What were the positive aspects of Robert Kanigher's stories?

[Alpha]

This is a particular period I never dealt much into simply because it seems to be the least promising. I've read a few stories and clearly the plots had all the fantasy logic of the silver age, which has a certain charm, but it also abandoned and deformed really important things, in particular the Holliday Girls. From those of you that have read a lot of stories by Robert Kanigher, what are the positive elements you find in this period?

[I'm a Fish]

I've only read a very small handful, (like 5?). They were alright.

[AmiMizuno]

I mean he was the writer for Wonder Woman for the longest time. I think he introduced us to Nubia. So that was good.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Having suffered the unfortunate fate of reading the entirity of Kanighers tenure on Wonder Woman, I can certainly say it is one of Wonder Womans lowest points. Repeats of the same story over and over. Half arsed writing by a creative who openly boasted about not caring about the book he was both writing and editing. The fact that Kanigher was also the editor is the only reason why his stories were not thrown in the garbage bin where they belonged.

That said, he did write the occasional enjoyable gem. With twenty years of being on the book there was bound to be some of those.

In particular....
I will say his Wonder Tot stories were consistently good. He would use Wonder Woman as more of a romance comic with silver age elements. But his Wonder Tot was pure innocent fun. The tiny superhero teaming up with a genie and going on grandiose adventures~

There were some good Wonder Girl stories too. If you look at Wonder Girl as an entirely separate character from Diana then her characterization, stories revolving around her romances, and concerns about her appearance above all else make for an interesting character.

The concepts if certainly not the execution for his revolving door of love interests consisting of; Birdboy, Merboy, the Glob, Ameoba Man and various supervillains of all shapes and sizes offered a little distraction and had some okay aspects to them.

What else.....
Oh~ I liked his original take on Angle Man. The boss of all crime who 'Knows all the angles' and the whole concept of him having a collection of different criminal specialists to handle different criminal dealings at his whim. From evil scientists to outfit gangs with thematic weaponry to hitmen trained to kill in secret or annihilate ones reputation. The more recent takes on Angle Man have been interesting. But they never really left the impression that they were near as brilliant or commanding.

Nubia was alright as a character. But this same story had Kanigher retcon the previous run in the most obnoxious manner possible. Not to mention his take on Nubia and the men who served her left alot to be desired compared to what we have seen in the past year. He might be credited for the concept. But it would be other better writers that made her great.

[rayray]

In particular....
I will say his Wonder Tot stories were consistently good. He would use Wonder Woman as more of a romance comic with silver age elements. But his Wonder Tot was pure innocent fun. The tiny superhero teaming up with a genie and going on grandiose adventures~

There were some good Wonder Girl stories too. If you look at Wonder Girl as an entirely separate character from Diana then her characterization, stories revolving around her romances, and concerns about her appearance above all else make for an interesting character.
...
Nubia was alright as a character. But this same story had Kanigher retcon the previous run in the most obnoxious manner possible. Not to mention his take on Nubia and the men who served her left alot to be desired compared to what we have seen in the past year. He might be credited for the concept. But it would be other better writers that made her great.

The one legacy of Kanigher's that I think is tremendously positive is the kid-friendly appeal/charm of a superhero with a loving super-family that has adventures together (eg the Impossible Tales, where Queen Hippolyte, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot teamed up, sometimes with a "this is impossible" story conceit and many times not bothering to explain how they could be in the same story at all.) When you consider the Wonder Family stories simply as stories where a Queen Mum and her three daughters have related adventures, that is a terrific concept for a kid's superhero story IMO. These were my favourite non-Marston WW reprints to read growing up; much more interesting than the "giant monster! Steve wants to marry me! My identity must remain a secret!" stories that Kanigher never stopped telling -- usually all three in the same story. Wonder family vs giant monsters = fine with me. And, of course, the concept of Nubia, as opposed to his actual writing of the character.

[bat39]

Anyone else feel that WW'84 was a throwback to this era of Wonder Woman? It certainly was a ''throwback'' film in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the Reeves Superman movies and the Lynda Carter show, but I feel there was an element of the Silver Age light-heartedness and simplistic bonkers plots from the comics as well.

[I'm a Fish]

Anyone else feel that WW'84 was a throwback to this era of Wonder Woman? It certainly was a ''throwback'' film in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the Reeves Superman movies and the Lynda Carter show, but I feel there was an element of the Silver Age light-heartedness and simplistic bonkers plots from the comics as well.

I'd lean much more to it being a throwback to Lynda Carter's show than the silver-age comics. I know Patty is a big fan of that show, she talked about it all the time in interviews for the 2017 movie.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

The one legacy of Kanigher's that I think is tremendously positive is the kid-friendly appeal/charm of a superhero with a loving super-family that has adventures together (eg the Impossible Tales, where Queen Hippolyte, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot teamed up, sometimes with a "this is impossible" story conceit and many times not bothering to explain how they could be in the same story at all.) When you consider the Wonder Family stories simply as stories where a Queen Mum and her three daughters have related adventures, that is a terrific concept for a kid's superhero story IMO. These were my favourite non-Marston WW reprints to read growing up; much more interesting than the "giant monster! Steve wants to marry me! My identity must remain a secret!" stories that Kanigher never stopped telling -- usually all three in the same story. Wonder family vs giant monsters = fine with me. And, of course, the concept of Nubia, as opposed to his actual writing of the character.

Thats a good point! The Wonder Family thing was quite neat. A shame more wasn't done with that whole idea.

[bat39]

I'd lean much more to it being a throwback to Lynda Carter's show than the silver-age comics. I know Patty is a big fan of that show, she talked about it all the time in interviews for the 2017 movie.

Oh, she's definitely a fan of the show, especially considering THAT cameo

But I think even the show, what little I've seen of it from trailers and clips and by reading interviews (I admittedly haven't actually watched it) tonally seems to evoke the Silver Age era. Obviously not as silly as the comics could be, but still broadly the same wheelhouse. And that's part of what WW '84 was trying to evoke I feel.

[Largo161]

Oh, she's definitely a fan of the show, especially considering THAT cameo

But I think even the show, what little I've seen of it from trailers and clips and by reading interviews (I admittedly haven't actually watched it) tonally seems to evoke the Silver Age era. Obviously not as silly as the comics could be, but still broadly the same wheelhouse. And that's part of what WW '84 was trying to evoke I feel.

The show evoked the Golden Age, not Silver, during its ABC network era. Once it moved to CBS it basically became its own thing with little connection to any comics era. The Bronze Age comics started to copy the CBS show in their depiction of Diana Prince.

Silver Age Kanigher (Romance, Wonder Family, space travel, monsters) never made it into the show IMO.

[SiegePerilous02]

Silver Age Kanigher (Romance, Wonder Family, space travel, monsters) never made it into the show IMO.

I think these are the things I liked about the Kanigher stories, or at least the impression I get from them while reading up on them.

There really isn't anything too objectionable about the Silver Age stuff on its own, with the big exception being Egg-Fu and overdoing it on the love triangles with Steve, Mer-Man and Bird-Man. A lot of it would be welcome additions to the Golden Age mythos, but the issue is that it replaced almost all of it wholesale. Outside of the Wonder Family and an occasional nameless crew of Amazons, there weren't a lot of female characters for Diana to bounce off of. Etta and the Holliday Girls made a couple appearances but were written out of the book. The majority of her Golden Age rogues didn't make appearances, and most of them were women. The number that returned could be counted on one hand: Cheetah, Giganta and Queen Atomia, and each only appeared in 1-2 issues. Queen Celerita was changed into the male King Celerito when that story was re-told. And all the new villains were mostly male and even goofier than the Golden Age bad ladies.

One thing I like about Kanigher is that he moved the Greek gods to become more like classical deities instead of the versions Marston used. I think Ares/Mars still lived on Mars or at least had minions there, but the rest seemed to be the divine beings that resides on Mt. Olympus, which would lay the groundwork for future versions like Perez's, Rucka's or Azzarello's.

So overall, I'd like a Marston-Kanigher fusion for a pre-Crisis flavor Wonder Woman with all their contributions. But definitely favoring Marston, with the Kanigher stuff as embellishments. But never Kanigher on his own.

[Pinsir]

In many ways...they were too perfect. If you read from Wonder Woman Vol 1 #105-169 you probably got the most consistent run in WW history, even if there was a reboot at the end.