Xenophobia vs Wonder Woman (Sensation Comics #81, 1948)

[Pinsir]

In Sensation Comics #81 (1948), written by Robert Kanigher with art by Harry G Peter, Wonder Woman battles against the forces of bigotry as a political militia known as the Green Shirts (An obvious reference to Italian Black Shirts and German Brown Shirts) terrorize the immigrants of a local town. Their slogan is 'America for Americans' and they are lead by Dr. Frenzi, a balding, stocky and aging old man with small hands, whom after delivering a speech to a rally is revealed to be riling up the town's fears for the money.

The Holiday Girls alert Wonder Woman to the situation, but Wonder Woman and the collage girls are subsequently kidnapped. Dr. Frenzi ties the girls below a cement machine and threatens to drown them in the solution unless Wonder Woman addresses the nation through the miracle of radio and endorses the Green Shirts.



Wonder Woman only escapes -

spoilers:

with the aid of disaffected Green Shirt members who now recognize Dr. Frenzi as a fraud.

end of spoilers

At the end of the issue Wonder Woman delivers a speech renouncing the evils of bigotry, but that who fall sway to such rhetoric are not irredeemable.



When I read this comic I was genuinely shocked at how topical it was and it is clear the creators knew the importance of this issue. H. G. Peter pencils some of his best work and this is likely the best issue Robert Kanigher produced in his 22 year old Wonder Woman run. I would highly recommend all Wonder Woman fans take a look at this issue as well as Kanigher's other WW work, but not the issues that are straight up Romance comics.

[Vaffrey]

I agree -- it's an excellent issue, with a great speech at the end.

Was it written by Kanigher? I think there was a slew of issues of Sensation written by Moulton or written by people in his circle using his name, even after his death, before Kanigher assumed duties. Kanigher's stories are less ... thoughtful. I think "thoughtful" is the word. Some of them are pretty brisk, but I don't think any of them were very substantive.

[Darius]

I agree -- it's an excellent issue, with a great speech at the end.

Was it written by Kanigher? I think there was a slew of issues of Sensation written by Moulton or written by people in his circle using his name, even after his death, before Kanigher assumed duties. Kanigher's stories are less ... thoughtful. I think "thoughtful" is the word. Some of them are pretty brisk, but I don't think any of them were very substantive.

Possibly written by someone else, Kanigher had a lot of material to choose from after Marston's death. Also possible he filled in the blanks with a lot of partially written stories.

Interesting that the story is so timely today, but then again, there were a lot of similar issues going on in the world

[Pinsir]

I agree -- it's an excellent issue, with a great speech at the end.

Was it written by Kanigher? I think there was a slew of issues of Sensation written by Moulton or written by people in his circle using his name, even after his death, before Kanigher assumed duties. Kanigher's stories are less ... thoughtful. I think "thoughtful" is the word. Some of them are pretty brisk, but I don't think any of them were very substantive.

I finished going through all of Sensation Comics (well, the one's with WW in it) a months ago and even though I knew the dates when Marston died, there were no startling changes to the content of the comic. I assumed they were post-humorous publications at first, but when I checked the DC Comics wiki Kanigher was listed. Kanigher had apparently been delegated as Marston's successor by the man himself as he succumbed to polio (A woman named Joye Murchison also wrote a few issues of the main title). Eventually though Kanigher began writing romance stories instead of Wonder Woman stories and their a chore to read.

[SiegePerilous02]

Maybe having Peter as the artist helped Kanigher channel Marston better than he did in later years?
I believe the first ever Circe story was written by Kanigher as well.

[Pinsir]

Maybe having Peter as the artist helped Kanigher channel Marston better than he did in later years?
I believe the first ever Circe story was written by Kanigher as well.

Yeah, Wonder Woman Vol 1 #37, the issue where Circe first appears in, was written by Kanigher and certainly having H.G. Peter on art duties until his death helped too. Besides adding romance genre elements to the book he also began to add Hellenistic elements, like Circe and the Sirens to the book, which Marston before used in name only, more or less. Surprisingly, Medusa didn't appear until after CoIE, which is why Morrison's choice of Medusa seems a little odd to me in Earth-1.

[SeanT]

The Jill Lepore book has the story in Sensation #81 attributed (by DC records) to Joye Murchison.

I think it was actually Sheldon Mayer as editor that made Kanigher a better writer. When Kanigher took over as writer/ editor (my guess is at #45), the stories really hit bottom.

[SeanT]

And speaking of topical-- it's funny Dr. Frenzi looks like Bernie Sanders and talks like Donald Trump.

[SiegePerilous02]

Yeah, Wonder Woman Vol 1 #37, the issue where Circe first appears in, was written by Kanigher and certainly having H.G. Peter on art duties until his death helped too. Besides adding romance genre elements to the book he also began to add Hellenistic elements, like Circe and the Sirens to the book, which Marston before used in name only, more or less. Surprisingly, Medusa didn't appear until after CoIE, which is why Morrison's choice of Medusa seems a little odd to me in Earth-1.

Seems he kept up Marston's weird habit of mixing Greek mythology with outer space as well. Circe was banished to the planetoid Sorca, and we have other instances like Mars actually living on Mars, Artemis/Diana and her hand maidens on the moon, Gundra and the Norse Gods living on a planet called Valhalla, etc. Probably the one element from the Golden Age mythos that I'm happy was dropped and replaced by more mythologically accurate portrayals.

Morrison's choice of Medusa was indeed weird, though seeing as how she represents the "frightening" power of femininity (such that it can turn a man into stone), I can see the thought process of choosing her as the weapon of Hippolyta's wrath. But I was hoping to see the Baroness or Dr. Poison as antagonists.