YALU RIVER ROSIE
Real Name: Unrevealed (first name is possibly Rosie)
Identity/Class: Human (post-World War II era) (Chinese)
Occupation: Spy, saboteur
Group Membership: The People's Army of China
Affiliations: The Chinese military, Fwong, Colonel Ti-Tong
Enemies: General Carter, Combat Kelly, Korea Katie, Muktong Mollie, Cookie Novak, Sgt. O'Hooligan, General Olga, the Panther Lady, Major Thorn
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile in Korea during the Korean War
First Appearance: Combat Kelly I#7 (November, 1952)
Powers/Abilities: Yalu River Rosie was a resourceful spy and saboteur. She showed terrific ingenuity in fashioning weapons and escape apparatus from scrap materials. In the field, she usually carried a pistol.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'2")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 104 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Black
History:
(Combat Kelly I#7/2) - Rosie was repairing her truck's engine when she
was accosted by the U.S. soldiers Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak. She
claimed to be a South Korean guerrilla who had stolen the truck from
the Communists and claimed there was something valuable contained in
the back. When Kelly and Cookie looked, they discovered a squad of
Chinese soldiers who took them prisoner, transporting them to a POW
camp. Both men later escaped.
(Combat Kelly I#8) - Yalu River Rosie was taking a bath in the Imjin River when Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak ambushed her, taking her gun. Rosie started to claim she was a South Korean guerrilla again but Kelly reminded her they'd met before. Rosie asked them to turn their backs as she exited the river, as she was nude, but instead, she dove underwater and swam downriver while a patrol of Chinese soldiers took Kelly and Cookie prisoner.
Rosie explained her plan to float rafts carrying dynamite to U.S. bridges and intended to tie Kelly and Cookie to the rafts. However, Kelly threw some ammunition shells into a campfire to make Rosie and the soldiers think U.S. reinforcements had arrived. In the confusion, Kelly grabbed a stick of dynamite and blew up Rosie's soldiers. Rosie turned her gun on Kelly but it was empty, as the shells he'd thrown in the fire were hers, removed while she was bathing in the river. The two men escorted Rosie back to their camp and their superior Major Thorn received Rosie as a prisoner.
(Combat Kelly I#9/2) - A squad of allies in the Chinese army used wire cutters to get Yalu River Rosie out of the stockade. Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak witnessed her escape and gave chase, killing most of the Chinese squad while Rosie fled in a jeep. Kelly and Novak caught up in a motorcycle and Novak shot Rosie's driver, causing the jeep to crash. Rosie fired her revolver at the motorcycle and blew out its tire then forced a peasant to give her his horse. As Rosie was fleeing downhill, Kelly and Novak used the peasant's wagon to pursue her. Kelly jumped from the wagon to the horse but Rosie then leaped from the horse into a river. Kelly chased after her and they struggled in the water until both went over a waterfall. They were found by Sgt. O'Hooligan, who accused Kelly of being AWOL and in a compromising situation with an enemy combatant. O'Hooligan returned Rosie to the camp stockade.
(Battlefront I#9 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Rosie escaped the stockade again.
(Battlefront I#9) - After Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak were captured by the Communists, they determined to kill Kelly by tying him to a boulder then rolling him down a hill but Yalu River Rosie interceded with her own plan. Rosie forced Kelly to drive a truck full of ammunition set to explode when he reached his own lines. However, Kelly doubled around and surprised the Communists from behind. The exploding truck took out the Communists and he freed Cookie then captured Rosie, carrying her over his shoulder as they walked back to their lines.
(Combat Kelly I#10/4) - After U.S. General Carter was captured by the Chinese, Major Thorn agreed to release Yalu River Rosie and exchange her for the officer, assigning Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak to escort her in a jeep and perform the exchange. At the rendezvous site, the Chinese released General Carter and Kelly let Rosie free but once she had a gun, Rosie turned it on the three Americans, announcing they would keep all of them as prisoners. Rosie led the three of them back into the jeep and ordered Kelly to drive them to a location she would identify. However, once he was behind the wheel, Kelly backed into the soldiers then sped downhill; the Chinese were afraid of hitting Rosie with friendly fire. Rosie threatened to shoot Kelly but he noted that if she did, the jeep would crash and kill them all. She tried to threaten General Carter instead but Kelly claimed he would deliberately crash the jeep if she killed the general. Kelly finally crashed the jeep once they were back in their own lines, delivering Yalu River Rosie back to Major Thorn.
(Combat Kelly I#11/4) - From inside the stockade, Yalu River Rosie and her fellow Chinese prisoners built a crude catapult and began launching flaming objects into the camp. When Major Thorn came to the barbed wire, Rosie announced her intention to target the camp's ammunition dump unless she and her allies were released. Major Thorn refused and sent Kelly and Cookie into the stockade to dismantle the catapult but the two men were overwhelmed in hand-to-hand combat by Rosie's allies. Narrowly evading the Chinese, Kelly and Cookie used the catapult to launch themselves back over the barbed wire. With that, Major Thorn ordered a tank to invade the stockade while hurling tear gas at the prisoners. Rosie's latest scheme was defeated and she cursed the soldiers in Chinese.
(Battlefront I#12) - At some point, Rosie escaped the stockade again. Yalu River Rosie was taking a bath in the Imjin River when Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak surprised her. Diving underwater, she swam to a nearby miniature submarine that was navigating the river. When Kelly and Cookie pursued her underwater, the submarine fired a torpedo at them. The duo swam back to the surface but the submarine surfaced and Rosie fired the deck gun at them as a warning, ordering them to surrender and board the submarine. Rosie boasted to them how the submarine could easily navigate the river and would soon meet up with other submarines to launch an attack on the camp where Kelly's outfit was located. Rosie placed her enemies into a torpedo room as a cell but they escaped the submarine by ejecting themselves through the torpedo tubes. Swimming back to their lines, they warned them of Yalu River Rosie's impending attack. Kelly poured oil into the river so that when the submarines arrived, he could light the river on fire. Most of the submarine crews surrendered. Yalu River Rosie fled her submarine and tried to swim to safety, only to find Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak waiting for her to again capture her.
(Combat Kelly I#12) - After Rosie's name came up in an interrogation of newly-captured Chinese soldiers, Major Thorn ordered Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak to escort her to the rear of their lines in case there were plans to break her out of stockade. As they escorted Rosie south, they were stopped at a military police checkpoint but the two MPs were Chinese soldiers in disguise who took the duo prisoner. To avoid any gunfire, Rosie advised her allies to tie Kelly and Cookie to their jeep and drag them to death but before they could start the jeep, the two rushed the guards then jumped behind the wheel of the jeep. Rosie shot at them and blew out the jeep's tires, forcing them over a cliff. Kelly and Cookie survived but realized they had allowed Rosie to escape them.
(Combat Kelly I#13/4) - Immediately after they had destroyed a bridge across the Imjin River in North Korea, Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak were held at gunpoint by Yalu River Rosie. She declared that before the sun set that day, they would lick her slippers and beg for mercy. Kelly reacted by getting down on his knees but instead of licking her feet, he flipped her over his shoulders and into the river. Before he could take Rosie prisoner, Rosie's subordinate Fwong appeared and took Kelly and Cookie prisoner. Rosie decided that rather than killing them, she'd force them to build a new bridge to replace the one they had destroyed.
Yalu River Rosie and Fwong led their prisoners to the colonel, whose forces had been intending to use the now-lost bridge. Rosie produced stolen supplies used by the U.S. Army in building pontoon bridges. Much to Cookie's surprise, Kelly began assisting Rosie's soldiers, giving them guidance in correctly assembling the bridge, seemingly to save his own life. When the bridge was nearly complete, Kelly told Rosie to send her forces upon the bridge while he completed the final section connecting the bridge to the opposite shore. However, once the army were on the bridge, Kelly sawed through the anchoring logs supporting the bridge instead of finishing it. Unmoored, the bridge floated down the Imjin River and down a waterfall, seemingly killing Rosie and her allies.
(Combat Kelly I#15 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Yalu River Rosie was recaptured and returned to the stockade.
(Combat Kelly I#15) - A Chinese truck broke into the stockade and released Yalu River Rosie. Kelly and Cookie pursued them into North Korea to recapture Rosie. Kelly and Cookie crashed their jeep into the truck but Rosie had already escaped the truck. By the time Rosie caught up to Kelly and Cookie, the duo had destroyed an entire convoy of Communist trucks. Rosie ambushed Kelly and Cookie but before she could shoot them, a tire from one of the recently-destroyed convoy trucks flew through the air and hit Rosie in the back of the head. Kelly and Cookie carried her back to the stockade.
(Combat Kelly I#16) - A helicopter dropped a rope into the stockade so Yalu River Rosie could climb out to safety. Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak saw her escape but didn't fire at her, as their superiors wanted Rosie as a live prisoner. Kelly pursued the helicopter and caught the ladder but Rosie directed the pilot to brush Kelly off along the side of a tree. Kelly fired a flare gun at the helicopter, causing a fire which made the helicopter crash. Rosie jumped off into a river and was nearly drawn over a waterfall. Kelly saved Rosie's life and dragged her to shore, only to find Colonel Ti-Tong of the Chinese military at the shore. Yalu River Rosie introduced herself to Colonel Ti-Tong and he told her of his plan to assault Major Thorn's camp. The colonel asked Rosie to take command over a helicopter and signal his infantry when the time to strike was right. Rosie brought Kelly aboard the helicopter with her as her prisoner. Curious about Kelly's flare gun, Rosie asked him to explain how it worked to her. He complied and fired it off inside the helicopter, setting it on fire. The pilot was forced to crash land inside the camp's stockade, placing Rosie again behind barbed wire. Soon after, Kelly's intelligence on the colonel's plan put Colonel Ti-Tong and his infantry into the stockade alongside Rosie.
(Combat Kelly I#16/4 (fb)) - Yalu River Rosie ordered her fellow prisoners to dig a tunnel out of the stockade. Abandoning the exhausted diggers, Rosie fled back to her lines and informed the military of the U.S. camp's location so they could begin a major artillery bombardment.
(Combat Kelly I#16/4) - As Rosie left the artillery field in a jeep, she was ambushed by Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak, who dropped boulders in the path of the jeep, crashing it. The two men took Rosie prisoner and commandeered the jeep. Rosie called out to her allies and they began firing at the jeep. Kelly and Cookie drove the jeep back to the camp but had almost no time left to warn them about the coming attack. Taking Rosie's lipstick, Cookie wrote "follow me" on her blouse so all the camp would follow them into the escape tunnel below the stockade. Sheltered underground, the soldiers were uninjured by the artillery assault and when the Chinese infantry moved in, they were overwhelmed by the U.S. army and surrendered. Rosie berated her comrades for surrendering, to which one of them angrily retorted "As Americans say, comrade Rosie... shut big trap, ya gabby dame!" Rosie was returned to the stockade, angrily cursing Kelly and Cookie.
(Combat Kelly I#17) - Yalu River Rosie escaped the stockade again, this time thanks to her fellow prisoners building a giant slingshot. Kidnapping Major Thorn, Rosie fled north but Kelly and Cookie gave chase, finding her at an enemy tank base. Hijacking a tank, Kelly parked it near a dam, knowing a friendly air patrol would spot and bomb it. The dam was destroyed and Rosie had to flee the water to save her life while Major Thorn escaped with Kelly and Cookie.
(Combat Kelly I#24/2) - Just as the Communist spy Panther Lady was about to feed Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak to her pet panther Kuei, Yalu River Rosie interceded and killed Kuei. When the Panther Lady demanded an explanation, Rosie reminded her that Kelly and Cookie had been her enemies for a longer period of time so she was claiming revenge on them. Rosie tied the duo to a tree and set a fire at their feet but the flames were put out by Korea Katie, who also wanted the privilege of killing them. In turn, Muktong Mollie and General Olga likewise tried to claim the right to kill them until all five women descended into a frenzy, each fighting the other for the right to kill Kelly and Cookie. The two soldiers, no longer bound up, just sat back and watched the women fight.
Comments: Created by Hank Chapman and Joe Maneely.
Combat Kelly had a lot of recurring villains who were beautiful Asian women - Yalu River Rosie had the most appearances of them all.
All Asian femme fatales owe a great debt to Milton Caniff and his creation the Dragon Lady from the newspaper comic strip Terry and the Pirates. Note that Rosie frequently called Kelly "Handsome One," which was the Dragon Lady's frequent nickname for Pat Ryan.
Yalu
River Rosie's eyes were only ever drawn to appear as black dots rather
than showing an actual color. Since most people don't have
black-colored eyes, her true eye color would be unrevealed. --Proto-Man
Profile by Prime Eternal.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Yalu River Rosie should not be confused with:
Fwong was a Chinese soldier who served under Yalu River Rosie's command. After Combat Kelly and Cookie Novak destroyed a bridge, Rosie attempted to take them prisoner herself but Kelly humiliated her and threw her into the river. Before they could take her prisoner, Fwong emerged from the bushes and held both soldiers at gunpoint. Fwong asked Rosie if he should kill them but she decided she would force them to build a new bridge the replace the one they destroyed. Fwong was possibly killed when Rosie's forces were swept over a waterfall on the pontoon bridge Kelly built.
--Combat Kelly I#13/4
Colonel Ti-Tong was a Chinese military officer allied with Yalu River Rosie. After Rosie escaped from Major Thorn's stockade, Colonel Ti-Tong met up with her and captured Combat Kelly, who had been trying to recapture Rosie. The colonel told Rosie he was about to assault Major Thorn's base and directed her to take command of a helicopter so she could direct their attack from the air. Colonel Ti-Tong moved his force across a river to await Rosie's signal but Kelly caused the helicopter to crash then informed Major Thorn of the coming attack. Major Thorn found Colonel Ti-Tong forces nearby the river and ordered a bazooka team to destroy the bridge behind them, removing any means of retreat. Major Thorn's soldiers descended upon Colonel Ti-Tong's army, quickly overwhelming them into surrender. Colonel Ti-Tong was sent to the stockade with Yalu River Rosie.
--Combat Kelly I#16
images: (without ads)
Combat Kelly I#9/2, page 1, panel 4 (Rosie, main)
Battlefront I#11, page 1, panel 1 (Rosie, face)
Combat Kelly I#13/4, page 3, panel 2 (Fwong)
Combat Kelly I#16, page 4, panel 7 (Ti-Tong)
Appearances:
Combat Kelly I#7/2 (November, 1952) - Hank Chapman (writer), Joe Maneely (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#8 (December, 1952) - Hank Chapman (writer), Joe Maneely (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#9/2 (January, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Joe Maneely (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Battlefront I#9 (February, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Al Hartley (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#10/4 (February, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Joe Maneely (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#11/4 (March, 1953) - unidentified writer, Al Hartley (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Battlefront I#11 (April, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#12 (April, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#13/4 (May, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#15 (August, 1953) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#16 (October, 1953) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#16/4 (October, 1953) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#17 (December, 1953) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Combat Kelly I#24/2 (September, 1954) - unidentified writer, Dave Berg (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 09/11/2025
Last updated:
09/11/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel
Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!