One ongoing plot line in the story of Tarpe Mills’ Miss Fury strip was Marla’s adoption of Darron, the abandoned son of Baroness Erica von Kampf and Gary Hale (Marla’s former fiancé). Marla was unaware of the toddler’s parentage. She rescued him in Brazil from the brutal guardianship of Dr. Diman Saraf, who planned to use him in a deadly experiment. She was initially denied custody of the boy because she was a single woman, which broke her heart, but her courage and heroism in the rescue eventually won over the authorities. Marla was then, for the duration of the series, an unmarried woman with a child: a rather progressive scenario for a 1940s adventure strip. Because she had a job with a clothing designer, she enlisted the help of her friend, Francine, who offered to be Darron’s governess after losing her job in a war plant because of returning servicemen, a significant issue facing working women after the war.
First Appearance The Black Fury (Newspaper strip, Bell Syndicate, April 6, 1941)
First Publisher Bell Syndicate
Appearance List The Black Fury (Newspaper strip, Bell Syndicate, April 6, 1941), Miss Fury (Retitled newspaper strip, November 30, 1941), Miss Fury #1-8 (Reprints, 1942-1945)
Description One ongoing plot line in the story of Tarpe Mills’ Miss Fury strip was Marla’s adoption of Darron, the abandoned son of Baroness Erica von Kampf and Gary Hale (Marla’s former fiancé). Marla was unaware of the toddler’s parentage. She rescued him in Brazil from the brutal guardianship of Dr. Diman Saraf, who planned to use him in a deadly experiment. She was initially denied custody of the boy because she was a single woman, which broke her heart, but her courage and heroism in the rescue eventually won over the authorities. Marla was then, for the duration of the series, an unmarried woman with a child: a rather progressive scenario for a 1940s adventure strip. Because she had a job with a clothing designer, she enlisted the help of her friend, Francine, who offered to be Darron’s governess after losing her job in a war plant because of returning servicemen, a significant issue facing working women after the war.
