Now for something a little different...




I picked up this trade, which features the 'All New' Wonder Woman from 1968... issues 178-183.

Plot:  Steve Trevor is charged with murder, and Wonder Woman's own testimony helped put him there.  The Amazon are ready to leave Earth for a time to charge their mystic batteries, so for Diana Prince to stay behind, she must give up her Amazon powers.

She does so, and, as Diana Prince, hunts for the woman that can clear Steve Trevor.  She does so, while somehow being jealous of herself, when Steve says he should ask Diana on a date sometime.

Right after getting off for the murder charge, Steve is sent undercover, and is near-fatally wounded trying to uncover the secrets of Dr. Cyber.

With the help of her new far eastern training guru I-Ching, Diana takes up the investigation.. turns out Dr. Cyber is a woman who is trying to conquer the world.  After a couple inconclusive battles, and a couple male temporary partners that betray her, Diana is ready to kill, when an Amazon soldier appears, and begs her for help.

She drops the Dr. Cyber investigation and goes (with I-Ching, strangely), to the dimension the Amazons are in, where Ares is attempting to steal the secret of Dimension hopping.   Diana joins the near-hopeless fight, until she can get help in the form of the heroes of legend. They are big jerks at first, and only the Valkeries, lead by Brunhilde, come to help.  

That's enough to hold off Ares' hordes until the heroes arrive, and the good guys win.
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Well, these were pretty fun, but there were some real head scratchers.   It's bad enough when Donna Troy has self image issues, but freakin' Wonder Woman?   Yeah, that's not the inspiration for young women Marston imagined, I'm thinking.   There's ALOT of 60s sexism that creeps in here, from the language, to the emphasis on fashion, to the fact that the bad guys are all female.  It's part of the times, I guess, but still sad.

The plotting had some pretty big holes... like why Steve Trevor gets put in jail for murder on a small dash of circumstantial evidence?   Or that as soon as he's cleared he goes off on a mission where he has to pretend to be a traitor?  Seems crazy.   

Apparently, the Amazons don't mind men on their island in other dimensions.  Then there's the fact that if Ares was attacking them, and they can hope from one to the other, but he can't... couldn't they have just moved again?   Never mind Diana (as a human) held her own with the monsters and Amazons, without any trouble.  

Fun read, though.. the 60s-ness was a bit easier to take (and a bit less extreme) than it was in Teen Titans.. and the outfits were pretty fun (even if they shouldn't have been a focus).

Story: B
Signifigance: B (new direction for Wonder Wonder that lasted about 3 years)

Yeah, the outfits were pretty crazy for Wonder Woman... She had a ton of outfit changes

Ding Dong Daddy is the Hippie Bike dude? I liked him!

Yeah, the outfits were pretty crazy for Wonder Woman... She had a ton of outfit changes