PHASED AND INTERFUSED PT. 5

In the second part of PHASED AND INTERFUSED, in which I discussed how the icon of "Dick Grayson Robin" phase shifted his way into the separate identity of Nightwing. Here I'll deal with the retconned origins of the "First Wonder Girl," who was declared to have had a substantial existence in the annals of the WONDER WOMAN continuity, starting in WONDER WOMAN #105 (1959).

(Side note: was this the first time a DC story used the exact words "Secret Origin" in a title?)

Writer Robert Kanigher then continued to alternate between grown Wonder Woman and her teen self in the comic, and some fans have speculated that even in 1959, Kanigher might've been trying to reach kids who were tantalized by all the emphasis on "teens" in pop culture, in order to give WONDER WOMAN's sales a boost.

Then in WW #122 (1961), Kanigher apparently was overcome with the desire to emulate the "Superbaby" stories that occasionally appeared in DC's SUPERBOY feature, and introduced "Wonder Woman as an older toddler," Wonder Tot. Bullish on the idea, before he got any reader-reaction, in #124 he introduced the idea that through Amazon technology all three versions of the heroine could co-exist and participate in mutual adventures. Thus, for roughly the next three years, Wonder Woman existed in what I've termed a "semi-bonded ensemble" in these stories, though not without having solo stories of her own. Wonder Tot occasionally got her own stories as well, though there were so few of these that it would fair to call her "charisma-dominant," since her main function was to appear as part of the ensemble. In contrast, the Kanigher version of Wonder Girl did sustain a minor mythology of her own, however derivative, just as Superboy did in his starring feature. And only the first co-starring appearance of Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl in #124 would constitute a stature-crossover, after which the crossover-vibe would be subsumed by the vibe of the bonded ensemble.