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  1. #76
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    No-one else following along and ready to post first?

    But it's time for more virile displays, in "Wonder Woman Versus the Saboteurs" from Sensation Comics #5! Feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on this story! Next Saturday, 23 February, we will go on to Sensation Comics #6 and "Summons to Paradise".

    I had expected many things when I started this reread, but I had not expected to find so many interesting word choices. Part of the opening for this story goes:

    Daughter of a virile race of wise and beauteous Amazons who dwell on the mysterious paradise isle, one would never surmise that in everyday life Wonder Woman is that demure little army nurse, Diana Prince, friend of the U.S. Army intelligence officer, Captain Steve Trevor.

    As Wonder Woman, Diana has never yet failed to come to his aid when he was in a tight spot!
    (my emphasis)

    There are lots of interesting things about this passage. One is the mix of archaic, formal, and colloquial word choices. In a way, Marston seems to write by dictionary, and I'm reminded of Jack Vance (though Vance was undoubtedly the superior stylist). But perhaps more interesting is the way the language is coded by gender. The Amazons are noted as a "virile race" who still are described as "wise and beateous", and Wonder Woman is contrasted with her Diana Prince identity, described as a "demure little army nurse". That is, Marston uses a mix of masculine and feminine language to describe the capabilities of the Amazons and Wonder Woman, and only feminine to describe Diana Prince. Also, I read the female-gendered language about the Amazons as clearly secondary to the male-gendered one.

    The note on Diana the nurse as "little" also expands to the art. Wonder Woman is drawn as tall as Steve (page 79 frame 7 in my digital omnibus), while Diana in her nurse persona is more than half a head shorter (page 76 frame 5)

    There is also a shift in that the first opening paragraph notes Wonder Woman has "amazed the world", but the last opening paragraph places her relation with Steve Trevor at the forefront.

    On to the story itself. Diana, with her "more than normal senses", discovers and foils a sabotage attempt using the champagne bottle used for christening the new submarine "Octopus". Granted, I'd have expected her identifying high explosives in a bottle by smell rather than weight. Then Diana promptly pretends to faint; I'm beginning to suspect that the stereotypically "female" behaviour that Marston makes her do is partly intended as a way to show how silly the expectations of society is on women, though he also undercuts that critique by conforming to the stereotypes. Being subversive has never been easy, and I'm not sure Marston does a good job with that here.

    Octopus gets in trouble after submerging, and both Diana and Steve manages to catch some signals from a nearby tug, where Ensign Martin is held captive. Wonder Woman and Steve head out to the tug.

    Meanwhile it is revealed that German saboteurs on the tug had abducted Ensign Martin, and after escaping from the cabin where they kept him they toss him into the sea. Wonder Woman saves him with the "grace of a mermaid and the speed of a barracuda". Wonder Woman and Steve subdue the men on the tugboat, but Ensign Martin scares them the most, so they jump overboard and swim away. But the Holliday girls are—coincidence!—having a sailing party nearby, and Diana signals Etta to capture the fleeing Germans.

    Wonder Woman and Steve discover there is second sabotage attempt on the stricken Octopus, via a magnetic lock and pumping in carbon dioxide into the submarine. Wonder Woman protects the rescue diver disabling the carbon dioxide pump, but it also means she can't subdue the German boarding party. But Wonder Woman disables the nearby enemy submarine and thus breaks the magnetic lock on Octopus, allowing the submarine to escape the boarding party. Wonder Woman makes a call to the admiral leading to the capture of the crew of the German submarine.

    I note that Marston puts in rather sharp limits on how long Diana can stay underwater.

    At the end, Steve Trevor continues to daydream about Wonder Woman.

    As far as plotting goes, it continues with the "things happened" approach. The Germans had one plan to destroy or disable the Octopus, and another intending to capture it. I feel those plans somehow are at cross-purpose. And the Holliday girls who just happen to be nearby.

    Concepts introduced: Diana's super-senses, Diana doing sea rescue
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  2. #77
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    Quote Originally Posted by kjn View Post
    The change in language since the 40s is also apparent, as Diana uses "queer" for strange and Colonel Darnell uses "gay" for fun and lively.
    Gay was used in reference to licentious behaviour since the 1600s. By the 1930s it was being used as a slur against same sex relationships. It’s really only in the last few decades that the slur has been taken back to be used in a positive way. The same with queer. But other slurs continue to have a pejorative meaning and are rejected by the LGBTQ community.

    Given his own private behaviour, I'm sure Marston would have known these other connotations of the words. So was he being deliberately provocative, suggesting some swinging behaviour?

    Of course, the Gay Ghost was also appearing in SENSATION COMICS and I don’t think that meant either homosexual or swinging. Diana being at a gay party means she was at a party that was a lot of fun, where everyone was going wild. But the Gay Ghost isn’t supposed to fun or off the chain--however. he comes from the time just after the Cavaliers, the supporters of King Charles in the English civil war, who were “gay” when compared with the Roundheads who supported Cromwell and were overly repressive in their laws. The spirit of the Earl of Strethmere comes from that Cavalier class, so it makes sense he would be the Gay Ghost.

    Quote Originally Posted by kjn View Post
    Marston's slapdash style of storytelling . . .
    I’m actually impressed by how well thought-out Wonder Woman was from the get-go. Marston and Peter seem to have worked it all out ahead of time and that actually sets this feature apart from the rest, where you can tell that other creators are just making it up as they go along. The only other feature in SENSATION COMICS that seems to have such a sure sense of its world, as that in Wonder Woman, is the Black Pirate by Sheldon Moldoff. But the Black Pirate had already appeared in twenty issues of ACTION COMICS before it moved over to SENSATION (with the inaugural issue) to continue its run.

    And even Professor Marston couldn’t have predicted just when the USA would enter the war--although these issues came on the stands in early 1942, they likely were all written prior to the Americans joining the war effort. Still, maybe some last minute changes were worked in or affected the story order.

    The Wildcat story in issue 4 introduced Stretch Skinner, as Ted’s sidekick which he would remain for the rest of the prize fighter’s time in SENSATION. Stretch’s debut tale was reprinted in DC 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR DC-14 (February 1972)--which also reprinted the Wonder Woman story from SENSATION COMICS No. 6 (coming up next on the reading list). This is also the comic where I first read about Batman’s encounters with the vampires Dala and the Monk, from DETECTIVE COMICS 31 and 32, way back in 1939.



    Yet again, a letter is used to pomote an issue, in the house ad for SENSATION COMICS No. 5 (May 1942)--on the newsstands March 6th--this missive is from Alice Marble.



    She was a tennis champion in the 1930s and early 1940s, who joined the DC Editorial Advisory Board and became an associate editor on Wonder Woman--creating the “Wonder Women of History” feature, which begins with WONDER WOMAN No. 1 (Summer 1942).

    Her letter also appears on the inside front cover for issue 5. Elsewhere in that issue is a house ad for ALL-STAR COMICS which asks the reader “Do you want us to be represented in the Justice Society of America”--and the reader is asked to nominate their choice for membership in the JSA from the SENSATION characters: the Wildcat, Wonder Woman, Mr. Terrific, the Black Pirate, the Gay Ghost or Little Boy Blue. I wonder what would have happened if readers had overwhelmingly supported the Black Pirate’s bid for membership in the Justice Society--given that Jon Valor’s adventures took place in the 16th century.

    eBnR8b4kHjlVD2p3jLyWHMU43oKe_qnBA65K6F1s6QOiGSddeWUfvAbyLBc67U0ktuQ8q-KBrIvf2Q=s1600.jpg


    A thousand free copies of SENSATION were sent to entrants and everyone got a free Wonder Woman button. But don’t worry, this was no pork barrel politics from the Amazing Amazon, as you didn’t have to vote for WW to get the reward.

    Quote Originally Posted by kjn View Post
    I had expected many things when I started this reread, but I had not expected to find so many interesting word choices.
    One thing I admire about classic comics is the legend on the splash page of a story. This gave each writer the chance to show off and demonstrate a command of the English language. Just by how they wrote these performance pieces, you could get a handle on their style. These days we're willing to let artists justify their art school training with double page spreads, sans text, but writers rarely get the opportunity anymore to prove they didn't waste their time in English class.

    While Steve Trevor might not appreciate Diana Prince--his love for Wonder Woman seems to have blinded him--everyone else in D.C. offers a lot of respect to Prince. As we see yet again in issue 5.

    I wonder why William Marston was so keen to use the Holliday Girls--as soon as they’re introduced, they become a major part of the stories. I would think that if the Amazing Amazon was going to enlist the aid of other women in her adventures, Diana would turn to her fellow women in the armed forces, rather than a bunch of untrained college students. But maybe Professor Marston and Olive Byrne were more familiar with college life than army operations.

  3. #78
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    Gay was used in reference to licentious behaviour since the 1600s. By the 1930s it was being used as a slur against same sex relationships. It’s really only in the last few decades that the slur has been taken back to be used in a positive way. The same with queer. But other slurs continue to have a pejorative meaning and are rejected by the LGBTQ community.
    On the other hand, I do know that queer was used for "strange" with no notion of anything sexual as late as circa 1915 in the USA, so how common was the usage of "gay" for happy, fun, or "queer" for strange back in the 1940s?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    I’m actually impressed by how well thought-out Wonder Woman was from the get-go. Marston and Peter seem to have worked it all out ahead of time and that actually sets this feature apart from the rest, where you can tell that other creators are just making it up as they go along.
    World-building wise it is OK, and I don't doubt that it is superior to the rest of the features in the Sensation Comics. I was thinking more from a strict plotting perspective. There are simply too many coincidences in too short a space, that could have easily been avoided by better plotting.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    One thing I admire about classic comics is the legend on the splash page of a story. This gave each writer the chance to show off and demonstrate a command of the English language. Just by how they wrote these performance pieces, you could get a handle on their style. These days we're willing to let artists justify their art school training with double page spreads, sans text, but writers rarely get the opportunity anymore to prove they didn't waste their time in English class.

    While Steve Trevor might not appreciate Diana Prince--his love for Wonder Woman seems to have blinded him--everyone else in D.C. offers a lot of respect to Prince. As we see yet again in issue 5.

    I wonder why William Marston was so keen to use the Holliday Girls--as soon as they’re introduced, they become a major part of the stories. I would think that if the Amazing Amazon was going to enlist the aid of other women in her adventures, Diana would turn to her fellow women in the armed forces, rather than a bunch of untrained college students. But maybe Professor Marston and Olive Byrne were more familiar with college life than army operations.
    I likened the splash text back in the first issue to the opening of Howard's Conan stories, and you have a point—a place where the writer gets to put their prose first. But I also think it could serve a storytelling purpose, of setting the reader into the correct mood. Thus it goes beyond a simple recap. Or writers are simply unwilling to write them anymore, or have gotten out of the habit? It's not like there is anything real stopping them from taking up the practice again.

    Good observations on Trevor's behaviour towards Diana relative to the rest of the people and on the Holliday girls. Perhaps it is because college girls, unlike secretaries or nurses in the army, carries a bit of allure and freedom, including sexual freedom, to them?
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  4. #79
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    Oh, and regarding the Holliday girls and why they were used by Marston: the idea of the sororities with their initiation rituals and secret practices are ideal carriers of BDSM imagery, as already evidenced in earlier issues.

    Having Army secretaries and nurses spanking each other would likely leave Army officials upset. If it's nubile college girls, it just adds to the allure and mystery around the college sororities.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  5. #80
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    I've been asking myself what kind of incentive the other posters on here need to post their thoughts on the readings.

    Then it occurred to me that maybe a free Wonder Woman button would encourage more responses. As you can see above, SENSATION COMICS offered a free button to all their respondents.

    There is a facsimile of the button in the DC VAULT, but that would not be cheap. However I can offer a scan from the internet, which anyone might print off at home to make their own button.





    Now, remember, you're on your honour--you got the button--so be a good sport and post a reply.

  6. #81
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    I’ve been reading these issues on the DC Universe app for anyone who has a subscription and wants to check them out. But, be aware that for some reason they group two issues of “Sensation Comics” together. When I downloaded issue #4 for last week, I got #5 as well. Same thing happened the week before with issues #2 and #3.

    This week’s story was a pretty straight-forward spy chase. No major villains, just generic German spies. I don’t even think they were given names were they?

    I thought it was interesting that they tried calling Diana “The Wonder Woman” (like “The Flash” or “The Batman”). It occurs a few times in the narration and a couple of characters put a “the” in front of “Wonder Woman.” I’m glad that didn’t last.

    It’s interesting to see just how much the first season of the television show had clouded (or influenced) my memories of these Golden Age stories. For instance, at one point the naval officer in charge of the submarine boasts to Diana Prince and Darnell about the superiority of the Navy and I thought, “Wait, isn’t Diana Prince a naval Yeoman?” She was on TV, but here she works for the Army. Then it was jarring to see a panel of Wonder Woman changing into her costume and I forget that her signature transformation spin was created specifically for the TV show and her using the lasso to change didn’t happen in the comics until after she recovered from her powerless Diana Prince phase.

    I also miss the “legend” that used to open up all of her stories right up until the end of “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” That whole “Beautiful as Aphrodite, Wise as Athena…” is Wonder Woman’s equivalent of Superman’s “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive…”

    Still not sure what to make of Etta Candy and the Holiday College sorority girls. It almost seems like deus ex Machina that they just “happen” to be out on a boat in the same exact spot where the German spies were and they seem to be very adept at combat and capturing bad guys. My guess is Diana sees the girls as sort-of junior Amazons that she can influence and train to fight with her?

  7. #82
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The I.A.D.C. View Post
    I thought it was interesting that they tried calling Diana “The Wonder Woman” (like “The Flash” or “The Batman”). It occurs a few times in the narration and a couple of characters put a “the” in front of “Wonder Woman.” I’m glad that didn’t last.

    It’s interesting to see just how much the first season of the television show had clouded (or influenced) my memories of these Golden Age stories. For instance, at one point the naval officer in charge of the submarine boasts to Diana Prince and Darnell about the superiority of the Navy and I thought, “Wait, isn’t Diana Prince a naval Yeoman?” She was on TV, but here she works for the Army. Then it was jarring to see a panel of Wonder Woman changing into her costume and I forget that her signature transformation spin was created specifically for the TV show and her using the lasso to change didn’t happen in the comics until after she recovered from her powerless Diana Prince phase.
    Good observation on the name! I think it's partly because they were still feeling it out if "Wonder Woman" had the character of being a name or an appellation at this time. That probably also goes for terms like "the Superman" and so on.

    We saw her change clothes on camera in SC #3. But it's always interesting to go back to the roots and see how much of it came later on, or was influenced by later perceptions.

    And thanks for the button, Jim Kelly! Now I wonder if it's possible to get one that reads "REREAD" instead of "SENSATION COMICS"
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  8. #83
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    Time for a vacation, when Wonder Woman gets a "Summons to Paradise" in Sensation Comics #6! Feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on this story! Next Saturday, 2 March, we will go on to Sensation Comics #7 and "The Milk Swindle".

    Lila and Diana sure have an antagonistic relationship, but at least Lila seems to be more clued into the news than Diana is, since she is the one who knew about Paula von Gunther's escape. At least they can still manage to work well together, once they quit needling each other.

    Diana gets two weeks vacation while Colonel Darnell is travelling, and is summoned to Paradise Island by her mother at the command of Athena and Aphrodite. She arrives just in time to enter the girl-roping contest, involving Kangas and lariats.

    Diana and Mala have the same numbers in the tournament as they had back in the first adventure. Mala manages to rope Diana when they are the two last remaining contestants, but Diana easily breaks Mala's rope and captures her in turn. Note that the Amazons wear cowboy boots. Diana also calls Mala "girl-friend"; I'm not sure about how the word was used in the 40s in the USA or what implications Marston could have intended here.

    Queen Hippolyte orders a lasso made from links from her magic girdle, again at the command of the goddesses. It is made by the craftwoman Metala and given to Diana. After a night of prayer, Aphrodite bestows on Diana the power to control others, via the Magic Lasso. The phrasing seems to imply that the power only applies to Diana herself.

    Diana's first "victim" is Mala, as Diana orders her to not follow her to Man's World. She also gains some intelligence of Paula von Gunther via the Magic Sphere. She gets in touch with Steve Trevor and learns of the disappearance of Colonel Darnell and the Gigantic. Then we get a flashback with how Paula von Gunther escaped and tested out her invisible ray. She then boards the same ship as Colonel Darnell, finds out he is aboard, orders the engines sabotaged, prepares to make the ship invisible, and disables the ship's communications.

    Paula von Gunther's way of holding her pistol is likely to cost her a broken wrist. However, the German submarine picking up Paula von Gunther and Colonel Darnell plan to torpedo the Gigantic, but Diana and Steve get there in time using the Invisible Plane. Diana catches up with the torpedo and changes its course, after which she uses her lasso on the German commander to force him and his crew to surrender. Most of the German crew are tossed in the water for Gigantic to pick up, but she brings Paula von Gunther and the German commander von Lochner to her own prison.

    It ends with Wonder Woman noting how Diana Prince is mooning over Steve Trevor, and Steve Trevor mooning over Wonder Woman, but she can't use the Magic Lasso on either of them.

    Concepts introduced: Girl-roping contest, Kangas, Diana calling Mala girl-friend, Magic Lasso, Invisible Ray, "great tears of Aphrodite"

    Characters introduced: Jumpa, Metala
    Last edited by kjn; 03-06-2019 at 01:32 AM.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  9. #84
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    This story is really quite spectacular--no wonder E. Nelson Bridwell selected it for inclusion in DC 100 PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR DC-14 (February 1972). Not only does it have a return to Paradise Island, home of the Amazons (hurray hurray), and a comeback for Baroness von Gunther (boo hiss), but it introduces the magic lasso and the kangas--including Diana’s favourite kanga, Jumpa (yahoo)!

    The kangas were actually retconned into the contest--both in WONDER WOMAN No. 1 (1942) and in the daily newspaper strip--with the same action sequences featuring Diana and Mala, as we see in this issue.

    Mala’s deep love for Diana is shown here as she would have followed her back to Man’s World if the princess hadn’t used her new lariat to force her girl-friend to remain at home.

    SENSATION COMICS No. 6 (June 1942) went on sale April 10th and this issue has a house ad for ALL-STAR COMICS No. 11 (June-July 1942), on sale April 24th.



    The events of that story occur immediately after December 7th, 1941, the Pearl Harbor invasion, and the declarations of war (December 8th by the USA and December 11th by Germany and Italy). All of the JSA members at the time (including purple and yellow suited Wes Dodds and half-helmeted Kent Nelson) join the army in their secret identities--except for Johnny Thunder who joins the navy.

    s-l1600.jpg

    Carter Hall’s girl friend, Shiera Saunders is now a nurse, travelling on a troop ship to the Phillipines. Also on board and sharing quarters with her is nurse Diana Prince, of the Ambulance Corps. When Carter flies into action as Hawkman, Shiera flirts with him and Diana is upset with her bunkmate for two-timing her man--before Shiera tells her that Carter and Hawkman are one and the same.

    When they arrive in the Phillipines, Diana goes into action as Wonder Woman and helps out the Marine Corps against the enemy, in recognition of which she's made an honorary member by the Marines. This chapter has art from H.G. Peter, but it’s written by Gardner Fox (and plotted by Sheldon Mayer).

    By the end of the JSA adventure, the heads of the armed forces convince the JSAers to form a separate unit--called a “Battalion” by Johnny Thunder (who is an idiot and probably doesn’t know that a battalion, or squadron, is made up of many companies). Thus is formed the Justice Battalion. And Dr. Fate proposes that Wonder Woman should be a member, too.

    In the next issue of ALL-STAR, Diana will volunteer to be the secretary--which is a bit controversial. However, I think we can assume that for the interim between those adventures, WW was an active member of the JSA and not sidelined as their secretary. Word is that William Moulton Marston was not happy with how the Amazing Amazon was written, which may have led to her having a reduced role.

  10. #85
    Extraordinary Member AmiMizuno's Avatar
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    Hey maybe the reason why she is the secretary is due to the fact of how JSA was suppose to work. Non comic series heroes were the stars. Diana was the first comic hero to be a full members. She did get to go on adventures but maybe at first they were worried Diana would outshine the JSA. She did get to go adventures so I didn't worry. Marston did write the all stars when Diana was on

  11. #86
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    Quote Originally Posted by AmiMizuno View Post
    Hey maybe the reason why she is the secretary is due to the fact of how JSA was suppose to work. Non comic series heroes were the stars. Diana was the first comic hero to be a full members. She did get to go on adventures but maybe at first they were worried Diana would outshine the JSA. She did get to go adventures so I didn't worry. Marston did write the all stars when Diana was on
    I thought that Marston had written a couple of Wonder Woman chapters for ALL-STAR COMICS, but Mike's database doesn't show that. I'll have to do more checking.

    ALL-STAR 11 and 12 came out before WONDER WOMAN No. 1 (which goes on sale July 22nd, 1942), ALL-STAR 13 comes out after that (on sale August 21st). So for two issues and three months (April, May, June), Wonder Woman was qualified to be a full member, according to the Society's regulations.

    Once she got her own comic book, she had to become an honorary member (like Superman, Batman, Flash and Green Lantern--who all had their own solo titles), so I gather that making her a secretary kept her within the rules, but still allowed them to have the popular character in the comic book.

    And given the new war slant of the comics (in a way ALL-STAR was now a war comic, because all the characters were attached to the War Department), it made sense that as Diana was a military secretary, she was serving the same role for the JSA. Note that Junior Justice Society certificates, and other documents, would bear the signature of Diana Prince.


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    The above image was the 1945 version of the Junior Justice Society membership certificate (it has Mr. Terrific and Wildcat). Here's an earlier one from around the 1942 timeframe.

    Last edited by Jim Kelly; 03-02-2019 at 08:54 PM.

  13. #88
    Extraordinary Member AmiMizuno's Avatar
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    Note that honorary members means you were never a full members of the JSA. She did get her full membership I believe in 13. She wouldn't take a active role until later. Which was sad since it was around the 50s where All Stars got cancelled. Diana got the same rules. She couldn't go into the fight because she wasn't a full member like Superman or Batman.


    I'm curious is All stars could come back. What should it be? I mean Diana was introduced to readers in this comic. Should this be a another team book?
    Last edited by AmiMizuno; 03-02-2019 at 09:41 PM.

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    At the end of ALL-STAR COMICS 11, Dr. Fate does say "I think Wonder Woman ought be a member, too." The roll call on the splash page for issue 12 lists the members of the Justice Society and has as "honorary members": Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern--but Wonder Woman is not listed there. In the story, Hawkman says that Wonder Woman has volunteered to be the secretary. It seems pretty clear that, according to the rules of the JSA, once you get your own solo title, you stop being an active member and become an honorary member. So by that rule, Wonder Woman should be an honorary member as of issue 13. However, in the roll call for that issue and thereafter, she's listed as secretary. So it seems like they made up a special role for her, to get around the rule that took Flash and Green Lantern out of the book. Of course, a few years later this changes and the Comic Cavalcade Trio all return to active membership, despite having their own titles.

  15. #90
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    The interaction between writing, publishing, and real-world events are interesting here, and points to the different lead times. All the stories we've seen so far has been focused on an America gearing up for war and scared of agents and saboteurs, while the All-Star Comics ad that Jim Kelly linked was made just as the war broke out.

    The relative low impact of the superheroes on the war effort might have been influenced by the storytelling trickiness of it—any story you make with the superheroes on the front lines might have been overtaken by events by the time the story hits the newsstand.

    For myself, I have the headcanon that Wonder Woman was the secretary-general of the JSA.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

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