Wonder Woman Unbound (30 page)

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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.

8

Doin’ It for Themselves

T
he 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.
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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:

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.

She was also reckless and regularly ran into dangerous situations despite the warnings of I Ching and her other companions. No matter how many thugs were in her way, Diana dove right in, half-crazed. Her emotions replaced her common sense, and anger dictated her actions. It seems that traits like calmness and rationality didn’t fit O’Neil and Sekowsky’s concept of a normal, identifiable woman. At times, Diana was downright hysterical. The mod revamp was meant to offer a new version of the character, but an irrational woman ruled by her emotions was just a cliché.

O’Neil and Sekowsky continued to hit all of the stereotypical bases in
Wonder Woman
#182. Diana was trying on clothes in London with a new beau, and the narration read: “Happiness for any healthy, red-blooded young gal, is bedecking herself in the latest fashion finery … and our
Wonder Woman
just happens to
be
a healthy, red-blooded young gal.” Then, overhearing her fellow shoppers discuss a party they were attending that evening, Diana thought, “Imagine me in the same room with London
high society!
It’s as though I were suddenly dropped into a
Cary Grant
picture!” Diana Prince, former Amazon princess, charter member of the Justice League of America, and personal friend of the Olympian gods, was ecstatic to be trying on new clothes in the same room as two women on their way to a fancy party. Fashion, and the doors that being fashionable opened to her, was of paramount importance to Diana.

Diana’s new look brought her a lot of attention. Not only did Steve take an interest in Diana instead of Wonder Woman for the first time, but her new look caught the eyes of many other men as well, who were glad to give her information or buy her gifts. Later, she was able to hobnob with high society and travel the globe on the dime of these new suitors. The attention her new look brought her went over very well with Diana, who found all of it terribly exciting. This focus on her appearance and the many benefits it brought was a big change for the series. As Wonder Woman, the subtext was always that it was good to be strong and caring and heroic; as the mod Diana Prince, the subtext was that it was good to be pretty because boys would like you and you’d be treated better.

The boys certainly did like Diana, and Diana liked them back, adding fickleness to the growing list of the mod Diana’s new traits. In her fascinating book
Reading the Romance,
Janice Radway surveyed women who were regular romance novel readers and used their responses to create a template for the ideal romance novel. This ideal romance begins with the destruction of the protagonist’s identity, after which she embarks “on her quest for a new self and new connection.” A key part of this quest is meeting a man who transforms her into “a passive, expectant, trembling creature who feels incomplete without the attention of the hero.” This is a perfect description of Diana Prince.

After she lost her Wonder Woman identity, Diana constantly had to have the attention of a strong man. Just one issue after Steve’s death, Diana was attracted to her new associate, Tim Trench. Lying in her bed and unable to sleep, she thought, “I’m becoming fond of Tim …
very
fond! He’s crusty … but he’s also strong, decisive … a
man!
At times he makes me forget Steve …
almost!
I wonder if being
human
means being
fickle!
”

Tim was soon replaced by Reginald Hyde-White, who paid for Diana’s London shopping spree. Afterward, Reggie professed his love for her, saying that “in the few hours since we met, you’ve become
everything
to me!” Diana bought the line and kissed him, but noted afterward that “as an Amazon princess—as
Wonder Woman—
I had perfect control of my emotions! As plain Diana Prince, I’m
human
—too
darn
human!” If Diana was still an Amazon she’d have been able to resist Reggie’s advances and wouldn’t have kissed him scant hours after meeting him, but as a normal human woman she was powerless to control herself.