The best of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes: Adelita

Adelita. Adelita was created by Jose G. Cruz (Brenty, Juan Sin Miedo, Letty Lou, Gerald Meldrick, Monje Negro, Nancy) and appeared in the comic strip “Adelita y Las Guerrillas” (Pepin, 1939-1958). During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Adelita, an independent and headstrong young Mexican woman, and her best friend Nancy, get involved in a wide array of adventures: Adelita’s father is killed by bandits of Pascual the Frog; and Adelita falls in love with adventurer Juan Sin Miedo, who defended Adelita’s village from the bandits; Juan leaves, becomes a famous bullfighter, returns, and is kidnaped by Chinese pirates; Adelita encounters Lost Race Aztecs; Adelita fights (and then becomes the lover of) the vampire Monje Negro; Adelita and Nancy are kidnaped by a leprous Mad Scientist who tries to kiss them and infect them with his leprosy; Adelita is knocked on the head and is rendered amnesiac; Adelita joins an Interpol-like international police force and helps Nancy fight the agents of the Scarlet Band; Adelita fights the forces of the dictator Huerta, especially his adventuress, the Tigress of the Bajio; and so on, in the big cities of Mexico and in the rural areas, from the deserts to the jungles to the swamps. In 1940 Adelita and Nancy have their lives saved by Superman, who catches their car when it falls off a cliff.