TITLE: Patsy Walker vol. 1, issue #124
YEAR: December 1965
COMPANY: Marvel Comics Group
Writer: Al Hartley
Penciler: Al Hartley
Inker: Sol Brodsky
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee
In an earlier post, I wrote about “Patsy and Hedy”, an early teen romance comic book series from Male Publishing which would become Marvel Comics and Patsy Walker would later become a superhero known as Hellcat.
Originally a title that was worked on by Stan Lee and Al Hartley (which started back in 1952), “Patsy Walker” was reated back in 1945 and by 1965, 20-years-later, “Patsy Walker” would end it’s run with its 124th issue (while “Patsy & Hedy” would still continue).
The issue is probably the most deepest storyline yet. Patsy has been having difficulty coping with her boyfriend not around, fighting in the Vietnam war and always worrying about him.
She hasn’t seen Buzz in awhile but she wants to remain faithful to him.
So, she’s invited to party and immediately, the guy that all the women’s eyes are on is Al Tindall, and he has eyes on one woman, Patsy Walker.
Needless to say, while Patsy resists, unfortunately, the two kiss and it sends Patsy to tears of what she has done.
But surprisingly, the one person that listens to her and helps her through her emotional pain is the one person that she often gets into arguments with, Hedy Wolfe.
Often compared to Archie Comics’ character Betty and Veronica, while Patsy and Hedy are friends/rivals, they somehow manage to care for each other in a weird kind of way (considering all the bad things that Hedy has done to Patsy).
And interesting enough, that relationship still plays out in today’s Hellcat storylines. Although, in today’s modern comics, these stories that people grew up reading in the 40’s through the ’60s are romanticized stories that were created by Patsy’s mother.