Diana Prince - Forgotten Classic
My pal Tadhg was telling me that in the recent "Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to the Amazon Princess" book by Scott Beatty, there is NO mention of the "Diana Prince" era of Wonder Woman!
That is a shame.
If you do not already know of this, in late 1968, Mike Sekowsky totally revamped the Wonder Woman comic (along with Denny O'Neill on scripts and Dick Giordano on inks).
Here is the cover of the first issue...
The basic idea is that Wonder Woman gives up her powers when the Amazons leave this dimension, so she must become "Diana Prince."
In #180, we meet I-Ching, a blind former monk who trains Diana as a martial artist.
In the same issue, Steve Trevor is killed off!! In fact, Sekowsky was quite upfront about his reasons for killing off Trevor, "Steve Trevor was dull and boring and I didn't like him much so I disposed of him."
Sekowksy contines his run on Wonder Woman for the next two plus years (the book was bi-monthly at the time), and had Diana open up a dress shop as her home base while going on many exciting missions with I-Ching.
Over the run, here outfits changed...
Diana with a machine gun!!!
Sadly, though, in the last issue of the run, I-Ching was murdered and Wonder Woman was given amnesia. When the Amazons returned her memories (and her powers), they left out her memories of her experiences as just plain "Diana Prince."
Still, the run exists as a daring example of forward thinking in comics!
As Sekowsky so bluntly put it,
I got the Sekowsky quotes from an amazing piece on the Diana Prince run by Carol Strickland that you can find here.
That is a shame.
If you do not already know of this, in late 1968, Mike Sekowsky totally revamped the Wonder Woman comic (along with Denny O'Neill on scripts and Dick Giordano on inks).
Here is the cover of the first issue...
The basic idea is that Wonder Woman gives up her powers when the Amazons leave this dimension, so she must become "Diana Prince."
In #180, we meet I-Ching, a blind former monk who trains Diana as a martial artist.
In the same issue, Steve Trevor is killed off!! In fact, Sekowsky was quite upfront about his reasons for killing off Trevor, "Steve Trevor was dull and boring and I didn't like him much so I disposed of him."
Sekowksy contines his run on Wonder Woman for the next two plus years (the book was bi-monthly at the time), and had Diana open up a dress shop as her home base while going on many exciting missions with I-Ching.
Over the run, here outfits changed...
Diana with a machine gun!!!
Sadly, though, in the last issue of the run, I-Ching was murdered and Wonder Woman was given amnesia. When the Amazons returned her memories (and her powers), they left out her memories of her experiences as just plain "Diana Prince."
Still, the run exists as a daring example of forward thinking in comics!
As Sekowsky so bluntly put it,
The old Wonder Woman was dropped because the sales on the old WW were so bad that the book was going to be dropped. The new Wonder Woman was given a chance -- (a last chance for the book) and it worked!... Super characters... aren't doing too well with today's readers -- and it's to today's readers that we must cater to, not to a bunch of old fuddy duddys who only look back... As for my hollering about WW's sales, I can honestly say that I am quite pleased to have taken a sow's ear and turned it into a silk purse.... I personally feel that too many of DC's stories are still being written and plotted for the year 1940 instead of 1970....Well put, eh?
I got the Sekowsky quotes from an amazing piece on the Diana Prince run by Carol Strickland that you can find here.
posted by Brian Cronin at 6:44 PM
6 Comments:
That's the great thing about taking over books with poor sales--you can ge away with a lot. Just ask Alan Moore (Swamp Thing), Peter David (Incredible Hulk), or Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol)!
Good point, Dave.
You can also add Frank Miller's Daredevil to that list (and probably Walt Simonson's Thor)!
I have been fascinated for years now with this period of WW, which I didn't buy when I was a kid. Why, I don't know- I loved the Avengers, Emma Peel being the obvious model for Sekowsky's Diana Prince. In fact, I've only owned one issue of this period- towards the end, when Denny O'Neil decided to try a test run of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser in (I think) issue 203.
I've been trying to find copies of this run, but they're very scarce and expensive when I manage to locate them, usually on eBay. I wish with all my heart that DC would collect these in an affordable edition...
Isn't it irritating, though, to see Steinem clearly making a sweeping statement just based on the one "famous" thing about the run, which was that Wonder Woman lost her powers.
Does a hero have to have powers to be a good feminist role model?
Diana had a job, she went on adventures, she was a warrior, she handled herself VERY well in battle, and she did not sit around swooning over guys...and yet Steinem did not like it because she lost her powers.
And of COURSE if her powers are gone, then it is all a sham.
I think that that is dirty pool by Steinem.
Yo Brian Cronin:
Exactly! Steinem IS foul. And so are many other chicks who call themselves "feminists", whatever that means in their context!
Just as some black cry foul when there is none, deception is the key to these feminists. As they prey on most men's natural instinct to agree in line with a woman when she’s in distress, be it socially or physically.
And that is just plain WRONG!
And BTW, I thought the Denny O'Neil run on Wonder Woman was fantastic, and gave Diana more depth!!
! Steinem IS foul. And so are many other chicks who call themselves "feminists", whatever that means in their context!
Just as some black cry foul when there is none, deception is the key to these feminists. As they prey on most men's natural instinct to agree in line with a woman when she’s in distress, be it socially or physically.
And that is just plain WRONG!
And BTW, I thought the Denny O'Neil run on Wonder Woman was fantastic, and gave Diana more depth!!
--Eron
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