Good Wonder Woman during World War II stories? (other than original Golden Age)

[Jim Kelly]

The Bob Kanigher comics used the words "Golden Age" a lot, which at the time would have been a new term, invented by the fans who were publishing their own fanzines about the comics they had read as kids. To them that was their Golden Age. We all have one. So I think Kanigher was trying to exploit that fondness for this Golden Age from the older readers.

When MS. came out, Gloria Steinem and her friends were also writing about their childhoods and the Golden Age they remembered. And the irony is they thought the mod Diana Prince wasn't good enough, wasn't feminist enough, and they wanted a return to their Golden Age.

But I think both times, Kanigher and DC misunderstood what those people really meant when they said they wanted that "Golden Age" back. It wasn't about returning to some of the superficial elements of those comics--it was about getting back to the core values and the positive messages of the Wonder Woman character.

There's some rose-coloured glasses here. The fans and the feminists were thinking about comics they had read as kids, so their own misty, water-coloured memories of the way they were made the comics into something greater than they actually were.

[kjn]

The Bob Kanigher comics used the words "Golden Age" a lot, which at the time would have been a new term, invented by the fans who were publishing their own fanzines about the comics they had read as kids. To them that was their Golden Age. We all have one. So I think Kanigher was trying to exploit that fondness for this Golden Age from the older readers.

"The Golden Age of science fiction is 12." (Or originally 13, as coined by Peter Graham.) Back from what I gather, the term Golden Age for the period 1938–1946/1950 originated within science fiction fandom, but given the close connections between both readership and publishing for science fiction and comics, I'm not surprised the term spread from one to the other quickly. But I believe it started out with the age of the reader.

[Jim Kelly]

The first comic book fandom was usually as a sub-section of science fiction fandom. XERO was a science fiction fanzine and the articles about comics in it were what eventually got collected in the book ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME (with pieces by Dick Lupoff, Ted White, Dick Ellington, Don Thompson and Roy Thomas). I believe this is how comic book conventions came about, as well, as an outgrowth of sci-fi cons.

[MajorHoy]

While I'm a big advocate of the idea that Wonder Woman must be active in World War II, I have to correct the record and tell you that Wonder Woman came to Man's World before the USA got involved in the war. ALL-STAR COMICS No. 8 (cover dated December 1941 - January 1942) went on sale October 25, 1941--well before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941.*

Of course, everyone else was already at war. It was just the isolationist United States that stayed out of the war. So WW II was very real, when Princess Diana brought Steve Trevor back to Washington, in SENSATION COMICS No. 1 (January 1942), on sale November 7, 1941.

However, there were people in the United States advocating for U.S. involvement in WWII well before Pearl Harbor; we had the Lend-Lease act passed and signed by FDR in early 1941 as a way to supply the war efforts of Great Britain and others against the Axis forces but without sending U.S. soldiers directly into the fray. And comic book characters like Wonder Woman and Captain America were conceived and published prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but many people in the comic book industry may have been way more liberal than those who wanted the U.S. to stay out of the war.

[MajorHoy]

from Wonder Woman #228 (February 1977):

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Ah, Red Panzer the goofball who made his own little vision sphere and discovering in detail how WW2 would end, came up with the brilliant plan to travel into the future to prevent France being liberated instead of actually telling his fellow nazis about the attack. XD

[MajorHoy]

from Wonder Woman #229 (March 1977):

[MajorHoy]

more from Wonder Woman #229 (March 1977):

[Phoenixx9]

Ha! I know what caused the weakness!!