Hi Everybody!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Following up on my last post, I wanted to zero-in on the three most important superheroes ever created; BATMAN, SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN; and the early panels which defined their adventures.
Swiping a panel from Hal Foster's run on TARZAN, artist/creator Bob Kane had Batman strike a strange pose and writer/co-creator Bill Finger intone, "And thus is born this weird figure of the dark... this avenger of evil...THE BATMAN!"
When Batman gives a strong left hook to a corrupt CEO who was firing at him, leading the CEO to fall into a tank of acid, Batman crisply observes that this was, "A fitting end for his kind."
Batman was conceived as a bloody pulp character with lethal methods, but; particularly after the introduction of Robin The Boy Wonder the 2nd year; became more derring-do than deadly dangerous. That's what becomes an icon!
Written by creator Joe Siegel and drawn by co-creator Joe Shuster, mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent is dismissed by co-worker Lois Lane as a simp, "You asked me earlier in the evening why I avoid you, I'll tell you why now: because you're a spineless, unbearable COWARD!"
Rescuing her as Superman from thugs, he leans into Lois like a lion looking at raw meat, but he tells the startled Lois, "You needn't be afraid of me. I won't harm you."
Having later rescued Lois from a firing squad, she catches Superman's shoulder, asking absurdly and hopefully, "But when will I see you again?" Superman is coy, "Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow -- perhaps never!"
Thus began the longest running false romantic triangle in popular fiction, culminating in Lois marrying Clark/Superman in 1995.
Calibrating the shyness of Clark Kent and the chivalry of Superman took decades to perfect, while the harshness of Lois took almost 50 years to evolve into professionalism and warmth.
Wonder Woman first appears costumed in a silent panel by the usually verbose William Moulton Marston in her debut story, drawn by H. G. Peter.
The closing panel in her first issue has Wonder Woman musing about her purchased civilian I.D., her gender politics and her romance with Steve Trevor, "So I'm my own rival, eh? That's funny... if mother could only see me now... as a very feminine woman... a nurse, no less, in a world full of men, and in love, too - with MYSELF as a rival!"
A fine example of the double game Marston was playing with this comic was Diana Prince switching into her Wonder Woman outfit, saying, "Lucky this outfit was in my bag. I can do better with fewer clothes!"
What 13 year old boy in the heart of the Depression is going to argue with that sentiment?
The wobbly psychology and woozy romanticism is already present in these early Wonder Woman comics. However, the gap between Amazon and American cultures did not preoccupy Marston as it should have, and the title has struggled with this core contradiction ever since.
Clearly, Marston never intended for Wonder Woman to actually marry, but Steve Trevor did not succeed as a romantic placeholder as Lois did for Superman because Amazons; as defined by Marston; had no tradition of marriage. Superman was born of a mother and a father on Krypton, Wonder Woman was made out of sacred clay on Paradise Island.
In popular culture, Wonder Woman continues as an ocean of ambiguities without answers. Our Wonder Woman Project will change all that, believe it!
We must put on our ethno-historian turckers cap to justify Wonder Woman's mission in this modern age. Otherwise, she'll be parading around like Diana Ross in THE WIZ; too old to believe, too dumb to accept, but with a dazzling smile.
That's all for now! Be good!
Brad
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