For thirty years, Princess Diana had played the dual identity game. Wonder Woman was the super-heroine and object of Colonel Steve Trevor's affection, while Lieutenant Diana Prince allowed her access to sensitive government information, a mild alter ego, and close proximity to the man she loved. However, when Wonder Woman was forced to give damning testimony against a framed Trevor, Steve was found guilty, and the affection in his heart was gone. Diana decried her double life, snapping her show glasses in half, and swearing to save Steve as a whole woman.
For the next several years, Diana Prince would dress like a fashionable lady of the time and operate outside the aegis of "Wonder Woman." Those famous glasses and any pretense of a secret identity were cast off until the series setting returned to the World War II era. While the mousy military secretary would return in the present toward the end of the '70s, the revival would only last a few years before being discarded again for twenty-plus years. This was the dawn of a revolutionary new era...
Check out more highlights from the past 75 years of DC Comics at The Truly Most Memorable Moments of the DC Dodranscentennial
2 comments:
Oooo! Drama! I like this kind of stuff.
Wonder Woman should totally go back to having a secret identity. This seemed like an interesting time for her. Government secrets! Deception! Fake glasses! I mean, what's not to like?
It's one of those cyclical things. By 1968, the Clark Kent in a skirt shtick was played out, especially in the Kanigher years when Diana Prince's wimpy whining had seeped into Wonder Woman. However, half a decade of kickass Diana Prince-- Wonder Woman stories had fully redeemed the alter ego. Unfortunately, the book then went into flashback mode and generally reshaped itself into the TV series. Going into the '80s, nobody knew where to go with Trevor & Prince, so Perez threw the babies out with the bathwater and turned Wonder Woman chaste. The previous reboot seemed to pick up where Sekowsky left off, but the Nemesis flirtation never clicked, and the spy angle was played too archly. Today, it would be nice to get back to where things started from, with Diana a vehicle for the affections Wonder Woman has vows against expressing. Flip the old dynamic and make Prince the person Diana wants to be, and Wonder Woman the mission she can't let go of.
Post a Comment