Amazons of the Asteroids by NK Hemmings, which featured in the Australian pulp comic Thrills Incorporated #17 (November 1951), is a bit of an oddity, that manages to mine the genre of space adventure, together with the trope of woman warriors, while also succeeding in being sexist and condescending towards its female protagonists.
The story revolves around a macho hero, space explorer Captain Floyd Estrom who in 2273, leads his intrepid three-man band to investigate the mysterious planet Jupiter. While surveying the asteroids around the planet, Estrom and his crew encounter the extraordinary sight of a woman, clearly a warrior, seated on a winged horse. Estrom immediately surmises that this is a genuine Amazon, probably the origin of all the earth legends of unbridled and empowered fighting females. The expedition become determined to capture the Amazon, but soon run into the whole tribe and the situation becomes reversed and the male intruders are taken prisoner by the women. Despite mocking the Amazons and refusing to take them seriously, the men are overpowered again by the Amazons and threatened with destruction until one of their number, an elemental being named Dirga, uses his electronic powers to defeat the female warriors although he kills himself in the process.
Basically at the end of the story normal service is resumed with the assertive women put in their place and the captive men freed. So, sadly, Amazons of the Asteroids, despite its depiction of empowered female characters ends up conforming to the gender stereotypes of 1950s comicdom. I do like the rather clunky cover though.
It is also worth noting that despite the story’s sexism, author NK Hemmings was actually a woman (Norma Hemmings) who was something of a pioneer in Australian female science fiction writing.
Source: treasuryoflostbooks on Instagram.
