Shanna, the She-Devil #1
Shanna the She-Devil #1 is a genuine landmark of Marvel's Bronze Age, representing one of three female-led titles the publisher launched simultaneously in 1972 as a deliberate response to the second-wave feminist movement — the others being Night Nurse and The Cat. Unlike those two, Shanna was a wholly original creation rather than a revival of an earlier Atlas-era character, making this debut the purest expression of Marvel's attempt to build a new kind of female protagonist from the ground up. Writer Carole Seuling was recruited specifically because Roy Thomas wanted women writing these books, and Shanna was conceived not as a cheesecake jungle queen in the Sheena mold but as a credentialed veterinarian and Olympic-caliber athlete whose hatred of firearms is rooted in genuine psychological trauma — a sophistication unusual for the genre at the time. The issue also marks Steve Gerber's first assignment at Marvel, lending it an unexpected double significance in the history of 1970s comics.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Stan Lee conceived the broad outlines of the three 1972 female-led books and, per Roy Thomas's 2007 recollection, had the names for all of them; Thomas then reached out to Carole Seuling — connected to comics fandom through her then-husband Phil Seuling's convention circuit — to script the title because Lee wanted women writing these books. Seuling developed the character entirely on her own, working with veteran penciler George Tuska, and modeled the romantic-interest game warden Patrick McShane loosely on Patrick McGoohan's character from the film Nor the Moon by Night. Lee and Thomas felt Seuling's dialogue was sparse, so they brought in a young Steve Gerber — on his very first Marvel assignment — to add additional dialogue to the finished script, a contribution Seuling and Gerber himself later took pains to distinguish from co-creation of the character or her origin story.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and complete origin story of Shanna O'Hara (later Shanna O'Hara Plunder), cover-dated December 1972, with an on-sale date of August 29, 1972.
- Created by writer Carole Seuling and penciler George Tuska; inked by Vince Colletta, lettered by John Costanza, edited by Roy Thomas.
- Cover painted by Jim Steranko — one of two Steranko covers on the original five-issue run — making it among the most visually distinctive debuts of the Bronze Age.
- First appearances of leopard companions Ina and Biri, game warden Patrick McShane (modeled on Patrick McGoohan's film role), and Shanna's father Gerald O'Hara (in flashback); villain 'Ivory' Dan Drake is introduced and dies in the same issue.
- One of three Marvel titles published simultaneously in 1972 as a female-audience initiative, alongside Night Nurse and The Cat (Greer Grant); Shanna was the only one of the trio that was a fully original character with no Golden Age predecessor.
- Steve Gerber contributed additional dialogue to the issue — his first work for Marvel — though both Gerber and Seuling consistently stated he had no role in creating the character or her origin.
- Shanna's origin establishes her lifelong aversion to firearms: her father accidentally shot her mother while trying to kill a rogue leopard, a trauma that drives her entire jungle-protector identity.
- The story has been reprinted in Women of Marvel #1 (August 2006), Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus (2010), Marvel Firsts: The 1970s #1 (2011), and Marvel Masterworks: Ka-Zar Vol. 2 (2018); an early French reprint appeared in L'Inattendu #1 (Arédit-Artima, 1975).
Cast · 6 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
In Africa, Shanna takes on hunters who are cruelly slaughtering elephants for their ivory tusks. A flashback shows how Dr. Shanna O'Hara, environmental specialist for a metropolitan zoo, is horrified that someone has killed many of the zoo animals. This wanton destruction inspires her to quit her job and go to Africa where, as Shanna, the She-Devil, she becomes a protector of wild animals. She brings with her two baby leopards who grow to be her trusty companions and protectors.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).