Volcana: Marvel's Plus-Size Villainess

As a child of the 1980s, there was a dearth of material for burgeoning young FAs and comic books were certainly no exception. I wasn’t a huge collector like some of my friends, but a good chunk of my 12-year-old life was spent with Iron Man, Spiderman, and GI Joe. 

At the peak of my fandom, circa 1984/1985, a Marvel series called Secret Wars was published. This year-long serial featured a galaxy’s worth of Marvel superheroes and villains summoned to do battle on a hodgepodge world created by an omnipotent “Beyonder.” Nowadays, MCU movies have made epic crossover battles de rigueur, but back then having all my favorite heroes doing battle against all my favorite villains was an illustrated wet-dream.

And it wasn’t just the epic battles with the Beyonder that moistened my mattress--the series also introduced a certain Lava-loving lass that caused eruptions…on the page and in my pants:

Volcana, aka Marsha Rosenberg, a 6’5,” 210 pound Denver resident that made my Little Willy point a mile-high. 

In retrospect, my infatuation with the voluptuous villainous was a bit silly. She had exaggerated curves, sure, and was taller than all but the most towering in the Marvel universe (my preference for Big Beautiful Women extends beyond width), but she was hardly fat. That goes to show how lean times were back in the supermodel obsessed, “let’s get physical” 1980s. Still, she took more ink to draw than your average comic cutie and that was enough for 12-year-old me.

I also appreciated her character—an intimidating giantess with a maternal streak who would kick the crap out of She-Hulk or Wolverine in one panel, and then rush to the aid of a nerd like Molecule Man in the next. She seemed genuine and, to Marvel’s credit, her size was only referenced a handful of times (most derisively by the vain Enchantress). She was a contributor and not a sideshow.

Of course, that changed with Secret Wars II, the inferior follow-up that proved the beginning of the end of my comic book fandom. Everything about it sucked--the story, the art, the writing, the gimmicky tie-ins across a dozen different comics…and especially what they did to my Volcana. She was now the comic relief—an oversized mother figure to Molecule Man (“Owie”), the ultimate momma’s boy. You’d think I’d be titillated by the constant eating and references to her girth, and I suppose I was to a degree, but she was so badly drawn, written, and removed from the character I had fallen for that I felt more betrayed than anything.

I didn’t think much about Volcana over the next twenty years. I stopped collecting comics soon after and assumed she wouldn’t appear again anyway, as the character seemed content to fade into obscurity with her beloved Owie. However, I was happy to learn (after Googling the character several years ago) that she has made a number of appearances within the Marvel universe since (https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/character_details.php?character=1632). While her more recent renderings are hit-and-miss, I take solace in the fact that she’s been returned to the reluctant villain/hero she was created as.

Any comics seminal in your developments as an FA or weight-gain enthusiast? Any characters you crushed on back in the day (or currently)?

Maverick