Issue(s): Shanna the She-Devil #5
Cover Date: Aug 73
Title: "Where Nekra walks-- Death must follow!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Ross Andru - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot:
Patrick McShane (my god, why not just name him Irish McIrish?), is feeling a little unmasculine after watching Shanna beat the crap out of the Mandrill to rescue him last issue. Shanna comforts him by humiliating him in arm wrestling.

Then Agent Singh shows up and takes both to a SHIELD base (there's a bizarre scene where they are flying to the base and Shanna's leopards freak out and almost cause the pilot to crash. I thought it was going to be part of a plot by a villain, but when they get out Shanna just laughs like a crazy person about it)...

....where they are put in contact with Professor X and FBI Agent Duncan (Duncan's first name is said to be "Amos" this issue, which is how Duncan introduced himself in Uncanny X-Men #46, instead of "Fred" like all of his earlier appearances), who have detected the presence of two mutants in Africa (What? Only two? What about Storm? Xavier is holding out on us.).

One is the Mandrill, and it's confirmed that he doesn't seem to have any powers except monkey face...

...and the other is as yet unknown.

Shanna returns home and ponders her life. In an interesting commentary on the series:

...what am i doing here, prancing thru the jungle like some 1940's B-movie goddess? I came here to escape the city.. its violence... its plastic landscape. So what do i do? Build a treehouse to rival the plaza... foster a teen-age malt-shop relationship with Patrick...!

She starts considering going off and really living in the jungle when she hears an explosion.

It's the other mutant, who has set a fire in Patrick's cabin. She's Nekra, and she's powered by hate, making her strong and invulnerable.

She works for the Mandrill. After rescuing Patrick again, Shanna puts her in a choke hold, which seems to do the trick. Patrick is unhappy about having to be rescued, if i understand his 'Irish' accent correctly ("It's embarrassed I am.").

The series is canceled with this issue with a note that the story (Shanna's father is still held prisoner by Mandrill's women) will be concluded in an upcoming issue of Daredevil.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Nekra

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Shanna's bellybutton seems to be whited out on the splash page.

Considering that the continuity insert of the X-Men actually meeting Storm occurred before this infamous "two mutants in Africa" line (and it's weird that Mandrill happens to be one of the two), I just wonder if Xavier was holding out on telling the truth or if something else was going on.

Its weird thinking that this is the longest of the three "female comic books" and yet this only made it to issue 5 while both Cat and Night Nurse made it to issue 4. Considering all the other comics being created at this point at least lasted for a while (Hero for Hire, Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night), I do wonder if these three were all meant to be short or if it was just a gimmick that they couldn't bring themselves to keep going after a while with the support other new comics were getting; let alone by the time they did start creating female-lead comics again later in the 70s (with Carol, Jessica and Jen), they did at least have the support of good writers or at least were derivative heroes that had the possible connection to a male counterpart in some way.

This issue was not written by Carole Seuling at all and is fully written by Steve Gerber. I am not sure if I like it more or less than the previous 4 issues, but it's different.