Wonder Woman 25: A Golden Age Review

[Joanna]

Since a couple of you mentioned my crazy Sensation Comics GA Review as a highlight, I decided to get busy and post another one. This time, I've added images, so you can see what I'm talking about. Cool, huh?

 

 

 

Wonder Woman #25 (Part One): A GA Review

by Joanna Sandsmark

 

Woo Woo! I smell the distinctive, musty odor of a very old comic book. Just a sniff, and I'm fastening my seatbelt, putting my tray table in an upright position and readying myself for a superspeed journey into the 1940s. And, if you join me, we can travel together into the pages of WONDER WOMAN #25. C'mon! It'll be fun -- I promise!

 

The cover

 

The cover is quite intriguing. Wonder Woman is sitting at a desk looking at three wanted posters. She appears pensive; worried. These are obviously very dangerous criminals. What she doesn't see, is that behind her, peeking out from a doorway, are the three felons, all armed and ready to strike. I have an overwhelming urge to shout "look out!!!" But I won't. My prime directive says that I must not interfere in the stories of comic books. So though painful, I remain silent.

 

::insert silence here::

 

"Look out!!!" (phew! I feel much better, despite the impending court martial I'll no doubt receive).

 

Opening the cover, we see an ad for FLASH COMICS #87. It's got a Johnny Thunder/Black Canary team-up in it. Wowzers! And a Ghost Patrol story plus a tale of the Atom (Al Pratt, of course). It also has a thriller where Hawkman meets "The Foil". All this and a Flash story too! Makes you want to run right out and find that book, doesn't it? Time to clean up my drool and move on. (Joanna's helpful hint: drool brings down the grade on a comic.)

 

I have to say right off, that our buddy H. G. Peters was the artist, I don't know who wrote the three stories in this comic. Marston passed away in May of '47 and this was published in Sept.-Oct. of 1947. I don't know if these are the last of the Marston stories, or the beginnings of someone like Kanigher (who wrote a great many of the WW books after Marston passed away). Some of them read like Marston. Others have that Kanigher touch about them.

 

I do know that Marston had a backlog of stories, and that his family actually wrote several stories after his death. I think these were probably some of Marston's originals, though, as the backlog would've easily covered a book with a Sept. publishing date.

 

The first story (and this issue has three independent tales, not a "book-length adventure") is what we'll be reading in this review. I'll do the other stories in subsequent reviews, when I get a chance (hee hee -- an escape clause for laziness. Cool, huh?)

 

"Have you ever considered the fact that perhaps on another planet in our solar system there might be an entirely new form of life completely unlike ours? Science hasn't discovered it yet, but there is such a planet! Rykornia is an unexplored planetoid, hidden in Earth's atmosphere by a shroud of clouds, and inhabited by fiendish creatures just waiting their opportunity to invade our world."

 

(Uh-oh. Fiendish corn-people! Quick! Somebody melt some butter!)

 

"Follow the stirring adventures of the alluring Amazon Princess... as she fights the most terrible menace ever to invade the Earth and matches her Amazon strength against the 'SIEGE OF THE RYKORNIANS."

 

The splash shows Wonder Woman pushing some sort of harvesting machine through a giant cornfield. It's cutting off the stalks and sweeping in giant ears of corn with little geometrical corn people in them. Looks pretty fiendish to me.

 

The Dr. Seussian harvesting machine, scooping up plant people

 

 

(note: I am going to try to avoid making all the obvious corn puns. This is a challenge. Please meet me in this challenge and don't post responses that all read "whadda corny story!" or comments of that order, as I'll go a bit mad if I have to read that too many times. Thank you for your support.)

 

Page two shows us Rykornia. (Not that I feel this is reaching on the part of the author or anything, but Rykornia is a planet that exists in our own atmosphere. It is "concealed by clouds too thick for earth telescopes to penetrate". Uh-huh. A planet. Just hanging up there in our atmosphere. Okay, got it.)

 

The Rykornians are described as "weird plant people." They seem to like hanging around in cornfields, looking through telescopes made of corn. They watch the earth. And they're ruled by King Tassel and his right-eared man, Lord Cob. (Darn it. Made a corn joke. ::slap:: sorry, folks. Man, this is difficult.) The entire planet of Rykornia is covered by giant corn stalks. And it appears everything they own is made from corn, as well. However, there is no more room on Rykornia for any more people. So, naturally, they'd like to conquer the Earth. Fertile soil, y'see. (I'm guessing their telescopes aren't trained on Death Valley. Just a hunch.)

 

Meanwhile, the Amazons are having a Kanga Carnival!!! Woo Woo! Wonder Woman arrives in her invisible plane with a bunch of Holliday Girls. Hippolyte greets them saying, "Welcome to Paradise Island, Man's World Girls!" Hee hee. (But here comes my first clue that this may not be Marston after all. Etta Candy says, "Wahoo" instead of "Woo Woo". I've never seen her say "Wahoo" before).

 

The girls and the Amazons all mount sky Kangas (for the uninitiated, the Kanga is the favorite riding animal of the Amazons. They look like Kangaroos, but are quite large, and the Amazons ride them like horses. Sometimes, as here, they can fly. The Kangas were a gift from some aliens in an earlier adventure). Hippolyte uses a giant "balloon gun" to shoot multi-colored balloons miles high into the air. The contestants are to catch the balloons in their hands but may not break them. Sounds pretty straight-forward until Etta makes a grab, but the balloon is traveling too fast for her to catch. "Ha!" cries Wonder Woman. "That's why it's sport! These balloons are filled with Amazon Speed-Gas which makes them fly at a tremendous speed and change course at the slightest breeze." (Amazon Speed-Gas, huh? Nah-ah. Too easy.)

 

Everyone gets a workout trying to capture the balloons, including the indefatigable Amazon Princess. (Dang, but that lil missy can ride a kanga!!! Yeeha!)

 

Etta and the Holliday Girls are having a very tough time of it, but their leader urges them on. "After them, gals!" cajoles Etta. "Woo! Woo!" (there went that theory, huh?) "We gotta show the Amazons that man's world girls are skillful athletes too!" Trying to lead by example, Etta chases a runaway blue balloon but over-reaches. She falls off her kanga with nothing beneath her but 5 miles of space!

 

Is this the end of our intrepid Holliday fave, Etta Candy? "...by the sheerest chance, Etta falls through the clouds which shroud the planetoid Rykornia." (Phew! Gotta love them shrouded planetoids) Before Etta can figure out where the heck she is, she's surrounded by Rykornians, who conveniently tell her where she is. (I must remember to do that if I ever see an alien. "Greetings, Earthling." "Hi. This is earth." "Duh, Earthling." Then again, maybe not.) King Tassel orders his corn people to capture Etta and secretly plots with Lord Cob that Etta can be used to spread Rykorn seeds on earth. But first, they have to figure out how to get her back to Earth.

 

The lead villains, Cob and Tassel

 

Meanwhile, the balloon players return to Paradise Island. Strangely enough (and I swear, I never saw THIS coming), Wonder Woman is the winner! Hippolyte crowns Diana, Queen of the Kanga Carnival and everyone cheers for their Princess. (the crown is really... stupid looking. Kinda balloony and looking a bit like a really ugly lampshade or something).

 

The crown: a fashion do or don't?

 

But Wonder Woman is worried. She draws her mother aside to say, "Mother, I'm worried." (Told you) It seems Diana has noticed that Etta is missing. Hippolyte agrees that her daughter must do something at once. She tells Diana to search for Etta in her invisible plane while she crowns Zalia, who came in second (if, for any reason, the Queen of the Kanga Carnival cannot fulfill her duties, like maybe she'll have to search for a friend 5 miles up in the atmosphere on a planet full of corn or something, then the first runner-up must assume the duties of the Queen. Man, that clause is so darned important!).

 

Diana tells her mom that she's going to take the Holliday Girls with her, as her leave from Military Intelligence is up and she must return to "the man's world." We see Wonder Woman give Hippolyte a sweet kiss on the cheek while her mother lovingly says, "Aphrodite be with you, darling!" (I really like this panel. The stance of the two women, the mother-daughter affection and bond, the sweetness of the expressions -- very very nice. Sometimes, a panel just says so much, y'know? Lovely. Really. I'm... sorta gettin' all choked up here. It's just that I remember when MY Mom crowned me Queen of the Kanga Carnival lo those many years ago back in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and she was so proud. The corn was as high as an elephant's eye, the cows were lowing and my trusty Kanga nuzzled my hand for an ever-present corn nut. Memories like that -- you just can't make those up...)

 

Awww...

 

As Wonder Woman worriedly patrols the skies with the Holliday Girls, she receives a mental radio message from Etta (what will power!). "Calling Wonder Woman -- need help -- captive of plant people on Rykornia -- concealed in clouds --" Wonder Woman isn't all too sure what the heck plant people are and most assuredly has never heard of Rykornia. This is very troublesome, as Etta is busy bragging to the Rykornians about having mental radioed Wonder Woman, "the strongest girl on Earth", for help. Things look dire indeed until the King tells his subjects to untie their "welcome guest". It seems that Wonder Woman's imminent arrival is exactly what he wanted!

 

Having somehow discovered the world of giant corn, Wonder Woman searches for her friend from the vantage of the invisible plane (good thing she happened to find the heretofore unknown plantetoid just when Etta needed her, huh? What're the odds of that???) Finally, Wonder Woman's keen eyesight spots Etta happily munching away on the yummy Rykorn seeds her hosts have generously provided.

 

Wonder Woman observes that the Rykornians "don't look savage" so they slide down the nearest giant corn stalks to join the little party. Etta is happy to see her friends. "Woo Woo! Hi, Wonder Woman -- Greets, gals!" she says. (I like "greets, gals" myself. That Etta is one hip chick). The visitors are immediately offered heapin' helpins of Rykorn seeds, which they find very tasty. Wonder Woman breaks up the party early, trying to gather her gals, and the king offers her bags of Rykorn seeds to take with her. "No," Wonder Woman explains, "Earth soil is so fertile we might not be able to check the growth of Rykorn." (Now THIS is the wisdom of Athena at work! Instantly, Diana zooms in on what could possibly be the dire consequences of introducing a foreign agrarian product into the ecosystem. She is a thinkin' machine!!!!) Lord Cob laughs at her reservations and Etta agrees with the veggie-mite, but Wonder Woman doesn't relent. However, unseen by the Amazon, Cob and Tassel sneak a bag of seeds, and themselves, onto the plane.

 

(Okay, gotta question here. How the heck do you HIDE on an invisible plane??? Wouldn't Wonder Woman and the gals walk up and say, "hey, look. Two crouching Rykornians and a large bag of seeds are suspended a couple feet off the ground. Guess we found the plane.")

 

"I wonder where Cob and Tassle are?"

 

Somehow, no one notices the corn people or the bag of seeds, now all hidden behind an invisible seat. Etta wistfully hankers after the seeds, (guess Wonder Woman doesn't provide invisible peanuts for the flight, huh?) but Wonder Woman remains firm. "I had a strong hunch the Rykornians were up to mischief Etta. There is something very sinister about those plant people." And though Etta can't figure out what harm plants could do, she lets it go and requests to be dropped off at her dad's ranch. (Etta's father, Hard Candy, owns the Bar-L Ranch in Texas. Dunno if Etta's brother, Mint Candy, will show up in this issue. If so, they should all have a Bar-L of fun! Hey, I never promised not to make corny jokes. Oh wait a sec. I DID promise, didn't I? Ooops.)

 

As Wonder Woman begins her ascent, the two Rykornians jump off the plane. Through the night, Cob and Tassel sew their seeds. In every stalk of Rycorn will be born a new Rykornian subject "to be used in the war against earthlings! Ha Haaaa!"

 

::shiver::

 

The next morning, gigantic stalks of Rykorn cover the Bar-L ranch. Etta promises that it isn't her doing. Hard Candy and his ranch hands fight valiantly to cut the crop down, but their puny saws are helpless against the enormous tree-like stalks. "Rykorn plants multiply and spread like lightning! And from the Rykorn burst newly-grown plant people overnight!"

 

A delighted Cob and Tassel rally their newborn army. "Using Rykorn leaves filled with potent knock-out sap, the Rykornians besiege the earth people." (Wow. Knock-out sap. Who knew?) The half-conscious Etta has just enough strength to mental-radio Wonder Woman, who's in her guise of Lt. Diana Prince. "Suffering Sappho!" is Diana's only reply. (woulda been my first thought, too).

 

The General notices Wonder Woman leaping from a nearby window and calls for her help, but she hasn't the time as she "has to see a scientist about some plant people." Steve Trevor offers his help to the General who is understandably upset. "Ye gads!" he shouts. "There's a national emergency and my right-hand woman, Diana Prince, is missing. Wonder Woman is no help -- she spends her time leaping from our windows!" The General calls out the army to combat the plant people.

 

Meanwhile, the Rykornians have used the enslaved earthers to help plant more seeds. Their plan is to uproot every living plant in America and replace it with Rykorn. Just then, the army arrives! But Tassel isn't worried. The sap-armed, wily Rykornians make short work of Steve and his intrepid comrades.

 

"Meanwhile, at Paula's secret lab, Wonder Woman and her brilliant scientist friend work tirelessly on a strange, gigantic machine -- " (and folks, it is indeed strange. The wacky imagination of Harry Peters is always in evidence when drawing Amazon machinery. This thing looks like something Dr. Seuss would have dreamed up. I almost expect to see starbellies pouring out of the mouth).

 

Back to our captive friends... "String them up on some small Rykorn," demands the king, "the plants'll grow in a few minutes and the prisoners will be crushed to death!" Yeowch! Etta once again attempts a mental radio message, in hopes of avoiding the fate of being a "squashed turkey." Instantly, Wonder Woman responds. Ordering her plane into the air, Wonder Woman hangs off the ladder, carrying the gigantic Rykorn Destroyer machine with her lasso.

 

"Swooping over the Rykorn fields, Wonder Woman quickly frees the prisoners..." As she tells them to run, she turns on the Rykorn Destroyer and sweeps all the cob homes (each of which are occupado) inside, while the blades in the front chop the giant stalks down. Having captured the entire invading force, Wonder Woman leaps toward her invisible plane and guides it to Rykornia by mental robot control.

 

After her return, Steve asks what happened to the Rykornians. "I returned them to Rykornia," explains Wonder Woman. "They're so terrified of my machine which they think is an earth monster, they've lost all desire ever to invade the earth again!" And luckily, Etta has lost all desire for those yummy seeds, as well!

 

That ends this story, boys and girls. And just by reading this review, you've gotten 25% of your minimum daily requirement of starchy roughage! Neato, huh?

 

Stay tuned for another thrilling adventure of Wonder Woman because issue #25 still has two zingetty-zangetty stories to go! And since you've already had an earful about this episode, what did you think of Diana's battle with Rykornia?

 

-- Joanna

 

[LucyBop]

AWESOME POST!!!!!

[aardvark88]

Love the cover & pyramid-head aliens. The best of Golden Age DC.

[ArAich]

Geez...whadda corny story! ....oops (wasn't suppose to say that)

Actually it was an a-maize-ing story!...oops (did it again)

 

Thanks for the story Joanna....The best part, to me, was Cob and Tassle hiding in an invisable plane...Highly intelligent .....Great stuff!!

[PovertyRow]

I was on the edge of my seat with that one! Great storytelling, Joanna! Love the little asides!

[Joanna]

Thanks, everybody! It means a lot to me that you liked it.

 

I found the second story in my write-ups, but not the third. Perhaps I never finished this one. I'll try to get the second one posted soon. Did you like the pictures? If they're not important, I can post it right away, but if you liked having panels from the book, I need to do some scanning, etc.

 

Man, I love these old WW's. They're so imaginative and intensely wacky. There's just nothing like them.

 

-- Joanna

[PovertyRow]

Did you like the pictures?

 

The pictures definitely add to the fun!

[Bugaboo-migration]

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