Wonder Woman and … Jerry Lewis? Talk about your odd couple.
But actually, the comedian had run into other superheroes in his DC Comics title The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, notably Superman, Batman and the Flash.
“Unfortunately, while this story (in issue 117) is explicitly touted as featuring the new Wonder Woman, it reads very much as though writer (Alan) Riefe and editor Murray Boltinoff weren’t all that familiar with what had been done to the character over the past year,” recalled Tom Brevoort.
Mike Sterling noted, “Jerry’s run as a comic book character began in 1952 with The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. After the Martin/Lewis comedy act broke up, the title was continued as The Adventures of Jerry Lewis.”
“What made Jerry Lewis stand out to me was his longevity,” wrote Sterling. “His comic book ran 124 issues before coming to an end in 1971. At DC, Green Lantern and Green Arrow were dealing with the impact of drug abuse, Batman was returning to the dark, gritty roots of his origin and a Jerry Lewis comic book was being published.”
Comedian Bob Hope’s title had an equally impressive run of 109 issues. I once interviewed Hope prior to his show at the local university, and kicked myself later when I realized I’d forgotten to ask him about his lengthy career as a DC Comics character.
Still rankles me.
Mark Amundsen:
ReplyDeleteGreat story. I doubt Bob would have even remembered cashing the checks.
I replied:
Somebody said he had a complete collection of his DC Comics. Wish I'd asked him about it. He was very easy to talk to, btw. He was stretched out on his hotel bed, watching "I Love Lucy" and talking to me over the phone.
Freddie Odom:
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I read the Omnibus of the New Wonder Woman era and this wasn’t in it (probably rights issues with any of those celebrity comics. Except Don Rickles.)
Bob Supina:
ReplyDelete“Hey Wonder Laaaaaydeeee!”😄
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteThose monster issues of Bob Hope got me started reading both his title and Jerry Lewis. But I got tired of those mid 60s stories. When I found earlier issues of Bob Hope or of Martin and Lewis, I prefer them. Hope sort of got lost in those later stories but his movie image — of the wiseacre looking for pretty girls -- was on full display in those early issues and I really like Owen Fitzgerald's art.
Nelson Fox:
ReplyDeleteI couldn't bring myself to buy this comic when I saw it at the newsstands, but I have always been curious about it.
Mandy O'Toole:
ReplyDeleteI'm a life long ww collector and I've never seen this issue in person!!
Jim Gray:
ReplyDeleteThe lowest spot in Wonder Woman's career.
I replied:
And she's had some pretty low spots.
Clayton Emery:
ReplyDeleteSupposedly the sales were sagging badly, so they injected the Big Three superheroes to entice kids to buy.
Steve Horton:
ReplyDeleteWith the bracelets and the lasso and the GLAYVIN!
Doug Kaye:
ReplyDeleteContinuity wasn't much of a thing at that time. Thankfully, that non-powered version of WW didn't last long. I can't even recall if it made it into the pages of the JLA.
I replied:
It did. She was replaced by Black Canary
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteMy own budding (at the time) martial arts sophistication allowed me to view some of the details of the arc with a more critical eye, most specifically how kinda ridiculous it was that her instructor was (actually) Named ‘I-Ching’ (“The I-Ching (Book of Changes) is an ancient Chinese classic text used for divination, wisdom, and understanding the universe's principles, based on the interplay of yin (dark, receptive) and yang (light, active) forces, represented by 64 hexagrams (six-line figures) formed by combinations of trigrams (three-line figures). It serves as a philosophical system for guidance, offering insights into change, morality, and decision-making, rather than just predicting fate, evolving from an oracle to a cornerstone of Taoist and Confucian thought.” I was aware of this as a boy); and that he was a master of and taught her Karate when Kung-Fu would have been more culturally appropriate and accurate, but of course most westerners hadn’t even Heard of Kung-Fu/Gung-Fu yet at that time. That began to change on September 9th, 1966 with the premiere of the Green Hornet series on TV costarring a very young Bruce Lee. Even after That it took a while for the Chinese martial arts to gain any parity with the Japanese ones in the minds of the western mainstream culture. I was not shy about pointing those things out to my comic book reading buddies much to their annoyance but they were too awed and cowed by my being actually involved in the Asian martial arts to be vocal about their annoyance. As if I would have beaten up my comic book buddies or something. Smh. Lol.
One more thing. In the beginning of the run Diana, much like Ms. Rigg’s Emma Peel wore mod fashions and one piece ‘cat suits’ sometimes of leather. She took to wearing almost exclusively white after a time but not in the beginning.