As sales of Western titles at DC started to fade, DC started to punch up the titles...
...and, with the Johnny Thunder feature in All-Star Western, added a femme fatale for him to face...
...Madame .44!
Six-Gun Showdown With Madame .44
Introduced in
All-Star Western #117 (February-March, 1961) by
Gardner Fox,
Gil Kane and
Joe Giella, Madame .44 rode into Mesa City looking for trouble, and found Johnny Thunder. John Tane (the teacher alter ego of Johnny Thunder) learned a little about her, and set out after her. He caught up with her in a small, empty town set upon by Arapho Indians, where she explained she only went after Hardin as he had stolen from others, like how her father lost his mine to his partner (and died brokenhearted because of it). They allied and stopped the problems, but Johnny vowed to find her true identity.
The Eyes Of Johnny Thunder
Next up is
All-Star Western #118 (April-May, 1961) by
Gardner Fox,
Gil Kane and
Joe Giella. where John Tane goes into action as Johnny Thunder due to gunfire in Mesa City, but it was only women competing in a shooting contest to win a date with Johnny Thunder. There, he gets a hint of her whereabouts, and goes off in pursuit. Meanwhile, Madame .44 is tracking down Joe Hendricks, but is betrayed and shot. Johnny Thunder shows up in time to rescue her, but is blinded in the effort. Working together the two fend off the villains, and make it to Mesa City. Johnny Thunder's blindness was temporary, and as John Tane settles back to normal life, meets a new photographer for the city, Jeanne Walker.
Ghost-Town Gun Fight!
Last, but not least,
All-Star Western #119 (June-July, 1961) by
Gardner Fox,
Gil Kane and
Joe Giella features the last of the original Madame .44 trilogy, where John Tane is acting on his suspicions about Jeanne Walker, at least until she leaves town with a Cheyenne woman. Suiting up as Johnny Thunder, he finds a trail of Madame .44, as she robs a man (AB Jones), and they meet up in the ghost town of Blackwater Gulch. There, the two are set upon by Jones and the Green Hat Gang. Jones is the Indian agent of the Cheyenne reservation, but he steals the government money for them, and gives them bad goods in exchange.
He also runs the Green Hat Gang, whom Johnny and the local sheriff have been chasing. The two capture AB Jones, and Johnny tries to bring him to justice, but the local judge won't prosecute.
Dejected, John Tane wonders what to do next, as does Jeanne...and the two set off after the gang, bringing them to justice (and giving each other clues to the other's identity). How will this fare in the next issue?
Well, there was no next issue, but the story does get resolved in
DC Comics Presents #28 (December, 1980), with John and Jeanne telling the story to their children (Becky and Charles) of how they found each others identities fighting Silk Black (and Johnny Thunder and Madame .44 go into action with a time displaced Super-Chief, among others, fighting to save Swamp Thing in
Swamp Thing #85 from April, 1989).
