Forget Ares, Circe, Doctor Psycho and Allen Heinberg. Wonder Woman’s greatest enemy has always been … herself!

From robotic replicas and counter-earth counterparts to alien alternates and larcenous look-a-likes, the Amazing Amazon has fought more evil opposites than Chris Claremont’s X-Men!

Most of the time, such repetition would indicate a creative team bereft of ideas. However, writer-editor Robert Kanigher guided Diana’s adventures for a staggering 148-issue run and few in comics’ history equaled that mad genius’ penchant for the bizarre.

Really, how many other heroines fought 80-foot-tall balloon replicas of themselves?

In Wonder Woman #134, Kanigher upped the stakes even higher as Diana fought millions of evil look-alikes! How, you may ask, did such a feat occur?

The answer can be found in a tale titled “Menace of the Mirror Wonder Women,” which starts innocently enough as the Amazon Princess checks herself out in the mirror and …. is a bit surprised by the reflection.

At first she attributes the terrible vision to one too many barhops with the Holiday Girls. Repeated encounters with the evil image, however, unnerves Diana enough to warrant a trip to the one place in the world that can assuage a super-heroine’s nerves …

The Fun House!

But, as Chris Sims rightly observed a few nights back, fun houses usually spell trouble in super-hero comics. It doesn’t take long before Wonder Woman finds herself flung down a secret corridor (a development she inexplicably believes to be hilarious) to a rather suspicious looking hall of mirrors.

The next thing you know, the scene on the cover is ACTUALLY REPLAYED IN THE COMIC as Diana is dragged into the mirror to … where?

After figuring out that she isn’t dreaming, Diana correctly deduces she has been abducted to the Mirror World where the rather fey Image-Maker™ does what one-shot villains do - brag about their greatness before making a fatal mistake that ruins any chance for final victory.

The Image-Maker states he will throw the world into chaos by projecting countless reflections of every living creature and inanimate object on Earth, which … hmmmm … is a pretty dang good plan for global domination when you think about it.

Of course, since this story does take place in 1961, the Image-Maker gives Diana a sporting chance to save the day. If Wonder Woman can defeat her mirror duplicates, the villain promises to set Diana free and abandon his plans to rule Earth.

What a guy, eh? Of course, out-wrestling (Nope, no fisticuffs. This is a Comics Code-approved adventure, remember.) millions and millions of super-powered counterparts is easier said than done.

Diana then attempts to outrun her counterparts, which proves more successful because the resulting super-speed vibrations create a devastating earthquake inside the Mirror World …

that shatters the entire reality into a million pieces!

Of course, Wonder Woman survives the entire ordeal without a scratch and shares a good laugh with Steve Trevor at the end. So what if The Image-Maker and his entire world were destroyed? That’s what you get for using mirrors in service of evil rather than goodness, right?!?

Now, Fortress Faithful, before you leave here chortling about the absurdity of Silver Age comics, the Keeper must restate his genuine affection for the Kanigher Wonder Woman - a strange, fractured fairy tale graced with superior art from Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.

Plus, the concept of the Image-Maker really isn’t all that bad. It worked for the Mirror Master, right?

Besides, maybe this whole Mirror World stuff could be used as a metaphor for how society programs women and men into judging certain body types as sexy and appealing.

Just think what a social commentator like Judd Winick could do with that idea!

…

Ummmm … Never mind.

Forget we said anything.