Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Vol. 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

You should know right up front that these DC SHOWCASE reprints are in black and white. For long time fans this is seen as something of a sin, while new fans might find these collected issues incomplete - and they're both right - but, to keep the price down and the volumes bulging with material, a middle ground had to be reached and DC has gone out of their way to present these issues in the best possible light. The artwork is clear, clean and still fresh even without the color, but, I can't lie, the color really MADE some of these issues work.

But, color aside, WONDER WOMAN, while still a wonder, does lose some of her luster here due to a poor editorial choice. Instead of taking us back to the very beginning of WONDER WOMAN's run and reintroducing us to the wicked, wild, subversive, sexually daring and outright crazy landscape that made WONDER WOMAN such a instant classic, DC Comics has chosen instead to pick up WONDER WOMAN's story starting in 1958 (with ISSUE #98) - long after all the uproar over her brushes with bondage, college trading, hazing and baby parties were a dim memory. No Nazi's either, no Nippon armies, no WORLD WAR II, no US propoganda - from page one on, WONDER WOMAN follows the 1950's SUPERMAN's lead in handing us impossible stories mixed with magic and scientific advances (more so WONDER WOMAN here, where it seems the writers tired to at least get a few facts right, even in the midst of sheer flights of fancy), while WONDER WOMAN fights Col. Steve Trevor at every turn to remain a single super-heroine, yet not distance the man she truly loves at the same time.

Truth be told, after reading these issues you can't help but figure that Trevor is a complete masher and Wonder Woman could (and would) do better than him (especially when she finds out that Steve has "been" with other women - a truly funny moment in this collection). And while some of these stories are very clever (some even classic), most are repeative plots just moved from one location to the next to try and make them seem fresh. I lost count just how many times Wonder Woman (and Wonder Girl) fights off aggressive whales in this collection - but she does, time and time again. And did someone say nukes? We got 'em, and you'll get two atomic KABOOMS! before you reach the last page.

But, despite the action, the wit and the avalanche of "ah gee-whiz" gimmicks to make the impossible possible, this collection really drops us cold into the middle of a time of stumbling transition in Wonder Woman's career, with only one panel (found on page 26 - SHOWCASE numbering) to remind us of all that had come before. But, this does not mean you should pass on this chance to pick up this collection and enjoy.

The action is here. The adventure leaps off the page. But the fuss, the fume and that knowing slow, sly and sultry wink... all lost.

I'm a long-time comic fan with a certain fondness for the Silver Age of comics. I enjoyed my Superman and Batman reprints and had high hopes for this book.

It's bad. Not 'bad but with a certain charm' nor even 'so bad it's good' no, just good old fashioned bad with a heaping of boring thrown in.

In one story a mad scientist wants to prove his Wonder Woman robot is better than the real Wonder Woman. So he challenges her to a contest. Fair enough right? Lots of potential there. What's the contest? To see who falls asleep first the robot or Wonder Woman. The story is not just illogical, not just dumb, but it has no drama at all.

And the book is filled with stories like these, over 500 pages worth. Wonder Woman encounters some bizarre alien or magical threat then defeats it by luck or embarrassingly bad dues-ex-machinas. There are stories that, in the right hands, could have been mad and surreal but instead come off as poorly plotted and foolish.

I really can't see any entertainment value in this book. It's not over-the-top enough for camp, not good enough to stand on its own merits, not original enough to be interesting. It's just sort of there. 500 pages of mediocre, incoherent, uninteresting stories.

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.

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 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

...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.

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)

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.

Because when you pick this up you will be looking at some of the worst comic art ever produced. Amazingly bad.