Golden Age Wonder Woman

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

Today's offering is from "The Blue Spirit Mystery", Sensation Comics #30, 1944. It's a surprisingly complex (though nonetheless cracked out) story about a racket in the form of a cult that swindles people out of their money.

Really, a lot of Golden Age comics had plots much more complex than most Silver and Bronze Age ones, and dealt with comparatively mature subjects - not mature in the sense of sex and violence, but how many 7-year-olds would one expect to be interested in cult religion scams? I think they gave kids more credit then. Though of course, the stories were still whacked out.

I love Etta's priorities.

So, about ten minutes before his wedding, the groom, Dick Soleful, calls on the phone to announce that he can't get married, because he has just joined the Blue Spirit Masters and is about to ascend. Wonder Woman interrupts his ascension and takes him back to his bride, with some good advice for her.


Steve helps to investigate the cult leader, Unreal, who he was buddies with back in the day.


Unreal tricks him into getting into his, um, ascension gadget that puts people into the Fourth Dimension, and we see a new side of Steve.



In Gorean terms, that is a coffle of Wonder Womans.
Why are most people blue and transparent when they go to the Fourth Dimension, but Wonder Woman and the Holliday girls are in full color?
Notice the un-PC slogan at the bottom. These were in some of the original 40's comics and were included in the Archive Editions reprints. I thought I'd keep them in the scan out of historical interest.


Sometimes the excuses for bondage in this comic amaze even me. And I grew up reading this stuff.


It proves... what? Did I miss something, or am I just punch-drunk after that story?

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Comments

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Wow, I love that panel of Steve saying, "Great Blazes! I've often THOUGHT of myself like this!" in his um... loinclothy thing.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Really - Steve, you have ego problems if you see yourself as Tarzan. (It's kinda nice how all the Holliday Girls think of themselves as Wonder Woman, though.)

[interrobamf.insanejournal.com]

Why are most people blue and transparent when they go to the Fourth Dimension, but Wonder Woman and the Holliday girls are in full color?

Men imagine themselves as blue or transparent while women see themselves in color?

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

I think the blue, transparent people are the native inhabitants of the Fourth Dimension - you just go briefly see-through while you're in transit, then you look normal again. (Which doesn't explain the non-see-through guy in the blue robes, of course - but maybe he's an overseer or something, a higher class of being.)

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

It seems the more like yourself you are, the more in color you appear. Notice Steve changing back to color when he becomes his real self. The Holiday Girls are pretty centered. Height changes, but nothing else.

[wonderwomanhero.insanejournal.com]

I've always wondered....was Steve bound (and possibly gagged) a lot back in the day?

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

Occasionally, though not nearly as much as WW.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I have this image of two of the Holliday girls going out with their dates while Etta watches from the window, starts to cry and throws the box of candy across the room angrily.. then goes to pick it up and starts eating.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Totally not Etta, though. Etta's where the party _is_.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

That's the side we see, yes.

(Of course, being a comic book character, she really doesn't have any sides other than what's on the page. It's just how her personality comes across to me. Desperately unhappy but putting on a front.)

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Ah, but you're wrong. Etta is entirely _in_ the moment. If it feels good, do it! Candy feels good! Eat it! Fighting feels good! Punch the skunk! Capers are awesome! Get some! She is the gloriously happy glutton. For life and food. Remember her writer's kink.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

We're just looking at the character differently. She seems to me to be the inevitable "class clown," always looking for attention, anything for a laugh. Food as compensation. Her cruelty toward captives and her love of hazing show a mean streak, suggesting she's unhappy beneath the jolly exterior.

If anything, she reminds me strongly of Chop-Chop from the old BLACKAWK comics. Dwarfishly short and obese, the comic relief who comes through in a fight. One big difference is that Etta is not the punchline to a joke at the end of each issue, but then she doesn't have the racial element in her stereotype.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Just remembered what I was thinking of. You're applying 60s and 70s tropisms to a 1940s character. Etta is pure, unrestrained _ID_.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

I don't think so. Human nature doesn't change that much. Infatuation, idolizing, jealousy, playfulness.. these have been with us since we began. But certainly you can interpret Etta any way you like.