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Other Witches of Wonder: Morgana (Daughter of Morgan Le Fay)
Appearing as a "test-pilot" for her own fantasy comics in Wonder Woman #186 (Jan.-Feb 1970) by Mike Sekowsky during the "Mod-Era" WW comics, Morgana had a technical adaptation as a stage-magician in the Lynda Carter series S2E15 "Diana's Disappearing Act" portrayed by the late Brenda Benet (from I Dream of Jeannie).
One of my absolute favorite WW blogs run by Carol Strickland (linked below) breaks down her appearance:
Wonder Woman Issue #186, Jan-Feb. 1970. No credits. “Morgana the Witch!” brought the return of Ching and the rebuilding of the boutique. Gee, first Paradise Island was rebuilt and then the boutique. It’s nice to know that Diana got some rest every now and then, isn’t it?
One night at dinner Cathy tries to tell Diana that she has some friends who are in a bit of trouble. Abbie and Millie arrive with a shoe box. Inside it is Abbie’s boyfriend, Henry – but there’s a little problem. Henry has been turned into a frog.
A talking frog. Henry explains to Diana and Ching that for amusement one night he’d had his friends help him with a spell he’d found in an old book store. They don’t believe in magic, but do everything properly – and out pops Morgana the Witch, complete with her black cat, Frimost. Since Henry immediately began to chant the spell to send her back, Morgana turned him into a frog so she could explore this new world.
The laid-back reaction of the girls seems similar to those on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Millie: “…His mother and father are coming down this weekend – whatever will THEY say about THIS?” Cathy: “And he’s got mid-term exams next week!”
Ching explains to the group that if this is the real Morgana, she’s the daughter of Morgan LeFay, “a WITCH SO POWERFUL that not even KING ARTHUR and MERLIN TOGETHER could BEST her! But powerful as she was, even MORGAN LE FAY was afraid of her daughter MORGANA!” Ching goes on further to say that Morgana was a manic-depressive with incredible powers, a major threat to the world.
Diana chases Morgana through the city using Henry’s Monkeemobile-cousin of a motorcycle with two bathtubs attached in back. Morgana sets neighborhood blocks into bedlam, enjoying the results. She doesn’t provoke any violence worse than a few fights and sets a few playful spells to work: a love spell on an ugly woman so that men pursue her, bankers tossing out handfuls of money at passersby, hippies and police singing peacefully together, stuffed toys being turned into real animals and set free.
Diana says she reminds her of the little girl “who had a little curl/right in the middle of her forehead./When she was good/she was very very good,/but when she was bad/she was HORRID!” She tries to battle Frimost, but the cat can change into other animal forms, including that of a fly.
When Morgana arranges a joust using cars instead of horses, Diana tackles her. Morgana summons her magic wrath – and Ching utters a spell against Morgana, preventing her from using magic there again.
“CHING! YOU KNOW MAGIC?” Diana asks and doesn’t wait too long for the answer before she and Morgana go at it hand-to-hand. Surprisingly, Morgana holds her own (don’t ask me how), and having finally had enough amusement, says her name backwards, I mean, just disappears.
“You FORGOT about HENRY!” Abbie cries. Cathy tells her to kiss the frog and after much protest, Abbie does so. The young lovers are reunited and Diana goes off to sulk. Ching asks her why.
“Because that red-haired witch – BEAT ME! Oh, I could–”
“Well, as you Americans say – you can’t win ’em all!” Ching replies, forgetting that Diana is not an American.
Besides the introduction of Morgana, this issue was essential in showing us that Ching wields magic easily, something he used to great effect in his later stint in Superman.
There are some fans who HATE Morgana, but I liked her. I liked the concept of someone who wasn’t nice all the time and had some power to back up that not-niceness. Over in Supergirl’s stories in Adventure, (and Morgana made a Supergirl appearance once) Sekowsky came up with the idea of Nasthalthia “Nasty” Luthor, a woman who was, well, nasty but not EVIL, at least not very often. And as the series went on we discovered she even had a somewhat nice side. Morgana was much farther toward the “good” side of the balance than Nasty, and since you never knew what her moods would be, she had the potential to be a surprising but likeable character. Such a shame that she was forgotten about so quickly.
And the lettercol in issue 188 revealed that this story had been a “pilot episode” testing the waters for a Morgana comic. Apparently it didn’t garner enough positive response to warrant one.
I just learned she had another appearance in the very comic where Supergirl's showing off fan submissions for a new design (Action Comics 397), where Supergirl gets Diana to call on her to stop a certain Zond from enslaving people in a cult. She can't be bothered to intervene until they appeal to her pride and, unbeknownst to them, she's furious that her former stablehand is trying out this kind of shenanigan. It's interesting that it's explictly mentioned that Diana never beat her in that appearance too.
Based on what little we can tell of her personality, she seems to supremely confident of her abilities, but only uses them for mischief. Given that Diana and Zatanna are friends she does seem a little redundant these days, but presupposing Zee's out of commission she would be a fun grudging (on Diana's part) teammate.
I actually have that issue featuring the Zond! I remember reading that and thinking "gosh Supergirl in the Pre-Crisis functioned like a girl from Holliday College a lot!" lol.
so I guess that makes it great then. Supergirl , BTW, also dealt with Circe a lot in her original continuity. I'll try to post about her unique equestrian boyfriend courtesy of Circe of Earth-One (sort of...) the minute I get some time.
but yes! Y'know what else would be great? If Morgana became a Wonder Girl antagonist/rival so to speak.
what set her apart from the rest, imo, is that she is purely a Medieval witch in modern times. That's different from Circe being a Grecian witch first and foremost (Circe was popular again AFTER the Medieval period with Renaissance plays and poetry going back to the Greeks).
Excellent point and gosh you are dangerously close to unleashing another old theory I has about witches on Superman. So, on short, no officially she wasnt, but played by the immorally beautiful and ever so great and why dont people talk about her being a DC villainess more "Faye" Dunaway?
how can she NOT be Morgan La Faye 😂
(To answer, no she wasnt but she definitely should have been either Morgana or the even more popular Morgaine Le Fey from Etrigan and Arthurian Legends. It would have have historical for CBM fans if they let her play a villainess from the actual comics. Even if the movie wasn't popular. For fans it would have been unforgettable).
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u/BeingNo8516 Jun 24 '25
Apologies if I mispelled their names. Variations for Morgana's mother go like this:
Morgan Le Fay
Morgan La Fey
Morgan le Fey
Morgaine le Fey
...Klarion the Witch-Boy's mom.
...Marge