“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
Lois Lane, back before they turned her into a hippie chick in the late '60s. When I went through my brief comic-book phase in the mid-60s (I think it lasted about two months), Lois still looked like she did in the 1950s TV show: very Donna Reed/June Cleaver. Like a grown-up, but she still managed to be an adventurous gal.
Then, around 1968 or so, they gave her long shaggy hair, micro-minis and go-go boots, and I gave up in utter dismay.
The Black Canary…fighting crime in pirate boots and fishnets.
Should also give Honorable Mention to Eros Comics’ Domino Lady…when the artist’s first drafts came in, the publishers looked 'em over and debated whether or not the artist had ever SEEN a woman with no clothes on.
I only read two books, both in the DC Vertigo line, which does not produce Super-hero comics, per se.
However, in Preacher, Jesse Custer’s sweetheart Tulip is one bad-ass girl. She has been killed by redneck halfwits and resurrected by God himself, survived a somewhat ambiguous and perhaps forced relationship with a vampire, and pumped more lead into bad guys than I can honestly recall. She doesn’t take any shit (from mere mortals, anyway) and can hold her own against any tough goon thrown at her. She’s got a good sense of right and wrong, is strong, loyal and smart.
Eve and I may be the only two here who remember Lois Lane from the early/mid-60s. I have to agree, she was tough. No super powers, and a really gooey crush on Superman, but she was absolutely fearless and enterprising on the job, and managed to get out of a lot of jams without Superman’s help.