Saturday, October 18, 2025

CLAIRE VOYANT TIMES TWO!

In the world of 1940s comics, there were two characters named Claire Vloyant.  The first was the original Black Widow from Timely (later Marvel) Comics.  Created by George Kaapitan and Harry SAhle for Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940), Claire Voyant was a samll-time medium who was possessed by Satan to place a curse on the Wagler family.  James Wagler, hoeveer, survives and shoots, Claire killing hrrt.  Stan swoops down and carries Claire's body to Hell, where he resurrects her as the immortall Black Widow.  The Black Widow is tasked with killing evil-doers to bring them to Hell; this she does by nerely touching them in the head aand leaving a mark of the black widow spider.  Before she on her murderous spree for Satanm, hiowever, he agrees to allow her have her vengeance on James Wagler.

This version of the Black Widow appeared in four storie only in the 40s,  Claire then appears 51 years later in a brief flashback in Marvels (January 1994), and in another flashbeck in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 (February 2005).  In 2008, she appeaars as part of an emsemble cast in tweve issues of The Twelve, and in the one-shot The Twelve Spearhead.  In the anthology Marvel, she brings the Red Skull to Hell to marry her.

I have not been able  to locate any of these issues on the internet, buyt heere is a detailed rundown of the character and her adventures:

https://comicsarcheology.com/index.php/2024/02/14/mystic-comics-4-black-widow/


The second Claire Voyant appeared in a newspaper strip by Jack Sparling from 1943 to  1948; some of her adventures were reprinted in four issues of Claire Voyant from Leader Enterprises in the late 40s.  This Claire Voyant was a recording artist and nightclub singer who had a missing gap of two years in her memory.  Originally a chorus girl named Luyn Hall. the USO ship she was in waa torpedoes in 1943 and she was given upo for dead; two years later, she was found wandering in aa Hong Kong airport, dazed and with no memory of what had happened.  When she arrived back in New York, she was "discovered" by Roger Timberly, a millionaire playboy producer.  Given the stage name Claire Voyant, she became an overnight sensation with a hit recording "I Had That Dream Again."  We later kearn that during her missing two years, she and three sailors led an amazing rescue of a seven-year-old girl from a Japanese prison camp...

Here, from 1947, is Claire Voyant #2, a decidedly non-supernatural Claire:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76358



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