Golden Age Wonder Woman

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite Golden Age WW stories ever, Wonder Woman vs. the International Milk Company. It's one of those unusually cracked out ones. Originally published in Sensation #7 in 1942.



"Mr. Gyppo". If any of you ever go to live in the Wonder Woman universe, pay attention to people's names, willya? If their last name is something like "Untrustworthy" they're probably not upstanding citizens.


Isn't every office equipped with one of these?




Bad stuff is going on. Ergo, Baroness Paula von Gunther must have resurrected! What other explanation could there be?




I really love how she's planning ahead here. Though in fact, all it took to achieve that result was to invent soda pop.

The villains capture the Holliday girls at some point, as usual, and:


May I point out now that humans who are past infancy do not, in fact, need milk? And that nature provides milk for human infants in a manner that no corporation yet has managed to put a corner on? Why did we decide that humans are the only animals on earth who should never be weaned? I'm not complaining, you understand; I'm quite fond of dairy products myself. But scientists believe that the ability to digest milk after infancy (lactose tolerance) showed up in humans only about 7000 years ago, and is still not universal among the human race. It's most prevalent among those of northern European descent, though found in all ethnic groups. So while we might be inconvenienced by a milk shortage, it would hardly be the disaster Marston depicts here.

Comments

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

I Think Martson was just looking for an excuse to cover Wonder Woman in a white liquid.

[kaetepixie.insanejournal.com]

Well, keep in mind that this was written in a significantly different time. Especially for less-wealthy children living in the city, milk would be a very important source of fat, vitamins, and calcium that they might not easily get anywhere else. Rickets was a serious and crippling disease in industrialized areas, and milk was one of the few weapons a mother had against it.

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

OK, that's true.

[arilou_skiff.insanejournal.com]

Actually it reminded me of the final scene from The Grapes of Wrath.... Milk is serious business.

[eyelid.insanejournal.com]

Why should a Baroness be involved? What's more american than a soulless, child-screwing monopoly?

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

Like the latest Spielberg/Lucas films?

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

At first I thought that guy had a vat of milk under his office and I thought he'd have to change it a lot to keep from a really bad odor as it went bad.

This reminds me of an awesome Barbara Stanwyck movie where she's desperately trying to save a child (one who's been starved) by giving her a milk bath.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Uh?? Does she think she'll absorb it through her pores?

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

I think that was the idea!

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

I guess that's not the worst idea I've ever heard of - at least you DO absorb stuff through your pores, although I've never heard of anyone EATING that way. Whatever the case, that bathtub is gonna stink to high heaven unless it's washed out toot sweet.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

"Dump your load. All of it."

That's not milk!

[fredneil.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

I love that Wonder Woman's first reaction to the girl not getting any milk isn't "This must be a criminal plot. I'll stop it," but rather, "Wait here. I'll buy your daughter some milk."

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

You can tell she hasn't been superheroing long.

[tavella.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, and she's careful to say she'll keep on doing so while she figures out the price conspiracy. She's not ignoring the personal for the political, or vice versa.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Now I have an intense craving for chocolate milk..:P

[currer.insanejournal.com]

Om nom nom!

Oh, sorry, was just having a bowl of cereal and milk. With a glass of milk. While I watch a show about dairy farms.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

For some reason, adding the word 'milk' to the typical evil villain scheme makes this an endless source of I-really-wish-they-were-quotable lines. "I never changed my clothes under MILK before!" "The milk thugs hear a strange caterwauling!" "I will arrange a milk parade." I mean, wouldn't it be great if you could slip those lines into casual conversation?