THE MIGHT AND MAJESTY OF "YARN BARDA"

Let me tell you about my friend Vox Mortuum, whom I met while sharing drinks with a number of people at the hotel bar at Dragon Con two years back. She's an incredibly talented crocheter from the Atlanta area who makes all kinds of fun geeky stuff out of yarn, including to-scale replicas of the Infinity Gauntlet (which was wearable) and Spider Jerusalem's rectal prolapse gun (which even had moving dials, also made of yarn), and when last I saw her she also had made a gorgeous doll of Gamora, "the deadliest woman in the galaxy," from Jim Starlin's classic run on WARLOCK. The bottom line is that I really enjoy what she does and she knows it...

A while back Vox emailed me to settle a dispute between herself and her also-excellent husband, Ethan, over which character was my favorite superheroine. Being somewhat obtuse on occasion, I gave her the answer without stopping to consider why they were arguing and promptly put it out of mind. Then she contacted me last week to ask for my mailing address. I gave it to her and when I went down to my building's lobby earlier today, I found that a large package with my name on it had been delivered. Seeing her name on the return address, I picked up the package and ran back upstairs to see what mysterious goodie awaited within the cardboard shipping box. I'm quite pleased to say that I was in no way prepared for what I found upon the opening:

This is an amazing 16" doll of my beloved Jack Kirby-created Big Barda, my favorite female superhero since I was eight, as handcrafted from yarn. Yes, I said handmade, so I have no idea how long it took Vox to do this, plus it's accurate to Kirby's famous design. Do I really have to state how much I love this? Here she is as seen from the side:

Her helmet even comes off to reveal a full head of hair! Is it just me, or would the helmet make an awesome hat for a baby girl?

The awesome removable helmet.

Barda sans helmet.

I absolutely love this and I nearly shat a Humvee when I took her out of the box. Thank you for this, Vox, from the bottom of my heart, and I assure you that Varda will be displayed in a place of great honor here inside the Vault.