Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 

Wonder Woman faces her greatest foe — lesbian BDSM bullies!

My Silver Age reread is approaching the (cover-dated) end of 1969 (though there’s still some earlier stuff to blog about, such as Secret Six). Wonder Woman is now, as you know, powerless martial-arts wizard Diana Prince, running a fashion boutique in between battling Dr. Cyber and her agents of evil (who surprisingly never got the usual A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. of evil).

After that encounter in the Alps on Mike Sekowsky’s cover, Diana and I Ching had another clash with her in London. In both cases, Diana fell for a man who double-crossed her. After the second heartbreak she runs sobbing into the London streets — and right into one of her fellow Amazons. Paradise Island had to leave our world so the Amazons can recharge their spiritual energy. Mars has attacked them to force his daughter Hippolyta to reveal the secret of returning to Earth. Once he has it, he’ll invade and lay waste to the world. With his daughter lying comatose from the resulting battle, the Amazons need Princess Diana to lead them.

Did I say daughter? Yes, I did. This is tossed off casually, without explanation, as if it were common knowledge to the Amazons and to us (I wonder if John Byrne making the same family connection in his much later run was some sort of hat tip to this era). Diana organizes a defense but Mars’ forces are overwhelming. Slowly the Amazons retreat … then Diana realizes they can visit other lands of myth and recruit other heroes — Siegfried, King Arthur’s court and the like. The heroes, however, prove to be burned out cynics who have no interest in more heroism. Fortunately a group of Valkyries are inspired and join the Amazons, then the men finally wake up to their duty.

I’m undecided whether bringing back the Amazons was a smart move. Did writer/artist Sekowsky figure including some classic Wonder Woman elements would make older fans happy? Would it have been better to stick to the new status quo, at least for a while longer (not that it would have kept the depowered era going either way). Plus, of course, seeing the Amazons saved by a bunch of male heroes doesn’t work for me. Though I do like Mars’ reluctant praise for Diana at the end of the story (“Tell my granddaughter … she fought well.”).

Diana then returns to her boutique (I Ching stays behind studying with the Amazons) without even thinking about Dr. Cyber, Diana’s desire to avenge Steve’s death by destroying her, or that Cyber might conceivably want revenge for thwarting her twice (apparently she doesn’t, but there’s no way Diana can know that). Instead, in Wonder Woman #185, she finds Kathy, a terrified young runaway, hiding in Diana’s shop from … “Them!”Who are colorful but considerably less scary when we meet them on the inside pages.

This trio of nogoodniks offered Kathy a home, then took away her money, her clothes, and forced her to clean and serve them wearing that dog collar on the floor. They’re quite obviously coded to be a lesbian menage-a-trois, and into nonconsensual BDSM.

Diana, of course, throws them out of her shop and takes Kathy in as an assistant. The trio declare Diana will soon beg to wear a slave collar herself and begin a campaign of harassment and intimidation, culminating in setting fire to the shop. How can Diana Prince, former superhero, trained martial artist, a woman capable of smashing Cyber’s international crime ring, possibly defeat … Them?

Damn easily, one would think, but no. It takes a tough, handsome neighbor, Tony, intervening with his tough buddies to take Them down, after which blind chance exposes them as thieves. They’re busted, end of story, phew! Thank God there was a man around to save the women!

As you can see, this story does not sit well with me. It does serve to introduce Tony and his family (they play a role in a couple more stories) and Kathy as an occasional sidekick, but surely Sekowsky could have had accomplished all that without reducing Diana to a helpless victim.

He did not, however, accomplish that.

All art by Sekowsky.

12 Comments

      1. Jeff Nettleton

        Hadly a coincidence. Her outfit, on the cover of #180, was a blatant copy of the “Emma Peelers” that Rigg wore in the color seasons of The Avengers. They were specifically modeling her after Emma Peel and Modesty Blaise.

        I love this era; but, it got scizophrenic, after the initial issues, as they kept changing direction, after sales figures and letters came in. The fantasy stuff wasn’t horrible, but then they’d switch gears again. After a while, only the bondage covers were memorable.

        1. Yes, it would be stronger if they’d alternated her spy work with stories of her helping out people in her neighborhood (which is a role she’ll play with Tony later). Though I doubt it would have turned things around.

    1. I did not know that (if I did, I forgot it). Given that there’s never been any hint of that as WW’s origin in either pre- or post-Crisis continuity, it still needed a lot more set up (much as I disliked the Vaughn run, they acknowledged that Diana Daughter of Zeus was a major reveal).

  1. Jeff Nettleton

    The story is laughably overdone, leaving aside the male rescue, which was always a problem in this run, as they didn’t trust the character, without powers, to kick ass and take names, like Emma Peel or Modesty Blaise. Given that DC was run by middle aged white guys, one of whom was noted for sexually harassing female talent and workers, it should be no surprise that the stories dont live up to the concept. It should have been handed over to Dorothy Woolfolk, who probably would have produced a much better and consistent take on Diana, as a human adventuress, ala the trends they were trying to copy. Woolfolk mentored great young talent and knew how to draw an audience, but, she was the romance editor and the butt of derision from the male chauvinist pigs, who couldn’t touch her talent…or her connections to the world of literature and theater. Professional jealousy is an ugly thing.

  2. Jeff Nettleton

    ps The basic story is pretty much a comic book version of the lesbian pulp novels that were sold on paperback racks, with butch women out cruising for young girls to lure into their lair and corrupt. The ironic thing was, despite the negative stereotypes, they did have a real lesbian audience and some of the writers, a very select few, treated the characters more sympathetically and realistically, and laid the foundation for modern, serious lesbian-oriented fiction, with more positive portrayals and greater literary depth.

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