Throughout April 2025, dozens of podcasters and bloggers are sharing their own unique tributes to the original superhero team – the Justice Society of America! Here at DC SpecialCast, Sean Ross and Paul Kien are contributing to the festivities by talking about DC Special Series #9 – the Wonder Woman Spectacular! This 64-page epic stars the Golden Age Earth 2 Diana as she battles Ares, the Red Panzer, and Baroness Paula von Gunther, and introduces the Bombardier!
Follow the action on social media with the hashtag #JSApril and visit the website for a complete list of participating podcasters, bloggers, and what they’re each covering: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/JSApril
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Another good show as always. Just a couple of minor notes this time. I believe it was eventually revealed in Wonder Woman that the only reason she was working with the Nazis was because they were holding her dauther hostage. But I guess that still doesn’t excuse the slave girls.
It is my understanding that there were legal reasons for DC to continue publishing Wonder Woman. Apparently Marston, and later the Marston estate, held the rights to the character and DC would lose the license if they didn’t publish a certain number of issues per year. That may have been the major reason she was continously published throuhout the 50s. Although if she wasn’t as popular as she was, they might have risked it.
DC has apparently aquired full rights some time within the last decade.
Did I hear Paul say that there was a comicbook where Saturngirl married Lightninggirl? Sounds like that could be interesting.
I have this cover burned in my brain from ads growing up but have never seen it or read it. So I am soooo thrilled you are covering it! And what a story!
As you mention, between slave girls, chained women, ‘come over here sailor’, and teeny-weeny loin cloths, this might have been one of those comics kept with the Conan comics at the bottom of the pile away from Mom’s prying eyes.
Such an odd mix of artists but as you say each artist adds their sensibility to the scene. As a Ditko fan, the pages you share are bonkers. Love them.
Can’t thank you enough for the review, positive enough for me to think about seeking it out in a more refined way!
Quick question: have you decided if the Dc special plaza is gonna be like the Wayne gardens the main hang out for the show . We can turn it in to plaza with no name when you do your secret six show . I just put up the TV’s and got your office set up done in Richie rich and Batman comic covers Jeremy had lot of fun picking out the covers . For second office we did it in style of the fame tv show and all tvs play different abc line ups . And we built a secret tunnel to fantastic lounge via the Batman arcade game .
Also another groovy episode.
Spent the weekend catching up with the show and I am loving each episode. I really appreciated the breakdown of Wonder Woman publication Pre-Crisis. Most of Pre-Crisis DC is a blind spot for me as I was born 5 years after “Worlds Lived…Worlds died” and just haven’t gotten around to reading most of the books. I am going to have to seek this Wonder Woman special out if only for that crazed Ditko art. Mars’ expression alone is worth it. Definitely going to check out Peace Bound and Down soon after this episode. I mean it’s been on my playlist, but Sean here has made me move it to the top of the playlist.
Keep up the great work
Thanks, Jordan! I hope you like what you hear on Peace Bound and Down.
Just started the first episode yesterday and I am loving the discussion so far with Dr. Anna Pepard. I am now considering doing a read through of Perez’s Wonder Woman run and I am eager to check out the episodes.
Just started the first episode yesterday and I am loving the discussion so far with Dr. Anna Pepard. I am now considering doing a read through of Perez’s Wonder Woman run after I finish my Crisis Run
As I mentioned over at the Peace Down and Bound page, I never really bought the Wonder Woman comic until George Perez began his run. I was a regular watcher of the TV series and yes, this absolutely could have been an episode.
Always fun to hear Sean on another show. And Paul, I am listening to each episode of DC Special Cast. These books are mostly new to me so I am learning a lot even I don’t comment very much.
Great episode fellas! Like other folks here, I remember seeing the ad for this one, but I never saw it in person. Seemed like a common occurence with some of this DC Specials. I was gobsmacked by the Heath art! How did this get past the comics code? I’m not complaining, but YOWZA! Of course around this time, over in World’s Finest, Black Canary was naked, talking to a werewolf. So DC must have had a very lax liasion at the code!
DC switching to stories set on Earth-Two to match the TV series seemed like a pretty out-there thing for them to do, but they had shifted focus to the Golden Age again in the mid-60s for a time, shortly before the whole “mod” Diana Prince era. I don’t think the TV show was ever as good as it was during that first season. I still enjoyed it, but it felt like another Bionic Man spinoff in a lot of ways without the period setting. This comic does really capture that first TV season feel. Who could have played the Bombadier if this was produced as an episode? Maybe it’s because he’ll be seen later in the 70s in the WWII-set Black Sheep Squadron, but I’m going with Jim West (of the Wild, Wild West) himself, Robert Conrad. That guy oozed machismo. Just watch him in those Battle of the Network Stars specials (with Lynda Carter)!
Thanks for covering this! If I see it in the wild I’m going to pick it up!
‘Black Sheep Squadron’? Is that on A Baa C?
Great show guys!
I have never read this comic, I only remember the cover from various DC house ads. I remember how pissed WW looked in it–but hey, I look like that when I see Nazis, too.
The Bombadier is wonderfully goofy and definitely deserves a Xum’s Who page (guiltlessly sending a telepathic signal to Isamu). That metal mask the bad guy wears looks so uncomfortable it makes me wince.
If not for the Vince Colletta inks, there’s NO WAY that Paradise Island sequence gets past the CCA.
Great show, fellas! I’ve never read this issue before because it wasn’t drawn by Gene Colan (the only good Wonder Woman artist). Your discussion, however, made it sound fun and exciting.
Great show, Paul and Sean. Paul, does Shawn know you’re podcasting with another Sean?
This is a wild special I had never read before. Great JLGL cover and the Paradise Island scenes play like a Russ Meyer movie. That’s not a complaint. Wonder Woman often got the short straw on artists, but this special has some good work. Russ Heath brings the hotties and Steve Ditko brings the crazy.
Great showing by Baroness Von Gunther. You just know if a comic character has a Von in their name, they’re bad news. Plus, smoking an extended cigarette? That’s villain 101. On top of that, using one of her 1,000 slave girls as her ashtray holder is quite a flex. I would totally be rooting for her if she wasn’t a nazi.
The Bombadier has quite the getup. Always a solid choice when going into battle to wear a long flowing scarf wrapped tightly around your neck. I give him credit for trying to do something, though. Today’s congressman would just bombadier your phone with donation solicits.
Always entertaining, Paul!
I had the first issue of the E-1/E2 crossover that led into this era that paralleled the WW2 era of the Linda Carter series, but I only ever dipped in and out of this series, but did read all of the companion stories that were running concurrently in World’s Finest. (Of course, where Vigilante was her warm-up act!). For reasons that I do not recall, I never bought this issue, though i knew about it in house ads. Distribution was sketchy as the implosion neared, so maybe I never saw it in the racks. I’m disappointed that The Bomardier never got re-used somewhere in the Thomasverse, though he did swipe Baron Blitzkrieg. I totally agree that this era of stories from the regular mag, WF, this Dollar Comic and the Treasury story team-up with Superman should be collected in trade, as a corner of that Earth-2 universe that was emerging in the late 1970s.
I was reading Wondy at this time – I think a lot of the chaps here would like to meet Osira from 231-232 – but never managed to find this until a few years back, and it’s a fun read, made special by the unusual collection of artists.
The Bombardier was rather swish, like a long-lost member of the Village People.
The thing that really bugged me about the WWII WW run was that she was drawn as modern Diana in terms of costume – they could at least have tucked the hair inside the tiara! As was said on the show, the short run would make for a great trade – the opening and closing stories are perfect bookends.
Sure, but tira-hair is such a pain to deal with. It’s why Luke Cage started shaving his head.
Wild story and a great episode, Paul and Sean! I look forward to more DC Specialcasts covering the World Wars!
While I’ve never read the issue itself, Paul and Sean together were excellent! Engaging discussion and now I want to read about these villains collaborating, yet scheming against each other. Surprisingly, much like the members of The Fire and Water Podcast Network!