...but rather Dakota North, P.I. Before Sunny Randall, before Jessica Jones, and thankfully before Anita Blake, Dakota was the Marvel universe's answer to Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Jake and the Fat Man, although Ms. North definitely looks better in her underwear than any of those guys. (Especially William Conrad). See?:
Dakota North paper doll from Marvel Age Annual #2 (1986),
script by Martha Thomases, art by Tony Salmons
Click image to North Dakota-size
All you need for some jet-setting, fashion-world private investigator action and thrills is a color printer, a piece of cardboard, some glue and scissors! And I think you can figure out the rest from there. Make sure you cut out every weapon! Then, you can draw and create your own costumes for the delightful Ms. North! Put her in that J. Lo dress! Or the swan gown made famous by Iceland's Bjork! How about dressing her up as the Fantastic Four's Susan Storm? Or Kill Bill's banana-hued Beatrix Kiddo? Or how about Lara Croft, Tomb Raider? Or...well, maybe that's best left to the privacy of your own home.
Wondering just who the heck Dakota North is? Well, although she's appeared in recent issues of Daredevil as investigator for the Nelson & Murdock law firm, Dakota's been around in the Marvel Universe since the mid-eighties...that's longer than Gambit (And believe me, it seems like Gambit's been around for freakin' ever). If you can't hunt down her appearances, especially her long out-of-print eponymous miniseries, take the cheat-sheet approach by studying her Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry (conveniently alpha-located right between Night Shift and Numinus. Now that they're all such big stars in the Marvel Universe, isn't it fun to see how they got their start?).
From The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5 (October 1989),
text written by Peter Sanderson, pencils by Marc McLauren,
inks by Josef Rubinstein, colors by Andy Yanchus
And now you know (in the words of the late great Paul Harvey) the rest of the Dakota North story. And even tho' she's a DD supporting character, I've always had a great fondness for Ms. North, and wouldn't mind seeing her return in an all-new miniseries. Which might get so popular it could get turned into an ongoing series. Which might spawn a regular Dakota North comeback craze. And then you know what that means:
Hey...it could happen.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQenrY-T9_-EUVG2XBTW-ZiSnvw_V3JFU-8tiFlhrdgKCUBaE56ekbiILucymY9gA-xa4zdGy_z1Njojw78Z-YnlUiN4PIRRurK7GzqoEg3B-PmXl2RJaS1ZaVKVCEHP-m-WVr2xjqailLu1jlzylysiBGc3sVXLXNMFDzAURyrHhKBfcqyO4/s1600/button-libertybellmarch.jpg" "It's...")
3 comments:
I would like to see a Fargo North paper doll.
When "Empty Nest" was on in the 1980s-90s, I was convinced that Dinah Manoff was born to play Dakota North. I based that entirely on her hairstyle and "Hey, she's cute!" and not because I could ever see her pull out a gun or solve mysteries. So, yeah, it's Keira over Dinah in a walk.
(Now I'm picturing some alternate universe where "Dakota North" was a disappointing 1995 Fox TV movie starring Yasmine Bleeth.)
Oh, yes, Dakota North. Source of the single greatest slam in comics advertising history.
Marvel ran an ad for Dakota North that had her posing with a gun with the word "STYLE" underneath her. Not to be outdone, the current publishers of Ms. Tree ran an ad, with their character in the exact same pose.
Written underneath her? "SUBSTANCE."
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