We are also left with the question of what fuels this plane? Amazon magic, I guess. It seems a bit less magical 60 years later in the computer era. The plane has a Siri-like quality of answering to Wonder Woman’s voice and obeying commands. Unlike Siri it doesn’t answer back. My gosh, that would make this tale weird.
H. G. Peter did the artwork and Robert Kanigher both wrote and edited. It is one of three equally bizarre tales in the issue.
From Wonder Woman #80 (1956).
*Pappy's Number 2023
A fun little story, but yikes--that Waterfront Gang might just be the stupidest criminals I've ever seen in the funny books.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere recently that Kanigher had great respect for women or somesuch. I don't know if the writer was being facetious; if serious, Kanigher had a funny way of showing it, spending most of his career on the really "macho" comics like the war-related ones. Anyway, he definitely handled Wonder Woman differently than did her creator--gone are the sexiness, bondage, and quirky fun that Marston loved so much. In their place is the old quest trope, and this iteration is pretty boring. At no time do I feel like it's a challenge for Diana to collect the parts. And it should be a challenge if for no reason than--how did she find those parts? Aren't they invisible?
ReplyDeleteThe story had been redrawn for the "Super A" educational comic, which Mr. Kitty profiled: http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics422.html
ReplyDeleteI know we've discussed this before but in 56 Peter's artwork looks positively ancient. It's nice that they decided to keep him for the look and surly it was selling. It just looks like it belongs in the 40s.
ReplyDeleteWonder Woman's solution to the gangsters on the ferris wheel (really, you're turning an OPEN ferris wheel into a "fort"? Did you think this out?) is comically complicated.
rnigma, thanks for the link. As you can tell by Brian Barnes' note on the ferris wheel, it was actually the weakest part of the story, more illogical to me than the plane being in three pieces and Wonder Woman putting them together (without engaging the reader by showing her actually working at it). Yes, BillyWD, those crooks are darn near as stupid as that part of the story.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I thought H.G. Peter's forties artwork looked ancient...he was born in 1880, after all, and had been a professional artist his whole career. At age 60 he had to adapt his style to comic books.
Ryan, if not completely invisible, the plane is at least transparent, although it doesn't seem to have an engine. Like a lot of superhero stuff, it belongs more to the realm of magic.