Weekly Wonder Woman

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the month Earth #2 Wonder Woman celebrates in honour of the two-headed god Janus. 

How’s that for a niche nerd intro?

Anyway, as usual, I go away for a couple of weeks and suddenly, all the comics are released – yes, all of them – and all the news is revealed – yes, all of it – so I’m going to have to be brief with my reviews this week.

In news, as well as confirmation that both Lex Luthor and Hippolyta are going to be in Justice League, we’ve had a few new images released from both that movie and Wonder Woman:

Director Patty Jenkins has been chatting a bit about Diana’s motivation, as well as the reason for the WWI setting of Wonder Woman – something that contains a very important word that I will highlight a lot:

“My approach was to focus on telling the story of mechanised war and how that would look to a god visiting our world for the first time. I wanted the audience to understand the horrors that a war on this scale makes possible and how shocking that would be to someone who comes with a strong sense of honor and justice. She doesn’t realise yet just how senselessly dark the world can be.”

And another image has Diana getting her sword for the first time:

What’s notable about that is Entertainment Weekly‘s description of the sword:

In the image, Wonder Woman has broken into the Amazonian armory and is stealing their fabled weapon known as “the god killer.”

That’s new. Of course, ‘the god killer’ sword did feature in the recent Tony Daniel Deathstroke run, and Diana does have a sword capable of splitting atoms, but Diana’s never owned one officially described as ‘the god killer’ before. And why would she need a ‘god killer’ during World War I, I wonder? 

Also, IIRC, the only time Diana’s ever stolen her armour and/or weapons was in… the old Justice League cartoon series. Hmm – <Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In voice>very interesting</Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In voice>.

Talking of said series, though, the new Justice League Action is still going strong, with crazy old James Woods as crazy old Lex Luthor getting the power of Zeus and a certain nu52 power couple still canon:

Meanwhile, in case you ever wanted to know how to draw Wonder Woman in the style of Lynda Carter, here’s Cat Staggs telling you how:

After the jump, let’s talk (briefly I’m afraid) about all the DC comics I spotted since the previous WWW that featured the Amazon princess: Aquaman #13, Batman ’66 meets Wonder Woman ’77 #3, Dark Knight III #7, Justice League (Rebirth) #11, Justice League v Suicide Squad #1-3, Trinity #4 and Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #13.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: the Christmas and New Year releases”

This week, it’s the last Weekly Wonder Woman for a couple of weeks, since Christmas, Saturnalia, Hanukkah and various other holiday celebrations are on their way – Happy/Merry Whatevs to you all. It’s also the last WWW of the year, since 2017 is just round the corner now. 

Despite all of that, the news hasn’t been letting up much in the past week. People are still mighty miffed about Wonder Woman no longer being an honourary UN ambassador. Current Wonder Woman artist Nicola Scott has penned something for The Guardian about the move. Even TIME magazine has had something to say about it – as well as the forthcoming movie – arguing that we need Wonder Woman now.

Talking of movies, there’s also been a new image released from Justice League featuring you-know-who and some of her besties:

Meanwhile, back in the comics world, a solicitation copy of the original Wonder Woman #1 has just been sold for $291,100, which is something of a record. Less happily, Volume 2 of The Legend of Wonder Woman has just been cancelled halfway through being created.

I am sad to announce Legend of Wonder Woman pt 2 has been cancelled. I am surprised & devastated I won’t be able to finish the project.

— Renae De Liz (@RenaeDeLiz) December 16, 2016

No one’s entirely sure why, although certain Tweets by the creators about the forthcoming Odyssey of the Amazons might be the cause – indeed, DC now says it’s down to a “challenging relationship” with De Liz and Dillon caused by what they’ve been Tweeting. Poor little DC.

After the jump, we’ll be looking at the only non-Elseworlds DC comic to feature our Diana last week, Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #12. Worried that you won’t have much to read this fortnight, though? Don’t. As well as a new issue of Trinity as well as the various crossover titles involving Batman ’66, The Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman ’77, tomorrow marks the start of the first big Rebirth crossover: Justice Leauge vs Suicide Squad. How thrilled are you? A little bit? Maybe a teeny bit? Oh, you saw Suicide Squad. Fair dos.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #12”

Well, that didn’t last long, did it? Just two months ago, the UN named Wonder Woman as one of its ambassadors. The move was a bit controversial, even garnering a petition for the UN to rescind her ambassadorship, but the UN still did it – happy 75th birthday, Wondy, we all thought. 

Except now, the UN has dropped her. Possibly because she’s a bit too sexy for them. Or maybe because they never read of the strips. Oh well. I hope she managed to do a little bit of ambassadoring in that time, at least.

Of course, if you think this is the thin end of the wedge, etc, etc, there is naturally a change.org counter-petition to the original petition that the illustrious likes of Phil Jimenez and Susan Eisenberg are supporting:

This is the ambassador the @UN just rejected. Apparently, they know nothing about #WonderWoman (an actual UN ambassador in the comics): pic.twitter.com/MMB0MeUMtf

— Phil Jimenez (@Philjimeneznyc) December 13, 2016

Put this on your list of petitions to sign around Christmas — we’ve got lots of them this year. #WonderWoman #ambassador https://t.co/p0zYEGTp3Y

— Phil Jimenez (@Philjimeneznyc) December 13, 2016

I signed… Will you? #WonderWoman #un #ambassador https://t.co/uZaEI5UD8e

— Susan Eisenberg (@susaneisenberg1) December 13, 2016

In other (Phil Jimenez) news, Wonder Woman will be among the DC, IDW and Archie Comics characters who will feature in Love Is Love, a 144-page anthology of more than 100 stories, the proceeds from which will go to the victims and survivors of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. Organised by Wonder Woman ’77 writer Mark Andreyko, it will includes stories from more than 100 creative teams, including Jimenez, as well as Lost‘s Damon Lindelof and actor Patton Oswalt. The price will be $9.99 and it’ll be on sale December 28.

One of the contributors to the title will be artist Stephen Byrne, who’s also contributing to another new comic coming our way that follows hot on the heels of Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 by being a crossover. Slightly unexpectedly, it’s a Justice League/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers crossover. 

Bet you didn’t see that coming.

But that’s it for this week’s news. After the jump, as well as the latest issues of Justice League (Rebirth) and the aforementioned new arrival Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77, we have another new Wonder Woman title. Indeed, it’s another Wonder Woman ’77 title and another crossover title. 

Brace yourself – you’re going to learn what happened when Diana Prince met Jaime Summers, aka The Bionic Woman…

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman ’77 meets The Bionic Woman #1, Justice League (Rebirth) #10, Batman ’66 meets Wonder Woman ’77 #2”

Perusing comics has been a vaguely odd experience in the past fortnight, since they’ve been full of ghosts. Not literal ones, but ghosts of nu52 past.

The Savage Dawn storyline that saw the death of the nu52 Superman was collected together as a graphic novel, and as I revealed back in July, as planned, it contained two previously unpublished issues of Superman-Wonder Woman. I haven’t bought it because although I’m dedicated to WWW, I’m not so dedicated I’m forking out £13.99 to buy a whole bunch of comics I (largely) already own. But the ‘Hell Yeah Superman-n-Wonder Woman’ Tumblr has published the missing issues, if you want to nip over there to read them.

Interestingly, the two issues are written by Brian Buccellato, rather than normal writer Peter Tomasi, and despite Buccellato largely being occupied with slugfest Injustice: Gods Among Us for the past five years, it’s actually a far better and more sympathetic bit of storytelling than Tomasi ever managed, using the five stages of grief to explore Diana’s feelings about her and Clark’s break-up, and to paper over some of the cracks and illogicality in Tomasi’s work.

It also gives her quite a few kick-arse moments, as well as leading into Greg Rucka’s future reunion of Diana with Steve Trevor:

Elsewhere, Phil Jimenez was teaching everyone to draw Wonder Woman the Phil Jimenez way…

…Oliver Platt and Connie Britton joined the cast of Professor Marston & The Wonder Woman and we got a set photo of Gal Gadot and Saïd Taghmaoui from the slightly larger budgeted Wonder Woman. 

And a whole new cartoon series, Justice League Action, debuted on the Cartoon Network. Three short, 10-minute episodes have aired so far, Diana featuring in the first and the third, and voiced by Rachel Kimsey (The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives and a whole bunch of video games).

The ongoing story is that the Trinity™ are assembling a new Justice League and so are auditioning new members, including the likes of Firestorm; however, the first episode is more concerned with a fight between Wonder Woman, Superman and Parasite. Tonally, it’s similar to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, although Diana didn’t really get to do anything that funny except kick Parasite around a lot.

Notable that’s she wearing the now-universal Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice costume, isn’t it? Everything’s getting harmonised for branding. Well, maybe not everything, judging by this forthcoming title for kids, Superpowers:

Just in case you were worried, some actual new comics for grown-ups were published, too. Most importantly, we saw the launch of a new comic, Batman 66 Meets Wonder Woman 77, which finally allowed the Adam West Batman and the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman to meet – although probably not in the way you were expecting.

And I did say the ghosts of the nu52 earlier. ‘The Lies’ story arc concludes in Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #11, giving us a few returning nu52 characters who might as well be ghosts. Meanwhile, after a delay of just four months, we’ve finally seen the final issue of Justice League of America published – the last nu52 comic to exit the doors of DC, just in time for the end of 2016. All of that after the jump.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 #1, JLA #10, Wonder Woman #11, Justice League Action”

Seventy-fifth birthday celebrations winding down, there have only been a few slices of cake to mop up for Diana in the past week. We’ve had a trailer for the next DC animated movie, Justice League Dark, due out early next year. Based on the series about the magic-oriented equivalent of the Justice League, not only does it feature the usual DC voice artistes (Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, of course), it also includes Matt Ryan, reprising his role of John Constantine from Constantine. It’s R-rated so expect something a little stronger than the immortal ‘bugger off’ uttered by Ryan in the trailer:

But that was it. After the jump, we’ll be looking at Trinity #3 and Justice League (Rebirth) #9. They’re a bit light, too.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Trinity #3, Justice League (Rebirth) #9”