The first time Wonder Woman participated in the Olympics in space, the fate of the entire world was at stake and she, of course, rose to the challenge. In Wonder Woman #91 from July 1957, written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by H.G. Peter, things are much more laid back as Wonder Woman competes in:
If you’re thinking “Going to the space Olympics well again only three years later seems like some terribly uncreative writing”, then welcome to the world of Robert Kanigher. No one could recycle plots like Kanigher. And yet they let him write the book for TWENTY years. It’s mind-boggling, really.
Anyway, the story began with Wonder Woman in the Paradise Island observatory, tracking a missile that’s flying through space. It landed in the ocean so she went after it, and it turned out the missile was actually carrying this message:
It’s a little passive aggressive, sure, but it’s definitely much less ominous than getting kidnapped and competing with the threat of death should you lose!!
So Wonder Woman travelled to Mercury to compete in the first event, and found out she’d be up against the Mercurian version of herself in a race. The Mercurian Wonder Woman was used to the extreme temperature shifts on the different sides of Mercury, but Wonder Woman nearly froze to death on the far side. Luckily she was able to extract some oil from flowers growing near the track and glided alongside her doppelganger. On the side of Mercury closest to the sun, the ground was too hot for Wonder Woman to run on, so she turned her lasso into a hoop:
In the next contest, the Venusian Wonder Woman was a mermaid, and poor Wonder Woman was in a real predicament having to swim against her. Knowing she was hopelessly outclassed, Wonder Woman used her lasso as a drill, releasing intense heat from an underground volcanic bed that turned the water to steam so she could run alongside her Venusian counterpart:
The final event took place on Jupiter, and again that strong gravity vexed Wonder Woman. Her Jovian double lifted a heavy weight with ease, but Wonder Woman couldn’t even lift herself off the ground!! But you can’t keep Wonder Woman down, literally:
And so Wonder Woman became the champion of the Interplanetary Olympics, bringing glory to the Amazons and to Earth. Earth doesn’t really have an anthem or a flag, though. That would make for a dull ceremony. Still, a win is a win, and Wonder Woman moved up to a sparking 2-0 at intergalactic sporting events.
NEXT TIME: Wonder Woman goes back in time with some friends to the first Olympic games!!
Tags: H.G. Peter, Olympics, Robert Kanigher, Wonder Woman
August 4, 2012 at 9:45 pm |
There was also an Olympics story in Sensation Comics #83 (1948).
August 5, 2012 at 3:19 am |
You’re right, Scott!! I don’t know how I missed that one. Look for it in Part Five, probably on Monday or Tuesday.