Wonder Woman Unbound (13 page)

The Silver Age of superhero comic books began around 1956, and by that time the essay feature of
Wonder Woman
was nearly out the door. It lasted for a few more years, discussing stereotypically “girly” topics, but its page count dropped from two to one, and it made a final appearance in
Wonder Woman
#115 in July 1960. The title was “Maids of the Manor,” and the essay discussed the amusements available to ladies in eleventh-century France and the hard working conditions for the wives and daughters of serfs. From the timing, it seems that the essay section was cut in favor of the series’ new letter column, which had just premiered in the issue previous. Once the essays were gone, superstitious strips ruled the extra features in
Wonder Woman.

They premiered in
Wonder Woman
#52 in March 1952, with the half-page strips “Leap Year Proposals” and “Ancient Beauty Secrets.” In their early appearances they seemed like filler, short pieces to take up half a page while an advertisement filled the rest. There weren’t any regular strips initially, though thematically they were all similar, dealing with traditions and superstitions surrounding marriage and romance, fashion, jewelry, or beauty. After they began, every issue of
Wonder Woman
for over a decade contained at least one of these strips.

Soon each strip was an entire page, and some became semi-regular features. One of the first regular strips began with “Strange Beliefs About Wedding Gowns” and continued with this motif. “Strange Beliefs About Gloves,” “Strange Romantic Beliefs,” and “Strange Romantic Customs” followed. The first feature with a regular title was “Gems of Destiny,” which was about various precious stones and historical pieces of jewelry. It first appeared in
Wonder Woman
#68 in August 1954, with information about moonstones, diamonds, pearls, and opals. While both the “Strange” strips and “Gems of Destiny” appeared sporadically, at most once a year, soon there was another strip that became a constant presence in the book: “Marriage a la Mode.”

“Marriage a la Mode” was published consistently after its first appearance in October 1954’s
Wonder Woman
#69. The first strip was a full page and described several marriage traditions and superstitions, including the fact that “one of the important duties of the best man at a wedding in Wales was to give the bride a daintily cut piece of bread and butter, with the expectation that it would induce her children to have pretty and small mouths.” The feature appeared in fifty-four of the next seventy-two issues of
Wonder Woman
, sharing wedding folklore from all over the world.

For all intents and purposes, “Marriage a la Mode” was the new “Wonder Women of History.” It premiered three issues after “Wonder Women of History” ended, had a similar art style and format, and was the only regular feature in
Wonder Woman
after the essays ended. The layout for “Marriage a la Mode” was very consistent: each strip contained four panels that showed four different wedding traditions. Ultimately, that added up to well over two hundred different bits of wedding folklore. They covered a wide range of marriage-related topics, from traditions about proposals, ceremonies, and attire to superstitions concerning the success of the marriage, wealth, and children. “Marriage a la Mode,” along with “Marriage Charms,” “Lucky Brides,” “Hope Chest,” “Wedding Notions,” “Future Mates,” “Dream Sweetheart,” “Romantic Rings,” and scads of other strips placed a strong focus on love, marriage, and starting a family.

An issue that well captured this era is
Wonder Woman
#116, the first issue without an essay and thus the first issue where strips accounted for all of the book’s extra features:

• First up was “Marriage a la Mode.” We learned about the silver compote of sweets that “Moslem” couples enjoy on their wedding night, how on Borneo a Dyak boy initiates courtship by carrying a load of wood for a girl, that in ancient Japan the bride shaved off her eyebrows “to symbolize her subservience to her husband,” and finally that two suitors wrestle for the right to marry a woman on “Mombasa Island, Somaliland.”
  
• The next strip was “New Moon Superstitions,” with a tip for women who have just moved into a new house: when she first sees a new moon, she needs to rush to the bedroom and make up the bed with fresh sheets. This keeps misfortune from her home.
  
• The only thing that stopped the dominance of these marriage-centric strips was the National Social Welfare Assembly’s public service strips. In “Superman Says: Lend a Friendly Hand,” we learn that it’s important to be a good neighbor to refugees, even if they don’t speak English and don’t know how to play ball.
  

Though there were fewer extra features by the 1960s due to lowered page counts and increased advertisements, there was nothing to counterbalance the marriage and domesticity messages that dominated the strips. Not even Wonder Woman offered much of a different perspective.

By 1963, “Marriage a la Mode” and the other strips appeared less frequently. When
Wonder Woman
was revamped in 1968, these strips had become sporadic at best, down to just three or four appearing every year, and the revamp ended them for good. “Marriage a la Mode” appeared twice after the mod revamp and made its last appearance in
Wonder Woman
#191 in November 1970, discussing how in Madagascar the bride’s father performed the marriage ceremony by cracking a coconut on the groom’s head. The Bronze Age marked the end of extra features in DC Comics’ series as a whole, and the main story and advertisements became the sole content of their books.
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“Code Pluto No. 8” simply means to go back eight letters, so A is S, B is T, C is U, etc. This message translates to: “Your first line of defense is the line at the window selling stamps and bonds!”

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According to her posthumously published autobiography, she became a spy. Her former lover was a Swiss banker, and she used him to track down Nazi financial data until she was eventually shot by a Nazi agent. She survived and recovered from that too.

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Greene was one of the few African American artists working in comics during the Golden Age. He drew nine strips for “Wonder Women of History.”

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QUIZ INTERLUDE: Try to guess all twenty women based on the professions listed here, and the full list will be in a footnote later on in the chapter. Some are more obvious (the sharpshooter, the saint, and the aviator) while others are tough (the missionary, any of the astronomers).

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The bizarre ending of the article reads: “Those of us who love a parade will love it just a little bit more to view column after column of those lovely Liberty Belles smartly marching down the street.” Apparently, the author was looking forward to ogling female military officers.

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The feature was near an advertisement for a FREE set of ten stamps featuring portraits of Adolf Hitler, which promised that if you ordered them, “your friends will envy you for it and want to buy the set from you.” Why they were having trouble selling Hitler stamps is hard to say … you’d think they would fly off the shelves.
Wonder Woman
#66 was a weird issue.

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The “Wonder Women of History” quiz answers:
Astronomers (3):
Annie Jump Cannon, Caroline Herschel, Maria Mitchell.
Authors (3):
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Fanny Burney, Hannah Adams (though if you guessed Hannah More, give yourself a point).
Aviators (2):
Amelia Earhart, Harriet Quimby.
First Ladies (2):
Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison.
Lawyers (2):
Gail Laughlin, Myra Colby Bradwell.
Nobel Laureates (2):
Jane Addams, Marie Curie.
Journalist:
Nelly Bly.
Missionary:
Mary Slessor.
Opera Singer:
Jenny Lind.
Saint:
Joan of Arc.
Sculptor:
Vinnie Ream Hoxie.
Sharpshooter:
Annie Oakley.

PART 2

The Silver Age

4

A Herculean Task

T
he Golden Age Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, much like Rosie the Riveter in presenting a symbol of what women could become but weren’t allowed to be. The masses of women who entered the workforce during World War II got a taste of a different life, but it was only temporary. While surveys showed that 80 percent of female wartime workers wanted to continue working in their new field once the war was over, nearly all of them were let go when the men returned. The world returned to the status quo, with a renewed focus on domestic roles for women. Wonder Woman, Rosie the Riveter, and women workers ultimately became important touchstones for women’s rights, but in the immediate postwar era their strength and independence had little lasting effect. The young girls who grew up with these role models eventually launched the women’s liberation movement, but they had to get through the 1950s first.

After Marston’s death in 1947, the writing duties of
Wonder Woman
and
Sensation Comics
went to Robert Kanigher. Before he worked in comics, Kanigher had written for various media, even publishing a book entitled
How to Make Money Writing
in 1943. He joined DC Comics in 1945 as both an editor and a writer and created new characters like Black Canary, Rose and Thorn, and the Harlequin while writing for
Hawkman, Green Lantern,
and other books. Kanigher also filled in for Marston a few times when he was ill, writing a handful of Wonder Woman stories.

Once he took over the book, Kanigher edited and wrote
Wonder Woman
for over twenty years, but until 1958, Kanigher’s work on
Wonder Woman
was basically a poor Marston impression.
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He didn’t continue Marston’s feminist or fetishist themes with any detail, but his stories were clear attempts to ape Marston’s style. H. G. Peter stayed on the book for several years as well, continuing his distinctive look. It wasn’t until
Wonder Woman
#98 that Kanigher made the book his own, along with the series’ new penciller, Ross Andru, and inker, Mike Esposito.