CHARITY
Real Name: Charity Winslow
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-78423) android; formerly human
Occupation: Woman's Rights Activist; former housewife
Group Membership: Member of the Sixth Avenue Amazons
Affiliations: None; formerly Self-Made Man (Fred Feenix)
Enemies: Howard the Duck, Beverly Switzler, Fred Feenix, Arthur Winslow
Known Relatives: Arthur Winslow (ex-husband)
Aliases: Maid of Metal
Base of Operations: Cleveland, Ohio
First Appearance: Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (October 23rd, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: Charity's physical body was transformed into a robotic form that contained her intelligence and personality. She no longer aged, needed to eat, drink or sleep. Her durable metal body provided her with increased superhuman strength and protection from most forms of damage. Due to some unforeseen flaw, her limbs, when subjected to intense vibrations could come apart from their joints and would require someone to rejoin them.
Before her transformation, Charity was both athletic and proved to be a capable fighter and brawler. She was proficient in the use of a whip.
She was quick to anger when confronted with what she perceived to be male chauvinistic attitudes towards her and hated being seen as an object to be desired by men.
Height: Unrevealed (5'9"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (140 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Brown (possibly)
Hair: Black
History:
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip October 1977 (fb) - BTS) - Charity Winslow was once happily married to Arthur Winslow, but over time began to question her role as typical housewife. She blamed Arthur for only seeing her as a sex object and cleaning lady and that he made all the important decisions in the marriage as well as choosing her clothes. Exposing herself to woman's lib literature, she eventually became bitter and dissatisfied with her husband's lack of regard for her newfound beliefs and only saw her as an sexual object needing protection from a man. No longer happy, they quickly divorced. Now feeling truly liberated, she joined a support group called the Sixth Avenue Amazons in downtown Cleveland and dreamed of one day taking over its leadership.
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip October 1977 (fb) ) - Needing a job, she soon found employment with Fred Feenix, the Self-Made Man, who hired her to find a suitable male and female he could experiment on by transforming them into the first of his Ro-Bods by transferring their consciousness into artificial robotic bodies. Fred Feenix also promised to also create a Ro-Bod for Charity in return.
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip October 23rd, 1977) - Charity, still angry with her ex-husband, tracked him down and kidnapped him and his roommate Beverly Switzler and phoned Fred Feenix that she had acquired two specimens and reminded her boss that she wanted her new body as promised. Fred Feenix consented as per their agreement and would do so upon delivery. Charity then brought them to the Self-Made Man's offices where he could transfer their brain patterns into awaiting male and female Ro-Bod constructs.
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip November 13th, 1977) – Free from her restraints that kept her hands bound to Howard, Beverly, angered by Charity's bitter attitude towards her friend Arthur Winslow for his maleness and romantic ideals, began cat fighting with Charity, who easily subdued her using a whip. Howard sarcastically told Arthur that Charity won the fight, but Beverly won their debate.
(Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip November 13th to December 11th, 1977) - Feeling slighted and wanting to be the first to gain a super body, Charity, along with Howard's insistence, convinced Fred Feenix to comply with the request. Gaining her new body, Charity then turned against Fred Feenix, accusing him of being just like any other man who saw women as inferior and stormed off by smashing her way through a wall and dropping five stories to the sidewalk below, vowing to rejoin her women's group, the Sixth Avenue Amazons, and take over as its leader. Fred, Howard, Beverly, and Arthur chased after her. The Self-made Man and Charity began a scuffle on the street, but he was unsuccessful in subduing her. Unable to resist any opportunity to humiliate her ex-husband, Charity bull-rushed Arthur and Charity crashed into a nearby business called the Eurasian Health Spa, where she got tangled up in an exercise machine that Howard then set to max causing intense vibrations that made her limbs fall off. Scooping them up, her body was returned to Fred's office where he promised to fix her at some later date. Her current activities are unknown.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik and Gene Colon.
She wore a tight-fitting catsuit and did not appear to wear shoes on her feet. Kind of odd as a liberated woman that she chose clothing that would accentuate her womanly curves. Also, barefoot, and pregnant comes to mind as a metaphor. Was this her way of flaunting this housewife stereotype?
She was married to Arthur Winslow and this was her only appearance to date and was never revealed to have been married in any of his other appearances throughout the various Howard the Duck comics printed by Marvel. Can one assume that even though the newspaper strip is not considered to have occurred on Marvel's 616 prime universe, Charity and Arthur's marriage would still have occurred and a somewhat similar series of events may have happened but never seen on panel.
The Howard the Duck newspaper strip was short-lived and only lasted a few years. Marvel convinced Register and Tribune Syndicate to pick up a new strip after the success of the Amazing Spider-Man strip done by Stan Lee and Romita that debuted in January 1977. They chose Howard the Duck due to him being a fan favorite and a great character to use to parody society and make light of both character stereotypes and events of the day to tell a story a reader could identify with and enjoy.
Profile by AvatarWarlord.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Charity has no known connections to:
The Sixth Avenue Amazons was a feminist support group for liberated women that was located in downtown Cleveland Missouri that Charity Winslow attended as a member. Charity dreamed that one day she would take charge of the group and lead them.
--Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (October to December 1977 - BTS)
images: (without ads)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (November 16th, 1977), pan1 (main image)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (November 28th 1977), pan3 (Ro-Bod body)
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (December 9th, 1977), pan1 (dismantled)
Appearances:
Howard the Duck Newspaper Strip (October to December 1977) - Steve Gerber (writer), Gene Colon (pencils), Val Mayerik (inks)
First Posted: 06/02/2021
Last updated: 06/02/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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