I’ve often wondered what prompted Mike Sekowsky, after decades as a DC artist, to become a writer as well.
In 1968 he and Denny O’Neil co-created the adventurer formerly known as Wonder Woman. Sekowsky went on to write Wonder Woman as well as draw it. He drew the Metal Men during the period Doc Magnus went insane and the robots adopted human cover identities, then went on to write Metal Men too. Later on he’d write Supergirl, introducing Luthor’s niece Nasthalthia as Kara’s running foe.
Had he always wanted to be writer and never got the chance? Did he get the itch to script stories late in life? Was it simply that after axing multiple writers, DC needed new blood, even if it was old blood?
I’ve no idea. Online searching never turned up an answer, though possibly someone reading this might know (speak up if you do!).
Whatever the reason, I think the change was good for Sekowsky’s art. Compared to his Justice League of America work, his art in this period frequently used bigger, splashier panels, like “The Widow-Maker,” which he wrote and penciled for Brave and the Bold #87.
The story has Batman filling in for an injured race-car driver, That makes him a target for a murderous racer so Diana Prince and I Ching do their best to help thwart the bad guys. The fun, though, is in Diana having no idea who Bruce Wayne really is. He hits on her, she politely brushes the notorious playboy off.
Wonder Woman #186, “Morgana,” is one of the stories, like “Them,” where she’s helping out around the neighborhood. A group of teenage girls tell Diana their dabbling in black magic summoned Morgana, daughter of Morgan le Fay. She’s turned one of their boyfriends into a frog — can Diana help?
It’s a great opening but an unsatisfying story, with Diana constantly getting in trouble because she won’t take I Ching’s advice (he conveniently knows enough magic to thwart Morgana). Even depowered, Wonder Woman deserves better than “If only I’d listened to my wise male co-star, how silly I am!” Though Morgana, basically a Mxyzptlk-style chaos bringer, is a fun foe and I love this page of her at work in Diana’s neighborhood.
The witch becomes a frenemy of sorts in a later Supergirl. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of her but she never reappeared after that.
Sekowsky’s work in this era was almost entirely on established characters. However he took his shot at new stuff too, such as Jason’s Quest and Manhunter 2070 in Showcase. While the cover of Showcase #88 never impressed me —
— the house ad looked so cool I bought the first issue.
The story is enjoyable enough I might get the next couple of issues too, even though I know it ends on a cliffhanger. It’s another of those comics creations that are very much a product of their time. The idea of kids turning vagabond and wandering across America was a popular one in the 1960s — Route 66 at the start of the decade, more recently Easy Rider and Then Came Bronson (both of which involved guys on motorcycles, so either might have been an inspiration.
I don’t know why he turned writer but I enjoyed his work enough that I’m glad he did.
