Thursday, September 18, 2025

Amazon #1 (April, 1996)

There's a reductive tendency, and I'm guilty of this myself, to treat Amalgam Comics as simple combos. Thor + Orion = Thorion. And yes, there was some of that. Of the Amalgam Comics that I read, I figure Iron Lantern was the best at going through a list of shared concepts between DC and Marvel to create 50/50 splits all the way down the line. Pepper Ferris, Happy Kalmaku, Mandarinestro. Tick, tick, tick. However, there were quite a few people shaping this thing, with varied and sometimes conflicting approaches. For instance, and to the surprise of no one, John Byrne went his own way.

I was chagrined at the announcement of Byrne taking over Wonder Woman, and at this point was eight months into enduring a three year tour. Of all the books Byrne bailed on early, he just had to prove a point by staying on mine. He even managed to get an issue out in addition to Amazon, just one week apart. So lucky for me! While I liked Storm when I was an X-Men reader, I had unamiably separated from that fandom years earlier, and was rather unhappy with the mutant weather witch having beaten Princess Diana by popular vote in DC versus Marvel. I confess that my own store's tally was not a part of the count, because I didn't get around to mailing them in. Regardless of my efforts to lay a heavy thumb on the scale for the Amazing Amazon, Storm was still the in-store victor, and in fact I think all of my shop's voting aligned with the published winners. But anyway, I'm dealing with an X-Men creator lousing up a favorite book and character, the sour spot about the Storm victory, and now a book where Ororo usurps Diana in the role of Wonder Woman? Oh, joy. I was clearly not positively disposed toward this project, bought it for the run, read once, and filed away for nearly thirty years.

Reading it again from a much different place, it's easier to see it for what it is, which is a inter-company What If..? starring Storm. Yes, Ororo is in a Wonder Woman costume, that role being the central conceit of the tale, and there are even light overtures toward a more Amazonian take on Ororo Munroe. There's art and circumstances that associate her with Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, and Ororo's Amazon origin story lifts a key element from Donna Troy's post-Crisis "Who is Wonder Girl?" Still, regardless, this is a whole Ororo, not a combination with any other heroine, just playing out a different life trajectory. Instead of developing claustrophobia in childhood from being buried in a tunnel collapse that orphaned her, a toddler Ororo with fewer identifiers fears drowning after her parents are lost in a shipwreck. Instead of surviving through theft on the streets of Cairo, Ororo is rescued from the depths by Her Majesty Hippolyta, who raises Ororo as an adoptive daughter along with her child by divine creation, Diana. Always a rebel, and freed from our continuity's obligations to the matriarchy by an adoptive sibling eager to prove herself to their mother, Diana goes her own way while Ororo takes on the role of Wonder Woman.

An aside: While racial diversity wasn't a thing on Paradise Island before the 1970s, they have appropriately and legitimately been a "color-blind" society since the 1980s. In the Post-Crisis reboot, there were just always Amazons derived from the souls of women from across world culture. When Nubia was introduced, she was a secret second infant sculpted from clay by the Queen at the instruction of Greek Goddesses that was spirited away by their enemy Mars after being given life. When Nubia was rebooted, she was just a normal Amazon from an obscure and isolated tribe. After George Pérez created the African General Philippus as Hippolyta's military leader and most trusted council, there was a broadly accepted subtext (since made text?) within Wonder Woman fandom that they were also domestic partners. I had to pick this up from letter columns and such, because while there were moments of intimacy between Hippolyta and Philippus, I have never once detected any maternal relationship with Diana. The original conception of Nubia predated Philippus by fourteen years, with only had a handful of appearances, and the heavily revised Nubia came nearly thirteen years after Philippus' introduction. It makes sense that there would be no further connection between Philippus and Nubia beyond their African ancestry, but Amazon proposes that Ororo was raised in Hippolyta's household, but with no indication that Philippus played a role more substantial than the general "it takes a village" Themysciran vibe. I just find it extremely odd that in continuities where there are little to no children on Themyscira besides Diana, that Hippolyta would be the exclusive mother on that island to seemingly any other children that do turn up, with even her life partner uninvolved.

I haven't talked much about the story so far, but I feel a license to keep taking these tangents (but not Tangent™) because there isn't much to it. The narrative is non-linear, driven by constant flashbacks to different but relative points in Ororo's history, plus a subplot moment to play into a non-existent ongoing shared universe element. If you set aside those conceits, it's a very simple tale. A Black male professor named Malcolm (eyeroll) located an ancient statuette while scuba diving in ruins uncovered by an earthquake. The statue was part of the treasury of Poseidon, who cursed Malcolm for "stealing" his property. Plagued by misfortune, Malcolm finally decided that he had to return the statuette to the seas where he found it. That also brought him back into the domain of Poseidon, who could directly punish Malcolm by sinking his ship. Ororo as Wonder Woman is similarly accused by Poseidon and briefly held captive, but points out that the Greek Gods' pettiness and possessiveness had caused them to kill anyone that could have kept them relevant in modern times, this winnowing away the power they once held through believers. It's the exact same resolution as Diana's first encounter with Ares in the initial arc of the Wonder Woman volume that Byrne had been working on.

The flashbacks help explore Ororo's altered history and contentious relationship with Diana, and the abortive "subplots" feature (underdeveloped, forgotten) characters that Byrne was using in his actual Wonder Woman run. I wasn't particularly moved one way or the other by either of my readings of this comic. It wasn't interested enough in Wonder Woman lore to explore the effects Amalgam could have had on it, instead rehashing simple origin elements. "Family History" was a disposable "imaginary story" where a Marvel character goes through the broad motions of a DC character's narrative. I noted that Byrne was still trying to add Image Comics touches to his art, particularly from Todd McFarlane's style, and that inker Terry Austin helped him in trying to reach that hyper-rendered state, while still falling far short of their more famous pairing (as well as Austin's work over Arthur Adams.) As I work to divest myself of comics that I don't need to possess unto my demise, this was an easy pitch into the discard pile.
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 02:57 0 comments
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Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Wonder Woman in The Amalgam Age of Comics: The DC Comics Collection (1996)

Short history lesson. The modern comic book industry peaked in 1992, the bubble burst in the spring of '93, and a precipitous decline followed year after year throughout the rest of the decade. Desperate to stop the bleeding, the Big Two North American super-hero comics publishers set aside their differences to unite against this threat to their market. This massive cooperative also happened during a brief period when both companies were being run by fans/creators who could set their egos and rivalries aside to make true a lifelong dream, spearheaded by former co-workers Mike Carlin at DC and Mark Gruenwald at Marvel (probably the latter's last great accomplishment in the field before his untimely death at just 43 years old.)

DC Versus Marvel #1 launched a four issue mini-series in December of 1995, in which two cosmic "brothers" representing the individual publishers' universes become aware of each other, and engage in a proxy war between the super-humans of their respective continuums in an existential conflict. As I recall, there were a total of 10 decisive matches, 5 determined in-house, and 5 voted on by readers. Marvel predictably won, but rather than let the DC Universe "die," three entities within the story worked to merge the two universes into an amalgamated one to "save" both. For one week across twelve one-shot titles, as well as a tie-in card set (two if you count 1995's Fleer DC vs. Marvel Comics,) this (more) fabricated single universe of Amalgam Comics was documented. The seeds were also planted for a means to divide the universes again, and to reach a stalemate between the cosmic "brothers" to allow for continued publication of the lines. There were two additional total universe crossover mini-series, a second slate of one-off Amalgam Comics, and a bunch of isolated inter-company crossovers. Then corporatism and aggressively competitive choads took over the individual companies around the turn of the century, and we waited another couple of decades to get Marvel and DC talking about this sort of thing again.

In another sign that this was as much about unleashing the inner child of the participants as it was corporate synergy, Wonder Woman managed to score two titles in the initial Amalgam Comics wave. In the imaginary history of Amalgam Comics, the property had "54 years of continuous publication", which would mean 1942 at the time. That aligns with the real world release of Sensation Comics, which appears to be Astounding Comics in the Amalgam Comics continuity. Things get quite muddy from there though, as the heroines of the two titles seem too Modern Age inclined to support over a half-century of continuity. I'd guess that the event reflects a new continuity that spun out of a more recent rebooting event, such as Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour.

What we do know is that Ororo was introduced in 1975's Giant-Size Tales of the Amazons #1, having been rescued from drowning by Queen Hippolyte as an orphaned toddler. From there, the related ongoing series offered bifurcated 12-page stories of Princess Diana of Themyscira and her now-adopted sister Ororo. Diana saw Ororo as an interloper and a non-Amazon outsider whom she fought with throughout childhood (at least from Ororo's perspective, in her first-ever spin-off solo series.) Eventually, a contest was organized to determine which of the Amazons would serve as an ambassador to Man's World. However, Diana refused to follow her mother's rules, and left her island home to explore "Man's World." This took her first to Wakanda, whose ruler Bronze Tiger gifted her Adamantium bracelets from his country's exclusive supply of the unbreakable metal. Also armed with a mystical bow, the Princess ended up in New York City, where she became Diana Prince, Freelance. That seemed to frequently be shortened to just "Prince." She eventually made the acquaintance of the Spider-Boy antagonist sometimes called The Punisher. Marine Captain Trevor "Castle" Castiglione was on leave when his wife and children were murdered by gangsters right in front of him. Going AWOL, Castle sought murderous revenge against the mob, at least until he met Prince during a mutual encounter with the Pelt Man. "Doomed by an ancient ritual to change into the form of a blood-thirsty cheetah, Billy Minerva now takes out his bestial anger on beautiful people- clawing their faces to scar them as horribly as he's been scarred!" Prince and Castle became an item, married, conceived a son (Ryan,) separated, and reunited after their child disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Ororo won the initial contest, and claimed the title of Wonder Woman. She seemed to prefer working solo, refusing overtures from male-led super-teams, presumably a bias from her Amazonian upbringing. I could go a lot deeper into her origin story, especially because wires got crossed and we ended up with numerous cards drawn by Stuart Immonen devoted to her connection to Poseidon (including an especially ridiculous solo card.) However, that's also the focus of Amazon #1, so we'll save those details for later. Following the cancellation of Tales of the Amazons, "Amalgam Comics finally gave the fans what they wanted- the Amazon brawl of the century, where it was plain to see that Ororo's mutant weather-manipulation and Diana Prince's god-given abilities made them perfectly matched combatants." This coming from the text of the 1996 SkyBox Amalgam Classics Power Blast limited edition foil-etched trading card #6 of 9. The image purported to be the cover of Amazons: The Contest #1, dated "June, 1995," and is the Steven Butler image presented in the scan from the Amalgam Age of Comics TPB. Unusually, this was an homage to a cover produced by Mike Deodato Jr. exclusively for the trade paperback collection Wonder Woman: The Contest, rather than a regular comic. Anyway, that card text indicated some sort of draw, but the fake letters to Amazon #1 stated that Ororo was the definitive winner, as was the case in DC Versus Marvel.

The four issues of Amazons: The Contest also featured the teaming of longtime villains Professor Psycho, Panthera, Circe, and Giganta. Wikipedia supposes that they combined Doctor Psycho/Professor Power, Pantha/Feral, Circe/Sersi, and Giganta/Gargantua, while sourcing the obscure and dated internet reference site The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. I strongly question the validity of this citation and its presumptions. For instance, the Pelt Man is pretty clearly Cheetah + Jigsaw, as referenced on Amalgam card #50 (art by Yancy Labat.) Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was apparently key to the resolution of the mini-series.

As mentioned, some of this information was conveyed through mock letters columns that ran through most of the one-shots, including Amazon #1. I couldn't find my copy of Bullets and Bracelets #1 in my shelved comics under the letter "B" or in the Wonder Woman section, in my uncollecting short boxes on top of the shelves, or in the Wonder Woman boxes at the bottom of my closet that were covered in stacks of still-packaged toys that I had to displace throughout the room. The things I do for you people, or more accurately, my obsessive tendencies. There wasn't a letter column for Bullets and Bracelets scanned online, and I don't own The Amalgam Age of Comics: The Marvel Comics Collection, so hopefully that was one of the ones that got skipped during initial publication. Also, I don't have any other ancillary material that might have been in that trade paperback, which is why I'm relying on the trading cards. What is nice though is seeing the card art mostly unmolested in the tpb reproduction, like Butler's details unobscured by a gimmick, or joining two-card images into a smooth whole.
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 02:49 0 comments
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Monday, September 8, 2025

1996 SkyBox Amalgam card #9: “Wonder Woman”

I'm not interested enough in DC & Marvel's mashed-up heroes to spread scans across all my blogs, but I didn't want to pass up the X-Man Ororo Monroe taking on the role of Wonder Woman on a trading card drawn by Stuart Immonen & Terry Austin, even if Storm beating Princess Diana was a voter travesty in the related event mini-series. Also, the card references Marco Xavier, who I'm also spotlighting in card form today.
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 01:13 0 comments
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Monday, April 21, 2025

Wonder Woman's #JSApril All Star Comics Revue

Episode #23


Look for us on iTunes, Spotify or the Internet Archive, where you can also directly download an art-tagged MP3.


Just as you wondered if this podcast was dead, Frank returns to cover every Wonder Woman appearance in a Golden Age Justice Society of America story, slightly enabled by 1977's All Star Comics Revue and 1987's The All Star Illustrated Index.

We don't have a Magic Sphere, so if you want to communicate with us about the podcast...

JSApril – Celebrating 85 years of the world’s first and greatest superhero team!

Back in 1940, eight sensational heroes united to create the world’s very first superhero team – the Justice Society of America! Now, 85 years later, we’re gathering podcasters and bloggers from around the globe for a month-long celebration in an event we’re calling… JSApril!

Throughout April 2025, join dozens of podcasters and bloggers as they each share their own unique tributes to the original and greatest superhero team! Every participant in JSApril is doing their own thing, so whether you choose to enjoy just one entry or experience them all, there’s something special for everyone! Get ready for an all-star month of beloved characters, fascinating insights, and incredible stories!

Follow the action on social media with the hashtag #JSApril

Below is a complete list of participating podcasters, bloggers, and what they’re each covering:


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Sunday, January 26, 2025

2018 Houston Comicpalooza JLA JAM Wonder Woman segment by Paul Pope

Cards on the table, this was easily my most transactional commission experience, and contributed to my decline in posting such material across my blogs. I'd started commissioning jams of Martian Manhunter-related characters in 2014, not realizing how many years and dollars would be sucked up by those various pieces. But from the beginning, I made a point of saving back the "Magnificent Seven" Justice League of America characters for one big piece all their own. It took four years for me to finally get that one started, and the "DC Trinity" would all be done at the same show.

Wonder Woman was the last of the three, and I always loved Paul Pope's cool indie style, so I really wanted to have the Amazing Amazon done by him. But again, there were two other people who had to finish their parts first, and I never actually saw Pope at his table. He was part of a square of tables for a set of artists all working under a manager handling the actual business. I worked with several artists in this stable, and usually hammered out the art details with them, and the money details with the manager. There was a noticeable mark-up as a result, but I was aware that artists had been undervaluing their work for years, and needed the help on the money side of things. I honestly don't mind most of the time, because I want to get my pieces at the show, and managers have helped a lot in making sure that happens.

In this case though, the quote was pretty steep for just sketching in a portion of a jam, I want to say $300-350, but I couldn't find my records seven years after the fact. Today, for an artist of Pope's caliber, that would be about right, but not in the 2018 market. Anyway, I gave the manager the notes and reference for what I wanted, and he took it back to Pope's hotel room as part of his overnight work. I think I got it back on Sunday, and if you told me Pope had farmed it out to another artist, I'd believe it. I can barely see any of vibe in the piece, and it looks like it was drawn with the ink wedge from inside the Sharpie rather than the actual marker. This was one of my most expensive commissions at the time (not hardly anymore, but at the time,) and I frankly could have just drawn a better "Paul Pope style" Wonder Woman myself.

I usually don't get into sour grapes on art commissions, but the audacity to charge so much for something of such low quality put me off Pope ever since. He got all the money he'll ever get out of me, and I'm just thankful that later efforts salvaged the piece. That, and I'm glad I didn't have to look at this thing in his presence, and probably fake some sort of satisfaction. I probably wouldn't have felt free to savage it now if I'd been a coward then, but it's easy when I might as well have gotten this out of a vending machine. I just put money in and got this back, no social interaction required, or social contract enforced. I figure if I'm still mad about it after all this time, I've earned the anger I'm expressing.

By the way, if you're wondering why I don't get more Wonder Woman commissions, it's because something like this has happened every time. Don't get me started on the never-finished Silver Swan one that put me off ever dealing with another artist...

2018 Houston Comicpalooza JLA JAM Segments
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 22:29 0 comments
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