SIX YEARS OF "WUSSY WOMAN?"

 I've just finished a deep dive into the generally shallow waters of the Kanigher WONDER WOMAN, primarily to get a sense of what he did from 1959 to 1965. This is not the entirety of the author's work in the Silver Age era from 1955 to 1970 but rather encompasses all stories in the comic from issue #105 to 158. This is the period in which Kanigher introduced a "Wonder Woman Family" to parallel the "Superman Family" of the SUPERMAN books. One interesting facet of concentrating on this period is that I noticed one of the feats the Amazon only rarely performs. Yes, she tosses around heavy weights, drills through rock with her bare hands, and plays "bullets and bracelets." But she BARELY ever hits anyone with fists or feet. I don't know why Kanigher and/or his bosses were so reticent, given that his war books of the same period were generally pretty heavy on fisticuffs. But here's all I found in those sixty-something issues. 

    

The later issues of this period overtly banished the "Wonder Woman Family" from the magazine, but at the same time briefly began emulating the style of artist H.G. Peter during the Golden Age, and that meant that readers started seeing more fisticuffs from the Amazon Princess, particularly as seen in the last page above. For the remainder of Kanigher's run, he and his artists used a lot more physical violence for WW-- but it didn't help her sales, which led to the period of "Mod Wonder Woman."