Who's that Girl? Part 1a: Wonder Woman's pal Gloria Steinem

The unpowered period of Wonder Woman lasted for five years but came to an abrupt halt in 1972. You may be interested to know why. I know I was. In large part it was because of Gloria Steinem.

I'm not going to give you a potted biography, there's a perfectly good one here. Suffice to say that she was a feminist journalist who had a long association with comics, having worked with Harvey Kurtzman on Help! magazine in the early '60's. Wonder Woman seems to have been a formative influence on Steinem as a child, and William Moulton Marston's original interpretation of the character is a very strong female role model. So when Steinem found that Wonder Woman had lost her powers and her costume she considered this to be a devaluing of the character she loved, and began a campaign to bring back the "true" Wonder Woman.

She got her chance in 1972 when she launched Ms. magazine, which was initially financed by Warner Communications inc, who also owned DC Comics. She was friends with Steve Ross, the head of DC and even though she was busy getting Ms. off the ground, she managed to find time to put together a collection of golden age Wonder Woman stories[1].

In this age of trade paperbacks and graphic novels such a collection hardly seems unusual, but there was more to this collection than meets the eye. Ignore for the moment that this is the only collection of pre-Crisis Wonder Woman produced over her 60 year history other than four thin volumes of Archive[2]; this collection is not chronological, it is not themed in any way other than being stories selected by Gloria Steinem.

She gives us a lengthy introduction but it is not about the stories in the collection; in fact nowhere does she even list which issues of what comics are being included. There is no information given about individual stories at all. The introduction is in fact an essay on what Wonder Woman means to Gloria Steinem, and the stories are very carefully selected to support her interpretation. A second "interpretive essay" by Phyllis Chester continues the theme and gives us a crash course in Greek mythology. In fact 23 pages are taken up with these essays before you get to the comics. This is a collection with an agenda.

If it weren't significant enough that Steinem is able to publish this reprint volume of DC comics as a Ms. book, it is extremely indicative of her influence on DC editorial policy at the time that the first issue of Ms. has a Wonder Woman cover. The interesting thing about this is that far from showing her wearing her golden age costume, as is often claimed, she is actually wearing a version that would not be seen until several months later in Wonder Woman#204[3].

The sadly ironic thing is that the comic had just started addressing feminist issues in a mature way when the plug was pulled. In fact the first result of the change back to "original" Wonder Woman was that the proposed sequel to the feminist storyline of #203 was cancelled, to be replaced with some cosmetic multiculturalism and Wonder Woman in her secret identity weeping over her lack of success with men when she was wearing glasses. I'm not sure that this was really what Gloria Steinem had in mind.

Gloria Steinem once said "The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." The truth about Gloria Steinem that I am left with from all this is that she was deeply devoted to the idea of Wonder Woman, but rather less interested in the actual comic.

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[1] Wonder Woman A Ms. Book published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston and Warner Books 1972.

[2] Superman has 10, Batman has 11, Legion of Superheroes are up to 12.

[3] You can tell the period of any Wonder Woman illustration from the shorts. In 1942 they are halfway down to her knees, by 1968 they are hot pants, but they are not cut as high as shown on the Ms. Cover until 1972.

What If's we'll never see

There's this bit right at the beginning of the first Thor story where Don Blake is walking along and faced with a fork in the road, he chooses one and thereby heads toward his destiny. But what if he had taken the other road and never found that old stick?

Well for one thing it would have made for a dull story until the Stone Men from Saturn arrived and took over the world. Except, aha! What if someone else had happened along that day? Say they were taking their dog for a walk. They throw a ball for the dog and it goes a little too far, and the dog chases it into a cave. But what's this he finds? Much more interesting than a ball is this old stick. He runs happily back to his master to show him his new toy. But then the sky darkens as flying saucers obscure the sun! The dog stumbles and knocks the stick against a tree. A flash of lightning! Spot is transformed into Thordog!

Odin has a migraine.

Who's that Girl? Part 1: The "New" Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman v. 1 #178 - 204

It may seem that this is an odd place to start a commentary on Wonder Woman volume 1, but when I first wrote this I hadn't actually intended to do more than review this particular period in the life of the amazon princess. Somehow I just got drawn in...

To fully understand the changes made to Wonder Woman you really need to see what it was like prior to #178. Wonder Woman seems to have been stuck in a Silver Age rut of formulaic stories that include a tame romance with Steve Trevor that never goes beyond a basic kiss, and fantastic plots similar to those found in other DC comics of the time. The issues preceding the revamp are tired and lack the charm found in other DC comics of the period, or even earlier issues of WW. Perhaps writer/editor Robert Kanigher was just running out of ways to say the same old thing, having been writing the title for well over 10 years by this point.

He had tried something of a revamp, himself, in 1965. In Wonder Woman #158 he goes so far as to write himself into the story, summoning the entire cast of the comic into his office to inform them that they are almost all being retired in favor of a “new look” for Wonder Woman, a retro-Golden Age format. After 5 issues the retro look is dropped and we are back to business as before but slightly more bland for having lost a lot of the supporting cast, and the continuity is so confused that even Kanigher can't seem to keep straight what job Diana Prince has and what time period the story is set in.

First order of business for the new team of Jack Miller (editor), Denny O'Neil (writer) and Mike Sekowsky (penciller) was to give Wonder Woman a new hip wardrobe, so in #178 when Steve Trevor is convicted of murder, she goes undercover to locate the missing witness who will prove his innocence. This requires her to get trendy new clothes in order to blend in, of course.

Next to go were her powers, costume, and boyfriend. #179 opens with Steve Trevor going undercover, posing as a traitor in order to get in with new mystery archvillain Dr. Cyber. Remember this is Steve Trevor, high profile hero and well known associate of Wonder Woman, so he's a rather unlikely candidate for the role. He is also more than a little incompetent at it, as he decides to go rogue inside a military base, so he spends the first scene being shot at and jumping through windows.

Obviously when Diana Prince hears about this her first instinct is to rush to his aid (which would have blown his cover), but it is at that moment that she is summoned home to Paradise Island where her mother tells her that after ten thousand years the Amazons must leave Earth and they are in a bit of a hurry so Diana must choose to go with them or stay alone right this minute. Of course she opts to stay and for reasons unexplained this means she must give up her powers and costume, not to mention any fighting skills she previously possessed.

She returns to America and is now apparently homeless and jobless (1), and although she worries that "For the first time in my life I'm faced with practical problems -- like finding a place to live, and earning money for food." these are clearly the worries of a poor little rich girl who feels she is destitute because she can only afford a "cheap" apartment in a high class area along with a shop that she remodels into a clothes boutique which she hardly ever bothers to open (2) and an unlimited expense account for world travel and clothes. Almost immediately she stumbles over an orange skinned Mr. Miyagi type with the unlikely name of I Ching, and in less time than it takes to say "I can do Kung Fu" she is a mistress of the martial arts.

Steve then reappears badly wounded, mysteriously having located her new address even though they have had no communication since before she moved. Apparently Dr. Cyber wasn't convinced by his pretending to have gone bad, either. He then conveniently slips into a coma, but even this was not enough as he is awakened briefly in the next issue just long enough to get shot dead, as new chum private detective Tim Trench is introduced.

We also finally get to meet Doctor Cyber, a female Bond villain who says things like "You are extremely tough, Mr. Trench - and in your own way, intelligent. It is a pity you must die." and who staffs her secret undersea base entirely with hot chicks.

After several issues of James Bond adventuring Mike Sekowsky takes over as editor/writer and penciller, immediately ditching Tim Trench and then after a very brief pause for Diana to spend half a page working in her boutique takes an odd step back from the new style and has her recalled to Paradise Island (3) which has been invaded by the god Mars who wants to learn the secret of dimensional travel so he can invade Earth (4). Deciding to bring in reinforcements to help, and instead of calling her JLA buddies or even staying within her own mythology, she travels through time and space to recruit King Arthur, Roland, and Seigfried, but they refuse and so she has to make do with a bunch of valkyries. And since it's her comic they win the day and Mars gives up and goes home.

After pitched battles with the god of war and James Bond type adventures all over the world, it seems a little bizarre to find that next issue Diana seems almost helpless against the bullying of three local hippies, and it's only due to the help of the mysterious Tony Petrucci that she is able to defeat them. I Ching then turns up again in time to defeat the witch Morganna, which is just as well since Diana can't even beat her without her magic. And then it's back to jet setting around the world again fighting Doctor Cyber. Cyber is accidentally hit with hot coals during this next escapade and subsequently does a kind of cut-price Doctor Doom, eventually even wearing a metal mask.

We then get a little political as Diana liberates a chinese village from the evil government who are going to force them all to work down the mines, escaping to Hong Kong on a Mississippi river boat. The less said about this one the better.

Back home, Diana is moping about so I Ching suggests she go visit her mom. As if by magic an amazon appears to take her home, but she dials the wrong address or something because they end up in the wrong fantasy world and Diana has to lead an army to overthrow an evil queen before Hippolyte arrives to pick her up.

Following this we get several self contained stories including a version of The Prisoner of Zenda, a haunted house, and a bit more spy stuff. And that's the end of the all singing, all dancing Mike Sekowsky show. I don't know what happened at this point but we get two issues of reprints (5) and then Denny O'Neil is back as writer and editor with a convoluted story that leads into Wonder Woman #200 and another confrontation with Doctor Cyber, who is now as mad as a balloon.

Issue #201 signals the beginning of the end of the new era as Diana finally runs out of cash and has to sell her boutique in order to pay for plane fare to Tibet for another adventure. She bumps into Catwoman (6) and somewhat late in the day I Ching remembers that the gem they are after has magical properties that will cause them to have a crossover with Fafhed and the Grey Mouser.

#203 is the last of the "new" series, and the only one that actually has any feminist message. This is a lot better than I remembered, and writer Samuel R. Delany plays with "women's lib" concepts to the point where by the end you are not entirely sure whether he is for or against. The cover is wonderfully wrongheaded - the "Special! Women's Lib issue" banner surmounts a classic bondage image. But at least we don't have Diana in a skimpy corset complaining that she's being treated as a sex object.

And then something curious happens. 203 ends with a minor cliffhanger and a caption saying "What will Diana do now? Don't miss next issue." and a newly titled letters page which is clearly intended to reflect the current style. Apparently the follow up story was proposed but it never saw print.

Instead, Wonder Woman #204 sees Robert Kanigher return as editor and writer. He must have really hated the "new" Wonder Woman. He immediately has a random sniper kill off I Ching, has Diana lose her memory of everything other than how to fly a jet, and returns her to Paradise Island which is now just off the coast of America and not in another dimension. Queen Hippolyte downloads an edited version of her origin into her head that includes no mention of the previous 5 years of continuity and dresses her in a slightly restyled version of her old costume before packing her off to America in a submarine. Wandering past the UN building she is offered a job as a translator and an apartment share with two other girls. And with that the new era is over and Wonder Woman is once more dressing in spandex and getting tied to missiles.

Although this period is often seen as "feminist" and female empowering, in fact the women's lib aspect really only occurs in one issue. This era is really more about revamping the title into a jet-setting James Bond/Man From Uncle style. While it does provide a fresh break from the rut the title was stuck in, it fails on many levels and succeeds on few: on the plus side the martial arts skills used are initially portrayed quite realistically, which is good since the art fails to deliver on almost any other level, and is in no way helped by some garish coloring.

The writing is uniformly bad, with many important details glossed over or plain ignored, and basic logic is rarely present. Much of the new style is derivative of popular fiction of the time, and even the attempt to make Diana part of the "hip" culture is continually shot down by her own thoughts about how uncomfortable she is with it. Continuity is entirely out the window and Robert Kanigher's dismissal of everything that happened while he was off the book is just shameful.

If there is one thing this period demonstrates, it is that writers should not be their own editors.

Coming soon: Part 2 - What Diana Did Next: the New Original Wonder Woman

Notes

1. It's not mentioned when or why she left the army.

2. She doesn't get any employees until #185

3. With I Ching in tow. Apparently the law against allowing men to set foot on Paradise Island doesn't extend to little orange orientals named after methods of divination.

4. Never a problem for him before or since.

5. Which suggests that something was not right.

6. Well it's supposed to be Catwoman but she looks nothing like any version I've ever seen anywhere else.

The Lost Supergirl

Or, Nothing you ever really Cared to Know about Cir-El, and Couldn't be Bothered to Ask


Cir-El, AKA Supergirl 2.5 is first introduced in the final page of Superman: The 10 Cent Adventure. Unlike the similar Batman 10 Cent, this is not the kickstart for a big plot affecting all related titles, but a prologue to a story that takes a while to go anywhere. In fact Supergirl appears in 2 issues of Superman doing nothing of any importance before she finally meets him in Superman #192.

Cir-El's biggest problem from the outset was being written by Steven T. Seagle and drawn by Scott McDaniel. Her first major appearence in the 192-193 story exemplifies all the worst aspects:


1) She is supposed to be 15 years old but in fact looks like a bull dyke on steroids (as does everyone else including Lois Lane).

2) she wears the most horrible, drab Supergirl costume ever designed, and it doesn't even have a proper "S" symbol. It resembles nothing more than the sort of thing a Super-wannabe would pull together from their local thrift store and then paint a big "S" on the chest. Some reviewers have suggested that it follows the goth heroic style of things like Angel or The Matrix, but I never saw any of these characters in a black leotard and a cape, and anyway there is no attempt to give her any associated coolness that you find in typical goth heroes. It's just bad.

3) This first story is just so bad that it should win an award for horribleness. Much of the plot makes no sense, and Lois having a screaming fit at Superman for having an affair that produced this 15 year old girl is a gem of stupidity. Superman naively accepts her although not necessarily believing that she is really his daughter, despite the fact that she has been brought to Metropolis by his enemies, despite the fact that she won't explain any details to who she is and how she got there, other than the most absurd, vague statements.(1)

We then get several months of slow burn on the Futuresmiths plot in Superman, while the other main Super titles are busy having multi-part epics in which Earth is either destroyed or conquered, but these events don't even rate a mention in other Superman titles, let alone have any effect in any other DC comics. Cir El must have been on vacation that week because she doesn't appear in either.

The next time we see her she is being shown into Superman's fortress by the Futuresmiths in Superman #197. She stumbles around a bit, trips over a crystal that is apparently part of the phantom zone projector. Or something. It's not very clear. And then there's an explosion as something comes through, which causes her to knock herself out falling against a wall. In #198 we find that she is not related to Superman at all and is the offspring of 2 human parents (2). We also see her transform into her alter ego, who is apparently named Mia.

Her next appearance is in a story in Action #806 - 808 which, confusingly was published several months before Superman #197. Here she comes off much better in appearance and characterisation when being handled by someone other than Seagle and McDaniel. The out-of-costume scene before she gets involved in the action gives her more depth than all her previous appearances put together. And her costume almost looks good. But there are real continuity problems between Action and Superman. In this story Mia has a spiky punk hairstyle and clothes to match. When we next see her these have changed to generic T-shirt & pants and hair, and the highly visible tattoo she had done in Action is never seen again.

In the next issue box of Superman #198 we are promised that Supergirl's origin will be revealed in 199. In fact all we get is one page of Mia throwing a tantrum and Supergirl saying "Daddy" a lot even though she's known they aren't related since the previous issue.

Superman #200 finally does deliver a few answers, but in a bored infodump that lasts two whole panels, and unsurprisingly leaves many questions unanswered. Shortly afterwards she leaps into the time stream portal thing for reasons that I am rather unclear on. Brainiac tells Superman that this will erase her, but since he and Superman both survive the same experience, I fail to be convinced. It's not even very clear where Cir-El joins the party since she was left behind in #199 when Superman first enters the portal, and the big fight happens 100 years and one day into the future, or possibly thousands of years in the future. It's not very clear. She looks and behaves exactly the same as when last seen, but with all this mucking about with time travel, there is really no clue where this fits into her personal time line.

As far as I am aware this is the last to be seen of Cir-El (3), and nobody even seems to remember her by the next month. It's one of the weakest deaths in comics ever. It's only credible because nobody liked her very much and Jeph Loeb's version of Supergirl would appear only a couple of months later.

I've seen some reviews that suggest that Cir-El was initially intended to be a continuing character (4), and her origin was changed to distance her from Superman and set up her speedy removal when it became clear how unpopular she was. It depends how competent you believe Seagle is as a writer. The whole point of The 10 Cent Adventure is for the Futuresmiths (5) to obtain a Superman DNA sample. Then at the end of the story they awaken Cir-El. Although there is some guff about her being from the future, it is all the Futuresmiths telling her. At this point she does not even seem to recognise her own name. My reading of this at the time was that they had used the Superman DNA to clone her and all the "future Supergirl" stuff was just BS they were brainwashing her with.

In fact she is entirely vague about her background until her last couple of issues. And although she is aware of her alter ego, Mia, she doesn't seem to question why she should periodically transform into a normal human girl from the present, or feel this important enough to even mention to "Daddy".

Ultimately the people responsible for her death were the people who created her. They made her ugly and boring and consequently she never really stood a chance.

Notes

1: Which is strikingly similar to Jeph Loeb's introduction of Supergirl 3 less than a year later. She is also immediately accepted by Superman with an unlikely and vague story about being related to him (6). Batman is understandably suspicious for the first issue, but in typical Loeb fashion seems to have forgotten this by the end of the story.

2: Contradicting Superman #195 where DNA test at STAR Labs proved she was Superman's daughter. Was this a continuity error? An indication in the change of editorial policy towards her? Or was this part of the plot all along and it was just written in such a hamfisted way that it looked stupid?

3: other than a guest spot in Superman-Batman #5, but that's Jeph Loeb for you.

4: Presumably to replace the cancelled/retired Supergirl 2. But having her appear so soon after the excellent Peter David version got the shaft annoyed anyone who liked that version.

5: who the heck are they, anyhow?

6: Note also that nobody ever mentions the recently retired Linda Danvers Supergirl while Cir-El is around in the same way that nobody mentions either Linda OR Cir-El during the Supergirl sequence in Superman-Batman.

P.S. If I've missed any appearances of Cir-El or other information about her not listed here, please let me know where I can find them.

First Post

I've been running a blog for a couple of months which seems to be quite popular amongst the few people who have actually seen it, but I find the lack of response to be a bit dispiriting, so this is an attempt to reach a wider audience.

To start with I'm going to rerun selections from my old blog. It's not like you are going to know the difference after all.

Let me know what you think.