Wonder Woman #205 - the deadliest domino.

It has occurred to me that, although I've reviewed Wonder Woman in the past, I've only done so for her Emma Peel phase and not her more typical, super-powered, eras.

Well, this is where that changes because right here's where I revisit one of the strangest comics I've ever read. It's a tale I've not encountered since the 1970s, so how will it stand up to modern day scrutiny?

Having regained her powers, last issue, Diana Prince has landed herself a job as some sort of tour guide at the United Nations where her ability to speak every language and dialect on Earth will serve her, and her employers, in good stead.

Sadly, despite her new job, she's not a happy woman. That's because heartthrob diplomat Morgan Tracy's too busy judging the Miss United Nations contest and admiring the charms of its contestants to notice a Plain Jane like Diana hanging around.

Happily, for her, that's when terrorists barge in and kidnap the object of her lustings, fleeing, with him, to a ship harboured outside American waters.

Not deterred by large bodies of water, our heroine swims out to the ship and starts to climb its anchor chain, only to be knocked out by a load of electricity.

It turns out the ship belongs to a villain called Dr Domino who wants Tracy to give him the Bacteria Cloudburst Formula the diplomat bought from its now-dead creator. When Tracy refuses to comply, Domino reacts as anyone would in such a circumstance and ties the unconscious Wonder Woman to a nuclear missile and fires it at New York.

Fortunately, the amazing amazon regains consciousness in time to divert the missile back towards Domino's ship, summons her own magic plane, grabs Tracy, and the pair fly away from the scene, as Domino and his henchmen are nuked into oblivion.

Hooray! The day is saved!

Sadly, it doesn't do Diana Prince any good. Tracy still thinks she's deficient in the looks department and still has eyes only for more attractive women, leaving Diana to sob helplessly to herself.

But that's not all the Amazon goodness we get this time out because we also receive a back-up strip which provides more of the mysterious Nubia than we got last issue.

After a brief meeting with Queen Hippolyta, Nubia returns to her home on The Floating Island, beats up some bloke who fancies his chances with her and then goes off to have a good old sob about not knowing who her parents are.

She fits all this in between handing out lectures about how war must be eliminated from the Earth, even though she and her tribe seem to worship Mars, the god of war.

I'd love to say this book's a masterpiece but it's one of the weirdest things I've ever read - and I've read Supergirl comics. Wonder Woman, who I'm sure is supposed to be a feminist and a battle-hardened warrior, spends all her time blubbing about men not finding her attractive. This doesn't make sense. She's Wonder Woman. She has the beauty of Aphrodite. Also, she's Wonder Woman. Why is she so desperate to please men?

On top of this, does the United Nations really hold its own beauty contests?

And what's going on with Morgan Tracy? He's clearly meant to be a good guy but has bought a menace called the Bacteria Cloudburst Formula off a scientist. It could be argued he did it to prevent the formula falling into the wrong hands except the comic doesn't argue it. It gives us no explanation at all as to why he did it, leaving us to just hope the object of Diana's affections isn't completely psycho.

Then there's the villain. He's a man dressed as a stage magician, with a giant domino where his head should be. I would assume he's merely wearing it over his real head but it's clear, when he turns sideways, that there's no room in there for a head. Therefore, he must literally have a giant domino for a head. Just how does a circumstance like that come about?

I've always assumed he was a revived Golden Age villain and that's why he's so ridiculous but, as far as I can make out, this is his first-ever appearance.

Research tells me it's also his last.

That actually quite saddens me. I do feel quite sorry for him now and hope that, one day, Dr Domino makes his return when we all least expect it.

So, Robert Kanigher's script is complete nonsense but what of the art?

Well it's by Don Heck and it's from the 1970s, so it should look terrible but it's actually perfectly acceptable. I don't know if it's the influence of Bob Oksner's inks but you can see hints of the more elegant artist Heck had been in the 1950s and early 1960s and - for once, in the 1970s - his figures don't look like they're falling apart.

It's not a comic I can recommend on the grounds of its merits but it is one that's worth reading just to experience the ludicrousness of it and for a view of how girls' comics used to be done, back in the old days, when breaking down in floods of tears was a super-heroine's main duty to the world.