Ever Wonder...

*Spoiler Alert*

So, I've been reading Wonder Woman comics from the 60s lately.

Why, when I haven't actually finished any of the books I've started over the last three months?

I don't know. Half finished books just seem to be my thing these days. I think, one day, I'll probably have a bookmark part of the way through every book in my house (and probably a few in the library as well). Heck, I've even stalled part-way through Jane Eyre - although I'm not sure if it counts, as I've read it several times before.

At least I actually get through the trade paperbacks. I get plot, I get characterisation, I get art... and I get to the end. So, the other day I picked up Volumes 3 & 4 of the Diana Prince: Wonder Woman TPBs from my comic book shop, and they've been keeping me amused.

For those of you who might not know the history: during the 60s Wonder Woman was apparently boring the socks off all and sundry and the sales were pretty pitiful, so they decided to stop making the comics. Then someone suddenly noticed that, should they ever stop printing a Wonder Woman comic book, the rights for the character would revert back to the family of the creator. DC couldn't have this, so they quickly decided to bash out a "New Wonder Woman", so they could effectively try to ditch the old character without actually ditching the character at all.

How did they do this? Why, by getting rid of Diana's powers and entire supporting cast, and making Diana Prince - human woman, as opposed to Amazon Princess - the hero of the piece. Paradise Island was sent into some unreachable other dimension (which didn't end up being that unreachable, just harder to get to than usual), the invisible jet was gone, Steve Trevor was killed off and Diana quit the military, so she was no longer in uniform. She also lost the glasses. And gained a fashion sense. And a boutique.

Instead of her old support cast, she collected an old, blind Chinese man with the unlikely name of I-Ching, who taught her to be a martial arts expert. For the next couple of years, Diana Prince kicked butt all over the globe and in a couple of different dimensions - all without superpowers and armed with nothing more than highly trained human physical prowess and a keen sense of observation. Well, she may have had one superpower they never specifically mentioned - somehow, no matter how often she was thrown to the ground in a fight scene, she never got dirt on her white go-go outfits.

By the way, more female superheroes need to wear go-go outfits. So much practical than those skin-tight jumpsuits that couldn't hold a pocket in a million years - and definitely more practical than a strapless bustier, if you know what I mean.

It was, in a way, the exact opposite of what George Perez did with the character in the 80s, where he got rid of Diana Prince and more or less made Wonder Woman the sole identity of the character.

I've decided Dennis O'Neal should never be allowed near Wonder Woman. I've never read a single story he's written for the character (in any title) that didn't suck. He really has no idea how to write a female character at all - let alone a "powerful" female character. It's like there's something in his head that says "What? Wonder Woman? I guess it has to be another dating story. Who can she pine over this time?"

Pfft!

At least Mike Sekowsky actually realised the character could do more than swoon. I quite liked his take on the whole "martial arts marvel" character. A lot of the characters in his stories had the "just a girl" mentality, but you never felt as if the writer did.

I've read my share of Wonder Woman comics from the past five decades and it's interesting to see how the writers have handled the character. Until recently, they were all male, and it's been a strange exercise in seeing how a man interprets a female character.

A lot of writers (especially during the earlier years) had no respect for her, and you could tell. They wrote about a vapid, shallow 'thing' with a heart of gold and superpowers - not really enough depth to be considered a person. What motivation did she need, apart from the fact that her man would want her more? What greater thing did she have to fear than her man's displeasure?

"Oh, Steve!"

In a sense, O'Neal actually did her a favour by killing off Steve Trevor. He really was slowing her down. In a strange way, Perez did the same thing in the 80s when he had Steve pair off with Etta Candy, so he wasn't available to be Diana's love interest (read: shackle).

You often had the feeling that many of these early, male writers had to find ways to make the character more feminine in order to "balance" the fact that she was so strong. After all, what man could possibly want a woman who could lift cars? She had to be weak, somehow, or she would be completely undesirable. So, they made her vapid and slightly pointless. Sure, she could save the day, but at the end of the day, in some way, shape or form, she still needed to be saved herself.

That's one of the things I really liked about Sekowsky's tenure as WW's writer - she never really needed rescuing. Sure, she accepted help if it was offered and expressed gratitude when someone saved her butt, but deep down you knew (and, more importantly, she knew) that she could have gotten herself out of that pickle if she had to.

I think Sekowsky must have had more female friends than a lot of the other writers. Or maybe he just actually talked to his sisters/wife/daughters and knew they were capable of thinking and acting.

All I know is that the "New Wonder Woman" improved immensely after Sekowsky took over from O'Neal, and then got darn annoying after Sekowsky left.

Oh, and the way they ended that part of WW's history? It sucked. It was even worse than the way O'Neal started it. They could have had a big meaningful story explaining why she gave up her "New Improved" life to go back to living a dichotomy in which she could never hope to be a whole person... They could have spun the story out over a couple of issues to say a decent goodbye to the friends and "family" she had collected during her new life... They could have told one last "New Wonder Woman" story... But they didn't.

Instead they just shot I-Ching in the back and gave her amnesia - effectively wiping out her whole adventure in humanity. And they introduced an important new character with no warning - one that would disappear not long after she was introduced. On top of all that, the whole thing was squeezed into one, poorly written issue. I spent the whole fourth volume thinking, "this would have been better if Mike was still writing it", and the whole last issue thinking, "Okay, someone needs a good slapping."

But, you get that.