I, Robot Wonder Woman
April 4, 2006 by The Fortress Keeper
It isn’t too outrageous to claim that Wonder Woman has encountered more doppelgangers than any hero in comics history.
However, most of these impersonations were little more than one-shot deals. Only one evil twin had the staying power to threaten Wonder Woman several times - the deadly, if somewhat stiff, Robot Wonder Woman.
Illustrating a true devotion to duplication, the mechanical Amazon even managed to appear in what was essentially the exact same story five separate times!
After rummaging through the Fortress’ Closet of Clones, your friendly neighborhood Keeper is proud to present the following retrospective of the mechanized menace’s career:
The robot, as she first appeared in Wonder Woman #48 (1951), was the creation of a criminal inventor known as Elektro. After presenting the mechanical doppelganger to a room full of hoods, Elektro sent the robot on a destructive crime spree.
Naturally, the real Wonder Woman didn’t take kindly to having her name dragged through the mud by a criminal look-alike. Inevitably, the two clash but the robot gained the upper hand after Steve Trevor messed things up (again).
The second encounter went even more badly, as the robot captured both WW and Steve.
Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Diana switched places with the robot. After lulling her captors into a false sense of security, she made quick work of the gangsters and imprisoned Elektro in the deepest depths of Comic Book Limbo - where he was rightfully never heard from again.
It’s difficult to keep a good robot down, though, so in Wonder Woman #84 (1956) the mechanical replica hooked up with a bigger-name villain - Angle Man. Proving his superiority to Elektro, the mastermind arranged a gangland summit in an auditorium with a red - rather than green - curtain.
Once again, Wonder Woman found herself pursuing an enemy identical to her in every way. (Not that she had any memory of it ever happening before, of course.)
Unfortunately, the Angle Man demonstrated why he required a few revamps over the years as his master plan allowed the hapless robot to lead Wonder Woman directly to him.
Making mattes even more inept, Robot Wonder Woman fell on top of Angle Man and lost her fake Wonder Woman face, revealing ….another fake face. Brilliant.
A new decade brought new optimism, so in Wonder Woman # 111 (1960) Robot Wonder Woman returned once again. This time, it was introduced to a familiar set of gangsters in a stylish auditorium with a mauve curtain by the unforgettable Professor Menace.
Rather than launch straight into a crime wave, the evil Professor challenged Wonder Woman to prove that a flesh-and-blood Amazon could defeat his robot. Forgetting once again about her previous encounters with Robot Wonder Woman, Diana accepted. Menace then called for a contest to see who could remain awake the longest, a challenge WW can’t hope to win!
Forced to return to Paradise Island because of her defeat, Wonder Woman is confronted by her evil double in a daring, mid-air attack!
Plunging to the sea, Wonder Woman desperately tried to disable her robotic counterpart by colliding with a gigantic electric eel. (Where’s Aquaman where you need him? Oh yeah, he was battling Mera’s evil twin at the time…)
Needless to say, the gambit worked and enabled Diana to once again impersonate Robot Wonder Woman and capture the never-to-be-forgotten Professor Menace. (Who did somehow rated a subsequent appearance in JLA.)
After suffering yet another humiliating defeat, Robot Wonder Woman kept a very low profile until Wonder Woman #222 (1976), where it reappeared as a spiffed-up “inorganic replica” that was part of a master plan by a Walt Disney analogue to… oh, never mind.
Perhaps tired of fighting the same battle over and over, Diana finally attempted to put a permanent end to the Robot Wonder Woman saga.
Our evil, little robot wasn’t quite finished yet, though. She appeared one last time on the Wonder Woman TV series, as part of an evil plot by Frank Gorshin to replace important world figures with, um, life-sized toys.
Once again, Robot Wonder Woman lost…
And once again, Diana impersonated her double and brought the criminals to justice. (Believe it or not, this was a Christmas episode!!!)
In perhaps its greatest display of kindness, the Crisis On Infinite Earths erased all mentions of Robot Wonder Woman from the DC Universe. Still, anybody and anything can stage a comeback these days, and given writer/director Joss Whedon’s connections with both the Wonder Woman movie and a certain Buffybot.
Well, let’s just say stranger things have happened …and happened …and happened …and happened again.
Robot Woman also appeared in an episode of the Challenge Of The Superfriends, but by then her moves were a little bit rusty!