Roberta the Girl Wonder!

[lordultimus]

Comments

[lego_joker]

Dangit, I was fixin' to post this! Someday! Eventually! Probably!

Anyways, pour one out for the first Girl Wonder, surely the most heinous tribute on the altar of Dick Grayson Can Do No Wrong. One day he will be brought to justice.

[cygnia]

BRB...rewriting King's storyline where Roberta shoots Dick instead of the Beast.

[featheredserpent]

Mary should return as the Evil Mastermind(tm) behind Dick's memory loss so that his butt is hers at long last.

[janegray]

Dickdickery

[mastermahan]

Beat me to it.

[michaelsaint]

I actually like her costume as a somewhat reverse of Robin's costume. And yes, what a jerk you were Richard Grayson.

[mazway_75]

Wow, Dick, she really went all out, compact belt and everything and you treat her like that? Bruce would be proud of your dickery levels.

[tripodeca113]

What a Ric.

"Super-markets are big--all have different layouts."
Was this actually true in 1950?

[cricharddavies]

Yes, there were very few chains of grocery stores at that time, and even they didn't have standardized layouts. I think that mostly came in around the 80s.

[tripodeca113]

Oh thanks.

[beyondthefringe]

My god, there's just so much wrong with this story... where to begin.

Now, of course we're coming at it from a modern perspective, but still. Robin's level of dickery is impressive even for the era. Here he has a smart, capable, driven, talented young woman eager to assist him (admittedly just so she can get in his short-shorts...) and he exposes her secret identity to the world "for her own good." Oh, but luckily, it's before she knows too many of his secrets, so he's fine to keep fighting crime. Never mind that now everyone knows who "Roberta" is and can target her as a way of getting to Batman and Robin, or can seek revenge on her involvement in fighting crime.

Never mind that Robin, as the sidekick of the world's greatest fucking detective, is naturally going to be capable of solving a secret identity without any trouble if he wants--his justification for exposing her "because any old criminal could figure it out like I did" is pure bullshit since he's naturally got more training and resources. Although let's face it, you'd think he'd have connected Mary and Roberta pretty soon, just by virtue of having both in his life. That shock of red hair isn't exactly subtle.

So yeah. It's always weird to look at old stories like these and see the weird dichotomy between "girl power" and "girls are scary and icky" (not quite misogny but...) Roberta -clearly- could have been a hell of a crimefighter in her own regard, but her motivation (romantic interest in Robin) and of course the "all my gear has to be girl stuff" and the way it ends all undermine her strength to reassure the male readers of the time that no women will infect their comics for long. (See also: the original Batwoman and Bat-girl, Miss Arrowette, and all of the other female hero knock-offs of the era...)

Now I want to see a new version of Roberta who gets the credit she's due.

And I also want Arrowette to come back. I miss her.

[lego_joker]

Funny you should mention Kathy - I was going to talk about her in my original post but forgot...

I've always had something of a soft-spot for Silver Age Kathy, partly because she was at least a step up from shit like this. Yes, Bruce does shut her down in her debut story, but at least he does it by reasoning with her in private rather than straight-up murdering her career like this; and after she makes a few repeat performances (impressing even Superman!), he pretty much does let her fight crime as she likes. I think the only (in-universe) reason she didn't become a cast regular is because her duties as a circus manager took her all over the country.

And you know, I'd like to see a modern-day Roberta too, but hasn't Steph (at least, original-flavor Steph) already filled that niche?

[beyondthefringe]

Steph's motivation was to foil her supervillain father's plans. I wouldn't say she really filled the same role. Honestly, I think Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) really exemplified the "self-taught female member of the Batclan" spot, even if it wasn't to get Robin's attention.

[lego_joker]

IIRC Dixon almost immediately dropped the "foil my dad" motive after Steph's intro arc; the big reason she stayed a vigilante was definitely to mack on Tim.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, this was not Dick's finest hour... or day... or week.

[lego_joker]

At least it's not Nightwing Annual #2...

[raspberryrain]

Which one was that?

[mastermahan]

Great, I wanted to enjoy the subtext of Robin not being interested in girls, and now I can't because he was a sexist jackass.

[zylly]

There’s a real disturbing theme in a LOT of DC comics from the Golden and Silver Age where the male heroes try to discourage a woman from taking up crime fighting. Johnny Quick and Joanie Swift, Green Arrow and Miss Arrowette, Aquaman and Aquagirl (Lisa Morrel), Batman and Robin and the original Batwoman and Bat-Girl, Flash and Ms Flash (an imaginary tale)...

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Was DC writing romance comics during this era? Because I don't think I would've continued to read any more of DC's comics after this.