Plot
Meriem the Cavewoman is laying on a tilted observation table in Dr. Lansing’s lab. Above her is a large apparatus that has a syringe at the end. At the flip of a switch, the machine punctures Meriem’s superhuman tough skin and draws out a blood sample. With this, Dr. Lansing hopes to synthesize a formula to vaccinate the citizens of Marshville against Jurassic diseases. Happy to have contributed to the greater community, Meriem leaves with her beau Bruce to get ice cream.
Dr. Lansing’s lab assistant and daughter Mona is invited but her father steers her back to her scientific work. Late, on her way home, she is called “weird” and a “cat-lady” by patrons of a diner. She muses over her inability to land a boyfriend, especially one like Bruce. She decides to steal the serum taken from Meriem’s blood and inject herself with it, transforming her body into a fit, jungle girl. She dons a costume and blonde wig and begins performing superhero deeds around Marshville, such as saving kittens and hunting for food. Her escapades attract the attention of the male populace.
Meriem and Bruce are summoned to Lansing’s lab who reports that some of the serum is missing and is probably connected with the sudden appearance of the blonde jungle heroine. They decide to store the serum in a bank vault for protection.
Mona overhears this, but risks breaking into the bank to get the serum to continue living in her new form. Waiting in the vault is Meriem and the two ladies get into a fight. After many blows are exchanged, Mona seemingly gets the upper hand as she puts Meriem in a chokehold.
Commentary
Cavewoman “Natural Selection” issue one is the first part of a two issue story arc written and drawn by Devon Massey and published in June 2012. “Natural Selection” is the first comic reviewed in this Cavewoman retrospective that was done by Massey as the other issues analyzed so far (“Extinction”, “Snow”, and “Bunny Ranch”) were written and drawn by Rob Durham.
Massey’s artistic approach to Meriem is extremely different than both Durham’s and Root’s. Budd Root and Rob Durham both embrace the pinup and cheesecake style when depicting Meriem. Massey takes a less glamorous, but still extremely sexualized, approach. It feels at home with old school underground and adult comics (of which Cavewoman is a successor of). Somewhere on the scale of Robert Crumb to Eric Stanton can one find a gauge of Massey’s style.
Massey’s approach to Meriem is to make her “rounder”, especially noticeable in her face and cheeks. Massey’s Meriem is still voluptuous and maintains the emphasis on her body, especially her breasts and posterior. There is less detail in Massey’s art when compared to Durham, but on the other hand, it leans into a more “cartoony” style which supports the tone of “Natural Selection” which is full of scenes of sexual innuendoes and genre parody. Massey has a specific vibe present in the art, and it supports the more laid back, lower stakes, simple superheroine story of “Natural Selection”.
“Natural Selection” begins immediately with a multi-layered parody of the pulp trope of a hero secured to a mad scientist’s/villain’s table, with a death ray or buzz saw above them, a ticking clock to their demise. This is the type of trope reserved for James Bond Eurospy-type characters or damsels in distress. Meriem is a far cry from being a damsel in distress, so her occupying that role visually in the opening pages is both jarring and comedic, as her powers would allow her to escape at any time.
Next, it turns out the scene is not perilous at all, but benevolent. Meriem has volunteered herself to have her blood drawn into order to be turned into a serum to help the residents of Marshville survive being in the prehistoric past. The reason for the dramatic and dangerous looking setup is that equipment from an oil drill, (perhaps a nod to the oil drilling plot line in “Snow” issues one and two), is needed to pierce her invulnerable skin. The scene get even more nefarious looking, with Dr. Lansing initially depicted as a lecherous and grotesque mad scientist. However, he is a good guy.
Finally, the dialogue bubbles for this “mad scientist/damsel in distress” sequence are non-stop sexual innuendos and double entendres. The first page of “Natural Selection” shows Meriem leaning back, bracing herself (protruding her buxomness toward the reader as much as possible) as if she is about to be penetrated sexually, “Gosh, I’ve never done this before…is it gonna hurt?” Dialogue lines such as “I have managed to raise the necessary equipment”, “I can begin the insertion”, “you might feel a little prick” pile on, making the scene entirely over the top with innuendo, that in the end, is all misconstruing context that concludes with Lansing getting a blood sample, a benign activity that occurs in many normal visits to the doctor. This is Austin Powers style humour dialed to eleven.
The bulk of the focus of “Natural Selection” is not on Meriem but on Mona, the daughter of Dr. Lansing who has confidence issues and wants to get a boyfriend. Her hair is pulled into a tight ponytail and she wears glasses, but she is far from being homely. She is a parody, like Chyler Leigh’s character in the spoof film Not Another Teen Movie (2001). Her concerns about her appearance are valid in that even in the prehistoric past, advertising and society expectations find a way to make her feel inadequate. She walks by a series of storefronts, such as an adult store and a tanning salon, that bombard her with messaging that she needs to change her appearance.
Mona has a crush on Bruce, who in this issue has his greaser/rockabilly image cranked way up (he also seems to dig The Rocky Horror Picture Show [1975]). This causes Mona to compare herself to Meriem and become discouraged. This is a theme that Cavewoman previously explored in “Snow” issue two. In that issue Meriem passes by a strip mall on her way to do gardening at a museum. Two women inside the mall watch Meriem pass by. One comments that Meriem needs to cover up more while the other talks about her boyfriend drooling just by looking at the cavewoman. The former does counter that her boyfriend is a “dog” who needs “his ass dumped” and that Meriem “seems nice and she has a boyfriend” implying Meriem is not going to be stealing anyone’s significant other. The exchange is brief, but it does set a background that there are women in Marshville who find themselves threatened or intimidated by Meriem’s beauty, and from the ongoings in “Natural Selection”, Mona can be added to that list.
Mona eventually steals the serum, injects it, and gains the same powers Meriem has. There is a small superhero parody sequence where Mona tries on different skimpy outfits, with some of the attire being akin to Lady Death and other “bad girl” comic heroines. There are shades of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Mona being the Jekyll and her blond superheroine form being Mr. Hyde.
Issue one of “Natural Selection” concludes with the two ladies engaged in fisticuffs and wrestling. Lots of panels show clothed breasts and butts during the battle. The entirety of this issue has been nudity free, despite all the sexual innuendo in the beginning. There are lots of cleavage and butt cheeks being shown, (the ending battle makes sure of this), and nipples poking through skimpy attire, but no actual nudity. Massey tongue-in-cheek pokes fun at this, with the final panel of the issue proclaiming “To Be contiNUDE! ‘heh-heh!’”, teasing readers that the second and final issue of the “Natural Selection” arc will pay off with some nudity, be it from Meriem, Mona, or both.
Conclusion
“Natural Selection” issue one is a fun issue and surprisingly complex. At first glance it may seem trope-heavy or cliché, but Massey makes it work to do some heavy storytelling and character development lifting. Meriem has fought underground Cthulhu-esque monsters, werewolves, and dinosaurs, but she does not often get to fight against humans that can stand toe to toe with her. With Mona, Massey leverages tropes such as “the ugly girl” in high school rom coms and Dr. Jekyl, to build a worthwhile, but not evil, adversary for Meriem. Massey goes the extra mile to make Mona multi-dimensional, showing her insecurities and the climate she is living in: working hard in her father’s lab (isolation), not feeling romantically loved, and yet still being bombarded with advertising and societal expectations (despite being in a town transported millions of years into the prehistoric past) on how to be a more attractive woman. She is selfish because she is stealing the serum that can help others, but there is pity with her. She is identifiable with and perhaps after her battle with Meriem, she can find a new path to get what she wants.
For more information on Cavewoman “Natural Selection” #1 check out the official product page at Amryl Entertainment:
For more reviews of Budd Root’s Cavewoman series I’ve penned, check these out (chronological order of issue publish date):