Wonder Woman 2.14: Screaming Javelin

Airdate: 1/20/78

A dastardly madman named Mariposa (think Hugh Hefner meets Ernst Blofeld), schemes to kidnap, one by one, the United States’ best Olympians in order to create his own dream team, and that includes a certain female who’s no slouch in the athletic department, Wonder Woman. He kidnaps Diana to lure her alter ego into his trap, but of course this backfires and all athletes are ultimately freed, including a young Russian gymnast named Nadia (hmmm, I wonder who this was based on) and her fiancé – Rick Springfield!

Ho-hum melodrama suffers from lack of clarity and credibility regarding Mariposa’s scheme (how will he attain power with a super-duper Olympic team?) and the hammy overacting by Henry Gibson in that role – an embarrassing mix of every bad guy cliché you can name, but with little to none of the entertainment value. WW’s rescue efforts could easily have been lifted from stock footage of any other episode thus far, and the continued marginalization of Steve Trevor (and odd disappearance of Joe Atkinson) leaves a void in the show, possibly suggesting that the producers are trying to make WW more of a lone hero, less a team player. More in keeping with her increasingly popular (on TV, at least) Marvel counterparts, The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider Man.