Choose Your Own Wonder Woman
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
Wonder Woman fans have had a tough time lately. First we get the news that Wonder Woman would finally make her live action movie debut… but only as one of many characters in the Batman vs. Superman movie (you know, the one with Ben Affleck as Batman), along with Aquaman and Cyborg. The word is that a Wonder Woman solo movie is somewhere in the queue of the DC Cinematic Universe movies that DC is building off of Man of Steel, sometime after the Justice League movie. (Couldn’t they hold off on their mammoth let’s-copy-Marvel master plan until they’d gotten one movie right, maybe?) Who knows, maybe they’ll make Aquaman and Cyborg movies first. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman actually made her feature film debut earlier this year. Where? In The Lego Movie. Seriously, after 73 years, that was her first time on the silver screen.
The Diana Princes’ Diaries
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click
Pardon My Vibrators…of Death!
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
In the
last issue, Steve Trevor turned into a monster and died. I mean, sure, Steve only just came back from the dead, but that was a totally different Steve Trevor, the Earth-1 Steve of the 1970s. This is World War II Steve, on Earth-2, and he’s dead! Dead! Dr. Mid-Nite said so and everything, and he’s a doctor and a super-hero! If only there were some hope, like, say, the cover of the issue explaining that there’s a formula that could save Steve’s life. Read more
My Boyfriend Is a Monster
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click
It’s a Wonder Woman Thing
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
So what was the Wonder Woman of the 1970s up to in 1977, while both her own comic and her backup feature in World’s Finest were only telling stories set during World War II, taking their cue from the Lynda Carter TV show? Well, the modern-day WW was still appearing regularly in Justice League of America (and Super Friends, but that was based on the cartoon and wasn’t quite in continuity), despite DC’s editorial stance that it would be confusing for new readers to have her in the 1940s on TV and the present day in the comics. Really, they were just trying to have it both ways.
On Sea Monsters and the Holocaust
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
OK, we’re still on that weird period in 1977 when the Wonder Woman comic shifted abruptly from the present day to World War II because that was the setting of the TV show (but only for one season, after which both the show and the comic returned to the 1970s). For existing comic book fans, the explanation was that we were going from Earth-1, where the modern Wonder Woman lived, to Earth-2, home of the original versions of the DC heroes from actual 1940s comics. Of course, keen-eyed fans noticed right away that even that explanation didn’t quite add up because in most instances where the TV show differed from the old comics, the new comics took their cue for the show. So now Steve Trevor had brown hair, whereas he had always been blond; Diana Prince was a yeoman rather than a lieutenant; and their boss was General Blankenship, a character created for the show, rather than General Darnell. In the letters column of issue 233, the editor explains that all this was intentional, because they didn’t want fans of the show to be confused when they read the comics, and because DC wasn’t really reprinting 1940s stories at the time, they figured hardly anyone would notice.
Ruh Roh! Rit’s Ronder Roman!
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
I have to admit, I’ve had the latest collection of the current series of Wonder Woman lying around for three months now, and just haven’t been inspired to write about it yet. That series moves along at such a glacial pace that I feel like not much has happened since last I wrote about it. I’ll get around to it eventually. But a Wonder Woman comic came out last week that I can’t wait to write about. Because at long last, Wonder Woman teams up with…Scooby-Doo!
Who Was that Masked Nazi?
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click
Pyramid Power
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
So we’re still in the period of the late 1970s when Wonder Woman comics shifted to a World War II setting (on Earth-2) to match the time period of the first season of the Lynda Carter TV series. This time we have a two-parter featuring the sensational character find of 1977/1943: Osira!
The Finest Era
WONDER WEDNESDAY
On Wednesdays I look at various chapters in Wonder Woman’s history. Click here for previous installments.
As of May 1977, with Wonder Woman’s TV show in full swing, the Amazon heroine was appearing regularly not just in her own comic and various team comics (Justice League of America, Super Friends) but also started having bimonthly solo adventures in World’s Finest. This had for decades been a Superman/Batman buddy series, and the front feature still fit that description, but it became an 80-page “dollar comic” (up from the previous 30 cents) with four different back-up features, including Wonder Woman. The others were Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the Vigilante.
