Comic Book Significant Others Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cora

Julius Caesar Dithers is Dagwood Bumstead's boss. As the owner of the J.C. Dithers Construction Company, Mr Dithers is very wealthy, obsessed with accumulating more wealth, and bosses his workers around as though it's going out of fashion. His wife Cora, though, is more than a match for him, and quite competently puts him in his place now and then.

Their fights are hilarious, and usually end with a subdued "Yes, dear" from Mr Dithers. Both characters are an excellent cartoon combination.

Answer: Midge Klump

Moose Mason, named because of his size, is a somewhat dense, but very athletic student at Riverdale High School in the excellent "Archie" comics. We learn later that Moose has parents who are Russian and American (I doubt Russians would rejoice in that), and that his seemingly low IQ is really the result of dyslexia. There's nothing like keeping up with the latest. You can expect a gender re-assignment student to show up any day now.

Moose is also pathologically jealous of any male, particularly Reggie Mantle, who even looks sidewards at his girlfriend, Midge Klump, and has been known to put out their lights because of this on the odd occasion. She loves him regardless, but more because, in spite of his size and temper, he is also very loyal and compassionate. She lectures him good and proper on his failings however, and this results in the pair splitting up occasionally - only to quickly get back together again. Midge, just in passing, isn't adverse to donging Reggie or Moose herself now and then, with either one of them showing up once in a while with a fine shiner courtesy of her.

Answer: Nightshade

Captain Atom has been around in one form or another since 1960. Accidentally atomised with massive amounts of radiation while working in his everyday life as a lab technician, this superhero, whose real identity is Allen Adam, fights villains at every turn of course. Super villains at that. He first appeared in print, courtesy of Joe Gill and Steve Ditko, in 1960. Fortunately Captain Atom is also given the ability to return to his normal size when the job in hand is done.

Later on in the continuing tales of the mighty Captain Atom, many of his adventures come hand in hand with his female equivalent, the luscious Nightshade. Captain Atom finds all his little protons all a-tingle when she is by his side. Nightshade, whose real identity is Eve Eden, has a US senator for a father, and a mother who was a visitor from another dimension. Her special powers include teleportation and giving shadows solid two-dimensional shape, and, together with her atomic boyfriend, the two disperse criminals on a regular basis.

Answer: Nova Kane

E-man was a rather comical superhero created in 1973 by Nicola Cuti and Joe Straton. Because Cuti admired Albert Einstein and his famous E=mc2, he made his superhero a man who had been caught in a factory explosion which turned him into an energy being capable of taking on any shape. E-man, one sadly feels fears, is sometimes more of a comedian than someone fighting for truth, justice and the American way though, and he often sees the lighter side of every situation in a most entertaining fashion. His comic book series lasted until 1975, but has returned periodically since 1989, right up to the present (2016).

His significant other is Nova Kane who is a student attending Xanadu university during the day, but an exotic dancer at night. Nova herself is later caught in a nuclear accident, and gains the same power as E-man and together they deal energetically with villains on every horizon. At one stage Nova Kane's powers disappears and she becomese a normal human once more, but miraculously they return to her in a later episode. This electrifying pair have a pet koala as well, and that ball of fluff becomes very intelligent - for a koala - so much so that he manages to hold down a job waiting on tables in a café.

Answer: Dale Arden

Space age hero Flash Gordon is a graduate of Yale university who plays polo as a sport in his everyday life until earth is threatened by a head on collision with the planet Mongo. One Dr Hans Zarkov builds a spaceship able to fly to Mongo, and, kidnapping Flash Gordon and his companion, Dale Arden, flies to Mongo in an attempt to save earth. There for many years, they battle the wicked Ming the Merciless who is the ruler of Mongo.

Dale Arden is Flash's long term girlfriend and companion on his many adventures. She is beautiful, capable of taking care of herself (and Flash on the odd occasion), but very feminine as well, and has been likened in recent years to Princess Leia of the "Star Wars" series of films. Ming the Merciless, the wicked cad, is smitten with Dale at first sight, and many of the early episodes of Flash and his friends deal with his attempts to rescue Dale from Ming as he tries to force the feisty Dale into marriage.

Answer: Narda

"Mandrake the Magician" was a comic strip by Lee Falk. It first appeared in 1934. Many people consider Mandrake to be the first crime fighting superhero to appear in comics. Mandrake however doesn't just fight everyday criminals. He also deals with aliens and villains from other dimensions as well. His mighty powers include the ability to hypnotise people in an instant, to change shape, to levitate, and even to teleport.

Narda, his long time girlfriend, made her appearance in Mandrake's second comic strip. She is an European princess of high degree, delectable of course, and is skilled at martial arts. It took her a long time to get Mandrake to the altar in spite of the fact that they were deeply in love. That romantic event, which took sixty-three years to come about, took place in 1997 at Mandrake's home, Xanadu, which lies at the top of a New York State mountain.

Answer: Diana Palmer

Crime fighting hero from Africa, the Phantom aka The Ghost Who Walks, aka Kit Walker, was created by Lee Falk as a comic book way back in 1936. With his trusty steed, Hero, and his faithful wolf, Devil, the Phantom's enduring popularity had seen his branching out into television shows, video games and movies as well as those very popular comic so loved by kids from so long ago. The 21st Phantom with whom we are so familiar has even had an ancestor who was a twin sister. That was Julie Walker, sister of the 17th Ghost Who Walks, and she defeated a gang of pirates on one occasion when her twin was too ill to deal with them.

Diana Palmer, though, is the love of the 21st Phantom. His long-suffering girlfriend for many years, Diana and the Phantom eventually marry and have two children, Kit and Heloise, to carry on that famous legend. First meeting as children, during which period Kit saves Diana from an escaped zoo panther, the two didn't see each other again for several years, but when they did, it was love at second sight. By then Kit was a champion sportsman in every field and Diana a diving champion - with a black belt in karate. She eventually becomes a nurse but by the 21st century editions, is working with the United Nations. One of the most memorable things about Diana is, comically so, her interfering mother, Lily, who most definitely does not like her daughter's true love.

Answer: Alanna

Created by Julius Schwarz in 1958, Adam Strange is described as a science fiction hero. As an archaeologist going about his business digging sites in Peru one day, he is suddenly transported to a planet called Rann by an extremely powerful Zeta-Beam that has the power to relocate people millions of miles away in space. Upon his arrival there, and in a dazed and confused state, he is attacked by aliens. Springing to his rescue is a dark-haired beauty named Alanna - appropriately dressed of course - and she takes him to her father who explains he has been brought there to fight those very same aliens and other extraterrestrial threats to Rann.

Periodically, from this time, Adam is returned to earth when the Zeta-Beam's power wears off, but by then he has been given the co-ordinates for when and where the next beam will return him to Rann. And so the adventures continue. Alanna, the brunette beauty with whom he has fallen in deeply in love, is beside his side on his every adventure. Ah, l'amour.

Answer: Joan

The Flash, first created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert back in 1940, is actually the first of several incarnations of this scarlet speedster, but this question deals with the first one only. That was college athlete, Jay Garrick, who graced the pages of D.C. Comics from 1940 until 1951. Following a laboratory accident during the course of his studies, Jay is given the ability to move at super speeds way beyond that of the normal human, and decides to use his extraordinary power to fight crime, thrilling his readers from his time of creation until the comic was cancelled. However, because of the demands of fans, Jay was given a new life, still as a super-hero, in the 1990s. By then he has become a World War II veteran whose speedy powers have also magically increased his life span, and he now works with the mighty Justice League.

Though the other Flash incarnations have come with an assortment of girlfriends, including Iris West, the significant other of the second Flash, the first Flash's true love is Joan. She doesn't play a particularly significant role in the crime fighting side of things, but he does love her, even though she has cleverly deduced his true identity. At that stage, Jay doesn't have to wear a mask as a disguise. His super speed enables him to always blur his features instead, but when Joan "unmasks" him, he dons one from then on. The two eventually marry and settle down. This takes place shortly before he has been accused of being a communist sympathiser by the government and told he must reveal his true identity. This he indignantly refuses to do, but retires from crime fighting instead with his new bride and works as a scientists for the next few decades until revived as Jay Garrick, with his storyline slightly altered, in the 1990s.

Answer: Margo Lane

Created by Walter B. Gibson, the Shadow first appeared in print in 1931. This expert in shooting, hand to hand combat, hypnosis, stealth, detecting and disguise, is frequently portrayed as just an eerie voice coming from the shadows behind the scene of any action. In the comics, the Shadow's alter ego was that of Kent Allard, but when his character eventually branched out into radio and film, he went by the name of Lamont Cranston instead. Initially portrayed as wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and crimson lined black cloak with a turned up collar, the comic book version of the Shadow eventually swapped the cloak for a red scarf covering his face in later editions. Kent Allard, his true identity, was a famed aviator from World War I, and when that terrible event had passed, he switched his gun sights into fighting crime instead.

The Shadow's significant other is a rather annoying woman called Margot Lane. When she eventually appeared in film, she was given the ability of telepathy, and this enabled her to fight off the Shadow's hypnotic abilities when he tried to use them on her. In the early comics though, Margot is portrayed as a rather annoying socialite who always manages somehow to get under the Shadow's skin. He becomes a smitten shadow, whether he likes it or not. Margot wasn't introduced into the comics until four years after the Shadow was created, and her appearance so late in the game enraged fans of the series to the extent that the magazine behind the comic's production received bags of hate mail!