TV in the 1970s has the most amazing ability to be beloved in retrospect even though it was largely unwatchable then and absolutely excruciating now. Despite the obvious craptasticness of the the acting, plots, special effects and dialogue, people wax poetic about things that actually made me cringe as a child. One of those things that people love is the Wonder Woman TV show with Lynda Carter. I remember tuning each week and making cringey-face as Diana Prince pretended to be less cool than she was so as to never indicate that she was strong, powerful or much better at the job than the Steve Trevor. In the middle of a feminist wave, I found it to be just short of enraging.
But, there was a female superhero on TV. So I watched the show. Lynda Carter deserves praise. She did her best when the writing mostly threw her under the bus.
Imagine my surprise when people discussed this show as if it was, actually feminist..and good! Really? Diana spent the end of every episode lying so as to never hurt Steve’s feelings or make him feel less than the hero. This was, and is, as far as I’m concerned, pretty much the antithesis of feminism. Maybe if women spoke up about what – and how much – they actually do, and stopped trying to coddle men, there’d be more equality. Maybe. Probably not. ^_^;
In any case, I was flabbergasted that people saw Wonder Woman as a feminist icon and not just a big ball of cheesteastic 70s TV. I watched The Secrets of Isis and Shazaam, too. The fear of the terrible has never been a problem for me. ^_^ Nor am I prone to delusion about the things I enjoy. Remember the three rules of fandom here on Okazu:
Just because you like something, doesn’t mean it’s good.
Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s bad.
And just because something is bad doesn’t mean you can’t like it. ^_^
So when it was announced that a special comic anthology was being created to highlight the show, I was like, yeah, okay, bring it on. Well, Wonder Woman ’77 Special #1 was kinda fun. Yes, it’is super cheesy, with Steve’s low cut dancing outfit and the dialogue, which really does sound like a reflection of the TV show, I kind of enjoyed it, despite myself. Completely unlike Andy Mangels who writes a companion essay, a man besotted with wonder, as he might say, I liked it for it’s tacky and oh-so-70s self, and not any delusions about a bigger picture.
If you haven’t actually watched the show, but want to see it through the eyes of people who loved it, then definitely get this comic. Diana Prince is a “modern” American woman, she can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. She can save the day and never make Steve Trevor question his masculinity. She is a relic from a decade that I am so very glad is now ancient history. I look forward to one day ever getting a…something, anything…that Wonder Woman deserves. (The upcoming pissing contest between Batman and Superman is not going to be it.) But in the meantime, there was a time, a long time ago, when Wonder Woman had her own TV show and it was a lot of fun, but never good. Relive those days in Wonder Woman ’77, if you dare. ^_^
Ratings –
Overall – 8
You know who they are, those femme fatales who drink the tears of their victims and lie and steal and do drugs and cause mayhem…they are the Mean Girls Club. They wear ridiculously slinky dresses, beat up old men and nurses and shoot truckers to steal their truck. We all know their names…Blackie and Pinkie and Wendy and Wanda, Sweets and McQuaalude. They are the Mean Girls Club.
