Friday Night Fights: Murder Diva

Sheila Sorrell is a dive bar chanteuse with looks to die for but a voice like murder...


Though the line of Shelia's would-be suitors stretches to Poughkeepsie and back, the hard-hearted siren is interested in one thing and one thing only -- the role of head diva in the local opera company.

It's an aspiration beyond her rather limited vocal range, but after a heartsick mad scientist attempts some untested chemical revenge upon Sorrell, she find herself in possession of a couple new bargaining chips...

...a granite body and homicidal tendencies.

Knock 'em dead, sister! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Sheila's plutonic rampage draws the attention of Plastic Man, whose prodigious powers of pliability are sorely tested by the stony songbird's stupendous strength....

...but Plas has a knack for thinking on his flexible feet, and manages to slip Shelia an antidote which reverts her back into her normal pneumatic form.

As for the whole killing spree thing? Have no fear...

All's well that ends well...apart from the painful cranial injuries and high likelihood of permanent brain damage, that is...

(from "The Granite Lady" by Jack Cole, from Police Comics #51, February 1946)

Electric Light Orchestra - Turn to Stone (from Out of the Blue, 1977) - Art-slash-prog rock acting as the mythological Medusa. Mirrored headphones recommended.

Suzi Quatro - Heart of Stone (from Main Attraction, 1982) - The softer side of Leather Tuscadero. Closer to talc than diamond on the hardness scale, but that's how the boulder rolls.

(Stone cold.)