's interest in consequences that persist across issues.
  • FemForce is historically documented as the first and longest-running all-female superhero team title in American comics, having surpassed 200 issues — making each chapter of its foundational 1988 leadership-transition arc part of that record run.

Cast · 20 characters

Full credits

inker John Dell
inker Bill Koch
colorist Bill Black
letterer Walt Paisley
cover pencils Don Secrease
cover inks Bill Black

Key issues in FemForce

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