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Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman #3
Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Vol. 3
In this third collection of Wonder Woman stories from the Silver Age of Comics, the Amazon Princess faces the Multiple Menace, an underwater atomic invasion, the Angle Man, the Phantom Sea-Beast, the Brain Pirate and many other, with the help of Wonder Girl!
496 pages, Paperback
First published December 8, 2009
3 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Robert Kanigher
584 books8 followersSee also as Bob Kanigher
One of the most prolific writers in comics, particularly in the Silver Age. He took over scripting duties on Wonder Woman after William Moulton Marston's death, and handled the character's transition from the Golden to the Silver Age. He also created Barry Allen, the second Flash, for editor Julius Schwartz's superhero revival of 1956, as well as writing and editing DC's pioneering war titles.
His creations include Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, Barry Allen, Ragman, the Losers, Black Canary, the Metal Men, Poison Ivy, Enemy Ace, the Suicide Squad, and Rex the Wonder Dog.
One of the most prolific writers in comics, particularly in the Silver Age. He took over scripting duties on Wonder Woman after William Moulton Marston's death, and handled the character's transition from the Golden to the Silver Age. He also created Barry Allen, the second Flash, for editor Julius Schwartz's superhero revival of 1956, as well as writing and editing DC's pioneering war titles.
His creations include Sgt. Rock, the Unknown Soldier, Barry Allen, Ragman, the Losers, Black Canary, the Metal Men, Poison Ivy, Enemy Ace, the Suicide Squad, and Rex the Wonder Dog.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 13, 2022
2.5 Stars
I have to give Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru credit because they had quite a lengthy run on Wonder Woman. However, I think at the time Robert Kaniger was writing a ton of monthly comics at the time and the quality of the stories started to suffer. He had a formula and he followed it, probably out of necessity.
For one thing, these stories starred Wonder Girl and...ugh...Wonder Tot as much as they did Wonder Woman. Not a fan of Wonder Tot. In the early appearances, Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl were Wonder Woman as a child and teenager, but at some point they just started referring to each other as sisters, which made no sense.
Also, I have to correct a statement I made in a prior Wonder Woman review. I said that this book was Lois Lane's revenge for having to be rescued by Superman so much since Wonder Woman is always rescuing the men. Well, I don't think even Lois Lane had to be rescued as much as these poor saps. It's like every issue either Steve Trevor, Merboy, Birdboy, Merman or Birdman have to be rescued. Usually all of them! And I still think its weird two of Wonder Woman's suitors are half fish and half bird. I just don't see that working.
Also, the world Wonder Woman inhabits (notable because there are no appearances by other DC heroes in any of the volumes I've read) is just PACKED with monsters. You literally cant toss a stick without hitting one!
So this review is a lot of complaining, but it still was a fun read and surely a sign of the times. Just don't go into this with high expectations.
....Wonder Tot. Shakes my head.
I have to give Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru credit because they had quite a lengthy run on Wonder Woman. However, I think at the time Robert Kaniger was writing a ton of monthly comics at the time and the quality of the stories started to suffer. He had a formula and he followed it, probably out of necessity.
For one thing, these stories starred Wonder Girl and...ugh...Wonder Tot as much as they did Wonder Woman. Not a fan of Wonder Tot. In the early appearances, Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl were Wonder Woman as a child and teenager, but at some point they just started referring to each other as sisters, which made no sense.
Also, I have to correct a statement I made in a prior Wonder Woman review. I said that this book was Lois Lane's revenge for having to be rescued by Superman so much since Wonder Woman is always rescuing the men. Well, I don't think even Lois Lane had to be rescued as much as these poor saps. It's like every issue either Steve Trevor, Merboy, Birdboy, Merman or Birdman have to be rescued. Usually all of them! And I still think its weird two of Wonder Woman's suitors are half fish and half bird. I just don't see that working.
Also, the world Wonder Woman inhabits (notable because there are no appearances by other DC heroes in any of the volumes I've read) is just PACKED with monsters. You literally cant toss a stick without hitting one!
So this review is a lot of complaining, but it still was a fun read and surely a sign of the times. Just don't go into this with high expectations.
....Wonder Tot. Shakes my head.
June 24, 2015
Suffering Sappho! How can WonderTot be so annoying? She can whirl a giant genie over her head, but she can't compose complete sentences?
February 16, 2023
Good ole comic book to read.
July 14, 2016
Much like the first two volumes of Wonder Woman's silver age adventures (borderline carbon copy of those actually), these early to mid 60's adventures of the female JLA'er exhibit stunning artwork from Ross Andru but also plodding and repetitive non-suspense stories with no continuing plot lines and atrocious dialogue by Robert Kanigher.
Most of the stories are instantly forgettable, in part because they're always the same. There's some giant formless monster, Wonder Woman has some inexplicable and sort of detached use of her powers to take it down, the end. And there's different monsters, some made of fire, some of ice, some being giants or goblins or whatever. Redundant, bland.
And an insistent need for on the noise dialogue, no subtext, yet somehow talking more than modern comics. A very monotonous read.
The only plus of all these problems is that the lame monster stories drag attention away from the misogynistic clinginess Wonder Woman/Wonder Girl have to deal with their "boyfriends": Steve Trevor, Merman/Merboy, and Birdman/Birdboy. But there are some cringy moments of Wonder Woman flying over water and Merman grabbing her and refusing to let go, with some vague idea that she owes these men affection in the middle of saving the world. It's creepy and basically inhuman behavior that is best read quickly and ignored to get through this book.
The thing they advertise on the back of the book, "The Academy Of Arch-Villains". Clunky name aside, it was mildly interesting because it's an alleged supergroup of villains, conspiring to capture WW. But in reality, it was a lot of dialogue and set-up, and only two villains are showcased. "The Angle", who is called that because he always has an angle and a scheme, but rarely a memorable one.
And the better villain, "Mouse Man", who is a mouse sized villain (obvious, in hindsight), was more interesting. His ability to escape from prison due to his size and stuff. But like all these issues, Wonder Woman has a deus ex machina method to escape actual conflict with villains that ruins the opportunity, and Mouse Man was gone and forgotten.
Not exactly "buy this book" material overall.
"Wonder Woman #138" typifies the random monster/resolution nature of the book. The entire Wonder Woman family: Wonder Woman, the solid but basically ignored in character development concerned mother Hippolyta and teenage Wonder Girl, and the goofy talks in "baby talk/caveman talk" baby Wonder Tot who basically is like she was in Vol. 2 with less funny dialogue. This gang gets to adventure together against a giant monster who is a mass of cold air/ice who changes shape. The monster moves and sort of tries to smash things. That's basically its character traits, and probably lamer than it sounds.
"Wonder Woman #150", while maybe not the most ceremonious round number issue, probably deserved more than the "PHANTOM FISHER BIRD". It's exactly what it sounds like for some reason. It's a big ugly bird (kind of like a vulture in the look of the head), and it likes to fish people with a giant hook (duh), and it's transparent and can disappear at will. Definitely worse than #138, solely because that bird was so ugly.
"Wonder Woman #157" is the best issue of the book by far, which is more of a testament to how little needed to be done to win that title. Wonder Woman visits a comic book store and gets zapped inside an actual comic book into an old adventure against a pirate that steals people's brains (AKA The Brain Pirate). What's cool about it is that Ross Andru matched the sunday comics look of the old William Moulton Marston comics of the '40s,
and there's a certain whimsical energy to it, a novelty to WW's jumping around in the era, not to mention a little (but only a little) self-referentiality because of her being trapped in a comic.
But yeah, the actual writing sort of ignored mostly the opportunity to use the meta-template of the story, it sort of just meanders around with Wonder Woman's ability to avoid real conflict with her powers like in every other issue.
And while it fits the era, a rather unfortunate cameo by the "Holiday Girls", a group of coeds who follow WW around. Namely, there are a bunch of awkward body shaming jokes because the fat Holiday Girl, subtly named Etta Candy, apparently eats too much candy. I mean, let her eat what she wants, why do you give a crap?
So in summary, the art is good, there's some diverting stories in here, but fans who are not completists are probably advised to skip ahead a decade, this feels like primitive stone age in the writing.
2/5
Most of the stories are instantly forgettable, in part because they're always the same. There's some giant formless monster, Wonder Woman has some inexplicable and sort of detached use of her powers to take it down, the end. And there's different monsters, some made of fire, some of ice, some being giants or goblins or whatever. Redundant, bland.
And an insistent need for on the noise dialogue, no subtext, yet somehow talking more than modern comics. A very monotonous read.
The only plus of all these problems is that the lame monster stories drag attention away from the misogynistic clinginess Wonder Woman/Wonder Girl have to deal with their "boyfriends": Steve Trevor, Merman/Merboy, and Birdman/Birdboy. But there are some cringy moments of Wonder Woman flying over water and Merman grabbing her and refusing to let go, with some vague idea that she owes these men affection in the middle of saving the world. It's creepy and basically inhuman behavior that is best read quickly and ignored to get through this book.
The thing they advertise on the back of the book, "The Academy Of Arch-Villains". Clunky name aside, it was mildly interesting because it's an alleged supergroup of villains, conspiring to capture WW. But in reality, it was a lot of dialogue and set-up, and only two villains are showcased. "The Angle", who is called that because he always has an angle and a scheme, but rarely a memorable one.
And the better villain, "Mouse Man", who is a mouse sized villain (obvious, in hindsight), was more interesting. His ability to escape from prison due to his size and stuff. But like all these issues, Wonder Woman has a deus ex machina method to escape actual conflict with villains that ruins the opportunity, and Mouse Man was gone and forgotten.
Not exactly "buy this book" material overall.
"Wonder Woman #138" typifies the random monster/resolution nature of the book. The entire Wonder Woman family: Wonder Woman, the solid but basically ignored in character development concerned mother Hippolyta and teenage Wonder Girl, and the goofy talks in "baby talk/caveman talk" baby Wonder Tot who basically is like she was in Vol. 2 with less funny dialogue. This gang gets to adventure together against a giant monster who is a mass of cold air/ice who changes shape. The monster moves and sort of tries to smash things. That's basically its character traits, and probably lamer than it sounds.
"Wonder Woman #150", while maybe not the most ceremonious round number issue, probably deserved more than the "PHANTOM FISHER BIRD". It's exactly what it sounds like for some reason. It's a big ugly bird (kind of like a vulture in the look of the head), and it likes to fish people with a giant hook (duh), and it's transparent and can disappear at will. Definitely worse than #138, solely because that bird was so ugly.
"Wonder Woman #157" is the best issue of the book by far, which is more of a testament to how little needed to be done to win that title. Wonder Woman visits a comic book store and gets zapped inside an actual comic book into an old adventure against a pirate that steals people's brains (AKA The Brain Pirate). What's cool about it is that Ross Andru matched the sunday comics look of the old William Moulton Marston comics of the '40s,
and there's a certain whimsical energy to it, a novelty to WW's jumping around in the era, not to mention a little (but only a little) self-referentiality because of her being trapped in a comic.
But yeah, the actual writing sort of ignored mostly the opportunity to use the meta-template of the story, it sort of just meanders around with Wonder Woman's ability to avoid real conflict with her powers like in every other issue.
And while it fits the era, a rather unfortunate cameo by the "Holiday Girls", a group of coeds who follow WW around. Namely, there are a bunch of awkward body shaming jokes because the fat Holiday Girl, subtly named Etta Candy, apparently eats too much candy. I mean, let her eat what she wants, why do you give a crap?
So in summary, the art is good, there's some diverting stories in here, but fans who are not completists are probably advised to skip ahead a decade, this feels like primitive stone age in the writing.
2/5
May 17, 2015
Showcase Wonder Woman vol3, was not what I expected when my wife picked it up at our LCS. It was far from the Wonder Woman I grew up reading, but still held true to the ridiculous stories of early silver age comics. It's this sense of light hearted, ridiculous storytelling that draws me to these classic reprints. Compared to the stories of modern comics, so engrossed in dark complicated story arcs, it is great fun to revisit the bizarre stories of a by gone era. Free from most of the unsubtle sexism of the time, Wonder Woman comics have always been a great joy to read. However, vol 3 of the showcase collections combines my least favorite era of Wonder Woman. Like Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman too got mired in the often stupid stories of her "family". There is a reason most of this stuff was later written out of canon. The Wonder Woman Family stories are often repetitive and always silly. Not the best collection of stories out there. But fun enough for what it is.
June 13, 2015
The Wonder Family stories ("imaginary" tales in which WW joins forces with her teenage and toddler self, plus Hippolyta as Wonder Queen) take up more than half this volume, which gives it a different feel from 1 and 2 – less Steve Trevor, less secret identity games, but the same amount of weird monsters and alien invaders. Probably 3.5 for me, probably much lower if you don't like Kanigher's oddball style of superheroics.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews