Her début in Magazine Wags in 1937 in the United Kingdom was recognized, and the wild heroine was first published stateside by Fiction House, who debuted her as the first-ever female character to earn her own comic book series, which ended in 1953. The details and background of the original comic character differ slightly from those in the film. As Cardwell Rivington, the explorer travels through the mysterious continent of African tribes, he befriends Koba, a native witch doctor. However, he died after inadvertently ingesting one of Koba’s magic potions, which proved to be fatal to him, leaving the doctor with his daughter, who was reared to be the queen of the forest alongside his sidekick monkey, Chim.
In the tenth issue of Jumbo Comics, she was given a plain red frock, but she later received a leopard-skin attire (as all the jungle-heroes are assigned). Her strategies and skills included ferocious jungle behavior, surprise attacks, close and quick communication with animals, weapon proficiency (spears, bows, knives), and the fact that she battles everything under the sun’s influence. S.M. Jerry Iger and William Eisner were the two guys that gave birth to the first jungle queen, which ranked 59th in the list of the 100 sexiest women in comics. Sheena is left with only a white safari guide named Bob Reynolds after her community is destroyed, and this character eventually switches to Rick Thorne in following issues with the same position.
In the 1950s, a 26-episode television series starring Irish McCalla, who was often referred to as the “Queen of the Congo,” was shown for two years, from 1955 to 1956. The presence of the hero caused such an electric surge among the generation that songs like “Sheena is a punk rocker” and “Crush on you” were written in response.
Robert’s Sheena had a considerably larger and more diverse vocabulary than McCallan, as well as a telepathic connection with forest creatures.
Sheena is depicted as a strong, ‘buxom blonde’ dressed in simple two-piece outfits. She proves to be a fearsome female superhero for children, particularly girls, who have frequently been deprived of the influence of female superheroes on the big screen and in their daily life. While Jodie Foster was first considered for the role of Sheena, she declined and Tanya was cast, leaving the audience in awe of her incredible acting and modeling abilities. Today, there are a plethora of female superheroes to be inspired by and follow their stories, and they are unquestionably controlling both the comic book world and the cinema with the fandom so effortlessly and fluently.
FACE BEHIND THE JUNGLE QUEEN- TANYA ROBERTS
Born in Bronx, New York, and assigned with the birth name Victoria Leigh Blum, Tanya Roberts was the second child to Oscar Blum and Dorothy Smith. She got married soon enough after dropping out of high school and was also divorced shortly after. She began anew in the city as an Arthur Murray dance instructor and modeling while she also pursued acting under the shadow of Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, a German American actress. While surfing through her busy life, in a movie-time she met Barry Roberts a psychology student who eventually ended up marrying her. In 1977 the couple moved to Hollywood after Barry landed up as a screenwriter.
Tanya’s film debut occurred in The Last Victim (1976) and her big break was announced as Julie Rogers on ‘Charlie’s Angels’ final season the same year. She appeared on the cover of “People Magazine” while she also managed to grab her part in The Beastmaster (1982) and she was assigned as a significant poser for “Playboy”. With maintaining herself as a series regular in That ‘70s show (1998) and backing up as Bond Girl in ‘A View to Kill’ she also looked after her spouse whose condition was declining with the pace of time. She later succumbed to her sepsis infection at the age of 65 this year on 4th January.
SHEENA, THE 1984 MOVIE ORIGIN- EXPLAINED
1984 John Guillermin directed SHEENA: queen of the jungle is originally derived directly from the 1937’s comic character, sharing a similar name and background. Containing assets like PASQUALINO De SANTIS, the cinematographer who won an Oscar for FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI’s Romeo and Juliet, and RICHARD HARTLEY who is best known for ‘the Rocky Horror Show’ this movie is jammed with jungle action fantasy and humor even though it struggled to survive in the cinemas.
With ‘the Tarzan era’ director who holds credits for directing two Tarzan movies: Tarzan’s greatest adventure (1959) and Tarzan goes to India (1962), this movie was targeted with that of a female counterpart and introducing the first jungle girl comic role on-screen which tanked in its box office collection retracting less than $6 million against a production budget of $25 million. Marvel Comics later published an adaptation of the 80’s film Marvel Super Special written by Cary Burkett and illustrated by Gray Morrow.
Shot in the forests of Kenya where temperature jetted up to 49’Celsius it was big trouble to convert the jungle into a shooting zone with limited accessible resources but with gratifying people, wildlife, and views surrounding it. The film revolves around a white blonde jungle queen amongst the African tribe of Zambouli the land which holds a center for mysteries and how she holds it up and save her homeland from the attacks of ‘the city dacoits’ who are preparing to drill their exotic land of diversity, making itself a nominee under 5 Golden Raspberry Awards which is nothing but a parody award. So, let’s hop on to un-shredding this 80’s jungle sword and sorcery; while you stay updated with MARVELOUS VIDEOS by following the old three regular thumb rules!!
SHEENA: FROM THE LOST TODDLER TO ‘THE JUNGLE QUEEN’
The camera slides up to a view where a couple with their young daughter ends their car ride on a very scary, creepy view of a man buried inside the ground with his head peeping out. As Phil bends over to examine the scene, the place turns into a sort of carnival presence with fire bursting all around and people dancing maniacally to their chest-beats and celebrating a victory. As the two geologists Phil and Betsy hover along the place to quench their thirst about the mystery-holding forests, they enter inside a cave of the Gudjara Mountains where they meet their catastrophe, marking the beginning of the voyage of little Janet as the jungle queen.
As Shaman (Princess Elizabeth of Toro) the head of the village accustoms the girl among the forest she tutors and prepares her for upcoming responsibilities and issues accompanying it. The blonde swims in the customs and the regular life of the tribe so efficiently and easily like she was meant to end here only, as she is! Swinging with giant gorillas, bathing with enormous elephants this tiny one makes it look so easy like if anyone was to leave their regular old country life and start ahead into the woods, it would be so amazing and fun-bearing; which in reality is not!
As she passes through the mandatory stages of life, she is seen conquering the assets and traditions of the jungle with film credits covering the screen with soothing music and a scene where a mid-aged tall Sheena (Tanya Roberts) is riding a zebra, except that it is a horse covered in make-up as in real life Zebras can’t be tamed!
Far in the country of Tigora which was shot in the Nairobi location giving it an irregular dull, slow, and brown background, king Jabalani’s (Clifton Jones) younger brother Prince Otwani an ex-football player (Trevor Thomas) conspires against him while teaming up with king’s fiancée Countess Zanda (France Zobda) to gain control over the Zambulis and exploit their land. Back in the queen’s land Shaman leaves for Azan, Tigora’s capital to warn the king about her dream that ended in his death and is held captive in the prison by Zanda’s orders.
As a journalist Vic Casey (Ted Wass) and his accompanying photographer Fletch (Donovan Scott) are assigned to cover the great dinner event held in the capital city where king Jabalani is assassinated, they end in the jungle following Sheena who appeared to rescue Shaman and for Vic, it was probably love at first sight with the blonde! Otwani with Colonel Jorgensen (John Forgeham) and his team trail through the woods to catch his friend Vic, Shaman, and the queen. As the head of the jungle succumbs to her wounds Sheena is left to protect her homeland with the company of a journalist while his companion flies off to the city.
After escaping the fireworks of Otwani and his troops, Sheena and Casey share a screen time where she exploits the audience with her luscious nudity while Vic’s eyes and mouth drop just like newton’s apple dropped off from its tree! As the scene wanders off carrying both of them far beyond the heavy rock land where Vic Casey unboxes his feelings for the blonde for the very first time and ends up kissing her which she is unable to process and walks away. As the people of the jungle don’t know what else are the mouth functions besides eating, duh! While hunting down some food after a long day of the chase and run, Tiki the chimpanzee hints them towards the Otwani’s wagons approaching their path.
“The animals contribute to absurd comedy by providing strange and quirky scenes!” As they start trailing again, they pass through the forest of thorns landing at the lake of birds from where starts the Zambuli lands. Just as they set their feet beside the lake, originally known as ‘Lake Nivasha’ they get lost in their mutual, conscious, passionate kiss (a kiss on a sunset lake covered with a whole army of flamingos, that’s got to be a hell of a kiss)! On the contrary, Prince decides to explode Z’Kuru and as they accomplish their dreadful mission, the duo witnesses their cruelty from afar with Sheena being left in a devastated state.
As the queen boils with revenge and anger they prepare themselves to end their nemesis’s chariot where Otwani’s eyes catch them and they surrender to their men after a long run. In midst of all these the pair shares a moment of vulnerability where they let all their unsaid emotions burst out. While being held captive, Vic tries to fool them out and is send to Azan with two guards who are later killed by him on the other hand, Countess Zanda decides to end Sheena by throwing her over the Zambelli Falls. But it turns out being the jungle queen comes with certain perks, like one that of connecting through telepathy. Sheena through this power ends up saving herself by the flock of flamingos who in return ensures that the countess is dead.
By provoking her tribe and regaining their trust the queen manages to defeat and kill the wicked prince’s army while the prince himself escapes. While chasing him Sheena aims towards his van by the time he is rolled over with Vic’s truck. This horrifying act landed Vic into critical burn injuries and it looks like this would be a sad ending to their just established love story!
Towards the ending Vic’s companion is seen arriving with one of the tribe men and the scene before Fletch terrifies him to death and the rest circles back similarly as the starting of the movie revealing nothing about the ‘healing Earth’ and Vic leaves with his team after he spent the night with the love of his life just to keep her safe and guarded while the queen of the jungle rides back on her Zebra with credits rolling over! Eventually, it was a sad end but at least not a dead-end which is too worse than the former, and who knows if later after passing of ages, Vic Casey may return to live his actual life in the African woods when he has retired from all his earthly duties!
What would have happened if Vic would have never left the blonde jungle queen? Spending your entire life with your sweetheart doesn’t sound like a dull idea and that is something he wouldn’t avoid! But alas! Sometimes love enters one’s life with an unbearable cost just to remind oneself that life is beautiful when you find love and that it’ll find you in the strangest of places or as rather said in the most hopeless place. But what’s it worth is the moments you experienced that make up your whole life more bearing and meaningful! And that’s what it was for the Journalist.
SHEENA, THE TV SERIES (2000-2002)
Revived by Hearst Entertainment Sheena was able to make a second TV series run of 35 episodes which lasted from October 7, 2000- February 23, 2002. The main role portrayed by Gena Lee Nolin as Shirley Hamilton was able to transform into any jungle animal while just staring into its eyes. Orphaned at the age of 6 she was raised by kali, the Shaman.
Under mystical circumstances, she turns into a paranoid creature called “The Darak’na” who hunts people by their unknown fears. In her journey ahead she meets a CIA mercenary Matt Cutter who is coded as ‘Jericho’ who later drops his merciless job to bond with the jungle queen and both of them are later seen sharing a chemistry on-screen. Later in 2017, a reboot of this movie was set to plan from Millennium Films but the studio closed after running a short course, splashing the hopes of viewers to get amazed by the zingy stunts of the jungle queen!
SHEENA: FROM THE COMIC STAR TO SPREADING HEROISM ON-SCREEN FRANCHISE
A comic female who rose to be an epitome of courage, success, and valor showed a righteous path to many people across the globe in the total darkness. She shone so brightly as a crystal struck with a light ray that it played a vital role in bringing the drastic change among the humans. While debuting through Jumbo Comics in America in 1938, she also shared the year with Superman who appeared in Action comics. Deriving inspiration from H. Rider Haggard’s novel She for her name, Sheena’s appearance provided grand support to the women who were struggling to prove their existence and competence to the patriarchal-driven society.
By sharing names and spots with heroes as Man of Steel and Wonder Woman who was an Amazonian warrior on ‘Paradise Island’ far away from the reach of the cruel world of male chauvinism, she was able to set her foot among the league of superheroes, no matter if she didn’t have any extra superpower rather than simple human skills to survive. With her appearance in a new comic book Sensation Comics in 1942, the ‘lasso of truth’ bearing warrior made a lasting effect on the audience with her heroic costume which was considered to be rather more revealing and scandalous enough by the National Organization for Decent Literature as the result the new comic line was blacklisted in early 1942’s.
The conditions during World War II seemed to worsen as men left to support and work in the war zone while women were left all by themselves which proved to be a great opportunity as they were financed and funded by the government in their small businesses and other work-related programs. But as the war came to an end and men returned to their land, women were caged back into their houses and stripped off from their work and benefits while the male community was granted bonuses and other privileges. By the time pulp Stories of Sheena were published, her appearance faded amid chaos bundling up.
As “Women’s Liberation Movement” in the late 60’s started to fuel up, the editor in chief of Marvel Comics Stan Lee released a trio of comics that were led by female comic roles namely, Shanna the She-Devil, Night Nurse, and Claws of the Cat which proved to be a huge asset for the suppressing community to fight and rise against the egomaniacal brainless bodies of the society. These women who ruled a vast empire of shows and comics with their valiant behavior depicted that the ‘fairer sex’ can be ballsy enough to pave their way to a successful world without any major support of the so-called heroes who only hindered their paths and marked them nothing more than an entertainment piece!
THE RETURN OF THE SHEENA FRANCHISE!
The old jungle heroine of the comics is set to return in a brand-new avatar hosted by the writer Stephen Mooney who is responsible for bringing Half-Past Danger and Black Widow into this world where people wait for the arrival of more superheroes time and again. Because no matter how many, superheroes are always a digit less! With Dynamite Entertainment holding onto its franchise, Stephen Mooney and Jethro Morales take the responsibility to recreate that 80’s craze by introducing a new comic book series Sheena, Queen of The Jungle #1 later in November this year.
Not to wait much now but still, this comic strip manages to fill up the population with hectic nostalgia and the fact that this revised edition of Sheena gets to hook up with the screenwriter Steven E.de Souza overly famous for Die Hard and Tomb Raider! Sheena is drawn in a “state-of-the-art combination research center and destination resort”, the Bio-Dome where she is set to hone her skills with more added tricks and powers in her character trying to create a new-level comic role which justifies her more accurately by eradicating some of the previously based myths which were left blurred. While we wait for the winters bearing month to arrive with our old comic jungle Queen, it wouldn’t harm a bit to rerun the jungle drama on our screens! Until the next movie update.