The Great Wonder Woman Readathon

[Slam_Bradley]

In the 70s, a credit line like that would send me screaming into the streets....

The art is awful, but Conway did a fair amount of good stuff. Atari Force is about as good as comic book space opera gets. And I loved his Spider-Man run.

[Cei-U!]

I'd like to see how much Conway diverged from Marston in Wonder Woman's origin story.

From the continuity notes for #237 in my Fanatic's Guide to Earth-Two:

This issue’s retelling of Wonder Woman's origin is relatively faithful to the versions related in the “Wonder Woman” story in All-Star Comics #8 and in Wonder Woman #1. Its only major deviations are in having WW in possession of her magic lasso before first leaving for America and in having Steve Trevor already a major at the time he crashed on Paradise Island. Originally, Diana did not receive the lasso and Captain Trevor was not promoted until the “Wonder Woman” story in Sensation Comics #6.

And as long as we're at it:

The Diana Prince subplot in this issue is essentially a retelling of the “Wonder Woman” story in Sensation Comics #9. This version, however, bears almost no resemblance to the original except in the basic concept of Diana Prince returning from South America and making trouble for the Amazon. In the Golden Age story, Diana was married to weapons designer Dan White and briefly flirted with reclaiming her credentials as an act of defiance because hubby didn’t want her to work. At no time in any of their Golden Age encounters did Wonder Woman erase Diana's knowledge of WW's dual identity.

Cei-U!
I summon the enlightenment!

[Judomaster]

I've never read this period of Wonder Woman, but have a soft spot for Jose Delbo earned by having read his long run on Billy The Kid, a title I collect. I may have to check it out.

By the way, I'm loving the reviews.

[Polar Bear]

From the continuity notes for #237 in my Fanatic's Guide to Earth-Two:

Where is this published?

[Cei-U!]

Where is this published?

Nowhere yet. Much of it was distilled down for the All-Star Companion TPB series and a pair of Alter Ego issues (#94-95, I think), excerpts from its "Who's Who" section are posted here on the Classics Board and an early version of it may still be posted at the JSA Yahoo Group (though I doubt it) but the bulk of it exists only on my computer and in a couple of three-ring binders in my office.

Cei-U!
I summon the unfinished messterpice!

[The Darknight Detective]

Wonder Woman #228
Marty Pasko, Jose Delbo and Vince Coletta



Synopsis: Diana is minding her own business when a Nazi jet plane appears out of nowhere and almost collides with an airliner. She averts the accident, much to the surprise of the armor-clad Nazi piloting the jet. He's really taken aback at Wonder Woman's presence, because he's from the past and he assumed she must be dead by now. before she can figure out wtf this dude is rambling about, a big green energy hand grabs them all and pulls them back to 1943.

That's where we learn through some exposition to his pet cat that the Nazi is in fact a scientist guy who called himself the Red Panzer. he built a time machine in order to change the future -- or the past, or something -- to keep the Allies from winning. But he accidentally overshot D-Day by, you know, 32 years or so. Now he's still confused over how Wonder Woman could have come back with him, as he thinks two versions of the same person in the same place will cause a paradox.

We learn the truth, though, from Diana herself, as she runs into the World War II version of Wonder Woman. It's simple: They are now on Earth-2. The two Wonder Women then travel to Red Panzer's lair and send the Earth-1 Diana back to her own planet. She disappears just in time for Red Panzer to show up and attack Earth-2 Diana. They fight and Wonder Woman wins, but just then, the Panzer's jet re-appears from its trip to Earth-1 and clocks her. To be continued!

Notes: So, yeah. Just five issues after the status quo was changed up with the end of the 12 Labors and the return of Steve Trevor, all of that is dumped in favor of the ongoing WWII exploits of the Earth-2 Wonder Woman. The reason is simple: DC has no clue what they are doing. I mean, the reason is simple: At this point, the Wonder Woman live action TV show had started and become a hit, and during the first season it was set in World War II. So in order to try and get some sales boost synergy from the TV show, they decided to scrap everything and switch to the Earth-2 version.

Of course, in the lettercolumn they paint this like it's a great thing, as you can still follow the Earth-1 Diana in the pages of Justice League of America. And honestly, in a way, they are right, because Wonder Woman had been so completely bereft of character development for years that you basically didn't lose anything at all by dumping her series.

Still, it's clear that DC was just completely flailing around at this point, trying to find anything that would stick. It should be noted that his issue is cover dated February, 1977. The last I-Ching issue was cover dated December, 1972. So it had been over four full years of randomness since the end of the I-Ching era without anything gaining traction. it's kind of a miracle the series lasted throughout all this nonsense.

Also, note again the new cover design. The new (and to me, classic) DC logo and simplified design makes this issue look far, far more modern than the series had just two issues earlier which is ironic since it now takes place in World War II.

My Grade: B for the story, F- for the fact that the story exists. I actually kind of liked Red Panzer, but really, DC, editorial crap like this is why you imploded.

This was my first WW story I ever bought. As a fan of the show, I thought the story was great, but, in retrospect, going with the Earth-2 Wondy was a silly move.

[The Darknight Detective]

Wonder Woman #234
Gerry Conway, Don Heck and Vince Colletta



Synopsis: Wonder Woman battles a giant undersea leviathan with the fate of the world at stake. Luckily, she defeats it, but gets really worn out in the process. Unconscious, she floats to the surface, where she is tied up and thrown in the brig of Captain Sturm's U-Boat.

Diana awakens to find herself in chains and she pitches a fit, because of course, if she is chained by men, she loses all her powers. She's not real comforted by the presence of last issue's Jewish enigma, who now explains that he has weird psychic abilities that allow him to control fish. Yet for some reason, he doesn't wear a goofy orange jumpsuit. Go figure! With his children being held in a concentration camp, he is forced to use his fish powers on behalf of the Nazis.

Captain Sturm, after vowing not to make the same mistake with Diana that he did last issue, makes the same mistake that he did with Diana last issue. Instead of killing her, he brings her up to the deck of the U-Boat to watch their next fish attack. She starts punching and kicking people and when they shoot at her, she uses her Amazonian speed to spin around and have the bullets shoot her chains off. Chains which, as always, apparently had no actual affect on her powers. I'm beginning to wonder what the point of that is at all, considering writers ignore it whenever convenient and only have it work when that is also convenient to their plot. it's downright dumb at this point.

Anyway, Wonder Woman this time fights off a bunch of sharks who are eating Sturm's prisoners, then she flies off in her invisible jet. Cut to: Sturm attacks an Allied fleet using a giant swarm of fish, dolphins, whales and whatever. Then Diana shows up, only now she has the Jewish guy's kids in her invisible jet. Seeing his kids are safe, the guy uses his fish powers to summon the leviathan and it promptly eats the U-Boat, ending the threat forever. The end!

Oh, p.s. Steve Trevor is brought before the head saboteur, a guy named Armageddon. Steve then escapes, but we learn that Armageddon allowed him to escape for reasons to be shown next issue. As if anybody cares.

Notes: My main problem with this story is again one of setting superhero tales in the context of real world actions. In this case, Wonder Woman flies to a concentration camp and frees two kids in order to get the fish guy to stop killing people with whales. What's implied here, though, is that Diana left the other tens of thousands of prisoners to die horrible deaths in the Holocaust. And having visited a concentration camp, it's unsettling that she would then just return to her daily routine without, you know, going to do something about all those evil concentration camps.

It's just a misstep on Conway's part to bring the whole Holocaust thing into a story like this. Comments by Sturm about turning his captives into soap don't exactly help either. it's a fine line when you're writing this kind of book and it makes Roy Thomas' Spear of Destiny plot seem like a stroke of genius, because it allows him to avoid this exact kind of mistake.

My Grade: C-. This just left a bad taste in my mouth. Superheroic adventure and holocaust stories probably shouldn't mix unless they're really, really well done, and this one is not.

Totally agree about real-world scenarios in comic books, Scott. They always fall flat for me based on the reasons you outlined.

BTW, I loved the Lopez cover. Wonder Woman looks gorgeous.

[berk]

Totally agree about real-world scenarios in comic books, Scott. They always fall flat for me based on the reasons you outlined.

BTW, I loved the Lopez cover. Wonder Woman looks gorgeous.

I never have read WW much, but looking at the covers in this tread, I have to agree: Lopez's really stand out from all the others. I don't know the DC artists well - is that Jose Gacia-Lopez, or are they two different artists?

Also agree about real-world scenarios: even as a kid I never liked it when WWII elements were brought into superhero comics, like the Red Skull and so on; or Thor fighting the Viet Cong. It always felt wrong to me, even though I was much too young to have any idea why it was making that impression.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

In the original Marston run, Diana Prince was in the army working in the War Department. Steve Trevor was also in the War Department and Etta Candy was a student at Holliday College. In the TV show and comic book spin-off, Diana was a Yeoman First Class in the Navy, still in the War Department, but Steve and Etta were both in Army Intelligence. Also in the original, Steve was blond and Hippolyte was brunette, while in the TV comic book, Steve was brunet and Hippolyta was blonde.

Jose Luis Garcia Lopez is one of the greatest Wonder Woman artists--too bad he's mostly done covers and promotional art and only rarely done complete stories. The greatest thing to come out of the TV show, in terms of comic books, is the "White Tabloid" (as I always think of it)--teaming up Superman and Wonder Woman--with beautiful art by Garcia Lopez and Dan Adkins. I'm not sure if this book fits any continuity--details about both Superman and Wonder Woman seem wrong--and it's best understood as an Elseworlds. But this is one of those books where continuity doesn't matter--it's just a great book, even if there are some wonky things about Gerry Conway's script (as usual).

[Scott Harris]

The greatest thing to come out of the TV show, in terms of comic books, is the "White Tabloid" (as I always think of it)--teaming up Superman and Wonder Woman--with beautiful art by Garcia Lopez and Dan Adkins. I'm not sure if this book fits any continuity--details about both Superman and Wonder Woman seem wrong--and it's best understood as an Elseworlds. But this is one of those books where continuity doesn't matter--it's just a great book, even if there are some wonky things about Gerry Conway's script (as usual).

I haven't gotten that far in my reviews yet, but I believe in my reading of the next few issues, there is an in-continuity reference to the Superman/Wonder Woman team-up book. I think it's in 241 or 242, but it seemed to be in continuty according to that story. When I get to the issue I'll try to make note of it.

[Scott Harris]

Wonder Woman #238
Gerry Conway, Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta



Synopsis: Kung is trying to kill MacArthur, but Wonder Woman stops him by lassoing him safely. Not satisfied with this, MacArthur orders his troops to open fire on Kung, berating his men for letting a woman do their fighting for them. This violence upsets Diana, since Kung was already defeated and she roundly thrashes the U.S. Army yet again, letting Kung get away in the process. Oops. Needless to say, the Army is ticked off at Diana.

Needing to be a little more cirumspect, Diana decides to call in a favor, so she phones Sandman, aka Wesley Dodds, and asks him to keep tabs on MacArthur just in case. Sadly, this is Skimon + Kirby Sandman, so he has a dippy boy sidekick and a pointlessly boring superhero outfit. Sandman and Sandy agree to help and rush off into the night.

Kung, meanwhile, tracks down his sister for some needed medical assistance. We learn here that despite his blatantly Chinese name and costume, he and his sister are Japanese-Americans. When their father died during the dpression, Kung blamed America, and when his mother then died he went off the deep end. He went back to Japan and trained as a samurai, learning the ability to turn into animals, which I guess is soemthing in the samurai handbook. Anyway, his sister thinks he's gone nutty, but he insists it is his duty to kill MacArthur.

Anyway, MacArthur is secretly christening a new ship or something, only it's not much of a secret, because Kung shows up and turns into a Rhino to kill MacArthur. Sandman and Sandy are there and are totally ineffective against a giant Rhino, so Diana turns into Wonder Woman even though the Army is all pissed at her and she fights Kung. During the melee, he tips over the ship. Diana tries to hold it up but can't, so it falls -- right onto King's sister. At the last second he sees her and throws himself in the path of the ship, saving his sister and nobly sacrificing his own life. The end!!

Notes: You'll note that the cover, by Buckler, shows Kung's costume with a Rising Sun motif behind the yin-yang symbol. This does make it look marginally more Japanese, except this isn't actually the costume Kung is wearing in the comic. In fact, Kung is only shown in animal form this issue, or shirtless, while last issue his costume definitely did not have the rising sun rays on it. So... whatever, I guess.

A couple themes emerge/continue here. We again see Diana's mission of peace being at odds with the Army's wartime goals, which I like, even though it's becoming a bit routine since she clashes with them seemingly every issue. Also, Kung sacrificing himself nobly is not the last time we will see a Japanese villain do this during this run. Which is interesting, because at the time the war was taking place, the Japanese were far more villified in America than the Germans were, but by the time this story came out in the 70's, that had completely reversed itself. I somehow doubt we'll be seeing many Nazi agents making noble sacrifices any time soon.

Other minor notes: last issue was mostly origin stuff, so there was no room for a JSA guest appearance, but Sandman gets things back on track. There's a lot of JSA in these issues and a lot more to come, which is a good idea, especially since I think Conway was writing JSA in All-Star at this time, or had been until the implosion anyway (I'm a little unclear on the timeline). Also, Conway has MacArthur say "I will return" at one point in this issue, which, whatever, bro. Tell it to Skinny Wainwright.

My Grade: C+and that is generous. I still like Kung more than I have any right to considering what a mess he is, but chalk that up to Roy Thomas and All-Star Squadron. Also, Sandman was useless and I loathe the post-gas mask era.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I haven't gotten that far in my reviews yet, but I believe in my reading of the next few issues, there is an in-continuity reference to the Superman/Wonder Woman team-up book. I think it's in 241 or 242, but it seemed to be in continuty according to that story. When I get to the issue I'll try to make note of it.

It probably could be in continuity with the Wonder Woman TV comic--given that continuity was already screwy. I had a problem squaring it with Golden Age Superman continuity. The book has the feeling of being Earth-One IF Earth-One continuity was in the past, at least as far as Superman goes.

[Scott Harris]

Wonder Woman #239
Gerry Conway, Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta



Synposis: A bunch of German spies are trying to kill MacArthur (hey, it's the thing to do apparently) and Diana is kicking their butts when Flash shows up and thrashes them all senseless. This sends Wonder Woman into a hissy fit, as she claims that this is just more evidence of Jay and the JSA being sexist; first they make her their secretary and now he's fighting her battles for her. Jay's like, what the hell? But Diana storms off in a rage.

Meanwhile, Etta Candy is entertaining a suave Fenchman who showed up on her doorstep last issue. Diana thinks something is off about this, but she can't put her finger on it. Meanwhile meanwhile, Steve Trevor is presented with evidence of Diana's continued interference in Army matters, including her kicking Amry butt and letting Kung get away. Steve is concerned, but he's still too weak from his ordeal of being a hulk wannabe to actually do anything about anything.

Meanwhile (again) Mars is getting even more irritated than MacArthur over Diana's interference. So he sends the Duke of Deception down to Earth to do some deceiving. The Duke figures he just needs to push things along a little bit and nature will takes its course.

Back in New York, Jay and Diana have a pow-wow where they bury the hatchet. Jay says Diana is right, they've all been unthinkingly chauvanist. Diana apologizes for going ballistic. Just then, though, the Statue of Liberty attacks her, so she jumps up and smashes the crap out of it.

Sadly, this is actually an illusion by the Duke of Deception, so everyone else in New York is just aghast as Diana smashes the Statue of Liberty for no reason. Then she thinks she sees some Nazi saboteurs at the docks, so she attacks them, not realising it's another illusion and she's actually creaming more American soliders and sailors. Jay at least figures out something is wrong, but before he can intervene, he's attacked by an illusory sea serpent.

The issue ends with Diana surrounded by angry U.S. Army troops, who arrest her for treason!

Notes: First, the good stuff. With this issue, COnway actually begins finally, truly establishing an ongoing storyline for this series. Hey, it only took, what, almost 40 issues since the end of the I-Ching era. But in this issue, not only does the Etta Candy subplot carry over from last issue, we also get Steve Trevor recovering from wounds he suffered several issues earlier as well as the culmination of the Diana-vs-the-Army theme that's been building over several issues. Finally this seems like an actual comic book with an internal continuity instead of just random, interchangable throwaway episodes.

It's also nice to see more JSA activity in the form of Jay Garrick, as well as some tie-ins to actual JSA continuity with the secretary thing. On the down side, the whole women's lib argument was way over the top. Jay helping fight Nazis isn't sexist, it's just what superheroes do. Diana is way, way out of line with her blowup; at one piont she says that she herself trained for her abilities while he just got his through a freak accident so he should check himself befpore he tries to act like a big shot with her. Just really rude for no reason. I can't say this feminist agenda thing is anachronistic, since Diana is from a different, fictional cutlure and the pro-omanhood thing is part of her backstory. But this very much felt like a militant 70's thing instead of something organic to the character; Diana going completely ape on Jay for no reason is way out of character for her, even if the underlying message is fine. This conversation really bothered me, it could have been handled much, much better and more subtly.

I like the Duke of Deception, he's like Loki to Diana's Thor and works for the same reasons. This was some good payoff to the tension that has been building up.

My Grade: B+. The best Conway issue yet. If not for the out-of-character meltdown by Diana, this would have gotten a higher grade, but as it is there's a lot of potential for this story. Will the next issue live up to the setup? In a word: No. But that's not this issue's fault.

[Scott Harris]

Wonder Woman #240
Gerry Conway, Jose Delbo and Joe Giella



Synopsis: The U.S. army is trying to arrest Diana for treason! Except, thanks to an illusion from the Duke of Deception, she thinks it's a horde of Nazis surrounding her. So she goes ape, attacking them. Somehow, though, they manage to subdue her and she's hauled away in chains to stand trial for high treason.

of course, I'm not quite sure how that works considering she's not an American citizen, but whatever. The point is, things look bleak, even after Jay Garrick shows up, having dispelled his illusionary sea monster with super speed. Nothing Steve of Etta can say convinces the Army, so Diana is brought up for trial, with the population believing her to be a traitor.

As her trial begins, though, she's suddenly attacked by a new Nazi supervillain, a speedster named, well, Seigfried the Speedster. Hes got a big swastika on his head and two lightning bolts on his chest that sort of form the SS logo. He's come to kill Diana because she's an enemy of the Reich!

The two begin fighting and the battle spills out into the street. Waiting there is a small-time hood that has been given weird powers by the Duke of Deception. The hood creates the illusuon of a big golem that also attacks Diana, but she smashes it after realizing it's an illusion.

Convinced that Diana must be a true American patriot if the Nazis are attacking her like this, she's cleared of all charges and the public switches back to thinking she's great. Then, of course, the big twist: Seigfried is actually Jay Garrick and he and Diana planned the fake attack to convince everyone of her loyalty. And it worked! The End!

Side note: The subplot with the weird Frenchman romancing Etta Candy continues, and we see here that he is up to something sinister, as he's very pleased that Diana has been arrested. What's going on with this? According to the next issue blurb, we will find out next issue [note: we won't find out next issue].

Notes: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NOOOOO! This issue is utter crap on every level.

There's no way in hell that Jay Garrick would dress up with a giant swastika on his face and stage an attack on a U.S. court. And there's no way Diana and Jay would ever plan such a thing together. The fact that the government actually dropped all the charges is also utterly ludicrous, as is the idea that everyone in America would just instantly change their opinions. Everything about this plan is asinie, backwards and ridiculous and I can't believe for one second that either of them would go along with it, much less plan the whole thing.

Really. Jay as a Nazi. Diana faking a battle to trick everyone into thinking she was innocent. It's like Hank Pym's plan to trick the Avengers into thinking he's a hero by building a robot to attack them so he can hit the off switch. it's that bad, except it's played off like a great and heroic idea instead of the pathetic, weak, cowardly crap that it really is.

No friggin way, you guys. Horrible.

My Grade: D-. The only thing that keeps this from an F is the fantastic cover by Jose Garcia Lopez and Dick Giordano. One of the best covers of the run on one of the worst issues of the whole series.

If you feel like throwing up in your own mouth, here's a look at Jay Garrick pretending to be a Nazi assassin:

[Slam_Bradley]

J. L. Garcia-Lopez really is a great artist. And a great Wonder Woman artist. His production and art bible work on her is incredible.