Wonder Woman Unbound

by Hanley, Tim

  Although the new creative team meant to depict an independent Diana Prince setting out into the world on her own, her origin story and the series that followed were actually all about Steve Trevor. In Wonder Woman #179, Steve went on a secret mission to infiltrate a powerful criminal network run by the nefarious Dr. Cyber. After assaulting his superior officer and fighting through a wall of guards as he fled an army base, Steve was branded a traitor and became a wanted man. Only Steve and his superior officer knew the truth: this attack was a hoax to let Steve have an in with the criminal underworld. Wonder Woman was understandably shocked when she read a newspaper headline that proclaimed “Hunt Col. Trevor: Army Officer Labeled Spy By Superiors!”

  Wonder Woman didn’t believe for a second that Steve was a traitor, and she was formulating a plan to help him when she was summoned back to Paradise Island by her mother. Queen Hippolyta told her, “For ten thousand years, we have lived here, performing the mission assigned to us … helping mankind find maturity! But now, our magic is exhausted! We must journey to another dimension, to rest and renew our powers!” Paradise Island was about to disappear from the Earth, along with all of the Amazons, and Wonder Woman could either leave with her sisters or stay behind without her superpowers.

  She immediately replied, “I love you, mother … you and my sister Amazons! But Steve Trevor desperately needs me … I must stay!” Her decision was swift and not at all difficult; given the choice, she immediately chose Steve. Steve was clearly in a bad spot and was going to need some help, and Wonder Woman, with or without superpowers, was the heroic, helpful type.

  Leaving behind her bracelets, star-spangled outfit, and golden lasso, she stated, “I hereby relinquish all mystic skills! I lay upon the sacred altar the glories of the Amazons and willingly condemn myself to the travails of mortals.” She bid her mother good-bye and returned to America, and even her invisible plane disappeared once she’d landed in the Lower East Side of New York City. Luckily for her, in less than a page she found a commercial space for rent with an apartment on top and decided to open a fashion boutique. Diana was Marvelized, established in an actual city with an apartment, a job, and other real-world problems. By the issue’s end, she’d found Steve and was ready to embark on a new life without Wonder Woman.

  Diana gave up her superpowers for heroic reasons, sacrificing her family and her abilities to rescue Steve. However, Wonder Woman #179 can be viewed in a different light due to the events in Wonder Woman #178. This alternate reading casts Diana’s ostensibly heroic sacrifice in a more problematic, self-serving light.

  The issue began with Steve’s arrest for murder after a man he had a scuffle with one evening turned up dead later that night. Steve’s explanation was that he was at a hippie club called the Tangerine Trolley, but he was found guilty because the girl he was talking to had disappeared and couldn’t confirm his alibi. Wonder Woman decided to ingratiate herself within the hippie community via her Diana Prince alter ego to find the missing girl and exonerate Steve, but first Diana had to abandon her usual square appearance so she would fit in. She ditched her glasses and her dowdy military uniform in favor of a new, flowing hairdo and modern, psychedelic fashions with bright colors and bold prints. In the end, she found the girl and saved Steve, but Diana’s mod new appearance added a twist to Wonder Woman and Steve’s relationship.

  Wonder Woman #178 ended with the freed Steve and Wonder Woman relaxing together on a sofa; Wonder Woman was nestled in close to Steve, who had his arm around her. Steve mentioned that he could never forget what Diana had done for him, stating, “She’s so much more than what I thought she was—in fact, I think I’ll ask her out one of these days and really get to know her.” This was a huge new development in how Steve saw Diana. For nearly three decades, Steve had barely noticed her, instead dedicating all of his time to Wonder Woman. Diana had just saved him from a long prison sentence, but she had saved Steve many times before. The only difference was that she’d changed from a plain wallflower to a trendy, attractive woman. This change in Steve’s attitude toward Diana prompted Wonder Woman to think, “Why, this is silly … I can’t be jealous of myself—can I? If he can fall for Diana like this, he can fall for any woman! And I’ll lose him forever if I don’t do something to keep him interested in me!” The issue ended with Wonder Woman thinking, “Wonder Woman must change …”

  Reading between the lines of her rapid decision to give up her superpowers, the fact is that Diana didn’t need to be Wonder Woman to be with Steve anymore. If Queen Hippolyta had summoned Wonder Woman home before Diana’s mod makeover, the depowered wallflower Diana Prince would have been all alone, because Steve didn’t care about her at all. But now Steve was interested in Diana and, if mentioning asking her out while on a date with Wonder Woman was any indication, he seemed to like Diana more than Wonder Woman. Not only could she remain behind and date Steve as Diana Prince, but she would be giving Steve the woman he preferred. No wonder she was so quick to decide to stay behind. It was a win-win situation for the man she loved. This reading sends an interesting message about this independent, modern heroine; letting the desires of her boyfriend dictate her choices was hardly in keeping with the spirit of the women’s liberation movement.

  This interpretation perhaps reads too much into O’Neil and Sekowsky’s desire to get rid of the Amazons and move onto their new direction as quickly as possible. The speed of Diana’s decision may have been solely because of the limited space given the departure of the Amazons, since the whole thing only took two pages. Regardless of intention, the implication that Steve now preferred Diana over Wonder Woman can be easily read. In either case, Diana stayed behind because of Steve Trevor and became a normal woman, getting an apartment, opening a shop, and even learning kung fu.

  Right after she arrived in New York and secured her new shop and apartment, Diana saw an old, blind man being attacked in a back alley. She ran to help him, but he dispatched his attackers by himself. The man was I Ching, a martial arts master and enemy of Dr. Cyber, who sought out Diana after he deduced that she was really Wonder Woman. Finding her powerless, he taught her karate, kung fu, and several other fighting forms, and together they scoured the criminal underworld for any information about Steve. Ultimately, Steve showed up on Diana’s doorstep, having just been gunned down by Dr. Cyber’s thugs when they found out he really wasn’t a traitor to America. Steve was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

  In the following issue, Diana set out to find his assailants, but Steve was kidnapped and killed right in front of her. Holding his dead body, a distraught Diana cried out, “I’ve lost everything! Without family … without Steve … my life is worthless!” After Steve died, the main plot of the series became Diana’s quest to find Dr. Cyber and avenge his death. Diana and I Ching traveled the globe, battling their way through scores of henchmen and leaving destruction in their wake. The real-world aspects of the mod Diana Prince and her new life in New York running a boutique took a backseat to this pursuit of vengeance.

  O’Neil and Sekowsky’s goal was to turn Wonder Woman into a realistic woman whom readers could identify with, but the end result was that Diana’s entire life was centered around Steve. The decisions that led to her losing her powers were based on what was best for him, not for herself, and her life became a quest to avenge him. Basically, everything about the new Diana Prince was defined by Steve, and she didn’t have her own identity outside of him.

  Although the era of female comic book characters striving to be subservient housewives was now past, Diana embodied that old mind-set where a man was a woman’s sole reason for existence. Elsewhere in superhero comic books, female characters had moved beyond this limited depiction of womanhood. Rather than being an independent, liberated woman, the new Diana Prince represented everything that real-world independent, liberated women rallied against.

  Behind the Times

  We can call Marston’s comics kinky, or label Kanigher’s stories as silly, but neither is a comm
entary on the quality of the comic books. Each creator had a particular take on Wonder Woman, and we’ve delved into these differences and the evolution of the character without making a value judgment. Certainly both creators thought that they were doing fine work. This was not the case with the mod era of Wonder Woman. Every time Denny O’Neil is asked about his time on the series, he talks about how bad the book was and how many glaring missteps he made, and he often apologizes for his work. These were not good comics.

  The mod Wonder Woman suffers further when placed in the context of the Bronze Age. Marston’s Wonder Woman had problematic quirks, but comparatively it was rather progressive and, at the very least, completely different from the other books being published at the time. Kanigher’s Wonder Woman was campy, but so was everything else in the Silver Age. The mod Wonder Woman was regressive at a time when comics were getting good. Great strides were made in depicting the role of women in superhero comic books, while simultaneously women battled for new rights and fair treatment in the real world. Wonder Woman lagged behind everyone, to such a degree that Gloria Steinem and other feminists took it upon themselves to call for a return to the original, Amazon Wonder Woman. The world was moving forward while Wonder Woman moved backward.

  *This wasn’t a traditional origin story, since it didn’t reboot the character and Wonder Woman’s previous origin story was still part of her history. Nonetheless, the transition from Amazon warrior to human being was such a huge change for the character that it can be considered a type of origin story.

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  Doin’ It for Themselves

  The Bronze Age marked the end of the marriage-obsessed, damsel-in-distress monopoly in comic books. There were still many characters that fit that mold, and there still are today, but that wasn’t the only option anymore. A shift began, and many women in superhero comics broke away from their old ways to become more independent.

  This change happened everywhere in popular culture as the women’s liberation movement gained momentum, and in most fields, this change was gradual. In America on Film, Benshoff and Griffin write that “films of the late 1960s and early 1970s did slowly begin to deal with contemporary issues facing women [and] tentatively celebrate women’s independence and touch on other feminist issues.” The film industry didn’t turn completely feminist all of a sudden, but a steady change was set in motion. The old model was fading away.

  It was a slow turnaround for teen romance novels too. Linda Christian-Smith finds that in this era more female lead characters wanted some control of their lives. They were frustrated with traditional gender roles and keen for more independence. These characters became increasingly assertive with their boyfriends, no longer catering to their every whim. The change wasn’t profound, but there was a definite shift nonetheless.

  In science fiction, the changes were substantial and began earlier. Throughout the 1950s, letter columns and editorials in pulp magazines argued for more female characters in science fiction. By the late 1960s, female characters weren’t just poor damsels in distress to be rescued or evil foes to be vanquished; they were heroes. In fact, one of the most popular subgenres of science fiction in this period was stories about female utopias, most of which had harsh critiques of patriarchal society and gender inequality.

  While the depiction of many of DC Comics’ female characters changed in the late 1960s, Marvel beat DC to the punch. With its more realistic superhero stories and teen fan base, Marvel had its ear to the ground for social change. Case in point: Sue Storm, the Fantastic Four’s Invisible Girl.* Initially, Sue was a classic Silver Age damsel in distress. She was a devoted wife and “mother” of the Fantastic Four’s pseudo-family. Sue was also the weakest member of the team and was captured often. Mr. Fantastic was brilliant and could do impressive elastic feats, the Human Torch could fly and shoot flames, and the Thing had superstrength and nearly impenetrable skin; the Invisible Woman could only disappear.

  This all changed in January 1964’s Fantastic Four #22, when Sue found out that she had a secondary superpower. On top of turning invisible, she could also create powerful force fields and project them to protect objects and other people. Not even the Thing could break the force field, which made Sue the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four. She broke free of her damsel in distress and den mother roles and became an equally formidable member of the team.

  Another noteworthy shift occurred in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. Originally, Peter Parker’s girlfriend was Gwen Stacey, a wholesome, blonde, all-American girl who embodied the virtues of a traditional “good girl” character. Gwen was sweet and studious and keen to marry Peter and settle down. In fact, Stan Lee’s long-term plan was for Peter to ultimately end up with Gwen. However, comics need dramatic tension, so in 1966 Peter and Gwen had what was intended to be a momentary breakup.

  During the breakup, a new character was introduced as a blind date for Peter in The Amazing Spider-Man #42 in November 1966. Her name was Mary Jane Watson, and her first words are one of the most famous lines in comic book history; when Peter met Mary Jane and was momentarily stunned by the vivacious redhead’s beauty, she proclaimed, “Face it, Tiger … you just hit the jackpot!” The confident and free-spirited Mary Jane was the complete opposite of Gwen Stacey. She was all about having a good time and wasn’t interested in marriage or babies, and she broke off any relationship that began to get serious lest she be tied down. Mary Jane and Peter dated briefly, and she continued to be flirtatious with him after they broke it off. Despite Stan Lee’s original plans, the hipper Mary Jane became a fan favorite, and Gwen Stacey was eventually killed off in 1973. Gwen’s lack of popularity showed that comic book readers wanted modern, independent female characters, and Marvel Comics was happy to oblige.

  DC Comics caught up to Marvel as the Bronze Age began, and started to embrace the shift away from traditional roles for women. While Diana Prince languished in stereotypes and violence, flitting from man to man, other female characters at DC reflected the changing role of women in the real world, and in popular culture generally.

  Diana Prince as the New Wonder Woman

  While Marston’s and Kanigher’s versions of Wonder Woman had many differences, the mod Diana Prince was a complete contradiction of her predecessors. Most of the unique characteristics of Wonder Woman that had carried over from the Golden to the Silver Age were reversed with the new Diana, and intentionally so. Denny O’Neil and Mike Sekowsky made a clean break from her past depictions to take the character in a new direction. It was a bold approach, but the end result was the undoing of everything progressive and special about the character without replacing these qualities with anything new or exciting. It seemed that the only things salvaged from Wonder Woman’s earlier incarnations were the lovestruck dopiness of Marston’s Diana and the romantic troubles of Kanigher’s. Diana compares poorly to her fellow female characters, but she comes off even worse in comparison to her past selves.

  Wonder Woman was a founding member of the Justice League in the Silver Age, the only woman on the team’s regular roster. She was an equal, contributing member and one of the most regular characters in the team’s rotating cast. Having a female superhero front and center in one of DC’s bestselling books went a long way to countering the male dominance of DC’s line. Most of the male members of the Justice League had their own books that outsold Wonder Woman, but her presence on the team showed that super-heroics weren’t the exclusive domain of men.

  Soon after she gave up her powers and her identity as Wonder Woman, Diana resigned from the team in Justice League of America #69, written by Denny O’Neil. She announced, “I’m no more than an ordinary mortal now … much as I admire the Justice League, I feel I no longer have a place in it!” Batman told her that she was welcome back anytime and Superman refused to accept her resignation, instead calling it a leave of absence, but she was gone. A letter from reader Scott Fader in “The JLA Mail Room” column a few issues later made an excellent point about the situation:
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  As Don Rickles might say, “YOU DUMMY!” You blew a perfectly good non-super-heroine! If Batman and Green Arrow (both non-super) can be in there, why can’t Wonder Woman? I think you dum-dums have a few things to learn about ousting Justice Leaguers.

  It appeared that while men could be in the Justice League without superpowers, a woman had to have superpowers to merit membership. Diana’s fellow heroes thought that her resignation was a rash decision, but rash decisions were a hallmark of the mod era.

  For over twenty-five years, Wonder Woman had been kind-hearted and peaceful, using force only when her diplomatic solutions were rejected. This all changed with the mod Diana Prince; her anger perpetually boiled just below the surface and erupted with any sort of provocation. Violence was her response to nearly every situation. Her only motivation was avenging Steve’s death, and she fought through anything that stood in her way. A typical panel read: “Then—there is fury! Like an avenging goddess, Diana leaps forward, feeling nothing—nothing except a consuming hate … with inhuman strength and swiftness, she sweeps through her enemies.” The art on this page showed a silhouetted Diana punching and kicking Dr. Cyber’s agents with reckless abandon, sending them flying through the air. The book became little more than a series of elaborate fight scenes and explosions, with Diana at the center of each one.

  The violence wasn’t limited to brawling. In an issue ominously titled “Red for Death!” Diana traveled to China and ended up strafing Chinese fighter jets with a massive machine gun. Another story arc had Diana trapped in the interdimensional kingdom of Chalandor, where she killed at least twenty men with blazing sword work before she was captured. Diana later escaped, joined a local rebel group, and taught them to make gunpowder. She and her fellow rebels then shot down the enemy’s air ships with cannons, blowing up the gas-filled and heavily manned flying machines. Diana’s solution for any problem was to hit it or blow it up or, more often than not, kill it.