A Book Look Addendum: Repetitive Robin Hoods

Earlier this week I did a post about Robert Kanigher’s affinity for giant birds in his Wonder Woman stories, and that got me thinking about the repetitive nature of his stories.  For instance, he wrote a story in Wonder Woman #59 entitled “The Million Dollar Penny”, and then used the exact same title for another story in Wonder Woman #98.  Kanigher also recycled his stories from the 1950s when he took over the series in the 1970s, tweaking them only slightly, which may explain his short second tenure on the book.

A pretty stark example of Kanigher’s penchant for re-using ideas comes from Wonder Woman’s encounters with Robin Hood.  In Wonder Woman #82, Wonder Woman is transported back to Sherwood Forest where she teams up with the fabled hero:

Then, only twelve issues later in Wonder Woman #94, she again goes back to team up with Robin Hood:

Now, two issues with Robin Hood doesn’t necessarily mean Kanigher was repeating himself, but a closer look at the stories shows some pretty blatant similarities.  In the first issue, Wonder Woman rescues Robin Hood, who is locked in a castle:

Then, in the second issue, she rescues him again:

In the first issue, Wonder Woman and Robin Hood fall into the castle’s moat, where they have a daring underwater battle with cannibal fish:

In the second issue, this underwater moat battle is instead with sharks: 

Essentially, you got the same story twice.  In both issues, Wonder Woman then goes on to quickly help Robin Hood defeat a villain and returns back to her time.  If I was a kid in the 1950s, I would have been pretty miffed about wasting a dime on a rehash of a story I’d already bought a year before.  Though I suppose it’s better than being a kid in the early 1970s, when series regularly reprinted recent past issues in special double issues… Wonder Woman did this a few time in the mod era, reprinting stories that had come out just months before.  But at least they were up front about it.  It looks like Kanigher was trying to sneak one by everyone with this Robin Hood retread.  Luckily, I’m on top of things and am calling him out on it… sixty years later, after he’s died.  Good work team!!  That’ll show him.