Friday, November 13, 2020

The bad guy wears a shorter skirt than any Amazon...

I've mentioned before, how while I keep it clean on the blog, generally I swear like I'm going to get a prize for it. Often, it's when my son gently suggests I might not need to swear, which just makes me want to curse more because now it's funny...Maybe if I had a catchphrase exclamation. Nah, I'd just run it into the ground, like "Suffering Sappho!" this issue. From 1973, Wonder Woman #209, "The Planet of Plunder!" and "Attack of the Sky Demons!" Written by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Ric Estrada, inks by Vince Colletta.

I don't have a ton of WW, but this issue seemed old-fashioned, even for early 70's DC: in the lead story, Wonder Woman defends an undersea civilization of women from man-invaders from Neptune; in the second the seven-year-old Wonder Girl defends Paradise Island against kanga-riding invaders. I probably wouldn't have known if I hadn't looked it up in the GCD: these were redrawn versions of stories from the late 40's: "The Planet of Plunder" from WW #31, and "Wonder Woman and the Coming of the Kangas!" from WW #23. The latter was written by William Marston, but "Planet" was originally written by Robert Kanigher!

"Planet" also ties into earlier WW continuity with the republic of Neptunia, because not unlike Superman, Wonder Woman has her own undersea dwellers like Aquaman isn't right there! And the GCD also notes in "Attack" that the invaders hitting Paradise Island were women disguised as men, so as to demoralize the Amazons into believing they would lose their powers, but upon being defeated would be reformed and presumably absorbed into the Amazons. The note indicates that plot may have been used more than a few times, even by that point in the series...

Oh, and Wonder Woman squeezes six "Suffering Sappho's" into a ten page story!

1 comment:

  1. And see, here I thought you swore more when we talk because I'm such a bad influence.
    It's still weird to hear you cuss, more so because of your mid-west Montana accent, ha ha.

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