Every week (or fortnight), Weekly Wonder Woman keeps you up to date on everything involving DC Comics’ premier superheroine
Back again! Yes, that fabulous Christian/Anglo Saxon festival of Easter probably isn’t celebrated on Themyscira, but TMINE had the week off anyway. So what happened to Diana in the past fortnight? Let’s find out…
Movie news
Nothing new was revealed about Wonder Woman 2 et al, but Wonder Woman has turned out to be the most profitable superhero movie of 2017, ranking number six in the top ten films with US$252.9 million in profit. That puts it US$52.8 million above Spider-man: Homecoming and even more in front of Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2. Not bad, hey, and certainly better than, erm, Justice League.
TV news
Lynda Carter’s been up to lots of late, including an interview with the New York Times.
Comics news
DC has been celebrating Unicorn Day with the help of Wonder Woman (and the rest of the Trinity):
Saving the world is hard work, and sometimes you just need to take a break and ride a unicorn. #UnicornDay pic.twitter.com/wgrdvcv8cw
— DC (@DCComics) April 9, 2018
DC’s also been asking whether Wonder Woman or Aquaman would win in a fight. Most think Diana would come out top. Duh.
In an effort to raise funds for Puerto Rico, various comics writers and artists are working on a book, Ricanstruction, that you can now pre-order. As well as Puerto Rican superheroine La Borinqueña, our Diana’s set to appear not just on the cover (courtesy of Tony Daniel) but also in a story or two.
Merchandise news
It’s just been confirmed that in the Rebirth Universe, there’s plenty of Wonder Woman merchandise available, including T-shirts for men.
'I am God.'
Mister Miracle #8 Preview. pic.twitter.com/w6wmc21Qgo
— Scott Free. (@EscapoIogist) April 10, 2018
Comic reviews
Three notable appearances in the DC Universe by our Diana in the past fortnight, as well as one not so notable appearance. On the last point, she showed up in Teen Titans #22 to tell Donna Troy to know her place:
But after the jump, we’ll be looking at the biggies: Justice League #42, in which she’s slightly dead; Trinity #21, in which she fights a lot; and Wonder Woman #44, in which she hits Darkseid for a bit.
Justice League #42
Who shot Wonder Woman? Kristin Shepard? No idea, because despite the cover line, the issue doesn’t actually add anything to what issue #41 suggested – it was a bullet ricocheting off Superman that caught Diana unawares. Even though she’s faster than a speeding bullet.
Obviously, we’re in the Rebirth Universe – motto: “Ignore everything you’ve seen before but at the same time assume everything is still canon. Confused? We don’t care and you’re probably paying more attention than we are anyway” – but there’s a lot to unpick in the pages above.
- Amazons are immortal – that’s new in Rebirth.
- As a result, Diana’s never given much thought to dying – well, she did in the nu52, so that’s new
- Diana’s clay origin is a lie her mother told her – that’s nu52, not Rebirth, which hadn’t confirmed until now what her mum had told her, only that Zeus was still her father
- None of her early memories are true – that’s new in any universe, since Rebirth’s “Truth and Lies” storyline only suggested that everything leading up to and after her exit from Themyscira was implanted in her mind by the gods. Although I guess that since her mum had a different hair colour in the nu52, pretty much everything must have been implanted. What else then did she believe that isn’t true? Or that we believe?
- She had a teacher called Clytemnestra who taught her ‘projectiles and bracelets’
- Diana believes in Thanatos, one of the gods of death. He’s a later figure in Greek myth, who pops up in tragedies, but wasn’t part of earlier myths since Hades and Persephone were up to the job by themselves back then. Maybe they had to delegate later on. I’m not sure if that’s relevant but I thought it was interesting
- Diana not only can be injured by bullets, but she takes a long time to heal from them (requiring the wound to be cauterised) and they can be fatal (it’s not just gods who can kill gods, it turns out). Her being injurable by bullets isn’t new, but she healed almost instantly when last she was shot in Rebirth, and her brother Jason took just a few seconds to heal after having his throat slashed. So why the change, beyond the obvious answer of “Christopher Priest doesn’t know Wonder Woman continuity very well”?
- A human doctor might not be able to heal her. I’m assuming the Flash means someone who knows about human medicine, rather than a doctor who is human. All the same, is Diana’s anatomy so different? Does being a goddess/demi-goddess or even just an Amazon make you not just incapable of being healed with a bandage and some antibiotics, it gives you different internal organs? Can only magic heal you? Or is the Flash simply worried that he doesn’t know what Diana’s blood group is?
Those continuity niggles/revelations to one side, though, Priest does at least make Diana prioritise others before her, continue to focus on her mission of love, think about her mother in the moments of her perceived death, and so on. So while he may not know whatever her powers are this week – ‘rolls 3d6 to determine constitution’ – he does at least know her character.
But that’s about it for our Diana, since she spends most of the issue clutching her throat instead of doing anything.
Trinity #21
Plot
Diana and the rest of the Trinity fight the man-beasts, but then Deimos shows up.
Extra notes
Inconsistency is of course the order of the day, but Trinity #21 is at least a relatively inoffensive if typically insipid piece of work by James Robinson. What’s quite fun is that it’s as much about the Trinity having awkward social banter at a party with some wizards as it is about a stupid fight with some ogres and wizards (The Ogre Lords – is Robinson a World of Warcraft fan maybe?).
Slightly odd is Diana’s reference to the Fates:
Diana’s been confirmed as a bit bi, so the odd bit isn’t her imagining what it’s like kissing the Fates. It’s
- That she says they’re the fates ‘of Greek myth’, rather than simply the Fates – as if she thinks it’s all stories. Although maybe in Rebirth, they are, yadda, yadda
- That literally the whole origin story of the nu52/Rebirth Donna Troy has been completely forgotten. Unless Diana’s suggesting kissing Donna might not be that fun? Can. Of. Worms.
Also slightly oddly, Diana’s not hugely fussed about having to face a mutated Steve Trevor in battle.
But, after all those worries about Diana and Superman being depowered that we’ve had in previous issues, it seems that she has a certain greater resistance to magic after all, given she’s the only one the naughty wizard doesn’t truss up with magic.
Generally, though, a bit silly, if moderately enjoyable for a change.
Wonder Woman #44
Plot
Diana and Darkseid have a fight. Jason and Grail have a fight. Darkseid uses his Stargate to reach Themyscira. Grail turns some Amazons into Parademons.
Extra notes
So, interestingly, for a change, Diana does well in a fight. True, she doesn’t actually employ anything worthy of being called a tactic. You think she’s going to, such as when she knocks over a pillar supporting the roof of Darkseid’s temple. But then she doesn’t.
But she does punch very, very hard it seems.
Also worth noting are the new highly legalistic entry rules of Themyscira that Grail laboriously spells out:
Also, either something similar happened in the Rebirth universe or the nu52 Justice League #7 is still canon, since Darkseid remembers being stabbed in the eye by Diana.
All in all, though, despite the issue showing Diana being able to hold her own against Darkseid, not something that really shows her off. She can punch and hit things hard… but that’s about it. Still, for Robinson, that’s pretty good.
