The CONFUSING History of MOD WONDER WOMAN 

I love that Denny owned up to this as a well-intentioned attempt at feminist empowerment that was completely misguided on his part. He once said that it was, "Entirely my fault and I thought I knew best. I learned that I did not. It was humbling and it's not one of my prouder moments at DC."

Whats extra weird is that WW has learn Karate, Despite probably knowing like a couple ancient lost forms of CQC.

The de-powered, "modern" take on Diana was modeled on Emma Peel, played by the late Diana Rigg, of TV's Avengers.

Denny O’Neil has apologized profusely for this attempt to do something different. Even though the man was a comic book legend, his time on WW just didn’t work....

“Also we’ll resurrect Steve at some point.” You make it sound so simple! In reality, the Greek god Eros first posed as a resurrected Steve for a while, but eventually died again, and then Aphrodite took a Steve from another universe and gave him Earth One Steve’s memories!

Fun Fact: I-Ching later came back a few years ago as the mentor of Kong Kenan, the Chinese Superman.

So essentially WW's story parallels with Coke and New Coke.

When Wonder Woman became a 60's era Barbie, Mod Barbie. Instead just having Diana wear more mod attire, and sometimes fights in them, let's take away her powers for 6 years, and let her judo chop, and have guns, cause Diana Rigg in The Avengers was rad as hell. It may be a interesting idea, but to do it for so long is another thing, it's good thing they don't do that still...Oh... (When I hear "Women" being said so frequently, it starts to sound like "Woman")

Wonder Woman fell in love with Steve Trevor at first sight, and was one of her big motivations for going to Man's World. He was her first love. Except when he wasn't. You should do a series on Wonder Woman as a teen, with all her weird boyfriends. That might be as long running as "Lois Marries ..."

"A cup of sexism" never thought i would hear that

I'd consider myself a fairly decently versed DC reader. But, I have no idea how Hawkman and Hawkgirl used to work in previous versions. I've always found them really confusing. I think it would be positively miraculous if you could explain the mess that it the Hawkman continuity.

Not gonna lie, the whole "Diana needs an apartment and money and food," thing was handled much better in the 90's when Diana came back to life and worked at a Taco Bell expy.

I just recently bought a bunch of the Mod Wonder Woman series and read it. And, honestly....It's not that bad. Compared to the issues right before it. Diana is more of a bad-ass in these issues, not needing powers to kick butt and take names. I mean, I Ching might be a little racist, but compared to Egg Fu who was in some books just a few months before, I would say that they had made some progress. The were very all over the place, but all-in-all, it wasn't the worst period for Wonder Woman. They made her seem like less of a token character and more of a character in her own right. She definitely wasn't weak. If you read the original issues, there are some fun letters in there. It was almost overwhelmingly against Mod Wonder Woman. So many fans were complaining! I can't believe they didn't get a mandate to go back to normal before they did. They're definitely worth reading. And you can tell that Denny O'Neil was getting hot over it! If you want to read some really fun letters pages, check out the Saga of the Swamp Thing letters pages prior to Alan Moore coming on the book. The editor goes at it with the fans in those! There was some really bad blood over the changes that were going on in the book and it's like watching a train wreck! Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show! Which was honestly better than the actual issues of Saga during that time. Great work, Sasha!

Would love to hear more about Nubia.

I found Mod Di to be amusing; I always thought that the Cathy Lee Crosby version was based on her. On the other hand, my Dad got me a copy of Ms. #1 for my 10th Birthday, so I read Steinem's article and kind'a agreed with her thesis. All in all, I'm of two minds about the whole thing.

I remember reading a history of wonder woman which included a bunch of creators who contributed to the stories and when they got to this point they quoted Denny O'Neil as saying that looking back he winces every time he remembers that he called the Japanese karate master after a famous Japanese text and that he would have called him something else if he created I-Ching later on in his career. He chalked it up to being young stupid and insensitive. At least he realized that.

Looking forward to the next installment of this line, in which the various members of the Justice League "test" the restored Wonder Woman in an echo of Hercules' ten labors (which, like Herc's, get expanded to twelve when it's decided that a couple of them didn't really count). The only way you're gonna get The Atom, Elongated Man or Red Tornado on the cover of a Wonder Woman comic. (It's been a long time, but didn't they even let Snapper Carr monitor her for one of these?)

Unrelated video idea: I need to know what the deal is with marvel's "Deathurge". He was an agent of oblivion and now he is stuck in squirrel form? I feel like you could get to the bottom of this marvel weirdness.

I like how her mother made her forget the mod era stuff and no one ever brings it up but mod era WW still had team ups with bats and Supes meaning they were there to see it but just never asked questions on the change

okay, so I am so glad you made this video. I remember distinctly when I was about 13(15 years ago) I went to a library and they had like a section of comic books. I sat there and read a wonder woman book (I assume it was a trade) and I was expecting Lasso swinging flying wonderwoman and what I got was a very weird plotline that I don't remember the details from other than: She fell from a really high place but it was okay, because she used yoga to somehow break her fall when she fell on her back. Every fight she was in had to explain that she was a good fighter because she'd been trained by some dude So I finished the book, left the library and was utterly confused, cause anyone I spoke to wonder woman about was baffled and said I must have picked up something else.

Lillie: Wait so to a de-powered / Mod Wonder Woman I need to change my style, spy, learn karate and get tech? Wait this sound more like what I already sorta do... I guess I’m one step toward Wonder Woman. All I just need her memory also powers...

Tell me about hard traveling heroes

I usually like the “depowered hero” stories, I wonder if I would have liked this one if I was reading it when it came out. Nowadays I only know about this era from people hating on it. (Also, your teasing about the author of Wonder Woman being a long story made me go down the rabbit hole of that and... woah)

Could you talk about Etrigan or klarion the witch boy? 👉🏽👈🏽

Loved this run of her book, I guess my love of Emma Peel and Honey West colored my view . Thanks for sharing this !

(Note: Paradise Island died on its way back to it's home planet.)

DC ruined having a healthy relationship and a fridge at the same time

Yeah, so, that’s the ‘official’ reason the U.N. backpedaled on using Wonder Woman. In reality, a lot of representatives objected to the fact that she basically wore a star spangled swimsuit. Which did not go over well with more.....let’s be nice and say, conservative, members

I’m so conflicted about Mod fashion I love some of it and and hate other parts with little inbetween

Hey, I actually learned something! I thought Wonder Woman's first appearance was in Sensation Comics #1. Now looking up All-Star Comics #8. Actually, I liked the idea of a de-powered Wonder Woman, at least as a temporary measure, but not as a permanent change. I'm sure O'Neil and Sekowsky meant for it to be a permanent change, so undoing it was a mess. But her mythological origins are one of her key features, and it seemed a shame to do away with that. Still, it led into another interesting storyline after the Mod era, WW's trials for the Justice League, The Twelve Labors. Some of it was cringeworthy, as they tried to show that WW was better than ever at being a superhero, but it was great seeing the Justice Leaguers in her comic.

Sasha, I'd love to see your take on The Twelve Labors storyline that (almost) immediately followed the end of the mod era where re-powered WW felt she had to earn her way back into the JLA.

Wonder Woman was de-powered for 6 years? That’s crazy. Sasha you’re dropping some serious comics history. Write a book girl & get paid.

perhaps the SHADIEST thing DC did to mod Diana Prince of Earth-1 was to continue to feature the still superpowered original Wonder Woman of Earth-2 in some of the JSA/JLA team-ups (although both are in the epic and legendary storyline of JLA issues #100-102).

Heck yeah first is there gonna be any more Lois getting married comics 🤣

I love that you recognized the pop culture spy influence on the new Wonder Woman stories, even naming some of the big hits of the era. I was surprised you didn't mention the British secret agent series The Avengers, since Mrs. Peel (played by Diana Rigg during the late 1960s) was clearly the inspiration for the liberated, martial arts savvy, mod cat-suit clad new Diana Prince. I believe various DC artists & writers have freely admitted this over the years. But your review as a whole is concise, entertaining & well edited, as they always are!

Something y'all young 'uns don't know about the early 70s is that eVeRyBoDy was Kung-Fu fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning.

I think it was around this time that Supergirl got depowered (she got better). At the same time, there was a reader competition to redesign her costume. Design ideas were shoehorned into the plot, like the time she got a new costume idea from... Diana (I'm mortal now) Prince! My memories of these issues is vague: I was very young at the time, and my only source of comics was the local newsagent (I'm from the UK). Deliveries were haphazard to say the least, and trying to keep up with continuity was a nightmare! It's great to relive some of these stories with you!

Don't forget that Mod WW helped Supergirl find her new threads as well!

"Ber-domp-er-domp!"

I guess that, the clothes make the Wonder Woman.

Please do a video on Golden Age Wonder Woman's daughter FURY! Her story gets crazy once Neil gets ahold of her and uses her for the Sandman comic.

Wonder Woman's Mod era seems weird to me, thanks for bringing some more light to it. I saw another video essay that explained how Marvel's current style may have also been an influence. There seems to be good ideas in Mod Wonder Woman, but maybe they should've just made a different character, instead of changing Wonder Woman.

As a young boy in the early 70s I was irritated by "Mod" WW. One minute she was part of the Justice League-as strong as Superman even if she was reduced to "riding wind currents" instead of flying-and the next she looked like something out of Valley of the Dolls. I hated that she was no longer super. And as much as I loved Black Canary, Denny O'Neill tended to treat her more like Oliver Queen's babe than a hero in her own right. Fortunately, DC was still running a lot of the Golden/Silver Age WW stories in those days, so I had something to get me through the 70s.

Your videos are by far the best source of comic history. They're so informative and at the same time so non judgemental. Like you really do go and put your thought out but always leaving a breathing room for your audience to make up their own mind on this issues. That's why you're the best

Can I just say that it has been a pleasure watching your videos. Not only are they enjoyable and entertaining to watch but also factual and educational. I didn't know a lot of this stuff and now i want to read more comics and experience them. Sorry this was a bit long but thank you so much for making these videos. Keep up the good work💯

I found this era of Wonder Woman to be an interesting experiment. I'm getting ready to buy the Omnibus and binge read it.

I actually used to own this entire run of comics, and I can honestly say that, though flawed, it was much more action packed than =w= in the 80s before the reboot

Back in the early 70s, i wrote to DC and got a card back. It was a standard form "thank you for writing" thing, but on it were faces of the well known heroes: Superman. Batman, Robin, Flash, Green Lantern. But it also had Diana (Wonder Woman) Prince, written out that way, with a picture of her with what looked like sunglasses on top of her head. Looking back it similar to the way Lynda Carter mostly stopped wearing her glasses in season two and three of Wonder Woman.

6:55 I can't believe the Authority approved this cover. Diana's got back, lol

That’s when Nubia came into the picture 😍

If you're going to have to change virtually everything about a character - remove all their supporting cast, totally divorce them from their history, etc. to get them to fit a particular mold you have in mind... - why not just make a new character for it? If she hadn't had to bonk her head and get amnesia for Wonder Woman to come back maybe she'd still be around?

I love love love your channel and your thoughtful videos!! But if you're going to talk about the depowered "Mod" Wonder Woman and the return to her superpowered self, you must discuss Wonder Woman #212, which miraculously ties it all together (and addresses Hippolyta deleting her memories of her non-powered self), and launches Wonder Woman's "12 Labors" to prove she's worthy to still rejoin the Justice League despite her missing memories.

Mod Diana was based on Mrs. Peele of the tv show the avengers. Marvel’s Black widow was also based off of Mrs, Peele. You kids need to consult with your grand parents more.

Why would wonder woman need to learn Kung Fu if she already primarily knows how to fight like an Olympian??? 🤔🤷🤷🤷

You had me at “The Man from U.N.C.L.E, my fave. Why yes that is the boxed set!”

"see her origin video for that to make sense"

I guess DC thought, "a woman who's POWERFUL might confuse the kids!" what I didn't know was that it went on for so long! of course they had to change her back, its kinda like "New Coke", if thats not too ancient a reference for ya.

They still publish fan mail? Wow, 20 years of reading trade paperbacks and I forgot fan mail was even a thing comics published.

That mod suit would work in an Austin Powers movie it would make Badillions!!!

Can you pls look at the og Gotham city siren run or the birds of prey run forgot the name but the one with white canary

It took just a bit too long to get the 'invisible jet vanishing' joke...🤭

you should check out Kitty Pryde's wide array of horrible costumes. she had some crazy ones before she settled on her iconic blue suit she wore in Excalibur

We should also remember the popularity of Diana Rigg as Emma Peel on The Avengers. Of course the writers decided transform Wonder Woman into a version of Emma Peel in the most clumsy and sexiest way possible.

To the extent that I've ever been interested in Wonder Woman, it's always been as a matter of style over substance, by which I mean the whole Amazon/feminism aspect leaves me cold, but I'm nonetheless easily charmed by, say, the warmth and charisma of Lynda Carter or the vibrant paragon of feminine energy drawn up by George Perez for the DC style guides. Speaking from that perspective, I have to say I really like Diana's "Mod" look. Her hairstyle in particular makes me think of Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters in "Dark Shadows" (particularly the little "sideburns" hanging in front of her ears).

It's so weird to me that they went through all those troubles and changes when they could have just change her clothes and call it a day.

I have come to enjoy and appreciate the classic Wonder Woman as I’ve gotten older, but at that time I was a middle school student who had never latched on to the character. And it as this new interpretation that got me to start buying the comic. I loved it during this period.

"I willingly condemn myself to the travails of mortals. Starting with breaking my own ankle by twisting it myself into a ninety degree angle, shearing its tendons and ligaments." 3:48 for reference

I have 10 of those comics that most was destroyed just days before the outrage.

Feels weird they didn't just make a new female hero to try to cash in on the spy hero craze. When martial arts movies were all the rage Marvel made Shang-Chi to capitalize rather than say remove Storm's mutant powers and had her learn kung fu.

4:00 I saw that coming a mile away!

I remember that period. The first problem was the writers who were pushing 40 trying to appeal to kids in late teens and early 20's. Some of the Batman stories of the time were the best in history but the culture references were out of date. WW's clothes, for example, were about 5 years out of date at the time they were used in the comic.

Hi Sasha! Love your page and thank you for a post about the Princess. I have been a fan of WW since 1964. Gone through all of the foolish transitions that they put thi character through. I absolutely HATED the "Mod" Diana Prince. It is frustrating that this important character has never been given a concrete run, Byrne's was good for a while, loved George Perez, and the best Wonder Woman artists, imo, have always been the Dobsons.Personally, I think they need to use the Xenia story telling trick of having Diana interact with the Greek gods in her everyday life. Could write a manifesto about her for sure but it closing you covering her and Donna Troyvis much appreciated. Thank you.

I want to see an alternate universe where all the worst character changes just stuck and became permanent, so their JLA has, electric blue Superman, mod Wonder Woman, Bat-Baby, etc. Just a hodgepodge of weird decisions. I'd also love that from Marvel and the Avengers. Noseless savage Wolverine, Cap-Wolf, insectoid Wasp, teen Tony... Because, I mean, even though they've both pared down their canon multiverses to small numbers, we all know that won't stick, and there'll be infinite universes for both again, or it'll be revealed that there were all along, just locked out of connection with the main continuity, or something, so why NOT have

Sasha your eye shadow for this is so on point for this that I found myself distracted by that.

For some reason in the mid to late 1970's Wonder Woman's comic switched through time and space and featured the Earth 2 ( original ) Wonder Woman's adventures in the 1940's. I never have learned why this was done but the Earth One Wonder Woman was still active in the Justice League comics.

3:47 What the HELL is up with Diana's foot?? For me the most jawdropping nonsense to ever involve Diana came before and after her Mod Phase. Prior to that, Wonder Woman's book had become clogged with weird characters and situations---most notably the simultaneous existence of Diana in a variety of ages: Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot. Paradise Island was swarming with oddballs like Manno the Mer-Man and Mer-Boy, Birdman and Birdboy (not to be confused with the Hanna-Barbara characters) and something called the Glop. In issue #158, editor Robert Kanigher, who created all these characters and goings-on, called the entire cast into his office---yes, in person, don't ask---and "killed off" everyone except Adult Diana, Queen Hippolyta and Steve Trevor. For three years, DC pretended this was a "return to the Golden Age," but when sales didn't improve they decided the next best thing was to get rid of Hippolyta and Trevor and everything else and go mad Mod. I'd still take I Ching over Egg Fu (who was the villain of the primary feature in #158). Ah, but then Diana got her threeboot, and got back her powers and her magic lasso and her invisible jet and her membership in the JLA---oh, wait, she didn't get right back into the JLA. She was offered a spot, but decided she needed to prove herself worthy of it after her lengthy absence. So the other Leaguers agreed to individually "observe and report" her next twelve adventures---or "labors," as in those of Hercules---without participating. This led to some awkward moments; Diana certainly didn't need Superman's help to defeat Z-list Batman villain (and pathetic schmuck) The Cavalier, but Atom just standing by as she fought his nemesis Chronos, or Aquaman being completely useless as she took on Ares, the frikkin' God of War seems contrary to the League's entire purpose. It also led to what may be the worst cover in the book's run, with a hypnotized Diana binding herself with her lasso and begging a cadre of villains to gun her down with a come-hither smile--while Elongated Man chillaxes off-panel with a video camera like some creepy perv who's really into "peril" videos...or worse.

The art on these issues is really good. I’m loving Diana’s hair, outfits,and face here.

One of the few classic comics to get a movie appearance, WW 178 shows up on the early bus ride in Midnight Cowboy. Book was brand-new in 1969

I genuinely adore Maud fashion so the entire look of this run is great imo. I get why people would hate it but I live for a good aesthetic

I see what you did with the outfit/hair color matching the eye shadow. Love it.

This video's Sasha looks very citrus flavored

I am a huge fan of this era -- when I was putting together my collection of WW I was most satisfied when I completed this run thru all of the Nubia stuff. I don't think I would have been a fan if I'd been alive and reading when the issues came out -- but viewed years later when it's all back-issues it was one of the more lively eras. As fun as Silver Age Wonder Woman can be -- there is a pretty long dull stretch in a lot of those old issues.

I recently got the 4 volume collection of this era. Unfortunately the collection doesn't actually have a the issues (notably missing issue 199) but this iteration of WW is fascinating. I'm so glad Sasha has brought this up and now I'm dying to see her take on Nubia, Orana, and Artemis!!

OMGosh, such a great review Sasha... for a dame! These issues were in back issue boxes for 10 cents around the time I started reading comics (1973, right after this story line concluded) and I'm in the camp of those that really enjoy the mod-period. I'm certainly glad it ended, and I can totally get the female empowerment outrage of the era, but at least it was better than the period just before where she did nothing but try and get Steve to marry her... (post Seduction of the Innocent)!!!!

Throwing a suggestion out there for possible future videos: Do a comparison between Wonder Woman's mod era with Storm of the X-Men's "mohawk" phase. The two arcs have a lot of similarities: they both involve the characters going through extreme costume and personality alterations, and the loss of their powers.

They missed a huge opportunity to have her experiences with no powers as canon. It would have added to her character. Superman remembers... I always loved the fan mail of the era.

Hey, finally some male representation in the fridge! Waitaminute . . .

@ 8:30 , I turned on closed caption to see how would it translate Sasha's "gettin busy" word and it's "Parampara" so I'm gonna use it henceforth. "Say are you in the mood for some... parampara???"

The one costume change that still baffles me is the All New X-Men from the early 2000s where Cyclops' visor is an X.. i mean, I get it.. branding, but not sure how that works... at least, Magneto's white costume evokes the old cowboy ethic of "white hat"

The speed with which u talk is amazing. For once I thought I had accidentally played the video at a higher speed than normal.

I started reading Wonder Woman during the George Perez era and seeing a blonde Hippolyte is jarring.

Wait, if I-Ching was Chinese, shouldn't he have been teaching her kung fu and not karate?

“Clear some space in my fridge” 😂😂

What about the time when Superman's powers were being absorbed by a Sand-Superman - oh and all Kryptonite turned to iron. Another suggestion (since you highlighted the subject) is there enough material to talk about the famous letter hacks of the 70s, 80s, & 90s (TM Maple, Uncle Elvis to name a few)?

Now I really want to hear your thoughts on Man From UNCLE!

The vanishing invisible jet took me a solid 3 or 4 seconds. Well played, Sasha. 😉

I'm a fan of this era, though I got into it at the tail end in JLA #100. That issue also introduced Earth 2 Wonder Woman to me. It was a little confusing in that I didn't know the Earth 1 version was originally super powered, but I thought she looked more up-to-date that Earth 2 WW (don't know how that swimsuit lasted as long as it did). It's too bad they couldn't have separated the two characters (on Earth 2, there was a Diana Prince whose identity Wonder Woman took over when she came to the U.S.A.). It's probably for the best that Mod Wonder Woman ended when it did.

Smooth. As smooth as drinking sandpaper covered in gravel. Then again, Wondy has always been about as subtle as a 200 mph collision into a brick wall.

Great episode! There is a collected version BUT the paper is pulpy newprint! You missed one influence - The Avengers TV show from Britain. If they were to go this way again - the I Ching character would be called Nostradamus.

Should we expect a vid on this hard traveling heroes thing? Lol