FELICITY
FRIMP
Real
Name: Felicity
Frimp
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Feminist,
terrorist
Group
Membership: S.C.U.M.
(Society for Cutting Up
Men); infiltrated F.L.U.S.H. (For Leaving Unlocked Sanitary
Habitats)
Affiliations: Gladys (last name unrevealed),
Glory (last name unrevealed); May Parker, Anna
Watson (she pretended to befriend May and Anna)
Enemies: Handy
Battleground, Mendacity
Capon, the Daily Bugle (J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson) (the Bugle was
investigating possible criminal activities of Frimp's S.C.U.M.
faction), F.L.U.S.H. (May Parker, others) (she was stealing money from
the
group),
Pricey Satin, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Buck Toothly, Mary Jane Watson
(she
was helping the Bugle investigate S.C.U.M.)
Known
Relatives: None
Aliases: "Miz" (a title she
preferred); "Miss
Frimp", "Miss Frump" (unintentional insults given to her by May Parker
and a
police officer)
Base
of Operations: F.L.U.S.H.'s
Park Avenue
offices in New York (Box 1220, Grand Central Station) and her
home in
Elmhurst, New York, USA
First
Appearance: The
Amazing Spider-Man Golden
All-Star Book (1977)
Powers/Abilities: Felicity Frimp had no
superhuman powers
but was skilled in the use of karate and using whatever items were near
her to
attack enemies. She carried a 9-inch knife and had made use of her
handbag, a
vial of acid and a pair of scissors as weapons.
History:
(The
Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book - "Aunt May's Crusade"
story (fb)
- BTS) - S.C.U.M.,
a terrorist
feminist organization, sent threatening letters to prominent
journalists
written in blank verse, warning of their terrorist plots.
(The Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book - "Aunt May's Crusade" story) - Shortly thereafter, S.C.U.M. leader Felicity Frimp met May Parker at the Hyannis, Massachusetts Hound Dog bus terminal, where an unknowing May befriended Frimp, explaining her anger over the pay toilets in the terminal. May soon after founded F.L.U.S.H. (For Leaving Unlocked Sanitary Habitats), an organization against pay toilets.
Making Felicity her second-in-command in F.L.U.S.H., May began making headlines for her cause, even appearing on Huck Finkley's 7pm news and the Dike Mugless Show. When Spider-Man investigated F.L.U.S.H., he ran afoul of Felicity and her aides Gladys and Glory planning to rob F.L.U.S.H. and divert at least half of it to fund S.C.U.M.'s activities. Discovering the hero, Felicity used her karate skills against the web-slinger. Their battle was interrupted when May and her F.L.U.S.H. members returned, prompting Spider-Man to escape through a window. When May asked what had happened, Frimp informed her that Spider-Man had attempted to steal F.L.U.S.H.'s cashbox but she had stopped him. Spider-Man quickly changed out of his costume and returned to F.L.U.S.H. as Peter Parker, where he was introduced to Frimp, Gladys and Glory by May. While the members of S.C.U.M. plotted on using Peter to their advantage, Peter Parker took photos of them all for the Daily Bugle, leaving his camera behind to go to lunch.
While Peter was out
to lunch, S.C.U.M.
killed famed artist Handy Battleground via 75 gunshot wounds and, using
Parker's camera, implicated Peter in the murder by placing the camera
on the
scene. While the press hounded May Parker's home in search of Peter,
S.C.U.M. also murdered author Mendacity Capon, who had written an
anti-F.L.U.S.H.
book, by causing him to slip and fall on a banana peel. On the run,
Spider-Man
left a paycheck and a note for May, who rushed to the F.L.U.S.H.
headquarters to inform Felicity of her nephew's innocence. She then
asked Frimp
to deposit the check for her. Plotting to implicate Parker in the Capon
murder
as well as the impending murders of politician Pricey Satin and newsman
Buck
Toothly, Felicity met with Gladys and Glory, telling them to leave
Peter's
check at the scene of Satin's murder. Later that evening, as Felicity
planned
out the murder of Toothly, she was confronted by Spider-Man. Attacking
him,
Felicity hurled her handbag and a vial of acid at the wall-crawler,
incapacitating him with the fumes. Locking Spider-Man in the F.L.U.S.H.
offices with the acidic fumes, Felicity left to meet with Gladys and
Glory.
The next morning,
Peter Parker phoned May
and claimed that he had a roll of film that would prove his innocence
and
reveal the true killers at the same time. He then told May to tell the
girls in
F.L.U.S.H. that he would leave it in the F.L.U.S.H. mailbox,
secretly
planning to trap Felicity Frimp with the false film. Spider-Man then
phoned the
Daily Bugle as they were reeling from the murder of Pricey Satin via
strangulation with his own bow-tie, telling them to have the police
stake out
Frimp's home in Elmhurst. As predicted, a suspicious Felicity Frimp
stole the
film and took it home to develop at her personal darkroom, determined
to learn
what evidence Peter had on S.C.U.M.'s guilt. Spider-Man surprised
Frimp by
leaping through her darkroom window. Attacking with a pair of scissors,
Felicity was quickly defeated and arrested by the NYPD, who had wire
tapped her
home and recorded her monologuing her worries that Peter had evidence
of their
guilt. Felicity was then informed that Gladys and Glory had been
arrested in
the halls of WPIG-TV trying to assassinate Buck Toothly and had
confessed to
the crimes. With Peter proven innocent, Felicity was taken into
custody,
announcing that S.C.U.M. had only begun.
Comments: Created by Mary A.
Mintzer and Alden
McWilliams.
Many
of the characters in this
story were parodies of real-life topical people of the time. One that
immediately springs to mind is Dike Mugless, who was an obvious parody
of Mike
Douglas. I believe Huck Finkley's name was also a sort of mish-mash of
newsmen
David Brinkley & Chet Huntley, of The
Huntley-Brinkley Report. The Hound Dog bus company was a
parody of the
Greyhound bus company as well, and Handy Battleground was a parody of
artist
Andy Warhol. I'm sure that Mendacity Capon, Pricey Satin and Buck
Toothly were
all parody names based on real people but alas, I was not even alive
yet in
1977 so I'm not as knowledgeable on the topical references of the time...
According to the "Aunt May's Crusade"
story in the All-Star Book, Aunt May's lipstick of choice is "Poppies
in the
Snow" by Revloony. Who knew?
As
it turns out, upon doing some
research, S.C.U.M. is/was a real-life organization (also standing
for the
Society of Cutting Up Men) consisting of only one official member,
Valerie
Solanas, whom Felicity Frimp could possibly be based on. In 1967,
Solanas wrote
the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, which urged women to overthrow society and
eliminate
the male gender. She was known to host feminist rallies and once shot
artist
Andy Warhol, which was likely where the idea of S.C.U.M.'s murder of
artist
Handy Battleground came from. Apparently, Solanas had always claimed to
be the
only official member of S.C.U.M., suggesting that on Earth-616
(which is
where this story presumably takes place), either Felicity Frimp founded
the group
or Solanas' S.C.U.M. became such a full-fledged organization that
Frimp
eventually became the head of her own faction.
Profile
by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Character name has no known connections to
- any other "Felicity" or "Frimp"
characters
Gladys
and Glory were members of
Felicity Frimp's S.C.U.M. organization and were dedicated to Frimp's
idea of
eradicating men, especially the chauvinist ones. When Frimp infiltrated
May
Parker's F.L.U.S.H. organization, Gladys and Glory accompanied her
and
aided Frimp's plans to funnel a portion of F.L.U.S.H.'s donations
into the
terrorist activities of S.C.U.M. Caught in the act by Spider-Man
while
attempting to steal donations, Gladys and Glory battled the hero
alongside
Felicity until their battle was interrupted by the arrival of May
Parker,
prompting Spider-Man to flee. When Spider-Man returned as Peter Parker
and was
introduced to Felicity, Gladys and Glory, they opted to frame him using
the
camera he left behind when he left. Sending Gladys and Glory out to
murder
chauvinist celebrity men, Felicity later met with them after seemingly
disposing of Spider-Man. After Peter Parker announced that he had film
that
could prove S.C.U.M.'s murders, Felicity sent Gladys and Glory to
murder
Buck Toothly while she acquired the film and developed it, determined
to learn
if Parker's claims were true. As Spider-Man defeated and captured
Felicity at
her Elkhurst home, Gladys and Glory were arrested at WPIG-TV during
their
assassination attempt and confessed to the murders.
Neither
woman had superhuman powers
but were skilled in the use of murder weapons such as a banana peel and
bow-tie.
--The
Amazing Spider-Man Golden
All-Star Book (1977) - "Aunt May's Crusade" story
images: (without ads)
The Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book, p11-12, splash page (main
image)
The Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book, p19, splash page (Felicity
Frimp headshot)
The Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book, p16, splash page (Gladys
&
Glory)
Appearances:
The Amazing Spider-Man Golden All-Star Book (1977) - "Aunt May's
Crusade" story - Mary A. Mintzer (writer), Alden McWilliams (art)
Last
updated:
10/02/12
Any
Additions/Corrections? please
let me know.
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