mindpollution.org

[The following is an excerpt of a feature I authored for MTV's Splash Page. Here is the full version of the feature. -RM]

You’d think beating out Wonder Woman to become the first female character with her own comics series would earn you a spot among the industry’s best-known leading ladies, but Golden Age jungle girl Sheena (”Queen of the Jungle”) has had a rough time of it since her debut in 1942. After decades of poorly received comics, film and TV projects, the vine-swinging, bikini-clad Will Eisner creation finally has a successful miniseries behind her and another on the way — not to mention plans for a live-action film — along with an ambitious new steward in celebrated screenwriter Steven de Souza (”Die Hard,” “Commando”).

While de Souza hopes that Sheena’s new adventures in print will provide a springboard into film, he described comics as her “home turf,” and called the new stories he’s co-authoring for Devil’s Due Publishing alongside Todd Livingston a “Golden Age origin, but a 21st Century reboot.”

“She is not an alien, she does not have superpowers and she does not have a robot suit” said de Souza, calling to mind some of the character’s previous, cringe-worthy moments on television and in film — including a 2000 television series starring “The Price is Right” spokesmodel and “Baywatch” cast member Gena Lee Nolin. “She’s like Batman — an incredible highly trained and tuned human machine.”

With the first issue of a new three-issue “Dark Rising” miniseries hitting shelves October 15, de Souza said he plans to use the next volume of “Sheena” stories to explore the contrasting worlds of the wild rainforest and the urban cityscape in which Sheena’s adventures occur. Oh, and he also wants to declare shenanigans on one of the great inconsistencies of stories involving characters with one foot in the wild and one on cement.

“When people have these characters who understand that they have roots in civilization and in the jungle, they’re not going to go back and live in a treehouse,” said de Souza. “They’re going to want indoor plumbing.” . . .