Science's Less Accurate Grandmother: Wonder Woman: Earth-Two

22 January 2021

Wonder Woman: Earth-Two

There's one last 1970s Earth-Two comic set retroactively during World War II that I didn't discover until reading All-Star Squadron, following Steel and Superman vs. Wonder Woman. In November 1975, the tv movie The New Original Wonder Woman aired on ABC, adapting the Golden Age comic book by setting Wonder Woman's adventures in World War II; this lead to a tv show from April 1976 to February 1977, similarly set during World War II.* These days, comics readers often complain when comics contort to be more like their television or film counterparts, but it's nothing unique to this moment: the Wonder Woman comic switched to a World War II setting to tie in to the tv show.

I don't know how they might have handled it without the multiple Earths set-up, but DC already had a method of depicting WWII-set adventures of Wonder Woman. In Wonder Woman vol. 1 #228 (cover-dated Feb. 1977, but actually released Nov. 1976), the Earth-One Wonder Woman encounters a villain who has traveled across time and dimensions from Earth-Two in 1943. She fights him, and ends up pulled back to his home dimension and time, and teams up with her Earth-Two counterpart to defeat him. Wonder Woman returns to 1970s Earth-One at the end of the issue-- but from that point onwards, Wonder Woman vol. 1 continues to follow the 1940s adventures of the Earth-Two Wonder Woman, not following its star back home.

The Earth-Two Wonder Woman would star in Wonder Woman for the next year in a series of adventures by a variety of writers and artists, and often guest-starring various members of the Justice Society; many were written by the ubiquitous Gerry Conway. My understanding is that these stories often owed more to the tv show than to the Golden Age comics they were supposedly set between; I think in the original Golden Age comics, Diana Prince was a nurse, but in these stories, she's in Army Intelligence, for example. Roy Thomas would of course pick up some details of these comics for All-Star Squadron, pitting some of the original Axis villains devised by Conway against the Squadron.

During this time, the Earth-Two Wonder Woman also had a feature in World's Finest vol. 1 that ran from issue #244 (Apr./May 1977) to #249 (Feb./Mar. 1978), and she played a role in "The Reality War!", a celebratory story in issue #250 (Apr./May 1978) that featured a whole mess of DC characters; she also had an epic 64-page story in DC Special vol. 2 #9 (1978).

But as you can tell if you pay attention to the dates, DC's tie-in had been a bit belated, and thus it didn't last long. In issue #243 of Wonder Woman vol. 1 (May 1978), released over six months after the tv Wonder Woman had switched to a contemporary setting, the Earth-One Wonder Woman was again pulled through time by a villain to Earth-Two (this time to 1945). The two Wonder Women teamed up again, and before returning to the future, the Earth-One Wonder Woman erased the Earth-Two Wonder Woman's memory of her, thus neatly explaining why the Earth-Two Wonder Woman hadn't known of Earth-One in any of the set-later-but-published-earlier JLA/JSA team-ups! Then, from #244 onwards, Wonder Woman vol. 1 again focused on the adventures of the Earth-One Wonder Woman.

So, are they any good? I don't know. I had intended to read all of these stories and review them... but I couldn't! Most go for silly money on the secondary market, if they're available at all, and few have even been digitized, so you can't read them on comiXology or DC Universe Infinite. My write-up here is just based on what I've read about these comics, not actually reading them myself.

DC has done some good collections of older Wonder Woman comics the past few years, including collecting the "Diana Prince, Secret Agent" era (1968-73), and the "Twelve Labors" storyline (1974-76). It would be nice to see those continue into a reprint of this material; Wonder Woman #228-43, DC Special #9, and the Wonder Woman stories from World's Finest #244-50 would make a great, if a little chunky, collected edition. Maybe DC could toss in Superman vs. Wonder Woman and/or Wonder Woman vol. 1 #300 if they were feeling generous. The former I've already covered; the latter is a 1983 story where the Earth-One Wonder Woman visits her Earth-Two counterpart in the present, and establishes that Diana Prince married Steve Trevor and has a daughter, Lyta (later, of course, Fury of Infinity, Inc. fame). I would buy it! Below I'll list what chronologically such a collection would include, and what its credits would be. (Thanks to the Grand Comics database for the covers used in this essay and for credits information.)

Wonder Woman: Earth-Two

Writers: Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, Jack C. Harris, Alan Brennert, Denny O'Neil, Roy & Dann Thomas
Pencillers: Jose Delbo, Don Heck, Mike Vosburg, Bob Brown, Jim Sherman, Mike Nasser, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Russ Heath, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayres, Joe Staton, George Tuska, Ross Andru

Inkers: Vince Colletta, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Bob Wiacek, Bob Smith, Dan Adkins, Steve Ditko, Frank Chiaramonte

Colorists: Liz Berube, Jerry Serpe, Adrienne Roy, Carl Gafford, D. R. Martin
Letterers: Milt Snapinn, Joe Letterese, John Workman, Ben Oda, Bill Morse, Gaspar Saladino, Clem Robins, John Constanza

Wonder Woman vol. 1 #228-29
World's Finest vol. 1 #244
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #230-31
World's Finest vol. 1 #245
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #232-33
World's Finest vol. 1 #246
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #234-35
World's Finest vol. 1 #247
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #236-37
World's Finest vol. 1 #248
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #238-39
World's Finest vol. 1 #249
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #240
All-New Collectors' Edition #C-54
DC Special vol. 2 #9
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #241
World's Finest vol. 1 #250
Wonder Woman vol. 1 #242-43, 300

* The show continued after that, but switched to a contemporary setting for seasons 2 through 4.

This post is a supplement in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Secret Origins of the Golden Age. Previous installments are listed below:

All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)

The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)

All-Star Squadron (1981-87)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)

Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)

America vs. the Justice Society (1985)

Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)

Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]

Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)

All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)