What is it about redheads in comic books? While girls with ginger tops only make up about 1% of the real-world population, there seems to be no shortage of ladies running around fictional rooftops with a head of flaming hair as fiery as the Human Torch’s dry-cleaning.

Is there a crimson conspiracy? Are comic book creators secretly brainwashing generations of unsuspecting boys with a deep-rooted lust for ginger-rooted ladies?

Get ready: it’s the return of the Scarlet Fever, and this time, Charlie Brown isn’t the only one who is getting all hot and bothered for the little red-haired girl. Here are the 10 sexiest copper-top denizens of the comic book community (with apologies to Archie Andrews who, though quite the looker, just doesn’t cut it in skintight vinyl).

10. Fairchild

The ‘90s brought two new names to the pantheon of illustrated redheads, each of them throwbacks to past hot-girl archetypes. Of the two, Caitlin Fairchild came from the “Pretty-Ugly Girl” school of beauty, where all it takes to turn a dork into a supermodel is the removal of eyeglasses, letting down of ponytail – and exposure to a series of illegal military drugs to awaken her latent gen-active abilities. Caitlin morphed from wallflower into wow-factor in the span of just one issue, but the effects of her shirt-busting makeover were felt in the bedrooms of countless adolescents for years to come. Following her, ahem, break-out moment, Fairchild joined a group of teenage superfriends known as Gen-13, combining her Princeton book smarts with a level of physical strength that would make She-Hulk green with envy (well, greener than usual).

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