Femforce Index

The Official Guide to the AC Universe
***Femforce Index***

CHRONOLOGY / CROSSOVER GUIDE PART 5

The issue run of Femforce (38-50) is dominated by two major plot lines. One is the ongoing battle with Alizarin Crimson beginning with her impersonation of Nightveil and culminating in her unholy alliance with the Great God Capricorn. The second is the private hell Joan Wayne suffers as she is kidnapped and stripped of her powers by Lady Luger, who then assumes Joan Wayne's identity and wreaks havoc on Orlando. Along the way, several other notable events occur. The two-part battle in Femforce 38 & 39 between Lady Luger and the Blue Bulleteer (joined by She-Cat in part two) is put here in the context of the Femforce's early history. She-Cat goes through another bonding... this time with Stardust. Janis Lawson, in the aftermath of the Shroud Wars, endures torment at sea and in the clutches of criminal refugees before finally reuniting with Tara. The jungle girl, after being slipped a dose of the Garganta formula, becomes an 8-ft powerhouse (seen in the Good Girl Art Quarterly crossover). Garganta is restored to her human form by the alien Gammazons and becomes an empathic healer. We share some short private adventures with some of the Vault heroes and meet the enigmatic Captain Video and his all-seeing surveillance system. Fem-Paragon thunders into our dimension seeking to transform society into her image. Octavia Howard dies tragically, the victim of her own quest for eternal youth.

The past is resolved and the future stage set in Femforce 50, as the fully recovered Ms. Victory is reinstated as Femforce leader and her daughter Jennifer is coldly sacked by General Gordon. The adventures of the last six issues end quietly and tragically as young Jason Burke dies, the final victim of all that has gone before. As we are soon to learn, however, his untimely death was no accident....

CHRONOLOGY & CROSSOVERS

Ten other stories cross over with Femforce in this ten-issue run. For the most part, these stories have been chronologically arranged based on specific incidents that occurred in previous issues or within the likeliest time gaps between major storylines.

"Growing Pains" (GGAQ 5, between FF 40 and FF 41)
Tara gains her growth powers, which She-Cat mentions in FF 41.

Ms. Victory Golden Anniversary Special (1st story, between FF 41 and 42)
This battle between Jen and Rad takes place before Jen becomes embroiled with the Gammazons and Rad is captured by Lady Luger.

Nightveil's Cauldron of Horror 3 (framing story, between FF 42 and 43)
At the end of FF 42, Nightveil leads the others to the graveyard for spooky stories, which are told in this follow up issue.

"Gay Deceivers" (GGAQ 6, between FF 44 and AC Ann 2)
Synn's return to her dance club roots takes place between the Gammazon battle and the Countdown to Victory storyline.

"The Vacuum Blows In" (AC Ann 2. between GGAQ 6 and JG 3)
Dragonfly is seen in the pool with the group, so this takes place before her departure in GGAQ 7.

Jungle Girls 3 (1st story, between AC Ann 2 and GGAQ 7)
This is a retro-continuity Tara story, taking place before the Shroud War, so its placement is not critical.

AC Ann 3 (between FF 45 and GGAQ 8)
Jen continues her friendship with Pat Carson and has not yet become engulfed in the Lady Luger threat.

"Big Screen Betty" (GGAQ 8, between AC Ann 3 and JG 4)
Solo Buckaroo Betty tale, set before the climax of the Countdown to Victory storyline.

"My Heart Belongs to Kong" (JG 4, between GGAQ 8 and FF 46
Tara takes time for some enjoyable R&R promoting a movie before battling Rad in FF 46.

"For the Sake of What Should Have Been" (FFUC 1. between FF 46 and 47, but taking place chronologically between FF 38 and 39)
Out of sequence story. Darkfire's presence places the story after the Shroud wars, and She-Cat's need to reestablish her bond does not seem to have grown as critical yet. In addition, Synn would not likely be considered so useless after her brilliant capture of Fem-Paragon in FF 41.

How secret was Jen Burke's alter-ego as the new Ms. Victory? It may well be the thinnest secret identity since a certain mild-mannered reporter donned a pair of glasses, but it worked - up until her revelation to her husband and exposure to the hero community in FF 48-50.

Certain references in the pages of Femforce make it appear as if the team members knew who she was, but clearly they did not, as depicted by the regret they express over the hostility shown toward her. Let's run down what the team knew - and what they didn't know- about Jen prior to the official unveiling of her disguise.

In FF 6, Joan tells Tara that her daughter's name is Jennifer, a fact that old friends like She-Cat and Laura might also be expected to know. We've already met Jennifer in the cameo in Captain Paragon #1's Ms. Victory back-up, where she tries to drop off Jason at her mother's house so she can go to her tennis lesson.

When Jen assumes the Ms. Victory role in FF 25, she is told to make the public believe that she is the original Ms. Victory, a move that guarantees hostile treatment from the rest of the group, who assume she is a heartless Fed cozying up to the brass to make her way to the top. In her first major battle with the team, against the Shape shifters, in GGAQ 2-4, the other members call her Ms. Victory, or simply Victory, indicating that they may not know her real name yet.

In FF 30 and 32, against Garganta, the Femforce see their new teammate without her mask, but possibly having never met Jen in person before she became a heroine, they naturally can't identify her. Later, in FF 38, Stardust makes mention of the resemblance between Jen and Joan, but She-Cat attributes it to a side-effect of the V-47 vitamin. FF 30 also contains one panel that raises ambiguity over what the team knows of Jen. As She-Cat, Synn, and Stardust witness Dr. Heisler's experiment, Synn wonders aloud why Jennifer is not with them, and She-Cat mockingly calls her "Princess Vicky." Both of these remarks would make more sense if the team knew her identity, but we learn later that is not the case. Synn, not knowing Jen well, may have assumed that she would like to be part of the same experiment that long ago created a being like her mother. She-Cat may have an image of Jen as a spoiled suburbanite, so her "Princess Vicky" remark may be a reference to what she assumes is the pampered lifestyle of the daughter of Ms. Victory.