Wonder Woman

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was collected together as a graphic novel, and as I revealed back in July, as planned, it contained two previously unpublished issues of Superman-Wonder Woman.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”

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”