The Wonderful Woman's FutureI was rereading Wonder Woman #7 (Winter 1943) last night. It's one of those cheerfully goofy tales of the future that comic book writers generally couldn't resist back in the 1940s and 1950s. In this story, Wonder Woman's mother shows her the future using the Magic Sphere. This device records everything that has happened and thus can predict everything that will happen (a concept used by
Isaac Asimov in the Foundation novels as psychohistory).
In writer William Marsten's future women rule the planet, which is now known as the United States of Earth. Marsten was a radical feminist, but like everybody else, he was a creature of his time. Thus, even though women rule the world, they are mostly still secretaries in the workforce (click on pictures to view larger):
Diana is still alive as are the rest of the 1940s Wonder Woman cast. It turns out that Etta Candy, Wonder Woman's chubby sidekick, invented a fountain of youth drink that prevents people from getting old and dying. Steve Trevor is still around, although somewhat emasculated as this senator from the Man's World Party notes:
The senator visits the female president and demands the release of Grafton Patronage, a former corrupt political boss. She refuses to sign. Meanwhile the prison warden, named Dorothy Dear, has asked Patronage to her office for some psychoanalysis. The prisons of the future are run by politically correct jailers:
But Patronage quickly takes over the prison. Warden Dear is quite distressed:
Wonder Woman foils the prison escape, and an assassination plot against the president.
In the second part of the story, we get a look at the presidential race of 3004. Steve Trevor decides to throw his hat in the ring:
Diana Prince runs against him. Of course Steve, who comes across like Jethro Bodine in this story, is being duped by the leader of the purple shirts. Diana seems on her way to victory, but politics has not changed much in 1000 years:
My god, it's just like Ohio 2004! ;)
Eventually things are righted and Diana becomes the new president, which makes Wonder Woman ambivalent:
