Who's This? Lady warriors.
The facts: Mister Miracle #6 (February 1972) presents the Female Furies as Jack Kirby's newest creation, Granny Goodness' elite all-woman warrior squad which Big Barda (introduced two issues earlier) led before falling in with Scott Free. The rest of them would also defect and join the Miracle Circus, but after the Fourth World books were cancelled, this was ignored by later writers. I suppose it's hard to imagine characters named Bernadeth and Mad Harriet as heroes. Of the original group (besides Barda), only Lashina could be said to have had a "heroic" career, as the mysterious Duchess in John Ostrander's Suicide Squad. The Furies would start appearing rather regularly from the 90s on, and not just in Fourth World material. Superboy had to contend with Knockout for example, a new Fury who wanted to play Barda to his Scott, and over the years, several new Furies were created to supplement the team. Of the most persistent, we have Gilotina, Artemiz and Speed Queen. They continued to appear, in one for or another, through the New52 and Rebirth, in such titles as O.M.A.C., Justice League, Superman, Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn.
How you could have heard of them: In 2019, the Female Furies got their own feminist 6-issue mini-series taking place in an alternate reality. But the casual DC fan will probably have caught them in a dozens of animated appearances, including the DCAU, Brave and the Bold, Young Justice, DC Super Hero Girls and more. They appeared in live action on Smallville (with the character of Tess even BECOMING a Fury).
Example story: Superboy #25 (Mach 1996), "Whom the Gods Would Destroy!" by Karl Kesel, Tom Grummett, Jeff Moy, Dean Zachary, J. Calafiore, Doug Hazelwood, Keith Champagne, Dan Davis and John Lowe
The Furies are in Honolulu to get Knockout back. She's a Fury who has gone rogue and is hiding out in a... a gentlemen's club... as an exotic dancer, but broke her cover when she decided to go after Superboy romantically. Now the Furies are at her place of employment, torturing her friends (and intrepid reporter Tana Moon) for information.
That's Pippa, pronged on the end of Bernadeth's Fahren-Knife (kids, it's not the Fourth World if everything isn't a pun), one the dancers at the club. A minor character, but a recurring one, so this was probably pretty shocking back in the day. They're telling Tana they mean business, but either Tana doesn't know where to find Knockout, or won't tell. Perhaps if Stompa goes STOMP--I mean, THOOM.
From what I know of Stompa's powers, that should have killed Tana regardless. And started a small earthquake. So it's just a tap. (Hey, DC/Marvel crossover idea: Stompa and Black Bolt as Astaire and Rogers). Writer Karl Kesel is also giving some play to the Furies he created in the pages of Hawk & Dove. That little girl there is Malice, who controls a shadowy creature called Chessure. And Speed Queen, well, I think the name speaks for itself.
There's also the vampire-like Blood Mary:
In addition to Classic and NuFuries, there's lots of generic lady warriors, from the cover on down. The Female Furies have come as an ARMY. Not a well-disciplined army, mind you. One of things about this group is that it doesn't have a lot of cohesion. They lost their leader Big Barda, and Knockout is also a deserter. Bernadeth was made leader after Barda left, but now it's Lashina, and Bernie is always trying to undermine her authority. This is probably why Apokolips will never win. You can't rule with fear and cruelty - they don't breed loyalty. Once Superboy is in danger, Knockout shows up to save him and take responsibility for her actions.
A big fight ensues, of course. During a short break, we get a glimpse at what it takes to become a Female Fury, as Knockout remembers when she had short hair and kept getting punished for her mistakes/rebellions. After a sound beating, you get chained to the inside of a fire pit!
Barda soon left to find Mister Miracle after these events, and Knockout was inspired. On a later punishment, and after some coaxing from Himon, she broke her chains and leapt into the flames... where a Boom Tube was waiting to take her to Earth, and here we are. More battle, and the two heroes are overwhelmed by large numbers, until they are dead.
Or not dead, of course - it was all an illusion cast by Dubbilex. Knockout, ever the warrior princess, is pretty angry at Doobs for doing this, but hey, she lives to give Superboy a lap dance (yes, this is inferred), so no one's complaining.
If I have learned anything from this issue, it's that the Female Furies have some powerful SOUND EFFECTS on their side, but no sisterhood. And that's their Achilles' heel.
Who's Next? The Boy of Steel (not that one).
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