Wonder Woman--Not Good Enough For the Justice League

Well, once again Mark has beaten me to the punch, as I was getting ready to a post on Wonder Woman's "series of trials" today after I got home from work. Really. Sadly, I was too lazy to actually get to it sooner, so I have egg on my face again. Sigh...

For you youngsters out there, for a few years in the late 60's/early 70's Diana lost her Wonder Woman powers, and became more of a spy/adventuress. When DC finally came to it's senses, she regained her super powers. But she didn't immediately rejoin the Justice League. Nope, instead, in order to "prove herself worthy" of rejoining, she underwent a series of "trials" or labors."

Mark already covered some of this, but there's a few items I'd like to discuss.

A) I haven't read all of these issues, particularly #212, where-in the "trial" began:

Now, DC covers of that era were notoriously..ahem...non-accurate. So until I can find a copy of this issue, I'm asking myself, did Wonder Women really insist on these trials herself? Why? Anyone who has read it, please enlighten me.

B) Regardless of the answer above, I'm a bit bamfoozled: this is WONDER WOMAN!! She really needs to undergo twelve labors to prove herself worthy?? Honestly?? Even if it is her own idea, I mean, you're WONDER WOMAN, Diana--one of the founders (at this point in continuity, at least) of the JLA. Does anybody think that Superman would need to undergo such rigorous tests to rejoin, if he had lost and then regained his powers??

C) And regardless of the above two answers, we have the Elongated Man standing judgement over Wonder Woman? REALLY??!!??

Actually, if you read the issues, it never seems in doubt...every member who monitors her is deeply and whole-heartedly in support of her membership. Still the idea of Red Tornado or Phantom Stranger deciding if Wonder Woman belongs in the Justice League is a bit Bizarro-Meltzer, isn't it? Hmmm....

D) I also should point out that Wonder Woman was bi-monthly during this period, so almost two years real-world time were spent on this idea. TWO YEARS!!! Good Lord, Wonder Woman's "trial" almost lasted longer than the Detroit League!!! Wonder Woman was actually appearing in Justice League issues while these trials were still going on in her own magazine!! (Talk about killing whatever "suspense" there may have been!!)

E) From a real-world, marketing standpoint, I don't know if I "get" this. Was the purpose of this to use "popular" heroes to bolster WW's popularity and sales? If so, these are some odd choices, as many of these JLAers couldn't even carry their own books (or back-up features!) at the time. Really, is Aquaman or Ralph Dibny on the cover going to move many copies? "Hey, Bill, look--I wasn't going to buy this Wonder Woman, but Red Tornado is on the cover!!! Loan me 20¢, quick!!"

And since, for the most part, the guest Leaguers merely narrated, as opposed to interacting with Wonder Woman or fighting bad guys, is that much of a draw? "Hey, let's watch Superman narrate????"

Or perhaps the idea was to attract more male readers to a book starring a female hero. But Black Canary was the "host" of one of the issues...

Whatever the reasoning, having Wonder Woman go two entire years without starring solo on the cover of her own comic book doesn't seem like the best way to build and brand her as an independent seller. It just seems kind of patronizing and desperate, by today's standards.

Then again, in a sense this isn't all that different than the 52,756 gratuitous cover appearances by Wolverine and Punisher over the past 25+ years from Marvel. And if having Batman on the cover begging buyers to read Blue Beetle can save that mag, well, I guess I would be all for it.

E) One final note. This idea of having other heroes on the cover to "introduce" the stories really created a lot of cluttered, awful covers, with no sense of flow or design. Yuck. But even though it is uncluttered, #212 (as seen above) is pretty dang awful. What, the JLA can't afford furniture, or wall-hangings?