PAULA HARPER
Real Name: Paula Harper
Identity/Class: Human mutate magic user
Occupation: Witch
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Walter Mead/The devil, many witches and demons and strange beings at a Sabbath
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#17/6 (August, 1954)
Powers/Abilities: As a witch, Paula Harper was immortal and immune, even to the effects of her deadly disease.
History:
(Journey into Mystery I#17/6 (fb) - BTS) - Paula Harper was a beautiful, but heartless woman. Many men fell in love with her. Some of them gave her all their wealth, but she still rejected them. Some committed suicide because of her, but Paula Harper didn't care.
(Journey into Mystery I#17/6) - One day Paula met Walter Mead and fell in love with him. Mead did not care for her love, he was interested in Paula's evil but he hid it well.
Another event deranged Paula Harper, she learnt that she had an incurable disease. After a year she would be dead. The pain grew stronger with each day, but drugs kept her going. The end was near.
In a last attempt to win Walter Mead's attention Paula offered to leave all her wealth to him if he married her. Mead accused her to be cruel and selfish because she was a witch. Challenging him, Paula accepted his proposal to go on the Black Mountain, at midnight, where a Witches' Sabbath would take place. If the witches refused her it would be the proof that she was not a witch.
At midnight, under a full moon, Paula Harper journeyed on the Black Mountain. She saw strange beings with ugly and unearthly shapes. She recognized witches and demons, drakes and fairies, bats and goblins, all dancing so wildly that Paula could not help herself from dancing as well. The rite was completed. Paula became a creature of evil, a witch, so she also became a pawn of the lord of the witches: the devil. He showed up claiming that now she would live forever, with her disease and growing pain. Then he revealed his human form: Walter Mead!
Comments: Created by unknown writer and Mort Lawrence (pencils and inks).
An example of how eternal life could be a bad thing.
Even the devil followed some rules. If Paula had not done as requested by the devil (as Walter, to go on the Black Mountain), she would not have become a witch!
No evidence about who was the devil: Mephisto? Marduk Kurious? Satannish? Someone else?
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Paula Harper has no known connections to
The Witches' Sabbath was a meeting of demons and witches and many other evil beings with several different shapes.
It was held on the Black Mountain at midnight. The participants shrieked and danced. To dance with them was only one of the steps to become one of them. They could throw out strangers, but if they accepted someone dancing with them it meant that he was an evil creature.
--Journey into Mystery I#17/6
images: (without ads)
Crypt of Shadows#1, p4, pan7 (full image)
Crypt of Shadows#1, p3, pan7 (head shot)
Crypt of Shadows#1, p4, pan1-2-3 (Sabbath)
Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#17 (August, 1954) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Mort Lawrence (artist)
Crypt of Shadows#1/1 (January, 1973) - reprint
Last updated: 04/09/11
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com