Sensation Comics #14: The Story of Fir Balsam - Atop the Fourth Wall
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, the holiday adventures continue with a Wonder Woman story about a tree!
atopthefourthwa...
Originally released December 11th, 2017.
ORIGINAL INFO: All great holiday stories should have someone asking to not be spanked.
I love the golden age. A lot of the bizarreness of the silver but with a much more callous attitude towards death, violence...a lot of things, actually... which gives the golden age a wonderful surreal feeling.
as I said on Twitter
a Christmas themed story where she fights Nazi spies by having herself tied up to an evergreen tree so they would find her use her as a desk, and lead her back to their hideout with her hands tied behind her back with a leash around her neck, then chained to a door and spanked
and so goes the continuing adventures of Golden Age Power Bottom.....err I mean Wonder Woman
Right after this wonderful Christmas adventure, Wonder Woman asked Steve about the true meaning of Christmas - which she had no idea about, having been raised worshipping the Greek Pantheon. Diana was so enthralled by these new traditions, she seized a visiting Norse God and kissed him under the mistletoe, which tickled their noses. Unfortunately for everyone, this god was Balder, who died from the mistletoe and the world ended, leading to a movie almost as good as her own.
Ooh, very nice. It's funny and gives mythology factoids. Good job.
What’s weird is that I would actually read that in comic form.
Linkara: Who knew there were hillbillies near the Canadian border.
Me: Must be the border with Alberta.
deathknight75 Lol good one.
That is the cutest damn title card I have ever seen and I want 20 of them to hang around my house on Christmas.
RIGHT?!!? It's sooo freaking wholesome looking! Look at Wonder Woman's smile, look at Tree!Linkara's smile!! So cute!!
I guess it wouldn't be Golden Age Wonder Woman if they didn't include bondage.
They didn't answer an important question: did Diana ever get her civilian clothes back?
"Yes, I know I'm only a Fir Tree, and your going to ask what I have to do with Wonder Woman!"
Trust me Fir Balsam your relation to Wonder Woman is the last question anyone is going to ask the sentient talking tree.
Cameron Grow but think of the splinters
"I am not Treee! I am an Ent!"
“Nazis’ two natural enemies, the US army and college educated women”
(Checks Twitter)
Yup. Checks out.
Inugami Dalton really?
To be fair, it's not like modern Nazis know their history either.
Awakeandalive1: No, they weren't. At all. Any rights for women to get an education was inherited from the Weimar Republic and the Nazis severely cut those down or sabotaged them. Science classes were replaced with obligatory domestic skills classes. Woman's educational organizations were banned, sometimes with their members being executed. And women were, for most of the Reich, banned from having working positions in Universities (apart from a few positions retaining to social fields) or working in judicial, medical and political fields (a few of these were relaxed a bit during some parts of the war since they were running out of German men not in the army, but even so there were times when positions were simply left empty because all the available applicants were women). Basically making getting the heavily mutilated education women could get absolutely pointless.
Any increase in women's right to education during the Nazi regime was only a softening of their own earlier severe restrictions and was only done out of the necessities of the war.
Exactly like in the U.S. lolololololol
What about communists? And decent people in general?
As German, I love all those comics for throwing in random German words in the English dialogue... even if they are often ridiculously wrong, thus implying said *Germans* are unable to speak their own damn language... 🤦♂️
If it’s Nazis talking like that, it’s even better.
I never get tired of that Holiday Intro!
Same!
but Groot is Marvel! this is DC! I think you search for the Floronic Man...
Two Greek names, then two Roman names, my OMD (obsessive mythology disorder)... I will not be sleeping tonight.
5:28 "Miss"? "She"? And she prefers WW with less clothes? So the fir tree is a lesbian, right?
So this is a story of a lesbian fir tree who falls for Wonder Woman and helps her fight Nazis? That's fricking awesome!
shinobody Green is gay culture ya know. People use to wear green to show that and before the rainbow flag, I think it was green. So it's a ever green tree? YES. A Nazi fighting lesbian tree.
Well, we have lesbian gemstones, why not lesbian trees too?
Gamedragon bro Hmm. Yes. Ya know what we need? More gay.
shinobody No the tree is bisexual like all Amazons
Amy Villanueva - or more like... BIRCH-sexual? (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
Remember, this is golden age wonder woman written by her creator. If it seems like it could be an innuendo, particularly relating to bdsm, it most likely is lol
I also think this came out around the time being tied up by a man nullified her powers.
Olimar92 it wasn't just that if i recall correctly. I believe she also had to submit to anything they demanded
That preview/title card art is the most precious, wholesome thing I’ve seen in a long while.
How come we never see Miss Clause do anything? Santa does all the work! Wonder Woman actually delivered gifts! She’s a better “Miss Clause!!
....now that I think about it, Wonder Woman delivering presents on Christmas sounds awesome.
Why hasn’t that been an anthology story, yet?
If you didn't know Wonder Woman's creator was into BDSM, you do now.
People in the bdsm community reaspect strong woman
I want to see Linkara punch out a Nazi saying "I AM A MAAAAAAN!!!!" Classic.
Papa Taurean maybe Mechakara is a Nazi.
Fir Balsam lives on the Lonely Mountain? If this is pre-Smaug, he's in for some crap...
@14:19-14:21
Linkara: HA HA HA! NO!!
Me: LOL(The Way he says it is what made me Laugh)
"I'm a headless abomination!" made me laugh so hard I had to pause the video and put everything aside for a moment.
It bothers me that the tree describes Wonder Woman as ‘swift as Mercury’ rather than Hermes. Every other god he mentions is the Greek name, but that one uses the Hellenistic Roman rebooted version. Damn retcons! Even the trees are doing it!
It says strong as Hercules too, instead of Heracles.
how would a tree in Canada or the US know about the Greek gods?
I can't believe the Romans just changed all the names when they acquired the license. It's just so unnecessary! Mark my words, they're going to give every god a new backstory and outfit just to 'appeal to the target demographic.'
I think they just used whichever name was more well-known
Maybe the tree wanted her dead, those gods were shallow when it came to their look
0:17 The true War on Christmas!
Hey dude... I know I'm a couple weeks late to the party on this (on both watching the vid as well as the announcement being made a few weeks before it was published), but I just wanted to compliment you on the new look. That shiny new piece of bling on your left hand looks AWESOME. Wishing joy and happiness to you and yours for the holidays and the new year to come.
I thought that was Wonder Woman narrating at the end at first and nearly cracked up laughing at the thought of someone using her Top as a Christmas Tree as she's all like "Welp my work here is done" and goes home topless
I'm just glad that this comic had a tree that was large and of account in it.
(Rifftrax fans, your welcome)
Good old Christmas comics! I am so loving the sound of the Christmas intro🎄
Please dress up like a tree IRL like in the thumbnail.
And do a team up with Wonder Woman
jbiehlable ponies!
Ponies only make sense if Vega is involved
Despite all the great ideas of the crossovers here, we all know snowflame would be the best.
Would be funny
I Hope Linkara does his Part to Preserve Net Neutrality!!
Anyone else surprised the tree isn't being read in the voice of the tree from 'Christmas Rhapsody'?
"Wonder Woman can't want me for the mast of a ship... She can't want me for the beam of a roof... What is there that's left for me?..."
"Otherwise... Wanna see a magic trick?"
CAPT. AMERICA - I get that reference!
Fir Balsam is small and of no account
man this christmas intro is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goood
xterminator 2014 Nice Teen Girl Squad reference!
actualy the o cinda stuck and i was too lazy to edit it
Question: why Mercury? The others are Greek, so why isnt it Hermes?
It's not just this comic. As far as I can tell, every time the god is mentioned in the Golden Age, it's always Mercury. I'm guessing it's just the name most people knew him by in the '40s, sort of like how we mostly refer to Herakles by his Roman name Hercules, even when we use Greek names for the other gods.
Jon Shaffer maybe the writers got the names mixed up, or they used Mercury because it's the more popular name, same reason Hercules is called Hercules and not his greek name Herakles (and you wonder why Hera hates his guts, she had to breastfeed him, wich created the milky way galaxy, the rest of it, and Zeus had the gall to name him, a bastard son, after her) in the TV series and games while the other characters kept their greek names
Jon Shaffer btw Hercules isn't greek either.
TheSpawnfan ah, okay thanks
Captain Marvel's "Shazam!" catchphrase mixes Greek and Roman names too, but at least there you can say it was done for the acronym. "Aahsm!" doesn't really roll off the tongue the same way, so I don't know why they messed it up here.
I wonder if this is an early Joye Murchison or Robert Kanigher story. Wonder Woman not giving the jerk-husband a talking to is quite out-of-character for Marston.
its a holiday miracle. The Xmen and the Fantastic Four are coming home to Papa Marvel.
Did the deal actually happen? God, I hope not.
Yes! No more genetic experiment BS, they are mutants! Let it be known!
Holy crap, I stumbled across this literally minutes after it was uploaded. Don't think I've ever been here this early o,O
Ahh well, this is definitely fun--Wondie is such as wholesome character, especially in the golden age, as you said. It's fun to go back this far back :D
"Wholesome character".
"Don't spank me, I'll be good!"
Well, I mean, it's not chock full of rape and murder like a lot of comics nowadays are, but it's still amusing that you described Golden Age Wonder Woman as "wholesome".
I have to wonder, does Wonder Woman's ability to understand tree language ever come up again?
I don't believe so, but her ability to understand different languages is a recurring theme when writers can remember it.
When Linkara said something about Star Wars and christmas, I genuinely feared that the next episode would be Star Wars: Holyday Special Comic Version...
0:32- Grouch and Meany are some of the best words to describe Trump (Yeah, I know I make to many Trump jokes, but the guy IS that loathsome).
3:04- I'm just glad that this tree didn't make an appearance in the Wonder Woman movie, unless it's one of the war-torn trees in No Man's Land.
6:32- Or worse. These could be the annoying kids from the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special.
8:52- Nothing spells out Christmas better than wife and child abuse. =D
9:52- And I'm suddenly reminded of the male characters in Return to Boggy Creek.
12:33- Again, good thing they left that out in the movie.
13:02- Uh...wrong DC character, buddy.
Let's hope that the Steam Wars Holiday Special isn't as bad as the STAR Wars Holiday Special.
5:50 see the justice league scene where Diana tells hawk girl that she doesn't get cold
5:45 I mean
the thumbnail has probably the cutest Diana I've ever seen. Props!
Also fun fact: diamonds are actually only so expensive because a single corporation, De Beers Group, holds a near-monopoly on them and drives prices way up to make more money! So a small diamond ring costing ten cents in the 40s might be actually correct!
Happy holidays!
And now, thanks to a library copy of Wonder Woman Chronicles, I've actually read this.
Fox: A way better Bdsm story than 50 shades of grey lol
Thats not exactly a high bar to surpass you Totally Spies is a better beds story then 50 Shades. Still a good story though no arguments here.
I love your Christmas opening. Please do more like it
Love that christmas special comic cover ever since the teen titans episode
I love how Superman just walks into a house, and throws that piece of garbage into the wall out of nowhere!
LOVE the Christmas opening!!
I would say the snowman from the horrible Jetlag productions would kidnap those poor children
I'm genuinely disappointed that you made no jokes about that "Lonely Mountain".
♫The trees like torches blazed with light♫
" Merry Christmas, ya *FILTHY* animal!!!"
"And have a happy new year, *TOO!!* "
UltimateFan OfMoviesAndMore#1 Oh come on! I bathed today.
That is the most adorable title card, and Dr. Crafty did an A++ job on it.
Remind me: doesn't Diana have a winter costume in later iterations? Or at least a coat? I swear I've seen her in one somewhere. It might have been the Justice League animated series or JLU.
If so, smart move, because damn she's making be cold just looking at her!
*The following are the musings of a Salty SEAGULL named EARL who just shows up in my posts whenever he feels like it!*
[EARL the Salty SEAGULL:] "I too can speak the language of the trees! I must say it's so nice to see some positive tree representation with Fir Balsam! To think the Golden Age was this progressive when it came to tree representation!"
who do you think is more sexually frustrated: the guy who wrote this story or the one who worte sultry teenage superfoxes?
V. M. Actually the writer had two wives, he was not that sexually frustrated
@@laughingman4402 he also created the lie detector
I don't think I've every caught this episode before, but it's a good one.
Well let’s hope the steam wars version will be better than the star wars holiday special
i read it a while back, it is.
That title card was extraordinarily cute, that is all.
Favorite part this time is the tree stump being the corpse of a tree.
beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, strong as Hercules and swift as Mercury? one of these things is not like the others.
Scubafish Which one is it? Mercury and Hercules are both the Roman names, so it can't be that. And the gender ratio there is 1:1, so not that.
Nieru Not gonna lie. I forgot that Hercules is the Roman name, and Heracles is the Greek name. I blame the Disney movie.... and college finals, but mostly the Disney movie
It should be "Beautiful as Venus, Wise as Minerva, Strong as Herakles, and Swift as Hermes."
@@dragonlord999999 Blame pretty much ALL of Pop culture Greek si way popular than Roman yet Its the Roman Version of Hercules that stuck
@@RabblesTheBinx Well you have two Roman and 2 Greek gods so kind of weird
I gotta say, the Wonder Woman in the thumbnail is adorable. However draws the thumbnails for linkara always does a great job with women.
"Whoever"
Dang, I have never seen a comic die that fast before. One tiny panel and two sentences.
My headcannon is that Frank Miller wrote this and both he and Liefeld time travelled from the Golden Age. Why?
My name is ABIES BALSAMEA but my friends call me FIR BIRSAM. I grew on top of lonely mountain ALL alone. Trees love to MURMUR and WHISPER TOGETHER. But I had no companions until I met WONDER WOMAN WHO understands tree language.
Nay, not enough hookers. And the Nazis lose.
Wonder Woman looks Gorgeous on the title card!
Best thumbnail ever.
That pain scale joke was hilarious
5:38 Well of course, have you never watched Evil Dead?
I'm amazed at the lack of Christmas Rhapsody references in this review. Lewis must've challenged himself to include other riff references without grabbing the both figurative and quite literal low-hanging branch. XD
I love the Christmas theme!
I think maybe the idea with the tree being understood by wonder woman may have been the idea it was a dyad.
All at once the wind began to blow, but Fir Balsam did NOT sway too, and fro.(Hard to do after Wonder Woman yanked her out of the ground by her roots!)
4:11 Lonely mountain? Does this tree see the dragon often?
♫The Pines were roaring on the height
The Winds were moaning in the night♫
A-HA! I get it!
"Try shooting your lunch!" She's talking about projectile vomiting!
Steam Wars Holiday Special? I don't know whether to be nervous of pee-my-pants terrified!
Oh god. There's a Holiday Special for *that*, too?
The horror. The horror!
Shockingly if you want a WW Tree Topper you have to buy a custom lol
My mom was shipping wonder woman with superman back in the 60s. She was so happy when they finally got together.
Always love the christmas version of the theme.
I'm flashing back to the Christmas Tree and Christmas Rhapsody shorts Rifftrax did.
Fir Balsam really doesn't contribute much. Also YIKES ON THAT DOMESTIC ABUSE BEING BRUSHED OVER
Hopefully the Steam Wars Holiday Special is made of 50% less PCP, Acid, and the rest of the drugs.
Funny thing, they gave the Brave & the bold reprint in the latest Loot Crate box in december!
I love that Christmas intro!!!
First off everyone knows Wonder Woman's one true loves is ice cream.
Coolestninja1242 You saying you ship that?
I wonder if Fir Balsam happens to be related to Mrs Hopewell.
(ZAP)
Oh god now I'm hoping the DC movies or HBO Max actually does make a movie or TV show about College girls catching Nazi's
4:30 Esperanto, eh? Interesting. So William Shatner can talk to trees, then. Who knew?
Having lived in Montana and Vermont for multiple years each, I can tell you that, yes, they do have hillbillies on the Canadian border. Oh sweet merciful maple syrup, do they ever!
Given everything I've heard it would be any Canadian US border not on the great lakes or near Vancouver has hillbillies
And thus the seeds were planted for Treevenge
Man WW looks cute in the title card
A Wonder Woman Christmas!
2:46 - Oh dear God.....a comic narrated by a tree....not even a few seconds in and already we're going off the rails on a crazy train....
To Linkara,
first off Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas, second to your question... Did they have parental custody trials back during the Silver Age of Comics?
Sinserely (long time fan) Chris. (Ps. My mother named me Chris after Christopher Reeves, I'm literaly born a Superman Fan :p)
She gave the Tree morning wood.
Best title card ever
Props for the Nat King Cole intro.
So, one of Wonder Woman's super powers is canonically being able to talk to trees -- and understand them. Also, trees are living, thinking beings in the DC verse. Suddenly I'm very glad we don't go in for traditional Christmas trees at my house -- less nightmares. O.o The Nazi-punching is fun as usual, but you think DIANA of all people would be all about kicking the ass of an abusive husband. I know it was a different time, but as you pointed out, Superman was doing it, so. . . At least no one got dragged to hell by a Doom marine?
So Wonder Woman has the same strength as Hercules which Shazam also has the same as well, good to know.
Not so, my robotic friend. There is a picture depicting an arm wrestling match between the two with Shazam wondering out loud how Diana could be so much stronger than him. (I'm guessing it's because Wonder Woman has extensive combat training and thus exercises a lot more than Billy does).
What a coincidence! I was just watching the Stan Lee’s Wonder Woman review!
that's one jolly looking thumbnail
Given its WWII, Diana, Eta Candy, & their group of college girls were probably employed to take up the slack as it was wartime & alot of the men were fighting overseas (provided this comic was released after Pearl Harbor) thus women took over jobs normally reserved for men (alongside male personnel stationed stateside), presumably including border patrol!
Whoa, Wonder Woman and the Tree of Might
Fir Balsam is much less of a drag than his brother, who would keep going on and on about being small and of no account.
Karl Natz would go on to Congress. He lost to Jeb.
Meanwhile, back at Justice League HQ:
Superman: So yeah, Santa exists and people are crazy enough to try to murder him.
Batman: Wow. Think Diana ever runs into people that bananas?
Superman: Nah, I don't think there's THAT many. How do you top that, a psychotic domestic abuser and a Nazi?
Batman: I've fought evil Clowns, Clark, and even I think that's over the top.
Man, remember when beating up fascists wasn't controversial?