World Famous Comics: Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Vol. 1
Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Vol. 1
By: Robert Kanigher Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 528 Publication Date: August 22, 2007 Reading Level: Young Adult Release Date: August 22, 2007
Product Description: This value-priced collection includes over 500 pages of classic comics!
Wonder Woman launched into the Silver Age of Comics with these tales, in which the Amazon Princess battled colorful new foes including alien dinosaurs, amoeba men, and other threats, with the mysterious Merman at her side, along with her teenaged sidekick, Wonder Girl!
Well, the art isn't bad.... ...that's about the only thing these 500+ pages of comics has going for it. Ross Andru's art is very nice and looks almost as good as his work on Spider-Man that wouldn't appear until a decade later. Now the bad part: everything else. I can honestly say I did not enjoy a single story within these pages. I love Silver Age comics and have read literally thousands of pages from this era and Wonder Woman is by far the worst. The stories are ridiculous and the characters are one dimensional. Steve Trevor has got to be the worst love interest in comics history....with the possible exception of the groan-inducing Mer-Boy! Another problem is the total lack of significant or memorable villains. Unless you are a Ross Andru completest or a hardcore Wonder Woman enthusiast I really don't know what there is to enjoy about these comics. For a sample of good DC Silver Age comics try one of the Superman, Flash or Green Lantern Showcase volumes instead.
New Part of the History of Wonder Woman Under Editor Robert Canniger In the 1950's, "Wonder Woman" went through changes with the death of the character's creator Dr. William Moulton Marsdon from cancer and soon follow by the death of All American Comics Publisher M.C. Gaines who upon the death of Dr. Marsdon, gave the "Wonder Woman" series over to editor Robert Canniger in which Gaines was supposed to have helped Canniger with as to determine the direction as to where the series would not go. However, Gaines that weekend met an untimely death from a boating accident.
The parent company DC Comics at this point then decided to merge the subsidiary company (All American Comics) with the parent company (DC Comics) to form one entity.
Now without M.C. Gaines, Canniger was left alone in charge of "Wonder Woman" and totally had no idea as to what to do with the character and the series. One thing he decided to do was to try and appeal to young female comic book readers by introducing more romance interests and themes between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Plain Diana Prince would even find herself looking at her alter ego, Wonder Woman, as competition for Steve Trevor wondering if Steve Trevor would and could love Diana Prince if she wasn't Wonder Woman. Canniger basically tried to incorporate aspects of romance/love comics into "Wonder Woman."
Also it was the 1950's and monsters and science fiction was at the height of their popularity in movies and comic books, so ask Canniger did with the "Batman" comics he was also in charge of at the time, he had Wonder Woman in science fiction type stories and fighting monsters, dinosaurs, and aliens from outer space.
Another thing that Canniger did was to borrow the concept from the "Superman" comics in doing stories of the character when they were younger as the "Superboy" and "Superbaby" stories. This also appeared "Wonder Woman" stories when Wonder Woman was "Wonder Girl" and when she was "Wonder Tot" at times meeting up with a young Steve Trevor. There went the continuity of the series.
That's right, the character "Wonder Girl" originally was supposed to be 'The Adventures of Wonder Woman When She was a Girl." Later on "Wonder Girl" and "Wonder Tot" became their own separate entities or beings. They became Wonder Woman's younger sisters. "Wonder Girl" is still around, older and using another name, with a new girl as the new "Wonder Girl." The character of "Wonder Tot" had disappeared some time in the late 1960's when DC Comics had to revamp their comics due to loss of sales. When the 1966 camp "Batman" TV series hit big, DC Comics decided to go all camp with their comic book titles. When the "Batman" TV series popularity dropped and the show was cancelled on ABC, so the sales of DC Comics also dropped and many a title, even some of the standard ones, were cancelled.
Writer Denny O'Neil was brought in to revamp "Wonder Woman" in which "Wonder Woman" gave up her Amazon powers along with her costume, magic lasso and bracelets, and invisible plane to remain in "Man's World" to help Steve Trevor out of trouble again while the other Amazons and Paradise Island went into another dimension to rest and recuperate their tired Amazon powers. In response to this, feminist activist Gloria Stynum wrote a letter to DC Comics letting them know of her disapproval of this Diana Prince: Wonder Woman - Volume 1 (Wonder Woman (Graphic Novels)) and Diana Prince: Wonder Woman VOL 2 (Wonder Woman (Graphic Novels)) and Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Vol. 3 (Wonder Woman (Graphic Novels)) and Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Vol. 4 (Wonder Woman (Graphic Novels)).
In closing, the volumes of "Showcase Presents Wonder Woman" is a compilation of stories from the "Wonder Woman" comics published in the late 1950's and so far, the early 1960's under editor Robert Canniger. Despite the fact that these are not looked upon as well as the original stories written by the creator Dr. William Moulton Marsdon, these "Showcase" volumes are worth looking into especially for the price of these volumes.
These volumes do not cover the mid-1960's when the 'Wonder Woman" stories went camp. In which in one issue, we find Wonder Woman and Colonel Steve Trevor in the clutches of the evil Red Chinese villain Egg Fu's large mustache that he has coiled around Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor holding them captive. Egg Fu is a large, super intelligent egg. Wonder Woman manages to loosen her arms and grab her magic lasso and ensnares the large egg and then uses her Amazon strength to tighten the indestructible magic lasso until you see cracks appearing in Egg Fu's shell and then the shell breaks to reveal a large egg yoke inside.
The compilation of the Wonder Woman stories appearing in these volumes of "Showcase Presents Wonder Woman" present another part of the history of Wonder Woman. For those interested in comic book history of Wonder Woman, these are great books to get.
Half-empty, or half-full? For me, these years of "Wonder Woman" -- the late 1950s and early '60s -- are the best... The stories are simple and fun and the art is both stylish and straightforward... There is none of the cluttered, clumpy artwork and psychosexual oddity of the 1940s Chuck Moulton era, or the muddled, retrograde feminism of the '70s, nor the increasingly stylized violence of the '80s, '90s and '00s... This is WW at her most straightforward, the closest she comes to a female superhero icon that you could have little girls read without feeling some qualms about the nature of the content you were presenting; here, Wonder Woman is truly just another superhero, having the same kinds of goofy adventures as Batman and Superman, with the same sense of innocence and fun.
So what's the downside? Well, the de-colored, black-and-white reprints are appalling and ugly, and make it impossible to enjoy the stories, especially when you've read some of these stories in their original form. I know some people think that these cheapo reprints are a "bargain" but I for one can't wait until they finally make these stories available in color -- it'll be worth a few extras pennies to see these stories published the way they were meant to be seen! (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)
wonder woman stories If you want the best of wonder woman this is it - starting at about issue 98 the art had taken a new direction from the old crude 40's art style which means WW was behind the times as it was already the later 50's - anyway the cute wonder family family stories are the highlight for me - wonder girl - wonder tot - the Queen mother - I just like these stories and remember them well from childhood - I'am a sucker for superbaby stories too. - Steve
Excellent and historic Sci-Fi I just wanted to drop by and leave my viewpoint. As far as illustrations are concerned, I have seen modern illustrations of the female sex in absolutely pornographic fashion ?(and this is good comic illustration?. Thus, if you are seeking a titillating portayal of womankind, I success that you find it else like in other You will not see woman portrayed that way in this compilation. It would have been nice, I agree, if DC would have printed some volumes of the comic book from its early stages (i.e Nazi's and so forth). In stead, the compilation begins roughly at the same point in WW's history that the TV show did.
The science fiction tie-ins in these stories are amazing. The bright outlook on life is a welcome chage from some of the more nihilistic comics that are available, too. I founded it to be a "feel good" book and I read it over when I need encouraging. I recommend it to anyone interested in the growth of female superheroes.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
