Every Sunday morning we showcase a classic comic cover, complete with compelling commentary, for your cordial contemplation. It’s the Classic Comic Cover Corner!
Wonder Woman #13 – June, 1945
Cover art by Harry G. Peter
The ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” charity and awareness drive has been tearing up the Internet and social media sites over the past couple of weeks, with everyone from A-list celebrities to the kids on the corner recording and sharing video-clips of themselves being dousing in ice-cold water. Actress Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice film, took the challenge earlier this week (see it on Instagram) and it made us wonder if Wonder Woman herself had ever endured such a chilly adventure.
Stories of superheroes going up against cold-themed villains are very easy to find, with frigid foes like Mr. Freeze, Captain Cold, and the Blizzard always ready and willing to cool the heels of any odd hero; but in Wonder Woman #13 (1945) the amazing Amazon Princess met an evil-doer with a particularly strange freeze fetish.
In a story titled, “The Icebound Maidens,” written by Joye Murchison (who was the assistant of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston), Princess Diana must save a group of Venusian women from Eveland, who have been captured by blue-skinned Seal Men (complete with whiskers) from Bitterland. (Note: Both locations are in Antarctica. #TheMoreYouKnow)
The nefarious Seal man, Count Frigid, is freezing the women until they are needed as slaves or sacrifices. At a later date they are thawed and forced to serve the Seal Men; but Wonder Woman breaks free of their insidious ice blocks and convinces their leader, the Seal Prince Pagli, to worship Aphrodite’s Venusians.
This book is also famous for the quote from Wonder Woman, responding to Steve Trevor’s marriage proposal, “If I married you, Steve, I’d have to pretend I’m weaker than you are to make you happy – and that, no woman should do!”
Whoa, talk about the “cold shoulder.”
To learn more about ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and the “Ice Bucket Challenge” visit alsa.org.
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