Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Twelve

It’s the final day of our holiday countdown!!  Happy Christmas Eve!!

Perhaps not surprisingly, our final cover is from Comic Cavalcade #9, and is drawn by Everett E. Hibbard.  The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern look to be helping out Santa Claus again, and are delivering presents to a young boy:

What is nicest about this cover is that the heroes are helping out a family who are clearly not at all well-off.  The plaster has fallen off the wall in spots, the blind is torn, and the pillow and blanket are both patched.  Plus, they obviously can’t afford any kind of security system, as evidenced by the heroes breaking in with ease.  Anyway, on what is a ridiculously materialistic holiday where we too often spend lots of time, money, and effort on people who really don’t need anything, it’s good to get a swift kick in the ass about poverty.  I heartily endorse this cover!!  Not in a “break into people’s houses and give them presents” way (that’s rather illegal)… in a “help the less fortunate in general” way.  I don’t want to go to prison as your breaking and entering e-accomplice.

As a fun Christmas Eve treat, here is a festive Wonder Woman story from the 1975 album “Exciting Christmas Stories”.  The story is entitled “The Prisoner of Christmas Island”… enjoy:

And, just because you’ve all been good this year, let’s finish with a little “Oh Christmas Troy”.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Eleven

It’s very nearly Christmas!!  Welcome to the eleventh day of the countdown!!

We have another fun Super Friends cover for today with Super Friends #22, drawn by J. Bone.  Green Lantern has built a sleigh with his power ring, and the Super Friends are joyously flying through the air:

I think Batman is throwing presents at criminals they are flying over top of.  Everyone else is staring forward, looking at the camera as it were, but Batman is sort of leaning over the side and it looks as if he had just snapped his head forward to smile for a picture.  It feels like in the next second after this cover, Batman will be staring down at the ground menacingly, dropping presents precisely to clang off the heads of criminals.  He’s always vigilant.  And Wonder Woman might be in on it too… she seems to be passing him presents for his aerial assaults.

Tune in tomorrow for our last day of Wonder Woman covers, and TWO fun festive surprises!!

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Ten

Why doesn’t the tenth day of Christmas get sung awesomely like “five golden rings”?  That’s the best part of the song… if the fifth day gets it, I think the tenth day should too, twice as enthusiastically even.  Anyway, day ten!!

We go to Comic Cavalcade yet again, this time with Comic Cavalcade #25, drawn by Bob Oksner.  Santa has fallen ill, so Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the Flash have stepped up to help finish off the toys:

Santa Claus strikes me as far more plausible when he and the elves are building sleds, dolls, and boats… if I was a kid these days, I would wonder about elves putting together an Xbox 360.  Apart from the obvious copyright problems (we all know Microsoft are monopoly fans), it takes some serious engineering skills to build today’s fancy electronics.  But I suppose if anyone could do it, it would be Santa and the elves.

Also, were it not almost Christmas, you’d have gotten an irate post about Wonder Woman painting a doll and gender stereotypes and whatnot, but I’ll let it go for today.

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Nine

We have reached the ninth day of our Christmas cover countdown!!

Today’s cover is Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2, an updated version of the 1970s specials that was released in 1989, drawn by Stephen DeStefano and inked by Larry Mahlstedt.  All sorts of superheroes are helping out in Santa’s workshop, including (clockwise from the top) Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Nightwing, Plastic Man, the Atom, the Flash, Hawkman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman:

This issue looks like it has some cool stories in it.  There’s Batman story written by Dave Gibbons, a Deadman story drawn by Dick Giordano (featuring the ghost of Supergirl), and a Wonder Woman story written and illustrated by Eric Shanower (of Age of Bronze and Oz fame… have you read his Marvel Oz books?  If you haven’t, go buy them now… he does a killer job writing them, and Skottie Young’s art is maybe the best thing ever).  I’d actually like to track this issue down… that’s some good stuff.

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Eight

Welcome to the eighth day of holiday cover fun!!

Our cover for today is not Christmasy per se, but it’s wintery… that’s close enough.  It’s from Comic Cavalcade #20, drawn by Martin Naydel, and shows Green Lantern, the Flash, and Wonder Woman teaming up to build a snowman:

He’s got a corncob pipe and everything!  Now here’s what’s interesting: The song, “Frosty the Snowman”, was first released in 1950.  This cover includes two eyes made out of coal, an old silk hat, and the corncob pipe… the only thing missing is a button nose.  However, this issue came out in 1947, three years before “Frosty the Snowman” was released!!  DC Comics might have a lawsuit here… Martin Naydel could be due a chunk of the “Frosty the Snowman” empire.

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Seven

It is our seventh day of festive covers, but do we rest?  Of course not!!

Today, our holiday theme takes a turn towards the dark side (it seems there are only eleven cheery Wonder Woman Christmas covers… sorry) with Justice League of America #110, drawn by Nick Cardy.  Santa Claus has been murdered (and startling so) but fear not, for the Justice League is on the case:

If you look closely at the cover, you can see that it states “Here come TV’s Super-Friends!”, a reference to the popular Saturday morning cartoon.  I’m not sure who thought that a cover featuring the murder of Santa Claus was a good way to capitalize on the success of a children’s television show, but the juxtaposition of the two is pretty amusing.

Twelve Days of Wonder Woman: Day Six

The Christmas covers keep on coming for the sixth day!!

We again draw from the marvelous Comic Cavalcade well with Comic Cavalcade #13, illustrated by Everett E. Hibbard.  The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are wishing seasons greetings to one of their winged friends.  Or, if the heroes are on the outside (it looks like there is snow falling behind them), then they are creepily looking into someone’s home:

The big question, of course, is why hasn’t the bird flown south for the winter?  What sort of bird hangs around at Christmastime in a cold climate?  Maybe the cover is set in the south… say, Miami.  And there was a surprise snowstorm and the bird’s all “What the hell is this?” and the heroes are calming down the poor guy.

Or Hibbard just felt like drawing a bird.  Either or.