Warrior Woman

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For other uses, see List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture.

Publication information
Warrior Woman
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Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Invaders #16 (May 1977)
Created by	Roy Thomas and Jim Mooney
In story information
Alter ego	Frieda Ratsel
Team affiliations	Super-Axis

Warrior Woman (Freida Ratsel) was a fictional Nazi supervillain from Marvel Comics' first Invaders series.

Frieda Ratsel was a Nazi scientist and intelligence agent. In 1942, she created a version of the Super-Soldier Serum, a super-strength formula similar to the one used on Master Man, but her version seemed to be more stable. She absorbed the serum into her body in an explosion in a laboratory and as a result gained superhuman strength, becoming Warrior Woman.^[1] She had only contempt for the bumbling Master Man, yet Hitler was so enamored of his new "super couple" that he ordered them to marry each other. Fortunately for her, the wedding was broken up by an attack from the Invaders.

Frau Ratsel was put into a form of cryonic suspension after the war, and was not recovered until after the German reunification. A man who called himself "Herr Nacht" had fallen in love with her image, and had re-created the strength formula and taken it himself, becoming a self-proclaimed new Master Man. Since Warrior Woman's cryonic chamber was located in East Berlin, routine maintenance of the suspension chamber was impossible and several malfunctions in the equipment occurred. As a result, Warrior Woman suffered brain damage during her suspended animation, leaving her comatose. Herr Nacht used the blood of the original Human Torch to restore her health, and before long she faced off against her old foes: Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Union Jack, and an elderly Jaqueline Chrichton with both Herr Nacht and the original Master Man. Her preference for Herr Nacht became evident in battle, and drove the original Master Man to despair, leading him to destroy the building they were in. Master Man was later seen alive (though reverted to his true age), while the whereabouts of Warrior Woman and Herr Nacht remain uncertain.

Warrior Woman was occasionally referred to as "Krieger Frau" as the German translation of her codename. A more correct translation would be "Kriegerin", which is the feminine variant of 'warrior' in German.