Posted By Dan Greenfield on Apr 1, 2025 | 5 comments

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to the late Shelly Mayer, who was born 108 years ago, on April 1, 1917…

By JIM BEARD

I loved her from the first moment I saw her.

I was younger then, but I knew I’d never seen anyone like her, and likely never would.

She dressed differently, she spoke differently, she even moved differently.

She wore long johns. She said things like “By th’ Great Horn Toad!” She offered to “wrassle” people. She was an iconoclast. She railed at convention. She could not be contained.

She was one of a kind. She was unique. She was there before others.

Shelly Mayer

Sheldon “Shelly” Mayer was no dummy. He was shrewd and clever. He also knew it was good to be king of his little corner of the world. When the opportunity presented itself, he threw caution to the wind and introduced her to me. He changed my life. She changed my life. It would never be the same.

Now, all these many years later, I see she was there, at my side, every step of the way, even when she wasn’t. I never forgot her, and when I would come close to forgetting her, she would reappear and I’d be in love all over again.

Her story is intertwined with mine, and, dare I say it, I even played a few very small parts in increasing her siren song. Today, I must share her with others who have seen what I have seen, heard what I have heard, and felt what I have felt. Jealous as I am, I cannot truly blame them.

Her name is Abigail Mathilda “Ma” Hunkel, but she’ll always be the first, the original Red Tornado to me.

This is my ode to her and to Shelly, her creator — 13 FABULOUSLY FUN TALES OF THE GOLDEN AGE RED TORNADO:

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All-American Comics #20 (Nov. 1940). Shelly had introduced Ma as herself the previous year but when the superhero craze could no longer be denied he brought out the one, the only Red Tornado, and poor Scribbly Jibbet’s strip would no longer be solely his. As the Tornado, Ma became not only one of the very first costumed heroines ever, but the first superhero parody and the first cross-dressing crimebuster.

Shelly Mayer

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All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940). I want to be very clear about this. I don’t want to have to repeat myself. No matter what you’ve read, seen, or heard, Ma Hunkel was never an official member of the Justice Society of America, period, end of lecture. A simple reading of this landmark issue very clearly states that the gang “meant” to invite her, but didn’t, and then laughed at her when she tore her pants in retreat. The only invitation to stick around was issued by a guy who wasn’t even an official member himself at that moment. So shaddup about it, alright?

Mayer

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All-American Comics #24 (Mar. 1941). Always vigilant to spot a trend, Shelly figured Batman shouldn’t have all the sidekick fun and saddled his Red Tornado with, what else, two Cyclone Kids. It was just her daughter Sisty and Scribbly’s little “brudder” Dinky in homemade outfits, but it increased the fun, not to mention Ma’s ever-growing headache over her costumed career.

Mayer

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Justice League of America #64 (Aug. 1968). Nearly three decades after her final Golden Age tales in All-American Comics #59 and Comic Cavalcade #7, Ma twirled off the radar until editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox decided in ’68 that the name “Red Tornado” was too good to lay in limbo anymore. Thus, the android who took on the moniker (and believed for a moment he was her) got a Dr. Fate History Lesson complete with a life-size image of the old girl. Please take note, Truth-Deniers: It says right there in this issue she was never really a JSAer. Boom.

Dick Dillin pencils, Sid Greene inks

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Justice League of America #76 (Aug. 1968). Ultra-gorgeous pin-up of the classic Justice Society? Check. All members present? Check, check. Kickoff of decades of fan-confusion? Check, check, and check. This is where it all most likely began, the belief that the original Red Tornado was an official JSAer. Look, she’s sitting right there among them, right? Sheesh, as Ma might say, pull yer heads in, boys, ’cause you’re goin’ through a tunnel—the Tunnel of Uh-UH. Simple mistake, glorious picture, the hurt for us Hunkel-Boosters continues to this day.

Murphy Anderson

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Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #19 (Sept. 1986). Ma would have to wait a while longer to be remembered again—nearly 20 years, in fact. But, at least when she finally did reappear it was with her “dad,” Shelly Mayer, once more at the drawing board. To my mind, the image here of her is the finest one Shelly ever produced. I feel it’s already become iconic, the go-to shot that most people trot out to illustrate the glory of the original Tornado.

Mayer

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Secret Origins #29 (Aug. 1988). But wait! Hold th’ phone, Scribbly! DC wasn’t completely done with Shelly and his plump princes of pulchritude. The story goes that they wanted the former editor to produce a Ma Hunkel origin story for this issue, but what they got instead was another adventure of the Red Tornado. To me, that’s still a win-win, because it would be the last time Shelly would delineate his creation for her fans before his death in 1991.

Mayer

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DCU Holiday Bash II (Feb. 1998). As these things happen, especially with Ma, more years passed before someone gave her another thought (though not as many this time). She popped up in the kitchen slingin’ hash in a story called “I Left My Heart at the Justice Society Canteen,” an otherwise anachronous-yet-cute piece of fluff made all the better by her presence. No Red Tornado here, but one can forgive a multitude of sins with a little Hunkel hullabaloo.

Written by Howard Chaykin. Art by Rick Burchett.

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All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant #1 (Sept. 1999). Maybe there was something in the air. Maybe there was something in the water. Regardless, fans didn’t have to wait long this time for another Ma cameo—except it wasn’t just a cameo. Starring right alongside none other than Wonder Woman, Liberty Belle, and Phantom Lady, Ma made her first “modern” appearance in this story, and what I mean by that is though it was set during WWII, she was updated to a more svelte, Rosie the Riveter analogue, something perhaps more digestible to so-called modern comic readers. It was what it was.

Wriiten by Eric Luke. Art by Chris Jones and Keith Champagne.

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Young Justice #16 (Jan. 2000). The hits just kept on comin’. Ma was on a roll and nothing was going to stop her from conquering the DCU one book at a time. In this one, her Cyclone Kids came out of retirement to testify against the Young Justice youths and in the process scared up a massive Todd Nauck flashback of her in Red Tornado gear. I own the original page of it (Page 19), proud to say.

Written by Peter David. Art by Todd Nauck and Larry Stucker.

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Golden Age Secret Files #1 (Feb. 2001). I admit it: It’s not stellar in terms of cameos, especially since my pal Wildcat refers to Ma as “the cleaning lady” and the other JSAers share a derisive laugh at her expense, but this one’s on the list here because I got to see the Tornado drawn by one of my most-favorite modern comic artists, Cliff Chiang.

Written by John Ostrander

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Young Justice #45 (July 2002). The Hunkel train just kept runnin’. Ma returned to the pages of this title for the “World Without Young Justice” saga, an alternate-universe deal that allowed her to burst in, kick names, and take butt, in that order. Artist Todd Nauck, in my opinion, could be viewed as something of a successor to the spirit of Shelly.

Written by David. Art by Nauck and Stucker.

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JSA #55 (Feb. 2004). One of my proudest moments as a fan-professional. I never got to write Ma officially (though I did once get to write her namesake Reddy), but I ghost-plotted the core idea of the story in this one and helped usher Ma into her role as caretaker and chief bottle-washer of the Justice Society Museum and the team’s HQ. I also proudly own the original of the gorgeous Page 15 by Leonard Kirk from this issue.

Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Leonard Kirk, Keith Champagne and Wade Von Grawbadger.

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EXTRA-SPECIAL BONUS: JSA #25 (Aug. 2001). This one I couldn’t resist sharing. It was never published, not exactly, but it’s a fun could-have-been by artist Steve Sadowski, just for me. If you compare it to the actual, printed Page 35 in the issue, I think you’ll see the little Hunkel-size editing that occurred…

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MORE

— 13 COOL THINGS About SHELDON “SHELLY” MAYER. Click here.

— Dig 13 Pages of Previously Unpublished SUGAR AND SPIKE Strips by SHELLY MAYER. Click here.

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When JIM BEARD’s not editing and publishing through his two houses, Flinch Books and Becky Books, he’s pounding out adventure fiction with both original and licensed characters. In fact, he’s put words in the mouths of Luke Skywalker, Superman, Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak, Peter Venkman and the Green Hornet… and lived to tell about it. His latest pop culture non-fiction tome is Breaking Bold and Brave, available here.