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New Golden Age Review: Wonder Woman #25 Part III!

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Wonder Woman 25: Part III

The Judgment of Goddess Vultura

A Golden Age Review by Joanna Sandsmark

 

WW025.jpg

 

 

You asked for it! (Well, one of you asked for it, and that appears to be all it takes if I feel like writing it.) So here it is: Part III of Wonder Woman #25. If you've just joined us, don't fear -- you don't have to know what happened in Part I: "Siege of the Rykornians" (or Attack of the Korn People, or Korn on the Job or A Truly Korny Story or -- ok, I'll stop) or Part II: "Who'll Adopt Teasy?" Part III is a brand new story, so don't leave this thread! You're about to read an adventure of the golden age Wonder Woman, and that's as good as it gets!

 

::music swells::

 

No eating, drinking or smoking near the monitor. We don't want to threaten the grade of this issue with accidental spills or nicotine because, well (oh gosh, I hate to even say this!) it's NOT CGC'd!!

 

There, I said it. I am holding an UNGRADED golden age comic book. You may now recoil in horror.

 

There is one teeny, tiny benefit, however. It means I can read it. And I can share it with all of you! I'm even going to scan some interior pages! Why would I do these horrifying things to a beautiful white-paged golden aged book? Because I like to share, and this comic is too cool to keep all to myself.

 

Shall we begin?

 

First up, we have some panel cartoons. It's like getting the Sunday paper, only it's a weekday! Cool! I wonder if Funky Winkerbean or Hi and Lois will be here. Hmm... nope, just something called "Tons o' Fun". Oh boy! This oughta be tons o' fun to read!

 

The first panel shows a farmer looking at a painting in a posh museum. The painting shows a weathered barn next to a gnarled tree. Very artsy. The farmer says, "This one's pretty good... but the barn needs painting!" The next panel shows an usher indicating he has two seats. Two little old ladies high jump the velvet rope in unison. The last is a two panel cartoon showing a housewife on the phone (she has a painting on the wall that's reminiscent of the barn painting. I think this cartoonist likes barns). In panel one she says into the phone, "You want Mrs. Newman from next door? Just a moment, please!" In the second panel, she is holding the painting in one hand while the other arm (the one with the phone) is thrust through a hole in the wall that the painting had been covering. "It's for you, Mrs. Newman!"

 

Man-oh-geezers, that was tons of fun! It was like the Far Side without the talking animals!

 

Next is a text piece called "Keeper of the Snakes" by Charles King. It's written (or rather, overwritten) as a sort of mini-mystery. One of those "here are some clues -- can you figure out what happened?" The answer is: yes. There's a dead body next to the glass display cage of a fer-de-lance, a very deadly snake. The elderly keeper thinks the boy was killed by the snake when he tried to handle it. But the detective arrests the old man because the snake was in the cage with the lid sealed tight. The fer-de-lance kills instantly, according to the old man, so the boy wouldn't have been able to return the snake to its cage and seal it before his death.

 

Instant death aside, I have to quote my favorite line: "Jensen (he's the cop) looked down, fascinated in spite of himself. He'd seen, in his time, more of grimness and shocking reality than is vouchsafed to the average man, but the shiny killer regarding him with eyes that never wavered and tongue that flickered steadily was unnerving even for him."

 

The whole piece is written in the same florid prose! Neato, huh? There's something pure about overwriting a simple whodunit. I think Charles King fancied himself the Raymond Chandler of comic text pieces. Or maybe like Raymond's brother, Herb Chandler, Claims Adjuster with the saucy legs. Either one -- they were both men to admire (and whistle at).

 

Holy cow! Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get better, we find yet another outing of "Tons o' Fun"!!! Yeeha! The first cartoon is set in Auntie Suzie's Pet Shoppe. A canary is singing away in a cage, and a parrot says, "Awk! How's chances of borrowing a 'C' note?" (A 'C' note is old-timey 40's gangster talk for a hundred dollar bill, for those kiddies out there who never watch films that aren't in color.)

 

The second cartoon shows a businessman, his desk has 7 phones on it, and he's got a handpiece to each ear. "Golly! No wonder this conversation doesn't make sense -- I'm connected to myself!" ('Golly' is another way of saying anything this forum censors).

 

As a public service, I'd like to mention that if you're ever canoeing at night, and you fall in the drink, be sure to have your Bright Star flashlight with you, so that you can be rescued. Apparently, other flashlights won't get you squat.

 

And now the moment you've all been waiting for: it's time for WONDER WOMAN!

 

"Never before has the alluring maid from Paradise Island faced a more scheming and sinister villainess than the Purple Priestess. It takes great ingenuity -- superhuman courage for our lovely heroine to save her friends -- in fact a whole kingdom from a fiendish death trap in the story of "THE JUDGMENT OF GODDESS VULTURA."

 

In the magnificent splash page, Wonder Woman is chained (how unusual!) to a giant winged statue of a woman, and it is falling, about to crush Diana, Etta Candy, and some of the Holliday Girls -- all of whom are also bound. I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that there would bondage in a golden age Wonder Woman comic! It's unheard of! Unique! Unexpected! In nearly every panel!

 

The story starts fast from the first panel. "In a tenement basement of the city's waterfront district, a strange spectacle takes place." We see three well-dressed women with their hands bound behind their backs. (Bondage! I'm shocked! I'm -- oh forget it.) Men in robes, with half masks on their faces are holding the women. On a throne, holding a torch, is the Purple Priestess.

 

WW25p1.jpg

 

Behold, the Purple Priestess! Is that a daisy on her head?

 

The women are upset because they gave all their money to the Priestess so that she could cure their ailing husbands with her mystic powers. But it was all bunk. The Priestess decides to kill the "lowly females", so there'll be no proof of her racket (her word, not mine). But one of the women had notified Wonder Woman, and suddenly, that is exactly who bursts through the door. "Get her! Keel her!" (Apparently, the priestess is rather nautical.)

 

WW25p2.jpg

 

Prepare to get your booty kicked, Daisyhead!

 

Wondy makes short work of the henchmen, and does it so handily, one of the henchees admiringly says, "Oof! Whatta woman!" Methinks he was the masochist in the bunch. Bet he's gonna miss being stepped on by the priestess's purple sandals. Meanwhile, our villain slips away.

 

WW25p03.jpg

 

Doncha hate it when your racket is ruined?

Now she's going to have to get it restrung

and it'll never feel quite right again.

 

After beating up half a dozen guys (and those were only the ones pictured), and realizing that the priestess had escaped, Wonder Woman carries the unconscious thugs on her back to the jailhouse. She figures she'll trail PP after going to the lock-up.

 

WW25p4.jpg

 

Whatta woman, indeed!

 

Alas, months pass and there's no sign of the cult leader. Then one day, Diana (Wonder Woman) Prince receives a mental radio message from Etta Candy. Etta is visiting Zarikan, studying their windmill waterpower system (green power, baby, it's the wave of the future!). But horrors! The Purple Priestess has kidnapped the Princess and "the country's strongest maids" and there's no one left to vacuum and dust! No, wait -- she meant maids as in 'maids a'milkin' not 'You missed a spot, Hazel.' Etta fears she and the Holliday Girls will be next! "Suffering Sappho!"

 

Diana speeds out of her office, using the Wisdom of Athena as she thinks, "The leader of that cure-all cult was called 'Purple Priestess.' Hmm -- she talked with a Zarikanian accent -- I must fly to Zarikan pronto!" Hmmm, indeed, Diana! Imagine the coincidence of a villainess speaking with a Zarikanian accent and then suddenly someone by the exact same name starts causing trouble in Zarikan! Could there be some connection between the two Zarikanian Purple Priestesses? Or is there an evil, daisy-wearing, purple-garbed Zarikanian Priestess around every corner these days?

 

WW25p5.jpg

 

Steve shows his high IQ by dismissing

the thought that Diana Prince could be

Princess Diana.

 

In a blur of flying clothing (not pictured because it would excite Darth too much) Diana Prince becomes the Alluring Amazon herself: Wonder Woman! She calls her plane via mental robot control (I don't make this stuff up, I just report the facts) and leaps out of the window, grabbing the invisible ladder. She's very worried about Etta and her gang, because the Purple Priestess will know something's up if she spots "American girls."

 

"Flashing through space 3000 miles per minute, Wonder Woman speeds to Zarikan." (note: Marston was always changing the top speed of the invisible plane. But he often gave a hard figure. Probably wanted to sound scientific.) Wonder Woman finds Etta comforting King Yuka of Zarikan. He's very distraught over his kidnapped daughter (you can tell he's upset because he says "Ohhh woe!")

 

When prompted to relate the story of the kidnapping, King Yuka gives some exposition -- I mean background. All of Zarikan's water comes from underground streams and the water is pumped to the surface via windmills. The king and his daughter went to the sacred temple of the goddess Vultura (guardian of subterranean waterways) and they witnessed an amazing spectacle.

 

"Flames encompassed ze statue of ze goddess and a magic figure appeared--!" Hmmm... by shear coincidence, the magic figure is wearing a purple gown and has a daisy on her head. Waitasecond! That's... that's.... could it be? It's the Purple Priestess! And she's calling herself the messenger of the goddess Vultura!

 

WW25p6.jpg

 

These are amazing special effects,

doncha think? Must've cost a fortune.

 

The priestess tells the king that she was sent by the goddess to save him from his wickedness (quick -- go to Bug's house next!) and that he needs to give daily offerings of gold and food to appease Vultura. Otherwise, the windmills will fail to pump water and the crops will die. (Hey Kingy! Start investigating alternative energy sources like oil, nukes and stuff! Forget the wind and its goddess-controlled ficklery. I made up a new word. Heh)

 

The king obeyed daisy-head, but when the princess and her maidens went for their daily swim in the underground river, they were pulled beneath the surface!

 

WW25p7.jpg

 

If something caught the Princess's leg

and is pulling her down, why are all the

maidens going under head first? Do they

swim upside down?

 

One maiden escaped, and told the king the story. All the others, including his daughter, Princess Allura, were never seen again. The escapee claims it was Vultura, but Wondy is positive it's just the priestess, trying to get more ill-gotten gains from the king.

 

Foolishly, King Yuka doesn't listen to the superhero in his living room, so he brings 3 times the amount of gold and grain as before. Wonder Woman carries in the booty, workhorse that she is, even though it was against her better judgment. She's a trooper.

 

WW25p8.jpg

 

She's carrying a lot of heavy loads in

this issue. I hope she's lifting with her legs,

and not her back.

 

Wonder Woman puts her finger to her eye, which denotes thinking (I always point to my eye when I think) and notices that this Purple Priestess is wearing the same clothes as the other Purple Priestess. Could they be the same person? (Ya think?) At the same time, PP doesn't have any trouble putting two and two together and realizes that Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman, no matter where she shows up (hence, no finger to the eye. Instead, she makes a fist, which means "Why I oughta...!" in sign language).

 

WW25p9.jpg

 

WW: Is my eye make-up too thick?

PP: It's perfect! Do you like the way my

green veil clings to the shape of my face?

WWW: It's lovely. Let's be best friends.

PP: (thinking) She's hot! I'd switch teams for her.

WW: (thinking) If only she'd take off the green

veil. Then I'd know if she's hot or not.

King Yuka: (thinking) Please, please, please, goddess

Vultura, allow me to see some girl on girl action!

 

(This dialogue is here to appease Darth because

he didn't get to see the panel where Diana Princes

changes into Wonder Woman. Not that Darth would

read this, of course.)

 

PP demands that her slave maidens gather up the grains and gold. It's uncertain how they'll manage this, since their hands are all bound. The king asks if PP will now free his daughter, but no dice. PP is disinclined to let her ace in the hole free, so she tells kingy that although the goddess is pleased with his gifts, she wants more: a human sacrifice! And with that, she points to none other than Wonder Woman as the sacrifice du jour! And shocker of shockers, Diana agrees!

 

WW25p10.jpg

 

Slave maidens carry sacks of loot while PP

demands WW sacrifice herself. WW is all for it.

 

But the king has had enough! Defiantly, he renounces the goddess Vultura, saying he'll burn down the temple if he has to! PP says, "Silence, foolish king! Your defiance shall cost you all your crops -- famine shall prevail until you atone for your sacrilege!" (Man, that's great dialogue! That is primo comic book stuff, there. I wish people talked like that all the time. "Silence, foolish grocery store bagger! Your insistence on plastic instead of paper shall cost you your week's supply of Clearasil! The manage shall prevail until you bow to my bagging needs!" Yeah, that would be sweeeet!)

 

WW25p11.jpg

 

A defiant king, a proclaiming priestess, a

worried Amazon, and 3 slave maidens with

bags of loot. This is drama, baby!!!

 

Oh, but the prophecy comes true!! The windmills stop pumping water and the crops begin to whither and die. Zounds! Once again, WW offers herself as a human sacrifice. (Oh just let her, already! She obviously wants it! It will give her a chance to be bound by chains, for crying out loud! She likes that.)

 

WW25p12.jpg

 

Wonder Woman pleads her case to the

dismay of Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls.

 

The king has no choice but to let her do it. He's already given all his food to the goddess, so there's no way to keep famine at bay. Later in the temple, Wonder Woman is bound and placed at the feet of the statue of Vultura.

 

WW25p13.jpg

 

Hoo boy, this doesn't look good. I wonder if

there's a trap door on that altar.

 

The flames rise and appear to consume the superhero. Etta blames herself for having summoned Diana in the first place. But ho! All is not as it seems. There's a trap door in the altar!

 

WW25p14.jpg

 

D'oh! Didn't see that coming.

 

She winds up in a chamber filled with purple gas! Before she's overcome by the fumes, she notices Princess Allura chained to the wall. PP is there, and tells WW that it's "mind-paralyzing gas" (formed by the farts of thousands of comic book collectors after a Taco Bell binge). The gas makes people lose their will power (and it makes your belches taste like burritos).

 

"The potent purple gas quickly reduces Wonder Woman to a weird state of coma -- she cannot control her own brain." When the Priestess questions her, Diana spills all, telling her that she recognized PP as the cult leader and that the Holliday Girls are going to explore the underground river, to find out why the windmills aren't working. (That is a weird coma if you can hold conversations. That purple gas is as good as a golden lasso of truth! Feel the power of your Taco-induced gastrointestinal emissions, comic fans!)

 

WW25p15.jpg

 

Things are looking grim -- and purple --

for Wonder Woman!

 

PP silently decides to "keel" Etta & the Holliday Girls, as well as the princess and Wonder Woman. (Lotsa keeling to do, when will she find the time?)

 

Meanwhile, Etta and her girls are babed out in swimsuits (Woo Woo!), ready to rescue Wonder Woman. (note: in Wonder Woman comics, Etta Candy -- a short, overweight college student -- comes to the rescue of WW as often as she herself needs rescuing. Etta has saved Diana on many occasions. She's also saved Steve Trevor. It's pretty remarkable, when you think about it, that in this comic the message isn't that you have to have superpowers to be brave and heroic. You just have to care about others. Etta was a unique character, the likes of whom hasn't been seen since.)

 

WW25p16.jpg

 

Better than Sports Illustrated!

 

The girls swim through the underground river, looking for windmill pipes. Suddenly, they feel something pulling them underwater! (and not one of them is swimming on their heads with their feet out of the water, like the maids. I'm proud of Etta and the girls for learning how to be captured properly.)

 

WW25p17.jpg

 

Look at Etta! Suddenly she's been

turned into the spitting image of Hammer --

with huge Popeye arms and legs! Those

divers are probably after her bag of money.

 

With ropes around their ankles, they're pulled into an underwater pipe by divers, one of whom is clearly the Purple Priestess! Once inside, PP closes a gate and drains the pipe. Etta instantly realizes that this is why the windmills stopped pumping water. She threatens to tell the king, but PP is unfazed. "You'll nevair tell anyone anyzing, Fatima!" (Ooh, that low-down Pimply Priestess made a fat joke! Them's strugglin' words!)

 

WW25p18.jpg

 

Etta can't defend her girlish figure because

she's tied up at the moment.

 

PP and her slave maids carry the bound women through a labyrinth of pipes, into a room with metal tables. They are strapped down onto the tables (anyone wishing this story had MORE bondage? Because there was one panel awhile back that didn't have anyone tied up. We could draw in little chains so it wouldn't feel lonely). PP calls for some purple mind-paralyzing gas™. Things don't look good for Etta and the gals.

 

WW25p19.jpg

 

PP and the Slave Maids tying up Etta Candy

and the Holliday Girls. It's Wertham's worst

nightmare.

 

Back in her throne room, PP hears from a slave maid that the king is in the temple. We hear that PP has plans to take over Zarikan and rid herself of Wonder Woman once and for all. (Where is WW, by the way? Two whole pages just went by without any mention of her. Pretty significant for a 12 page story.)

 

The king supplicates himself in front of PP and the statue of Vultura, asking why his daughter is still missing and why there's still no water. PP blames the "foreign women". Vultura is angry at them and will decide their fate, after which the windmills will be turned on again, and the princess returned.

 

The prisoners are paraded in front of PP. There's Wonder Woman! Finally! She's with Etta and the girls. They're all bound and dizzy (you can tell they're dizzy because they have swirly lines above their heads).

 

WW25p20.jpg

 

Daisyhead and the dizzy dames.

 

Wonder Woman is chained to the huge statue of Vultura, while Etta and the girls are made to kneel before her, their hands tied behind their backs.

 

WW25p21.jpg

 

Cool visual, huh? That massive statue of

Vultura is neato. But threatening and menacing --

I'm sure there's no escape!

 

Ooh, but things aren't looking good. PP gives "mentally helpless" WW a peculiar command: "When Princess Allura calls for judgment, you will pull forward on your wrist-chain with all your Amazon power!" "Y-Yes, Mistress," replies mentally helpless Wonder Woman. (Holy falling statues of Vultura! That will kill everyone! Wonder Woman, the king, the princess, Etta, the holiday girls and maybe even a slave maid or two! Oh, I don't like the looks of this, no siree bob!)

 

PP whispers a command to the princess and the (mentally helpless) Allura does as she's told, asking the goddess Vultura to give judgment on the prisoners.

 

Just as we feared, Wonder Woman's mighty Amazon power pulls the statue off its moorings, and it's headed for a massive girl-crushing! PP punctuates the picture with, "Aah--Ooh! Ze prisoners are guilty -- ze goddess hurls her statue upon them!"

 

WW25p22.jpg

 

It looks like the end for Wonder Woman,

Etta, Princess-- aww heck, see list of victims

above.

 

"But though the malicious Purple Priestess counted on Wonder Woman's strength, she did not foresee the Amazon's incredible resistance to hurtling tons of metal..." That's right, boys and boys, Diana manages to plant her feet and stop the force of the falling statue by bracing her back. (Man, that back has had a workout in this story).

 

And against her mighty strength, the statue stops falling and is held above the heads of the kneeling prisoners.

 

WW25p23.jpg

 

I wonder if the shock of the tremendous

metal statue falling on her back will restore

Wonder Woman's brain to normal?

 

"The shock of the tremendous metal statue falling on her back restores Wonder Woman's brain to normal." (Caught me completely by surprise) Wonder Woman thinks, "I-I can think again! What am I doing holding this silly statue and wearing these puny chains? Great goddesses! There's the Purple Priestess!"

 

WW25p24.jpg

 

Introducting my new avatar! It's a picture

of Wonder Woman thinking about silly statues

and puny chains. Innit cool? I like the look

on her face.

 

Apparently, carrying statues on her back gets Wondy hot because the text box says, "The aroused Amazon whips into action". Whatever turns you on, baby, cuz look at her fling that giant statue aside, crashing it into bits! (The king probably won't bill her for it, because he was getting pretty sick of that statue's demands. I hate it when metal talks through an evil priestess, don't you?)

 

When PP tries to get away, WW lassoes her, saying "Just a minute, Purple Priestess -- You've a date on Reform Island for some Amazon Taming!" (note: Reform Island is a small island near Paradise Island where all the female prisoners go. They wear belts of submission and learn to control their evilness through loving submission to Amazon overlords. Sometimes it works. Baroness Paula Von Gunther went to Reform Island and eventually became a top Amazon scientist and Diana's best friend. Sometimes it doesn't work, and prisoners escape to wreak more havoc.)

 

Wonder Woman unmasks PP and realizes with a shock that she's really Sinestra, "the enemy spy who worked against America during the war!" What a coup for Lt. Diana Prince! She caught a war criminal!

 

WW25p25.jpg

 

The evil Sinestra is unmasked.

 

Later, after everyone has recovered from the purple gas, Diana bids adieu to the king, who is very happy to see water once again flowing in his country's fields. Etta and the girls decide to stay, to study those windmills without being kidnapped (always a danger around windmills, ask the Dutch)! Princess Allura gives Diana a big hug and vows to be like Wonder Woman. Zarikan will no longer worship the cruel Vultura (hey -- it was the Priestesses fault! You don't really think the statue was calling the shots do you?) . Intead, they'll worship truth and goodness. (Yeah, but trying making a giant statue of truth and goodness! Not so easy, as they'll find out!)

 

WW25p26.jpg

 

Who needs steenking freedom of religion

when you've got a royal family telling you who

to worship?

 

Oh, heck, this tender scene deserves a big "Awww"! Besides, you can find more Wonder Woman adventures in Comic Cavalcade and Sensation Comics -- and that makes a very happy ending!

 

Finally, the last interior ad implores you to get an authentic Tracy Rapid-Fire Tommy Gun that looks and sounds like the real McCoy! Ah, in the time before political correctness was invented, everyone could own their own lifelike tommy gun!

 

The inside back cover publicizes a new comic called "The Gumps" (it's a Top Favorite!). And if you didn't want a Tracy Tommy Gun, perhaps you'd prefer a Daisy Air Rifle. Red Ryder and Little Beaver both think you should have one. (And all I can think of is "A Christmas Story" right now).

 

That, my friends, closes the book on Wonder Woman #25. You have it cover to cover. Life is always better when you own lots and lots of Wonder Woman comics. Every issue has all the fun, danger, superheroics, adventure and bondage that any kid could want! Go out and buy one today! And if you want to pay big money, I'll sell you one of mine! Big money, though. None of this "percentage of guide" stuff. Full value. (And that means I get to keep'em cuz no one ever pays me full value!)

 

Now, please write me a note if you read this whole thing. Tell me what you thought!

 

-- Joanna

 

 

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Now, please write me a note if you read this whole thing. Tell me what you thought!

 

Not sure I can honestly say I read the whole thing, but I did read closely enough to spot the 3 mentions of forum members (4 if ya count Darth twice!)

 

As always with these, I thought it was great . And much more entertaining than the original, I'll wager.

 

 

 

 

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Whew...took over 20 minutes to read it through.

 

Great stuff. It's funny that story is only 12 pages, there's enough plot twists for a 30 pager smile.gif

 

Every issue has all the fun, danger, superheroics, adventure and bondage that any kid could want!

That's why they are called Golden Age comics, they really had every necessary ingredient of a great comic book tongue.gif

 

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Whew...took over 20 minutes to read it through.

 

Took me several days to write it. I think I went overboard.

 

Great stuff. It's funny that story is only 12 pages, there's enough plot twists for a 30 pager

 

Wasn't there? It's just chock full of all sorts of stuff. And I wasn't kidding about the bondage. There's someone tied up on nearly every page.

 

That's why they are called Golden Age comics, they really had every necessary ingredient of a great comic book

 

They'd never get away with half of that stuff nowadays. The slave maids alone would've given the code people a coniption.

 

Thank you so much for reading it, and for commenting. It means a lot to me, Arty.

 

-- Joanna

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Joanna, I think you may have invented a whole new form of

entertainment. I've never seen anything like this and very much

enjoyed the new style.

 

It's really interesting to hear people explain _why_ they like a

particular character/title; like Mr. Glass did about Actions the

other day and Pov did about pre-code horror a while back. I

knew nothing about WW before your posts but am kind of

intrigued by at least the early issues now. Kind of like the

early, wild days when Mickey tried to commit suicide and

someone cut off his tail, except WW arguably had a bit more

spice... Think I'll add a high grade issue to my want list now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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hkp,

 

You've made me a very happy woman! It's very exciting to me that the character has intrigued you enough to want to explore her books further. She is unique in comics history. And Marston was one heckuva character himself. His editor was constantly trying to tone down the bondage (I think he missed this issue) and some of the weirder psycho-sexual elements. But a lot snuck through.

 

Marston was also a major feminist, and that message is often seen in the issues he wrote. One of my favorites has the real Diana Prince return, but things aren't going well with her husband. He keeps her literally chained to her stove all day. Because she's an exact double of Wonder Woman, WW takes her place and teaches the husband a lesson. Heavy-handed, maybe, but this was the 40's and the idea that women could do more than cook and clean was only just coming into vogue. It must have been an empowering message for little girls who aspired to more (Gloria Steinem cites WW as her number one influence in life).

 

As for the write-ups, I started those long ago because I'd bought some golden age comics and wanted to share them with my friends on the net. It was the only way I could think to do it. It's morphed a bit, now that I can put scans with the text, but the aim is the same: sit down and read along with me, as I share one of the reasons I adore comic books.

 

-- Joanna

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Were any of these stories ever censored? Does any such unpublished

art exist? My favorite area of collecting Barks is original censored pages

that were cut by the editors, such as one my avatar was taken from (even

the worst examples don't come close to anything like your story, of course).

It would be very interesting indeed to see any _censored_ art by Marston...

 

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The art was by H. G. Peters and very little of his original art has survived. His pages go for huge money because they are so extremely rare. So finding a censored page would seem even more impossible.

 

From what I read, a lot of the censoring was done in the -script stage. I'm sure it's possible there's unpublished Peters art out there, but I don't know where it is.

 

Waaaaay outta my league!

 

-- Joanna

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I got curious and read up on Marston. Remarkable character indeed;

his research into the psychology of dominance and submission certainly

seems to explain a lot! His contributions to the polygraph detector etc.are

also were interesting. Explains a lot to me that he was from Harvard too,

those guys across the street always were a little unusual...

 

Example article:

http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/html/ww_21_cov.html

 

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Wow -- some great links there!

 

The article on Marston mentions the book by Les Daniels. It's a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the character, her creators, her history, etc. I'm also proud to be included in the acknowledgements, as the editor contacted me during its writing for information and source material. (he knows I'm a big WW freak.)

 

I have issue #21 that's spotlighted there and it is indeed a wild story. In fact, I wrote one of my first GA Reviews of that issue (back when I made them a lot shorter, with a lot less detail).

 

The link for Heritage did work and my eyes all but popped out of my head seeing those original sketches. That's a holy grail if I ever saw one! The unpublished cover and the page were also drool-worthy. If I ever win the lottery, don't bother bidding against me, cuz I'll scoop up everything I can find. (I'm very jealous of Roy Thomas finding those two Peters panels. And the guy was selling them for only $150??? Sheesh! I would've grabbed those so fast his head would've spun).

 

Thanks, hkp, for all your research. That was really, really cool!

 

-- Joanna

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Phew - finally finished it. I think this is my favorite of the three. No - it IS my favorite of the three. These are amazing expositions, Joanna. As has been said here, getting perspectives like this really adds to the experience. But to get such insights from one who has actually written Wonder Woman stories for DC is truly a privelege.

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Thank you, Pov -- I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Especially since you're the one who talked me into writing this one! But as I said in the intro, it didn't take too much coercion because it'd been so long since I wrote one, I thought it would be fun to do a new story. It was. It was also a great excuse to read the issue again.

 

-- Joanna

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