Weekly Wonder Woman

Last week, we got the news that there’s a young adult Wonder Woman book series on the way. Okay, technically that was announced in March, but now we have a cover. 

Can’t say I entirely approve of the plot – “What Diana doesn’t know is that Alia is a Warbringer, a direct descendant of Helen of Troy, and she is fated to bring about bloodshed and misery” – but since I’m not going to be reading it, I’m not really sure I can complain.

Meanwhile, DC was busily trademarking “Lasso of Truth” for many purposes, including barbecues. Hmmm.

And in the war between Frank Cho and Greg Rucka, more shots were (almost) fired. Cho, best known for some dodgy superheroine artwork designed to wind people up, has been doing variant covers for Wonder Woman for some time. However, when a bit too much backside started to appear in his drawings, Rucka put his foot down and DC showed Cho the door.

Except on Friday, Cho claimed that he’d been approached by DC to write Wonder Woman once Rucka’s left.

They want me back to Wonder Woman as soon as possible, as soon as the writer is gone. So that’s why I’ve already written a Wonder Woman story to go so that as soon as the writer is gone and I’m pretty sure DC and Marvel want me to draw and it makes sense

He also made a few thinly veiled critiques of Rucka:

It’s not gonna be an origin story because I hate origin stories. Every single Wonder Woman book that you pick there’s a goddam origin story where nothing happens.

Except by Sunday, DC had denied everything. Sighs of relief all round.

And that was the news. After the jump, let’s talk about last week’s Wonder Woman (Rebirth), which, erm, continues Diana’s latest origin story.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #10”

A relatively quiet week for Diana last week. Sure, you could look at the first page of the new Snickers-sponsored comic featuring ‘the Trinity’…

…but that looked quite dull, didn’t it? You could also have got a few tips on how to draw Wonder Woman from Jill Thompson and Nicola Scott.

To help Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Jim Lee’s put a bit of Wonder Woman artwork up for auction and you can watch him drawing Wondy, too:

But really, last week’s big fun was to be had with Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #9, which was a partial celebration of Wonder Woman’s 75th birthday, as well as a recasting of the status quo. A review after the jump, but for now, see if you can spot all the tributes in this rather special splash page. And see who doesn’t get a mention, too…

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #9”

It was Wonder Woman’s birthday on Friday. She’s 75, but being a goddess, it probably doesn’t show. To celebrate, all manner of things have been happening, most notably our Diana being named by the United Nations as its new Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. To celebrate, both Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter turned up to the UN headquarters for a special ceremony.

At the event, DC President Diane Nelson announced that not only would Wondy be available for use by UN agencies, there would also be a new comic in 2017 “to tell the story of empowerment, peace, justice and equality” and which would be available worldwide in multiple languages simultaneously – the first time in DC’s history.

However, not everyone was pleased, with some UN workers protesting that, “It is alarming that the United Nations would consider using a character with an overtly sexualized image at a time when the headline news in United States and the world is the objectification of women and girls.” Hmmm. Obviously they quit reading Wonder Woman when Brian Finch took over art.

Still, a whole bunch of people were pleased that she was 75 at least, at the New York Comic Con panel to celebrate her birthday; perhaps it was coincidence, but Entertainment Weekly has also named her the most powerful and influential superhero or heroine of all time.

Meanwhile, the movies are proceeding apace. Gal Gadot (and Amber Heard) were spotted in Iceland, filming scenes for Justice League, a new photo of our heroine in said movie also getting released.

And despite the fact Wonder Woman isn’t out until next year, Gadot, director Patty Jenkins and production designer Aline Bonetto have been giving interviews to Variety about the movie: Gadot talks about the character, her legacy and the news she’s bisexual (although the movie doesn’t go there); Jenkins promises a lighter film than Batman v Superman, one that’s closer to Superman in tone; and Bonetto discusses designing Themyscira. 

Back in the world of comics, we also learned there’s going to be a prequel series next year called The Odyssey of the Amazons, which will see a plucky group of the female warriors encountering the Norse gods. And an interview with Andy Mangels gave us plenty of details about this year’s Bionic Woman/Wonder Woman crossover comic.

What a fortnight, hey? Happy birthday, Wondy.

After the jump, I’ll be looking at the past two week’s comics featuring the Amazon princess (apparently, it’s definitely princess now): Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #8, Dark Knight III #6, Trinity #2 and Justice League (Rebirth) #7. One of these doesn’t actually feature Wonder Woman for some reason.

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: 75th birthday celebrations, Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #8, Dark Knight III #6, Trinity #2 and Justice League (Rebirth) #7”

Last week being what it was in terms of my workload, particularly thanks to Netflix’s Marvel’s Luke Cage, I didn’t have time to do Weekly Wonder Woman last week, not even on Wonder Woman Wednesday. But WWW is back this week, albeit on another day dedicated to a god of war (Týr Tuesday, anyone?). 

In terms of comics, not much got added to the pile last week – just issue #6 of Justice League (Rebirth), which started off a new storyline in which all the various superheroes and superheroines start off a bit frightened because they’re fighting fear:

Top art, as you can see…

Anyway, it’s mostly all about the two Green Lanterns, particularly Lady Lantern (NB not her real name) who asks the Flash out on a date. Except things don’t quite go as planned as maybe some of the fear they were fighting got stuck inside everyone…

Not much Diana in the issue, since she and Aquaman go off to have a chat about halfway through and aren’t seen again.

Ironically, in the real world, a lot more has been going on with our Wondy. Filming on Justice League has just finished in the UK and director Zack Snyder posted this behind-the-scenes video on the last day. You may recognised a certain superheroine.

Meanwhile, production began last week on Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, a biopic about Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston directed by Angela Robinson and starring Luke Evans as Marston, Rebecca Hall as his wife and Wondy co-creator Elizabeth, and Bella Heathcote as their muse/lover Olive Byrne.

On an obviously completely unrelated subject, current Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka caused a bit of a stir not so long ago by declaring that Diana has always been bisexual, something that pleased current Batwoman author Marguerite Bennett no end, even though it’s not exactly new to anyone who’s been paying attention for the past few decades…

There’s also going to be a set of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor statues based on next year’s movie:

Hot on the heels of the news that there’s going to be a Bionic Woman/Wonder Woman crossover comic in December, we also heard that there’s going to be a Batman/Wonder Woman comic crossover launching digitally on November 23rd. 

But I’ve saved the best for last. There’s going to be a Snickers tie-in with Justice League. How psyched are you for that?

When you’ve finished digesting that news, after the jump is what we should have been looking at around this time last week: Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #3, #5 and #7. And although she didn’t figure in the most recent issues, we can use the time to play catch-up with Action Comics #960-962, which featured a certain Amazon princess/queen (exact current Rebirth status currently undetermined).

Continue reading “Weekly Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #3, 5, 7; Justice League (Rebirth) #6; Action Comics #960-962”