No relation to Bea Arthur or Rue McClanahan.

I absolutely love Roy Thomas's 1970s Marvel series The Invaders (featuring the WWI Nazi-busting team of Captain America, Namor, and the Original Human Torch, plus pals), and I love the quirky, fluid figures of Frank Robbins, who drew the vast majority of the series' issues...but I've always had a huge problem in their design for Golden Girl, the Marvel Universe's (chronologically) first Japanese-American superhero. It's basically a shortie kimono robe (and it don't look like there's nuthin' beneath it, either). Did I mention she's a teenager? She's a teenager.



Panels from The Invaders (1975 series) #28 (May 1978), script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Frank Robbins, inks by Frank Springer, colors by George Roussos, letters by John Costanza
Let's not even go into the striped pajama look for Davy Mitchell, the Human Top. (Not in this post, anyway.)

Gwen Sabuki's costume got a little longer when it was drawn by different artists...but hey, it's still something you'd probably buy in Victoria's Secret not that I know anything about that.


Panel from The Invaders #38 (March 1979), script by Don Glut, pencils by Alan Kupperberg and Don Heck, inks by Chic Stone, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Jim Novak
Especially when it's drawn like this:


Cover of The Invaders #39 (April 1979), pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Joe Sinnott
That's why I was extremely happy to see this uniform on Golden Girl in today's All-New Invaders #7. I especially like the way it adapts the original color design and pattern of the kimono to a practical fighting outfit. With pants!


Panel portion from All-New Invaders #7 (September 2014), script by James Robinson, pencils and inks by Mark Laming, colors by Guru-eFX, letters by Cory Petit
This flashback takes place after the events of The Invaders series and its is-it-still-in-continuity sequel What If? #4, and is in fact after the disappearance/death of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, so this could be a "chronologically later" Golden Girl uniform.



But I'd like instead to think that this is actually a retcon of Gwen Sabuki's uniform and the one she woudl have worn "all along." It's certainly one of the best and most forward-thinking retcons of a stupid uniform into a practical, believable, yet still aesthetically attractive one.

Also, it's not a cast-off from one of Prince Namor's "lady friends."


Panels from Uncanny X-Men Annual (2006 series) #2 (March 2009); script by Matt Fraction; pencils, inks, and colors by Daniel Acuña; letters by Joe Caramagna
ICK STOP MAKING ME THINK ABOUT SUB-MARINER'S LOVE LIFE COMIC BOOKS