Wonder Woman #1 Spoilers

[blueray]

Doubtful, it may seem...still true. I'm not picking on you, here, and I understand what you're saying, ..but, understand what I'm saying.

Go to Carol Strickland's WW history website or the Amazon Archives site and see what I'm talking about, for yourself. In the 1950s and early Sixties, when the rogues galleries of Batman, Superman, Flash, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk were being brilliantly and consistently developed - backstories, mythos, etc - Robert Kanigher was pitting Wonder Woman against Egg Fu, the Human Centipede, Mouse Man and a host of other silly, (thankfully) forgettable characters, ..and that set this comic back, decades behind the others! That is'nt me and some of the other longhorn fans grumbling, Agent Z...

That's just how it was.

In spite of brilliant editorial contributions like Nubia and the 'Mod Era', editor Robert Kanigher may be the worst thing that ever happened to Wonder Woman. Back when fans actually wrote and mailed typed and hand-written letters to the WW comic, begging him to take her more seriously, Kanigher openly mocked and dismissed the fans and went right back to work, ..writing WW, as though it was Alley Oop, Popeye the Sailor or some other silly, Sunday newspaper comic strip. Unable to imagine a world in which a super-heroine could be a comic book icon, Kanigher made Wonder Woman, a water cooler joke in the sexist, male-dominated comic industry of his time. His tenure on the title continued into the Seventies, ..and we are sifting through the debris.

Doubt all you like, but look at Timely's superheroine comics in the late 40s and early 50s, like Sun Girl, Miss America or Venus, and you'll see that what I'm saying is true.

And God bless Lynda Carter and the dynamic life and humanity, with which she brought Wonder Woman to life...considering what she had to work with! In spite of her best efforts, the New Adventures of Wonder Woman was, at best, a glorified, 70s-period cop show, ..with costumed superheroics thrown in for a twist. That TV show rarely pitted WW against super-powered antagonists, didn't use the super-villains in her brand NEW, 70s comics - Nubia, Doctor Cyber, the Dark Commander, Osira, Silver Swan, Bushmaster, the Adjudicator - and contributed nothing memorable to her rogues gallery, whatsoever. The show also ignored Golden Age villains being revamped in the comics, ..like Atomia, Mars, Doctor Psycho, Conquest, the Duke of Deception and the Nuclear Marauder, ..some of whom would have been perfect foils for Carter's Wondy and the popular issues of the mid-70s.

Wonder Woman hasn't been developed apace, with the other major comics, ..and that's all there is to that. Editorially speaking, she's behind them, by, at least, a few decades, and that's going to take time - time, time, time - to fix and catch her up with the others. I'd love to believe that Rebirth and the upcoming movie is going to change that outcome, Agent Z...sure hope it will.

We'll see.

I'm with you on this, Mel. If I was the writer on Wonder Woman (hey, I can dream) I would select a handful of bad girls and guys and have them not almost as the main cast, but definitely as the main cast. Develop their motivations, their reasoning, even if they didn't immediately face Wonder Woman they would be part of the over all story. Avoid the whole 'and this month's villain is..!' and go with a more 'Wonder Woman World'. Sure, Wonder Woman is absolutely the main character but there's a whole world she lives in.

I guess my reasoning behind this would be - if you were to see different faces of say, Cheetah, her loves, laughs, crimes, pains, philosophy, when ever she became an antagonist for Wonder Woman hopefully the reader would feel more investment.

/rambling

[Dr. Poison]

Circe hasn't been in the Wonder Woman comic for nearly ten years.

I don't know how anyone who has read Perez's run can label Cheetah as uninteresting, personally. Has she been consistent as a villain? Not really, especially power-wise and especially outside of the WW series. But undeveloped? I'd say that's a big ol' no.

Agreed on Cheetah from Perez(and Jimenez)'s runs. Also Geoff John's semi-recent story with Cheetah in Justice League and Alex Ross' portrayal of her from Justice.

[thwhtGuardian]

I really loved the art here and I liked how it set up the supporting characters, hopefully this is a good run.

[Carabas]

Doubtful, it may seem...still true. I'm not picking on you, here, and I understand what you're saying, ..but, understand what I'm saying.

Go to Carol Strickland's WW history website or the Amazon Archives site and see what I'm talking about, for yourself. In the 1950s and early Sixties, when the rogues galleries of Batman, Superman, Flash, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk were being brilliantly and consistently developed - backstories, mythos, etc - Robert Kanigher was pitting Wonder Woman against Egg Fu, the Human Centipede, Mouse Man and a host of other silly, (thankfully) forgettable characters, ..and that set this comic back, decades behind the others! That is'nt me and some of the other longhorn fans grumbling, Agent Z...

I never realised this.
Yeah, I guess that's how it is in comics. As a major property you need to have your affairs in order at the very latest by the mid-60's. You don't have your rogues, your mythology, strong supporting and so on in order by then, well, then it's not going to happen for you. With some very rare exceptions, probably, although I can't really think of any. I want to say New Gods, but they kind of got absorbed by the Superman mythology, Darkseid becoming on of his rogues.

In spite of brilliant editorial contributions like Nubia and the 'Mod Era', editor Robert Kanigher may be the worst thing that ever happened to Wonder Woman. Back when fans actually wrote and mailed typed and hand-written letters to the WW comic, begging him to take her more seriously, Kanigher openly mocked and dismissed the fans and went right back to work, ..writing WW, as though it was Alley Oop, Popeye the Sailor or some other silly, Sunday newspaper comic strip. Unable to imagine a world in which a super-heroine could be a comic book icon, Kanigher made Wonder Woman, a water cooler joke in the sexist, male-dominated comic industry of his time. His tenure on the title continued into the Seventies, ..and we are sifting through the debris.

Kanigher doesn't get nearly enough hate on these boards.
He did a lot more damage than a thousand Azzarello's ever could.

And God bless Lynda Carter and the dynamic life and humanity, with which she brought Wonder Woman to life...considering what she had to work with! In spite of her best efforts, the New Adventures of Wonder Woman was, at best, a glorified, 70s-period cop show, ..with costumed superheroics thrown in for a twist. That TV show rarely pitted WW against super-powered antagonists, didn't use the super-villains in her brand NEW, 70s comics - Nubia, Doctor Cyber, the Dark Commander, Osira, Silver Swan, Bushmaster, the Adjudicator - and contributed nothing memorable to her rogues gallery, whatsoever. The show also ignored Golden Age villains being revamped in the comics, ..like Atomia, Mars, Doctor Psycho, Conquest, the Duke of Deception and the Nuclear Marauder, ..some of whom would have been perfect foils for Carter's Wondy and the popular issues of the mid-70s.

I don't like the tv series for various reasons, but I do find it hard to blame the creators for not doing proper supervillains in a no-effects-budget 70's tv show.

[SiegePerilous02]

Circe hasn't been in the Wonder Woman comic for nearly ten years.

I don't know how anyone who has read Perez's run can label Cheetah as uninteresting, personally. Has she been consistent as a villain? Not really, especially power-wise and especially outside of the WW series. But undeveloped? I'd say that's a big ol' no.

I'd say she was underdeveloped, or at least the potential Perez gave the character was subsequently squandered by almost every writer who came after him. I definitely agree that that she wasn't uninteresting, though. Perez's Minerva was scary and badass, with a lot of cool parallels between her and Diana as both characters and archetypes. It's not so much that Minerva was a fully developed character, but that she was a very intriguing one that was allowed to go to waste and have her potential wasted. She's not unique in that regard though, and she's still managed to cling to the "most iconic nemesis" label chiefly because nobody else has caught on.

I agree with the general sentiment that Kanigher is one of the main reasons this property has been so weak. The Silver Age is, with the major exception of the X-Men and to a lesser extent the Teen Titans, the era where all the major properties transformed into their most iconic iterations. Without Marston to guide her, I think Diana was doomed considering she was the only solo female property compared to the rest of DC's and all of Marvel's. She is without doubt the one who got the short end of the stick in that era, whereas in the Golden Age I think she definitely had the most overall eye catching Rogues Gallery out of her peers.

[Darius]

I agree with the general sentiment that Kanigher is one of the main reasons this property has been so weak. The Silver Age is, with the major exception of the X-Men and to a lesser extent the Teen Titans, the era where all the major properties transformed into their most iconic iterations. Without Marston to guide her, I think Diana was doomed considering she was the only solo female property compared to the rest of DC's and all of Marvel's. She is without doubt the one who got the short end of the stick in that era, whereas in the Golden Age I think she definitely had the most overall eye catching Rogues Gallery out of her peers.

I have to agree with most of this statement, the Silver Age was really bad for WW! But I don't know that we can truly lay the blame on Kanigher, as the man was obviously stretched thin by working on so many things and the issues with the budding CCA, the accusations from Seduction of the Innocents even had he been completely focused on WW he would have struggled with how to water down what Marston introduced and continue to make her an interesting character, sadly she just reverted to a stereotype for a great many years. It's kind of a miracle she survived all those years, so I can't think all of what Kanigher did was negative and he did lay some foundation for a stronger Bronze Age, despite the hot mess that was continuity!

[phonogram12]

What if, dun dun dun duuuh, this Cheetah was one of First Born's children

This would be awesome. Strengthening ties to a run as critically acclaimed a run as Azzarello's would be fantastic!

[SiegePerilous02]

I have to agree with most of this statement, the Silver Age was really bad for WW! But I don't know that we can truly lay the blame on Kanigher, as the man was obviously stretched thin by working on so many things and the issues with the budding CCA, the accusations from Seduction of the Innocents even had he been completely focused on WW he would have struggled with how to water down what Marston introduced and continue to make her an interesting character, sadly she just reverted to a stereotype for a great many years. It's kind of a miracle she survived all those years, so I can't think all of what Kanigher did was negative and he did lay some foundation for a stronger Bronze Age, despite the hot mess that was continuity!

Yeah, I don't wanna lay the blame entirely on Kanigher either. Like you said, he was stretched thin, and he and other writers were products of their time when it came to writing women. Even creative powerhouses like Kirby and Lee couldn't be arsed to write Invisible Girl and Marvel Girl as anything more than "the Chicks." Marston, radical feminist and crazy old pervert that he was, was way ahead of his time.

Things like "Wonder Woman doesn't have a firmly established arch nemesis" are only a thing because the Silver Age didn't give her one. The Bronze Age (and Superfriends) did the best it could by resurrecting some of her Golden Age foes and they're still around (infrequently) to this day, but the creative renaissance of the Silver Age passing her by really hurt her in the long run.

[Lex Luthor]

Doubtful, it may seem...still true. I'm not picking on you, here, and I understand what you're saying, ..but, understand what I'm saying.

Go to Carol Strickland's WW history website or the Amazon Archives site and see what I'm talking about, for yourself. In the 1950s and early Sixties, when the rogues galleries of Batman, Superman, Flash, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk were being brilliantly and consistently developed - backstories, mythos, etc - Robert Kanigher was pitting Wonder Woman against Egg Fu, the Human Centipede, Mouse Man and a host of other silly, (thankfully) forgettable characters, ..and that set this comic back, decades behind the others! That is'nt me and some of the other longhorn fans grumbling, Agent Z...

That's just how it was.

In spite of brilliant editorial contributions like Nubia and the 'Mod Era', editor Robert Kanigher may be the worst thing that ever happened to Wonder Woman. Back when fans actually wrote and mailed typed and hand-written letters to the WW comic, begging him to take her more seriously, Kanigher openly mocked and dismissed the fans and went right back to work, ..writing WW, as though it was Alley Oop, Popeye the Sailor or some other silly, Sunday newspaper comic strip. Unable to imagine a world in which a super-heroine could be a comic book icon, Kanigher made Wonder Woman, a water cooler joke in the sexist, male-dominated comic industry of his time. His tenure on the title continued into the Seventies, ..and we are sifting through the debris.

Doubt all you like, but look at Timely's superheroine comics in the late 40s and early 50s, like Sun Girl, Miss America or Venus, and you'll see that what I'm saying is true.

And God bless Lynda Carter and the dynamic life and humanity, with which she brought Wonder Woman to life...considering what she had to work with! In spite of her best efforts, the New Adventures of Wonder Woman was, at best, a glorified, 70s-period cop show, ..with costumed superheroics thrown in for a twist. That TV show rarely pitted WW against super-powered antagonists, didn't use the super-villains in her brand NEW, 70s comics - Nubia, Doctor Cyber, the Dark Commander, Osira, Silver Swan, Bushmaster, the Adjudicator - and contributed nothing memorable to her rogues gallery, whatsoever. The show also ignored Golden Age villains being revamped in the comics, ..like Atomia, Mars, Doctor Psycho, Conquest, the Duke of Deception and the Nuclear Marauder, ..some of whom would have been perfect foils for Carter's Wondy and the popular issues of the mid-70s.

Wonder Woman hasn't been developed apace, with the other major comics, ..and that's all there is to that. Editorially speaking, she's behind them, by, at least, a few decades, and that's going to take time - time, time, time - to fix and catch her up with the others. I'd love to believe that Rebirth and the upcoming movie is going to change that outcome, Agent Z...sure hope it will.

We'll see.

i havent read any of robert's work but i have heard that her silver age comics were atrocious. I think i tried to read whatever issue that came right after issue 28 and the level of quality did drop quite a bit.

[Harpsikord]

I never realised this.
Yeah, I guess that's how it is in comics. As a major property you need to have your affairs in order at the very latest by the mid-60's. You don't have your rogues, your mythology, strong supporting and so on in order by then, well, then it's not going to happen for you. With some very rare exceptions, probably, although I can't really think of any. I want to say New Gods, but they kind of got absorbed by the Superman mythology, Darkseid becoming on of his rogues.

Apart from Magneto and a few of the other Brotherhood members, this is actually something that is true for the X-Men. They didn't really take off till 1975, and even further in 1979/1980.

[brettc1]

Just got around to reading this. It's been a busy week.

I'm going to start with the few things I didn't like because this book should finish with positives.

"You will lose." This always annoys me when Diana says this. Is it supposed to be diplomacy, because if so it never works. And indeed, why should it? Wonder Woman would never back down from a fight just because somebody told her she would lose, so why should expect anyone else to? She's basically saying that not only is she a better fighter but she also has more courage in the face of superior odds. Not exactly what you'd call non-confrontational.

The fight with the creatures - would have liked to see more of it. We get a beginning and end.

Could be better use of page space.

Okay, the good.

The art is great. Costume looks amazing and so does Diana. I an intrigued to see how Sharp draws her with different expressions.

Three warnings. Very Wonder Woman.

Steve is kick-ass hot. Boo-yah!

His photo of D. Double boo-yah.

They have unresolved history. Always a good way to start.

Good to see Etta again.

The "fight" with Cheetah. SOOOOOOOOOO much better than the soft-core porn version John Byrne gave us years ago with Diana standing there letting her clothes get shredded while she moans and groans like she's in a bondage video. This encounter highlighted Wonder Woman's strength and resolve, and the teasers at Cheetahs final appearance had a real cinematic scariness to them.

Wonder Woman is proactive. Always a good thing.

No sword in the story. Cool.

I give this 8/10. Good with room to be great.

[Mel Dyer]

I'm with you on this, Mel. If I was the writer on Wonder Woman (hey, I can dream) I would select a handful of bad girls and guys and have them not almost as the main cast, but definitely as the main cast. Develop their motivations, their reasoning, even if they didn't immediately face Wonder Woman they would be part of the over all story. Avoid the whole 'and this month's villain is..!' and go with a more 'Wonder Woman World'. Sure, Wonder Woman is absolutely the main character but there's a whole world she lives in.

I guess my reasoning behind this would be - if you were to see different faces of say, Cheetah, her loves, laughs, crimes, pains, philosophy, when ever she became an antagonist for Wonder Woman hopefully the reader would feel more investment.

/rambling

I agree, Blueray. Maybe, they could start with three super-villainesses. [My picks would be Cheetah, Doctor Cyber and a magic-powered Silver Swan, ..but pick, whoever you like.] Make Wonder Woman's top three rogues truly impressive individuals, team them up against her, and build the rogues from there, ..adding on more villains, as they go. Just me rambling...

[brettc1]

Looking at Steve's photo, she is not 6'2".

At best she is 6'1". That's assuming she wasn't wearing heels.

[blueray]

Next week looks like a good week for Wonder Woman fans:

Wonder Woman #2 (at last!)
The Legend of Wonder Woman #8
Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka vol 1.

Kinda wish they'd spread it out a bit but still... Can't complain.

[SiegePerilous02]

Next week looks like a good week for Wonder Woman fans:

Wonder Woman #2 (at last!)
The Legend of Wonder Woman #8
Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka vol 1.

Kinda wish they'd spread it out a bit but still... Can't complain.

Unfortunately, I don't think #2 comes out until the 13th.