This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com.

                 Amalgam Annotations: Amazon #1
 
(corrections/additions to my errors/omissions are welcome)
 
p 1: Wonder Woman, the Amazon - in this case a combination of
     Wonder Woman (the Amazon warrior princess, and a mainstay of
     the DC Universe for almost 50 years) and Storm (the Kenyan
     mutant weather goddess and member of the obscenely popular
     X-Men books since 1975).  The Amazon looks like Storm - black
     skin, white hair, etc - and has her cloak, but is otherwise
     wearing Wonder Woman's uniform.
          Note that this is the first time that Byrne and Austin
     have done anything X-related in 15 years.
 
p 2  "Princess Ororo of Themyscira" - Ororo Monroe being Storm's
     "real" name, and Themyscira being the main city on Paradise
     Island (thanks to Joanna Sandsmark for correcting my error on
     this).
 
p 3  Enter Poseidon, who has apparently not been a strong character
     in _Wonder Woman_ before this (thanks to Joanna Sandsmark for
     this info).
 
p 5  Princess Ororo's origin, as an almost-drowned girl, mirrors
     that of the DC Character Julia Kappetalis in the Perez reboot
     of _Wonder Woman_ (thanks to John Polojac for clearing this
     up).
          Storm was raised on the streets of Cairo as a child
     (thanks to Paul O'Brian for correcting my mistake here) while
     Wonder Woman was raised on Paradise Island.
          We see a reference to Ororo's "most primordial" of
     terrors - drowning.  As Joanna Sandsmark pointed out, in
     Marvel Continuity Ororo was trapped under rubble when her
     parents died, which contributed to her claustrophobia.  In
     Amalgam Universe Ororo was swept overboard when her parents
     were killed, which caused her to fear drowning.
 
p 7  I don't recognize either of these woman, although the one who
     says she gets "psychic flashes" is obviously meant to be
     _someone_; my bet would be she's a figure from the Wonder
     Woman book.  Joanna Sandsmark theorizes that, since the
     assignment was for Byrne to make the issue seem like it had
     always been there, he was just making up a supporting cast. 
     This seems like a good argument to me.  Willie Berkovitz adds
     that the older women felt sort of like Amanda Waller to him
     (DC Continuity character who is the no-nonsense, take-no-crap
     leader of the Suicide Squad) - and she is a New Orleans
     character, as well.
          Baton Rouge being Princess Ororo's base of operations is
     also an element which is new to the Amalgam character, rather
     than being based on the Marvel or DC analogue characters.  
 
p 8  That certainly looks like the "real" (aka mainstream DC)
     Wonder Woman - Diana Prince.  Although the tattered remains of
     her uniform look different; we see why this is in _Bullets and
     Bracelets_ #1. Joanna Sandsmark points out that Diana Prince's
     outfit here is similar to the one she wore in recent issues of
     _Wonder Woman_ when the DC Continuity character Artemis was
     Wonder Woman.
 
p 10 Now we have linkage.  "Diana" (the "real" Wonder Woman) and
     "Ororo" (the "real" Storm) growing up together on Amazon
     Island.  Which makes sense, in a way - why have all the
     Amazons, historically, been white?  Why not some African
     Amazons, and Asian Amazons?  (Tony Rose points out that there
     were Black Amazons before Perez took over;
     ita@sojourn1.soujourn.com adds that there was a rogue band of
     Amazons found on the African continent that were darker
     skinned than the "normal" Amazons. Rick Jones adds that the
     Amazons, created as they were by the Goddesses, were given
     bodies to match their previous mortal ones - i.e., yes, there
     were black Amazons, some of whom founded another city of the
     Amazons in Libya.  And Richard Bierworth points out that, pre-
     Crisis, there was one black Amazon, named Nubia, but that
     having numbers of Asian and African Amazons was part of the
     Perez retcon.
 
p 12 As Joanna Sandsmark and someone else whose name I didn't get
     noted, being rescued at sea was not part of Wonder Woman's
     pre-Crisis origin; but, as Joanna pointed out, after George
     Perez rebooted _Wonder Woman_, he made the Amazons rescuing
     all lost/drowning-girls-at-sea a part of their continuity.
 
p 15 Professor Malcolm - Joanna Sandsmark notes that this is a
     made-for-Amalgam character.
 
Thanks to Willie Berkovitz, Richard Bierworth, ita, Rick Jonese,
Paul O'Brian, John Polojac, Tony Rose, Joanna Sandsmark, and the
individuals whose names I didn't catch for their comments and
corrections.
 
jess

This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com.