No, Doctor... I don't need the money. Income from my father's mining investments keeps my checkbook healthy. What I have to find is... another life! 
Appearing in "And a Jungle Queen is Born"
Featured Characters:
- Shanna the She-Devil (Dr. Shanna O'Hara) ⏵ (Main story and flashback) (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- "Ivory" Dan Drake (First appearance; dies)
- Vole (First appearance)
- Zarg (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Mr. O'Hara (Shanna's father) (Only in flashback) (First appearance)
- Kula (First appearance)
- Mbolo (First appearance)
- George (Shanna's Doorman) (Only in flashback)
- Dr. Gallo (Only in flashback)
- Dr. Parkins (Only in flashback)
- Julani (leopard) (Only in flashback) (First appearance; dies)
- NYPD (Only in flashback)
- Frankie (Only in flashback)
- Mrs. O'Hara (Shanna's Mother) (Only in flashback) (First appearance; dies)
- Patrick (First appearance)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Leopards (Main story and flashback)
- Elephants
- Monkeys (Main story and flashback)
- Deer
- Lions (Only in flashback)
- Seals
Locations:
- Africa
- Dahomey Reserve (First appearance)
- North America (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Only in flashback)
- Municipal Zoo (Only in flashback)
- Manhattan (Only in flashback)
- New York City (Only in flashback)
- New York (Only in flashback)
- United States of America (Only in flashback)
Synopsis for "And a Jungle Queen is Born"
Accompanied by Ina and Biri, Shanna subdues a drunken poacher, Ivory Dan Drake, who intends to illegally kill an elephant. Holding his gun, she remembers an event from her girlhood, when her father was once forced to kill a leopard, which upset her greatly. Back in the present, she escorts the poachers off of the game reserve, but Drake plans to double back and make his kill later. He physically assaults one of his native assistants who protest this decision. This man, Kula, informs Shanna of the poacher’s treachery, and she races to his camp and ransacks it. After a brief battle, Shanna is knocked out by the butt of Drake’s gun.
As she passes out, she relives other more recent memories. As New York City zookeeper Shanna O’Hara, she was awoken one night to learn that the zoo’s big cats were slaughtered by a poacher. Enraged, she leaps into the exhibit to find only one leopard clinging to life, Julani. The wounded leopard approaches Shanna affectionately, but the men outside the exhibit, fearful it might attack her, shoot it with a rifle, killing it. Further enraged, she smashes his gun, recalling how her father’s attempts to shoot the leopard years earlier resulted in the accidental killing of her mother.
Furious that men with guns have ruined her life twice, and mindful of countless other senseless acts of violence directed against animals, she visits Julani’s two surviving cubs, Ina and Biri, and vows to keep them alive. She clears her head with and intensive workout session, and afterwards beats up a mugger who tries to steal her car. Later, when the zoo director tells her they intend to re-introduce Ina and Biri into the Dahomey game reserve in Africa, Shanna jumps at the chance to accompany them. Developing a close bond with the two cubs as they grow up and feeling a natural bond with life in the jungle, she becomes Shanna the She-Devil.
The unconscious Shanna is tied up by Drake and his men, who go off to shoot their elephants and leave an enormous thug named Zarg to watch over her. When she wakes up she frees herself and defeats him by knocking his head into some rocks. She rushes to the elephant herd, but only in time to watch Drake shoot a bull elephant. This triggers a stampede however, which ends up trampling him to death.
The game warden, Patrick McShane, arrives to clean up the mess and asks Shanna if she has changed her mind about his proposal. She rebuffs him once more, saying she prefers life in the trees.
Solicit Synopsis
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- Shanna the She-Devil article at Wikipedia
- Shanna the She-Devil series index at the Grand Comics Database