Diana Prince as the New Wonder Woman

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Charlie Adlard

2012-02-10T10:46:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

Given the hubbub over Tony Moore suing Robert Kirkman for some of that sweet Walking Dead money (smart on his part to wait until AMC was firmly entrenched and the matter worth pursing,) I thought it might be a good day to spotlight the artist of nearly a hundred issues of that book, Charlie Adlard.

It really isn't a surprise that Adlard is enough of a Batman guy to place the rest of the team under his wing, but it is a nice surprise to see his JLA all in full figure and looking solid in color. I'm so, so glad Adlard didn't do any hacky Zombie JLA crap like one might expect from Arthur Suydam or Sean Phillips (or not...)

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

The Flash: Rebirth #2 (July, 2009)

2012-02-07T00:46:00.000-06:00

Barry Allen had turned up alive after nearly a quarter century of comics had passed him by while trapped in the Speed Force. Unbeknownst to him, a plan was established amongst his friends and family for just such an occurrence. For instance, his former superior at the Central City crime lab, Captain Desmond Frye, was notified by Iris Allen that her husband was back from his stint in a "witness protection program" and ready to return to duty. How was that possible? "Wonder Woman used her government connections to account for your absence over the last several years... The Justice League assumed you'd want to pick up where you left off." It would have been simple to allow Batman to be the one waving that magic wand, as he'd done to create the Diana Prince identity at the Department of Metahuman Affairs that established those "government connections," but it was nice that the Amazing Amazon got credit for the solid instead.

"Dead Run" was by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.

1995 DC Comics Wonder Woman Book "Dump"

2012-02-04T00:00:00.008-06:00

Click To Enlarge

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a while now. When I was a retailer at my first shop, I promoted the William Messner-Loebs/Mike Deodato Jr. run pretty hard. "Bad Girls" were in fashion, so sales of the book were climbing steadily. Unfortunately, both creators jumped ship to work on Marvel Comics' The Mighty Thor, and John Byrne took over the book. While I wasn't thrilled with the change, DC Comics provided me with a swell bunch of promotional materials, so I made use of them. The most interesting was this Wonder Woman Counter Dump, a one piece cardboard unit made to display comics directly on a counter top (preferably near the register for maximum POP appeal.)

When left completely flat, the piece is about the length of two comic books, so Diamond Comic Distributors must have shipped them in outer boxes (meaning the meter-ish long boxes that hold two more boxes of two stacks each for a total of four stacks of comics.) I must have folded mine in half for storage, since the Wonder Woman symbol is pulled loose at the perforation (and pretty banged up in the scan as a result.) The backdrop is a metropolitan skyline, but whenever I recall this piece, it's as a dystopian cityscape. John Byrne had decided to move Wonder Woman from Boston to a fictional stand-in for San Francisco called Gateway City, hence the bridge. However, he drew the city as something of a Metropolis/Gotham hybrid with towering skyscrapers and Roman centurion statues that stops dead at the water. My memories then perceive the city as falling apart like the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, because of the inorganic divide, muddy coloring, and the erratic, asymmetrical, crude buildings that look like they've been chewed on.

The back of the dump is solid maroon, featuring the stands retailers were meant to pop out to support the dump.

The front section was a shot of Wonder Woman flying against a better colored and rendered set of buildings (note another centurion.) Byrne's following had been thinning in the Image period, so (and I can't imagine such an egotist admitting it) he was clearly experimenting with a busier style reminiscent of Todd McFarlane. While not as pleasing to the eye as his prime material, it was a lot more interesting than the hacked out work he would start churning out for Marvel later in the decade (pioneered in the second half of his three year run on Wonder Woman.) Is it just me, or does she kind of look like Anna Paquin*?

Click To Enlarge

Diana is wearing a short-lived, simplified version of her costume with extended bracelets and two large stars on her briefs. If you look a bit below her feet, you can see the fold line where the figure was meant to protrude from the backing to hold at best a half dozen comics for display. Despite my criticisms of Byrne, this was a nifty piece, so I never had the heart to punch out the white spaces around Diana and fully assemble it. Besides, this dump was made from cardboard thinner than a backing board, so it would have been torn to shreds within a few weeks. Instead, I folded it face-out and put it inside a sturdy Wizard Magazine dump through about #104. Sales spiked with Byrne's early issues. I probably lost some "Bad Girl" subscribes, but I picked up mainstream super-hero ones, so in the end things evened out. I figure the promotional materials helped a lot!

*An unlikely model, as she was only about 13 at the time. Ugh, I'm old.

The Huntress #3 (February, 2012)

2012-01-31T00:00:00.004-06:00

Moretti's yacht docked at Torre Annunziata, and was met by a squad of polizia cars squarely in the gangster's pocket. Huntress looked on. "They're protecting Naples' biggest mobster? This country is totally corrupt." Huntress beat up on some cops with more silly trick crossbow bolts, so that she could sneak aboard the boat to eavesdrop. Shame she didn't have a parabolic device handy, instead of the weaponized Nerf products. This led to Huntress calling her ~~exposition device~~ reporter acquaintance, who connected comments about "the Chairman" to Hassan, an oil sheik from Kufra. All those trafficked girls were another national export of the Magreb [sic] breakaway state. Hassan and his sons were negotiating asylum as their country was being overtaken by the Arab Spring.

In a cute if forced moment, Helena stared down a pair of dogs. "Never was much of a dog person. More of a cat person."

At the ancient ruins of a gladiator arena more valuable than the lives of anyone present, Huntress defaced the historic architecture as a distraction while breaking up a clandestine meeting between young Ibn Hassan and local authorities. Huntress beat up some more stooges, shooting a plain arrow through one guy's arm. Huntress was seized from behind by a large bodyguard wearing a ghutrah, who called himself "the Lion of Kufra." The guy was strong, but a nerve pinch finally took him out.

In an interlude during that match, Ibn Hassan escaped to Moretti's yacht. Meanwhile, the senior Hassan was back in Kufra, screwing dissidents' daughters while working out the final details of screwing his country before screwing off to Italy. Just so everyone knows he's the baddest bad guy...

"Crossbow at the Crossroads: Part Three" was by Paul Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell. It wasn't the exact same plot as #1 like #2 was, but was still very much like whole chunks of the video market for action movies in the heyday of VHS. Huntress fought someone with a bit of sand from a land of sand, but he was nothing special. This mini could be retro cool if it were sexy or funny or amusingly bad-- anything but strictly perfunctory. The art is consistent, though I'm not as high on it, probably because I'm so disdainful toward the dull, thin story being depicted as endlessly spinning wheels.

New 52's Day

Aquaman #4 (February, 2012) @ Justice League Detroit
Green Lantern Corps #4 (February, 2012) @ DC Bloodlines
Stormwatch #4 (February, 2012) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Ramon Fernandez Bachs

2012-01-27T00:00:00.001-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

The was already a good drawing of the Magnificent Seven, but highlighting my two favorites (oh... and Batman... I guess...) makes it that much better.

JLA 100 Project

Tom Mandrake @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Mike Kunkel @ Justice League Detroit
Alan Davis @ Power of the Atom

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

2011 Wonder Woman art by Timothy Green II

2012-01-24T00:00:00.001-06:00

Click To Enlarge

Also check out DCnÜ Wonder Woman art by Timothy Green II. She looks like a crazy pissed off Xena-fied bitch, which per Carol A. Strickland, is exactly right. That given, I've passed on buying the first Azz/Chang arc in hardcover, so we'll see if they can sneak into my buy pile a few months on as a heavily discounted paperback...

Timothy Green II

Aquaman @ Justice League Detroit
Deathstroke @ DC Bloodlines
Martian ManHunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Mark Bagley

2012-01-21T01:15:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

"We want our book back!" Bagley was drawing the title during its "former sidekicks and c-listers" days, so it stands to reason he might have welcomed Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and Wonder Woman!

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

Sensational Comics for April, 2012

2012-01-18T00:40:00.000-06:00

Sensational Links:

George Perez: Post-Crisis Wonder Woman cover from Amazing Heroes

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #8
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO and CLIFF CHIANG
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 B&W Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale APRIL 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
To march on Hell itself, you’re going to need some sensational weapons – and Wonder Woman intends to call in a few family favors to get them! Armor of Hephaestus? Check. The pistols of Eros? Check! But will any of it be enough to wrest an innocent soul from the grasp of Hades? And what does Hermes know that Diana doesn’t…yet?

I still haven't read an issue, but still have some issues, in the analytical sense. Still, I agree here as I did during the Rucka run that it makes a lot more sense for the Greek Pantheon of today to dress in Gucci than togas. The pistols of Eros' aim is true.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #8
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by CARLOS D’ANDA
Backup story art by GARY FRANK
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by MIKE CHOI
1:200 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale APRIL 18 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US

In the five years that the Justice League has been a team, Green Arrow has never once been a member. And he intends to rectify that right here, right now! One member against his candidacy: Aquaman!

Plus, in “The Curse of Shazam” part 2, Billy arrives in his new foster home just as an ancient evil is uncovered halfway across the world.

This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

I find it funny that the first hero to join the Justice League after its formation is now going to be one of the last in the new timeline. Good show of taste on Aquaman's part.

THE INFINITE CRISIS OMNIBUS HC
Written by BILL WILLINGHAM, DAVE GIBBONS, GEOFF JOHNS, GREG RUCKA and JUDD WINICK
Art by JUSTINIANO, RON WAGNER, IVAN REIS, MARCO CAMPOS, JOE PRADO, MICHAEL BAIR, JACK JADSON, JOE BENNETT, RAGS MORALES, JESUS SAIZ, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, PHIL JIMENEZ, ANDY LANNING, CLIFF RICHARDS, DAVID LOPEZ, TOM DERENICK, KARL KERSCHL and others
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
On sale JUNE 27 • 1,152 pg, FC, $150.00 US

This incredible omnibus hardcover collects the many titles from the 2005 event that rocked the DC Universe, including DAY OF VENGEANCE #1-6, the DAY OF VENGEANCE INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL #1, RANN/THANAGAR WAR #1-6, RANN/THANAGAR WAR INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL #1, THE OMAC PROJECT #1-5, DC COUNTDOWN #1 and WONDER WOMAN #219.
OMAC robots are rampaging, magic is dying, villains are uniting, and a war is raging in space. And in the middle of it all, a critical moment has divided Earth’s three greatest heroes: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It’s the DCU’s darkest day, and long-lost heroes from the past have returned to make things right in the universe...at any cost

I'm unclear. Does this reprint the actual mini-series in the title?

DC UNIVERSE: LEGACIES TP
Written by LEN WEIN • Art by SCOTT KOLINS, ANDY KUBERT, JOE KUBERT, GEORGE PEREZ, J.H. WILLIAMS III and others
Cover by ANDY KUBERT and JOE KUBERT
On sale MAY 9 • 336 pg, FC, $24.99 US
Acclaimed writer Len Wein chronicles the DC Universe’s epic history in this title spanning five generations of heroes starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Justice League of America, The Teen Titans and more. Collecting the ten-issue miniseries!

It's that bland mini-series that mildly revised a continuity that has now ceased to exist! It's way less irrelevant than those Flashpoint tie-ins!

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #8
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
1:25 B&W Variant cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale APRIL 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.

In the aftermath of the Teen Titans’ assault on N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s headquarters, there’s no time to celebrate because Wonder Girl is missing! Red Robin desperately tries to find her, but he’s got his hands full, as Superboy has announced his decision to lead the team, Solstice is still dealing with the devastating revelations about her past and Kid Flash is getting glimpses of a dangerous future that he thinks he recognizes!

2011 "The Thing and Wonder Woman ...The Lost Issue!"

2012-01-15T00:00:00.001-06:00

Click For More!

Some of my favorite comics as a kid were character jam books like DC Comics Presents and Marvel Team-Up. The blogger known simply as Ross must have enjoyed the same books, and quite a bit more than I did, since he devotes insane amounts of time creating new crossovers through MS Paint. ...The Lost Issues! sees him manipulates libraries of images into proposals for team-ups that never happened in such long cancelled titles as The Brave and The Bold, Marvel Two-In-One and Super-Team Family. Here, he takes two George Pérez covers involving serpents produced years apart and crafts a super spiffy combo. Click here for more!

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project Donna Troy charity art gallery

2012-01-13T00:00:00.001-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

"The Wonder Of It All" editorial by George Pérez (1986)

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-06:00

From the inside front cover of Wonder Woman #1 (February, 1987):

It's a long way from Titans' Tower to Paradise Island. I'm sure there are some readers out there who are surprised to find me here. After all, I've had stints on some very successful series such as The New Teen Titans and Crisis On Infinite Earths (both with my friend and longtime partner, Marv Wolfman). What could have possessed me to take on the assignment of revitalizing one of DCs oldest established characters, especially one whose past sales record had not set the industry on fire? Why such a gamble?

Blame John Byrne.

It was the fall of 1985 as I gleefully stalked into DC Comics' offices at 666 Fifth Avenue. Crisis was done, finished. Finally, I was free of the monthly grind. One-shot stories, graphic novels, posters—yep, that was it for me for the next five years. But then I heard the talk. The talk of big things happening. Of new beginnings. John Byrne had been commissioned to revamp and revitalize Superman. Frank Miller's Dark Knight was inspiring the company to consider new directions on Batman.

And of course, I knew that Wonder Woman was also scheduled for an overhaul. After all, Marv and I had "de-evolved" her in the last issue of Crisis. I had initially been asked to take over the new Wonder Woman. After all, I had expressed interest in doing a story with the Amazon Princess before her original book's demise, but now my schedule wouldn't allow it.
I walked into editor Janice Race's office to find out about the future of Diana Prince. I was curious to learn who was going to draw her. Superman had Byrne and Ordway. Batman had Miller and Davis (and later Mazzucchelli). Wonder Woman had...

No one.

A writer, Greg Potter, had been selected but no established artist wanted to handle the new series. After exhaustive searches, it seemed that Wonder Woman would have to be assigned to an unknown. Now, while that may have proven successful, it wouldn't give the book the clout and hopeful fan interest that established names seem to bring, and Wonder Woman needed all the help she could get.

I thought of John Byrne—and of Superman. What a great coup for DC. A top talent and fan-fave on their premier character.

As Janice's eyes looked straight at me, an uncontrollable force rushed from my gut and up through my throat. It forced tongue, lips and vocal chords to act in dramatic unison. "Janice," I heard myself say, "What if I took on Wonder Woman for the first six months— just to get her out of the starting gate?"

I had never been kissed by an editor before. I guess I should thank John Byrne for that, too.

Little did I realize what a chain reaction would follow. Suddenly, there was no stopping that mouth of mine. Ideas spilled forth like a bursting dam. Other creative people got caught in the enthusiasm and volunteered ideas and opinions. There was a divine madness stirring, and at the center of it all was Wonder Woman. After over forty years, the Princess of Paradise Island was finally getting people enthused.

Changes started coming fast and furious. Suddenly, a temporary six-month stay became an unlimited commitment. Janice Race left for other endeavors and Karen Berger took over the editing chores. It was thought a woman's input was vital for the success of the series featuring comicdom's most well-known heroine, and Karen being one of the most creative and respected editors around didn't hurt matters any (check out Swamp Thing, The Legion of Super Heroes, and Blue Beetle just to name a few of her titles).

The turning point, however, really came when Karen, Greg and I agreed that what made Wonder Woman unique was both her feminism and the Amazon legends with their roots in Greek Mythology. This mythical and mystical angle definitely made Diana something other than a "female Superman."

A lot of research went into this first issue, and my bookshelves are full of reference material on mythology, Greek hairstyles, armor, clothing and even attitudes of the time. Some compromises were made where different references contradicted each other, but no decision was made without thought. We all have fallen in love with this project and want everyone to share in our excitement.

We would also like to take the time to thank everyone who has been so supportive and helpful in getting this book off the ground. Special thanks to P. John Palmer, for research material and insight into the Amazon myth; to Gloria Steinem and Jenette Kahn for a feminist perspective that helped direct this series; to Marv Wolfman, for his support, friendship and getting me hooked on Greek mythology in the first place; and to Michael Margo for the invaluable loan of his encyclopedia. And, of course, to John Byrne.

Upcoming issues will deal further with the history of Paradise Island and of Diana herself. Who is this Diana the Princess was named after? Where did the gun come from? Why does Diana's costume resemble an American flag? For the answers to these and other questions, keep your eyes peeled every 30 days for the next installment of the New Wonder Woman.

Next issue: Steve Trevor as you have never seen him before...The search for Ares begins... And, believe it or not, Etta Candy, too.

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Joseph Michael Linsner

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

It's a shame DC never managed to get any major work out of Joe Linsner, a guy I was a serious fan of back in the '90s, before all that questing pagan cheesecake hoodoo got in the way of bitchin' modern horror short stories. Anyway, it's sweet art for a worthy cause, plus you'll have to click the pic to see who exactly Wonder Woman has lassoed...

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

2000 Warner Bros. Studio Store Exclusive JLA Mug

2012-01-04T05:08:00.000-06:00

Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

This embossed coffee mug was bought for me as a present from the late, great WB Store. It has stored loose change and/or pens ever since. For the record, only the figures are raised, not the JLA logo, but this is some of the most pronounced embossing I've ever felt. Very lumpy, at various degrees, that could almost be measured to a centimeter at the most extreme points.

Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

Art appears to be by the late Eduardo Barreto. Pictured left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Wonder Woman, the Flash (presumably Wally West,) Batman, Superman and Golden Mullet Aquaman.

Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Dan Jurgens

2012-01-01T00:46:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and Superman; all under the watchful of the the JLA Satellite!

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

2002 DC Direct Justice League Animated: Wonder Woman Maquette

2011-12-28T00:00:00.002-06:00

JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED: WONDER WOMAN MAQUETTE
Sculpted by Karen Palinko
Pre-solicited; in stores March 13, 2002.

DC Direct presents its first ever line of Maquettes, beginning with the JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED: WONDER WOMAN MAQUETTE! Featuring the super-heroes as they will appear in the exciting new Justice League WB Animation series appearing on the Cartoon Network in the Fall of 2001. Throughout 2002, DC Direct will exclusively produce Maquettes of all the characters from the JLA Animated series including: Martian Manhunter, Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, the Flash, and Batman…at a very affordable price! Stands approximately 9 1/8" overall on a base. Packaged in a 4-color box.

Retailers, please note: The JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED: WONDER WOMAN MAQUETTE is manufactured to order, so only limited quantities may be available for reorder. Final product may differ from image shown. This item is pre-solicited. Orders must be placed with those for December-released product, solicited in next month's issue of Previews.

FC, Maquette $89.95

2002 DC Direct Wonder Woman Snowglobe

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

WONDER WOMAN SNOWGLOBE
Sculpted by Tim Bruckner; designed by Terry Dodson
Advance-solicited; in stores February 27, 2002.

Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess and warrior for peace, is featured in the dynamic new WONDER WOMAN SNOWGLOBE! Poised for action, her bracelets raised to ward off the bullets of her foes, the WONDER WOMAN SNOWGLOBE is set upon a Greco-Roman-style base decorated with the Golden Lasso, sword, battleaxe and helmet of the Amazing Amazon's arsenal. The WONDER WOMAN SNOWGLOBE stands approximately 7 7/8" high x 3 3/4" wide x 3 3/4" deep. Packaged in a 4-color box.

Retailers, please note: The WONDER WOMAN SNOWGLOBE is manufactured to order, so only limited quantities may be available for reorder. Final product may differ from image shown. This item is advance-solicited. Orders must be placed with those for November-released product, solicited in this month's issue of Previews.

FC, Snowglobe $79.95

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Marat Mychaels

2011-12-23T01:20:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

A.K.A. Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his back-up, apparently...

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

The Huntress #2 (January, 2012)

2011-12-20T00:00:00.002-06:00

Between the garbage strike and the general Italian permissivo atteggiamento, the Huntress had an easy time sneaking into a polizia station to access their computers. While eating a stale (but still delicious and vastly superior to stateside) sfogliatelle, Huntress learned that the men she'd beaten had been murdered. This limited her ability to connect them to the head of the sex trafficking ring, but they happened to be picked up by the same undertaker. A (dubiously uniformed) female officer caught the Huntress and chased her off with several gunshots.

Mr. Moretti relieved some tension with one of his recent acquisitions, then assured a mafia representative on the phone that the violent "pervert... leather type..." wouldn't interfere with any more business.

Huntress pinned the sleeves of the undertaker to an upright coffin, a pretty questionable feat for a crossbow, then extracted information from him by threatening his genitalia (with just the one bolt this time.)

Helena met with those newspaper people, who I guess were named Alessandro and Christina, over coffee and pastries. How does she keep her figure? Probably by keeping her human contact down to two pages of exposition about Moretti's gun running and sex trafficking. "...We need to break the connections... Before all the refugees from the Arab revolutions get caught up in them, and trade life under dictatorships for lives in brothels."

On a ship at the docks, Huntress beat up two whole guards, one of whom was beating on a human slave first, then drove all the girls off in a schoolbus while blowing up the ship with an explosive arrow.

The next day, Helena spied on Moretti as he traveled from his villa to a small boat. She fired a tracer crossbow bolt at the ship, then tracked it with a handheld GPS. "I really don't like men who use little girls... See you soon, Moretti. This hunt isn't over."

"Crossbow at the Crossroads: Part Two" was by Paul Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell. I liked it better when it was called "Crossbow at the Crossroads: Part One." It's like they just rearranged the pages. It still looks good, and I'd like to give a shout out to Andrew Dalhouse for managing softer, feminine coloring suited for a purple-clad vigilante without undermining the darker aspects of the story. However, that story has not progressed in the slightest, and reads like a silly '80s action movie without a sense of stakes or accomplishment for the protagonist. There's even a mild, halfhearted exploitation vibe. The Guillem March cover is this comic in a nutshell: an otherwise attractive image marred by an incompetently positioned bo staff obscuring the heroine's face. I want to like it, but it undermines itself in obvious ways.

New 52's Day featuring Wildstorm

Aquaman #3 (January, 2012) @ Justice League Detroit
Stormwatch #3 (January, 2012) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Captain Atom: Armageddon #8 (July, 2006) @ Power of the Atom
DC/Wildstorm DreamWar #1-5 (2008) @ DC Bloodlines

2008 Mark Texeira Wonder Woman Commission

2011-12-18T01:51:00.000-06:00

Click To Enlarge

One of my longtime favorite artists and characters, though not a combination I always enjoy. Tex has a particular take on women that's a bit too-- what's the word I'm looking for-- '80s hair metal whore-- to suit the heroine's superheroine. Here though, I love Diana's slight smile and gentle, realistic (referenced?) face. She's also got those thick, well muscled Harry Peter legs, and isn't especially eroticised or stand-offish. A damned nice piece, offering a Wonder Woman with more human spirit than most. My girlfriend printed this out and taped it to a filing cabinet she surrendered to me, along with other art, so it's become a fixture of my blogging workspace.

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Alex Ross

2011-12-16T00:00:00.004-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

It ticks me off that Alex Ross favored Johnny Come Lately members Superman and Batman over Aquaman and the Manhunter from Mars, but at least he didn't shoehorn Captain Marvel or Plastic Man in there again. Wonder Woman is also front and center, a big win for the Amazing Amazon!

Hero's JLA 100 Project Friday

The Atom & Aquaman by Mark Buckingham @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter by Jeff Lemerie @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Zatanna by Chrissy Zullo @ Justice League Detroit

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

Sensational Comics for March, 2012

2011-12-13T00:00:00.002-06:00

Sensational Links:

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #7
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 B&W Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.
Remember the myth of Orpheus? Wonder Woman certainly does. And we hope she’s learned its lessons well, because someone she dearly loves is in Hell’s clutches – and she’s the only one who can mount a rescue mission! But Hades has no mercy, even for his own family – in fact, especially for his own family – and he doesn’t intend to let her walk out of his domain without paying a terrible price!

Uncle Ayholes?

JUSTICE LEAGUE #7
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by GENE HA and GARY FRANK
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by GARY FRANK
1:200 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale MARCH 21 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.

Now that the team’s origin story is complete, starting with this issue we shift to the present-day Justice League! What has changed? Who has joined the team since? Featuring artwork by Gene Ha, the story also reintroduces the team’s greatest champion: Steve Trevor!

Also starting in this issue: “The Curse of Shazam!” featuring a story by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank! Discover Billy Batson’s place in DC Comics – The New 52 as we reveal his all-new origin story!

This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

Is it just me, or is this cover kind of funky and slight for a Lee/Williams joint? Gene Ha's preview pages were some of the worst I've seen from him, as well. Still, an emphasis on Wonder Woman stuff piques my interest, and I'm very interested in Gary Frank on Captain Marvel...

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #25-26
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by MIKE S. MILLER, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover #25 by MIKE S. MILLER
Cover #26 by HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
#25 on sale MARCH 7
#26 on sale MARCH 21 • FINAL ISSUE
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Lex Luthor and the remaining super powered heroes on Earth have sprung their trap on Brainiac...and the real war begins! The events in this issue will be talked about for years to come!
The battle that DCUO Legends has been building to for over a year is finally here: Brainiac versus The Man of Steel! But will even Superman be powerful enough to stop this universal evil? And what stunning role will Lex Luthor play in the events? Find out in the stunning series conclusion!

JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 1: ORIGIN HC
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
On sale MAY 2 • 176 pg, FC, $24.99 US
Comics superstars Geoff Johns and Jim Lee make history with the first hardcover collection of a DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 series! In a universe where Super Heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the World Greatest Heroes! Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg unite for the first time to form the JUSTICE LEAGUE! Don’t miss the thrill-a-minute hardcover collecting the first six issues of the best selling comic!

This should be good for what, a half-hour's entertainment value?

WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1: BLOOD HC
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by CLIFF CHIANG and TONY AKINS
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale MAY 30 • 160 pg, FC, $22.99 US

The first six issues of the critically acclaimed new WONDER WOMAN series are collected in hardcover! Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life – and when Wonder Woman learns who her father is, her life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera – so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told? Superstar writer Brian Azzarello creates a new direction for one of DC’s best-known heroes, with spectacular art by Cliff Chiang and Tony Akins!

I'm still resistant. Everybody use the comments to convince me to buy this thing.

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS VOL. 2 HC
Written by GERRY CONWAY and BOB ROZAKIS
Art by MIKE VOSBURG, RICH BUCKLER, DICK DILLIN, ALEX SAVIUK, JOE ORLANDO and others
Cover by RICH BUCKLER
On sale MAY 16 • 208 pg, FC, $24.99 US
Don’t miss this second helping of tales of villainy from SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #11-15, DC SPECIAL #27, DC SPECIAL SERIES #6, SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #13-14, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #166-167 and a story from CANCELLED COMICS CAVALCADE #2.

I bought the first volume based on solicitation copy recycled from an aborted Showcase Presents volume that stated all these issues were to have been included there. Obviously they were not, including the previously unpublished final story. I've got to decide whether I want to punish DC fir screwing me, while punishing myself by not getting a rare story finally completed (?) in full color...

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ALL-STAR SQUADRON VOL. 1 TP
Written by ROY THOMAS and GERRY CONWAY
Art by RICH BUCKLER, DICK GIORDANO, JERRY ORDWAY, ADRIAN GONZALES and DON HECK
Cover by JOE KUBERT
On sale APRIL 18 • 528 pg, B&W, $19.99 US
In these stories from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #193 and ALL-STAR SQUADRON #1-18, the All-Star Squadron has been founded on Earth II by the lost heroes from the JSA to stop Per Degaton from delivering mystic weapons to the Axis powers!

I'll have a tough time turning this down, assuming I even can!

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #7
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
1:25 B&W Variant cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.

Are the Teen Titans ready to stage an assault on N.O.W.H.E.R.E.? No way! But as Red Robin explains to the rest of his team, they’ll have to rally to save the Superboy from certain death. And through all of this, only Solstice learns a secret Red Robin has been hiding that could tear the team apart just as they have finally come together!

TEEN TITANS: PRIME OF LIFE TP
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by NICOLA SCOTT, EDUARDO PANSICA and others
Cover by NICOLA SCOTT and DOUG HAZLEWOOD
On sale APRIL 11 • 200 pg, FC, $19.99 US
Collecting TEEN TITANS #93-100! Strange disappearances on an archeological dig prompt Wonder Girl’s mother to ask the team for help – but they’ll have to defeat an ancient menace first! With new teammate Solstice at their side, the teenaged heroes must drive demonic forces from our world or be conquered!

One of the few pre-boot trades I think is viable, thanks to Damian Wayne douchieness and sweet art.

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #50
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E • FINAL ISSUE

In this awesome 50th issue, questions are answered! Mysteries are solved! The Tiny Titans may be one step closer to becoming Super Heroes! This issue may change your life! Plus, it’s highly recommended by Franco’s mom!

Final Issue? That'll break some hearts.

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Rob Osborne

2011-12-11T00:44:00.000-06:00

Click To Enlarge

It's the Fetal League of Utero: J'Onn J'Onzz, Hal Jordan, Diana Prince, Barry Allen and Arthur Curry!

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

The Top 20 Wonder Woman Covers of the 1980s

2011-12-07T00:06:00.002-06:00

It was the best of time, and the worst of times. Wonder Woman had some of her finest covers while the sales (and by some accounts, the stories) were at an all time low. Volume One was finally cancelled, and volume two launched with great fanfare and a beloved artist... who felt the need to write the book, and for far longer than he drew it. I have a complete set of that second volume, but there are chunks of years that I have yet to force myself to read.

Case in point, the cover above to Wonder Woman #3 (April, 1987.) Look, George Pérez is one of the greatest artists in comic book history, and the man earned his pay for a lot of covers. It's just that his frontpieces for Wonder Woman were often milquetoast compared to the rest of his work. This is a perfect example. A woman just flew out of the sky, and a street full of pedestrians barely slow down to rubberneck. Steve's napping, Diana's staring blankly, and even the villains in the color hold seem only mildly interested. Finally, this is occurring in a city park, yet the statue's still standing and the trees are not on fire. In comic book terms, it's positively prosaic.

Honorable Mentions

20) DC Comics Presents #32 (April, 1981)

This is the first major instance of Superman kissing Wonder Woman that I can recall, and while it's cool that they do it in front of their crappy longtime significant others, I still hate like hell when this happens. Thanks to the spoiler presence of Eros and a dull layout, this is the shocking revelation on the cover to The National Enquirer about some D-lister you didn't know was still alive, much less cared about.

19) Wonder Woman #22 (November, 1988)

A nice George Pérez cover of Diana flying at the reader while twirling her lasso. Clouds. Birdies. Interaction with the logo. Nice. Just... nice.

18) Wonder Woman #314 (April, 1984)

Gil Kane provided a batch of swell covers during this period, and here demonstrates how to do a detailed cover without the subject being overwhelmed by background elements. However, Wonder Woman's stance is weak, and the battle seems static where it needs movement.

17) Wonder Woman #18 (July, 1988)

Nothing says "horror" like stripping a hero of their trademark logo. I get that these are scary monsters and there's a young woman to protect. It's got stark down as well. Just... I don't like seeing Wonder Woman cower before a threat, and I could never picture Superman or Batman being put in that position.

16) Wonder Woman #286 (December, 1981)

This one gets the job done. You get the location, the principles, the conflict, and the emotion. Good body language, too. It's just weird to me that Ross Andru + Dick Giordano registers in my brain as Buckler, instead.

15) Wonder Woman #264 (February, 1980)

This one is cool by being uncool. There's a horses ass, rocket-propelled horseshoes, a heinous bandito stereotype, and Wonder Woman being dragged at the ankles by a whip over the streets of Washington. The kinky humiliation fantasy echoes Marston and establishes misogyny as the true adversary of the day. Curiously, Andru + Giordano registers in my brain as Garcia-Lopez this time.

14) Wonder Woman #1 (February, 1987)

The prototype overly rendered George Pérez cover. He always seemed to be overcompensating for the lack of recognizable, conventional characters in this series by drawing casts of dozens amidst multiple "exciting" scenarios. I can't distinguish any of the generic Greco-Roman goddesses from one another. I don't know why Diana's legs are being spread apart by a dubiously functional battleax. What's with the spear and partially painted Captain America shield? Do I need to see the rush of semen building within Heracles as he prepares to feed himself to Hippolyta? There's cavepeople and a cavern of souls and another Hippolyta and three other Dianas and Ares and Ares' house and some wench that twisted up Heracles and dammit Pérez keep the combo platter down to five items or less. Well no, he instead let it spread to a triple gatefold a year later and way to many samey-same regular covers.

13) Wonder Woman #303 (May, 1983)

This Gil Kane piece falls on the opposite side of the spectrum. It's a simple single figure laid over a bust. I really don't need to see the bullets deflected by the bracelets traveling several yards past the logo. We need more here.

12) Wonder Woman #305 (July, 1983)

A really nice convention sketch tarted up with repeating logos. Nice the first time, but the same gimmick was recycled multiple times within a single year, as seen above.

11) Wonder Woman #8 (September, 1987)

Much better. It's still busy, but the images within each letter reflect chapters in the story, and their lack of color prevents them from drowning out Wonder Woman. It's much more fun to see Diana presenting the floating heads of her new super friends than random unimpressive deities in translucent robes.

10) Wonder Woman #308 (October, 1983)

Andru & Giordano looking like *gasp* Ross Andru. What a dynamite, kinetic piece! The Amazing Amazon deflecting bullets from an off-panel Black Canary which chases an Elongated Man around an intricate computer room. This is detail done very right.

9) Wonder Woman #31 (June, 1989)

Positive Pérez pattern progresses. Here we use silhouettes with iconic accents to sell a savage battle ahead.

8) Wonder Woman #307 (September, 1983)

Zeus is the star of this cover, and very nearly too much Zeus for Comic Code Authority approval for sale to minors. However, the scale of Zeus and his easily recognizable lightning bolts illustrates the accomplishment of Wonder Woman to evade them with Steve Trevor in tow. The best of the Gil Kane covers.

7) Wonder Woman #302 (April, 1983)

This one mixes the cool with the drip. Nice central figure, allusion to bullets & bracelets, incorporation of symbol as design element, and fumetti background. Disorganized cockeyed perspective, ugly background color, gratuitous signature, and wonky unaided flight. Good with the bad.

6) Amazing Heroes #106 (November, 1986)

Pérez's Amazing Heroes magazine covers tended to be better than those for the series, as he seemed freer to experiment with style and technique. Also, due to the space required for copy, Pérez kept it simple. An attractive central image of a womanly Diana alongside a full body shot in her new armor with the lasso acting as a design element. Done.

5) Wonder Woman #269 (July, 1980)

Princess Diana pulls a Hal Jordan. She's quit before and been fired even more, but never with such panache.

4) Wonder Woman #9 (October, 1987)

Pérez cracks the top five, once again by not overdoing it. He cleverly incorporates Wonder Woman and her logo in a way that allows Cheetah to demonstrate her hostile intentions in a provocative manner. It's also a nice callback to a Rick Buckler '70s cover with a considerably more intimidating take on the villainess.

3) Wonder Woman #329 (January, 1986)

While Diana looks a tad squat here, and that background coloring is kind of ugh, the image still makes me want to read this story. "48-Page Final Issue!" A Crisis tie-in that likely mattered! Diana leading an army of fantasy warriors while still being Wonder Woman (no armor, no edged weapons, etc.)

2) Wonder Woman #298 (December, 1982)

A rare Frank Miller cover so bold that it dares you to claim you aren't dying to read the story inside. Plus, it set up some sweet Ray Harryhausen action. Hypocritically, this image is also pretty much everything I decry with my #1 choice...

1) Wonder Woman #306 (August, 1983)

José Luis García-López, Dick Giordano, color holds, the Invisible Jet, the Magic Lasso, unabashed patriotic iconography... This cover represents everything that was awesome and fun about the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman that successive creators keep trying to "fix" with their bull$#!+ "realism."

Their Top Covers of the 1980s

The Atom @ Power of the Atom
Doom Patrol @ DC Bloodlines
Aquaman @ Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
DC75: Top Character Covers of the Dodranscentennial

1991 Wizard Magazine #9 Unused Wonder Woman cover art by Bart Sears

2011-12-05T00:19:00.000-06:00

Click To Enlarge

Bart Sears was one of my favorite artists for a lot of years, and this was the man in his prime. Wizard didn't figure they could sell a Wonder Woman cover though, so if I recall correctly, she got bumped by Venom. Ah, the '90s. A few years later, the cover was printed inside the magazine during a rundown of rejections.

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Gene Ha

2011-12-02T00:00:00.003-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

Wow! A lushly rendered piece in which Donna Troy uses her Trojan Cry against Wonder Woman. Wait-- what?

Hero's JLA 100 Project Friday

Vixen & Black Canary by John McCrea @ Justice League Detroit
JLA by Andy Smith @ Power of the Atom
Despero by Dean Haspiel @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

DCnÜ Wonder Woman design by Jim Lee from Justice League #1 (October, 2011)

2011-11-29T01:58:00.002-06:00

WONDER WOMAN: There was much debate on Princess Diana's leg wear. This one denotes some deadly accessories.

I don't mind the lazy lack of stars, and I don't mind the armored chest plate. I always mind the need to give Wonder Woman friggin' deadly weapons. The short shorts look cheap, and I prefer the pants when they show up. I hate the black boots, which make little sense design wise. Matching her hair, I suppose?

New 52's Day

Rejected DCnÜ Aquaman design by Jim Lee @ Justice League Detroit
Demon Knights #1 (November, 2011) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Grifter #1 (November, 2011) @ DC Bloodlines
Bonus: Captain Atom: Armageddon #4-7 (2006) @ Power of the Atom

2011 NYCC Wonder Woman Color Commission by Mike McKone

2011-11-26T00:00:00.004-06:00

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These scans are enormous, so be sure to check them out in their full glory! How about those starred bracelets, eh?

Mike McKone's TwitPics

2011 Nightwing @ DC Bloodlines
2011 NYCC Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter Style Guide/Turnaround @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Voodoo #1 (November, 2011)

2011-11-22T04:24:00.001-06:00

The Voodoo Lounge in New Orleans had a tradition of allowing its most popular erotic dancer to go buy the working name of "Voodoo." The mixed race stripper dancing for dollars was earning her rank. A pair of undercover agents were watching the show up close. Tyler Evans was all stubble and sunglasses, enjoying the show while paying lip service to his assignment. Jessica Fallon was disgusted by his attitude and breach of protocol, and excused herself.

Tyler bribed a waitress to learn "Voodoo's" real name was Priscilla Kitaen, that she was a loner who'd been working the lounge a few months, and that she was "real popular with the guys from the military base." While dancing, Voodoo had shown a rare interest in Tyler.

Jessica Fallon had brushed past some underage punks on her way out of the strip club, and their leader demanded an apology. Her Black Razors lighter should have been warning enough, but when the thugs persisted, Fallon kicked their asses.

Backstage, one of the girls was looking for a last minute babysitter. Pris declined, as she was uncomfortable around children. The stripper admonished Pris for not standing by a sister in their surrogate family. Like the multiracial gang from earlier, that was either another magical fictional construct, or the stripper was just totally trying to con Pris.

Pris worked at the club to try to learn about people, men especially, with their defenses down. "I'm still getting my feet on the ground. But I want to travel. I still have so much to learn.

In a private room, Voodoo began giving Tyler Evans a lap dance. He was trying to break the "no hands" rule, so she put them in straps on either side of his chair. Pressed for information, Pris volunteered her name and a back story involving a dead mother, missing father, and the loneliness of growing up mixed race. Tyler called b.s. He'd been surveying Voodoo for weeks, and research had determined that she was an alien who had either been surgically altered or could shapeshift. His superiors wanted to know who she was working for, and what secrets she'd gleaned from the local "soldier boys" with her limited telepathic abilities.

Tyler ignored a cell phone call from Jessica, who left a voice mail. Despite his being a stupid jerk, Jessica felt guilty for running out on her partner, and didn't want to spend the night drinking alone in her cheap motel room. Voodoo asked about the call, and Tyler explained that his partner would be furious if she knew what he was doing. "But I'm not a rules guy, I'm a results guy. So I'm offering you a chance to turn yourself in... before we have to bring you by force. If that happens, you go into that military compound down the road, and you never come back out. We'll strap you to a table... and I'll have them open you up, cutting out pieces just to see what happens."

Pris kept telling Tyler to look at her, probably because she needed his direct attention to apply her telepathy. It makes a good excuse for her running around bare-breasted. In his mind, she saw a grisly vision of doctors with bloodied smocks performing the kind of xenomorph vivisection Tyler had alluded to. Voodoo refused Tyler's demand, shapeshifting into a saurian creature and tearing into his flesh with her claws. Leaving his corpse in the private room, Voodoo quit the club. She then transformed into Tyler, and called Jessica back. "...I'll be right over."

"Keeping Secrets" was by Ron Marz and Sami Basri. I read a lot of too-literal reviews who though Voodoo really was a spy who committed premeditated murder. I thought it was pretty clear Pris was responding to Tyler's aggression, and upon realizing his own murderous intentions (likely involving her damnation regardless of her answer to his summons,) acted in self-defense (long term, anyway.)

Voodoo was my favorite member of WildC.A.T.s after Alan Moore's writing made me care enough to actually select any one member over another. Pris had started out as an earthy character unaware of her half-alien parentage who was dragged into the super-hero game. She ended up abandoned by her supposed friends in an extraterrestrial ghetto, and became something of a revolutionary leader in a bid to gain basic rights for her adopted people. The important thing was that she was a relatively normal person who, thrust into extraordinary circumstances by an unfamiliar heritage, rose to become a hero. Here, Voodoo is a trope-- the sex-ah alien on the run from the big bad government, Sil for the super-set. I don't mind the story, and the art is appealing, but it's such a complete 180° on the character as I knew and appreciated her that I'm ultimately turned off. It seems clear this isn't a launch by creators who are interested in the established character, but a premise grafted onto a preexisting trademark.

New 52's Day

Aquaman #2 (December, 2011) @ Justice League Detroit
Legion: Secret Origin #1 (December, 2011) @ DC Bloodlines
Stormwatch #2 (December, 2011) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Bonus: Captain Atom: Armageddon #1-3 (2005-2006) @ Power of the Atom

Wonder Woman Gallery by Jim Lee

2011-11-20T04:14:00.001-06:00

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Image Founders

2008 Aquaman color head sketch by Jim Lee and Alex Sinclair @ Justice League Detroit
1984 Green Lantern John Stewart, The Predator and Eclipso art by Rob Liefeld @ DC Bloodlines
2006 Wolverine, the Atom & Batgirl by Jim Lee & Amanda Conner @ Power of the Atom
1990 Martian Manhunter art by Whilce Portacio @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Wonder Woman Gallery by Jim Lee @ Diana Prince

2010-2011 The Justice League of America 100 Project charity art by Anthony Castrillo

2011-11-18T02:56:00.000-06:00

Click To Expand & Enlarge

Full color Byrne influenced spectacle emphasizing the DC Trinity and that rarely seen convention known as "backgrounds."

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (Formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

ALL 104 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 ORIGINALS…NOW ON DISPLAY!

Please enjoy this gallery of ALL 104 original Justice League of America #50 Hero Initiative covers!

Hardcover and softcover versions of a book collecting all the covers will be available in December, 2011. AND all the originals will be auctioned off according to the following schedule:

• December 3, 2011, Meltdown Comics, Los Angeles, CA: Display of all 104 covers and auction of first one-third
• Jan. 20-22, 2012, Tate's Comics, Lauderhill, FL (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area): Display of remaining covers and auction of second one-third.
• Feb. 17-19, 2012: Orlando MegaCon, Orlando, FL: Display and auction of final one-third.

All covers will be sold via LIVE AUCTION on-site at the venues above. If you cannot attend but wish to bid, proxy bidding is available.
Contact Joe Davidson at: yensid4disney@gmail.com
Deadlines for each grouping are below, and each cover carries a minimum bid of $100.

Special thanks to Firestorm Fan for the notice!

Sensational Comics for February, 2012

2011-11-15T02:06:00.001-06:00

Sensational Links:

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #6
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by TONY AKINS
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale FEBRUARY 15 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.

Hades and Poseidon both have designs on the kingdom their brother Zeus left behind, but Wonder Woman doesn’t intend to let their turf war decimate the realm of man! It’ll take a big lie and some help from the mystery man known as Lennox to stop a holy war from breaking out – but what does Lennox know that Wonder Woman doesn’t?

Uncle Ayholes?

JUSTICE LEAGUE #6
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by ADAM HUGHES
1:200 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale FEBRUARY 15 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.

The Justice League is united at last against Darkseid! The awesome consequences of this high-stakes battle will resonate within the series for years to come! Geoff Johns and Jim Lee end their historic first arc with a bang!

This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #23-24
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by MIKE S. MILLER, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover #23 by MIKE S. MILLER
Cover #24 by HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY

In the aftermath of a failed and deadly assault on Brainiac’s mothership and a costly betrayal that will set the stage for a massive invasion of Earth...are there any heroes left to save humanity? #23 on sale FEBRUARY 15

And in issue #24, Luthor has hatched a plan that, with the help of the Justice League, might just save the world...but since he’s the most wanted man on Earth, how can he execute it?#24 on sale FEBRUARY 29

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

ABSOLUTE FINAL CRISIS HC
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by J.G. JONES, CARLOS PACHECO, DOUG MAHNKE, MATTHEW CLARK, JESUS MERINO, CHRISTIAN ALAMY, MARCO RUDY, TOM NGUYEN and others
Cover by J.G. JONES
On sale JULY 18 • 400 pg, FC, 8.25” x 12.5”, $99.99 US

The mind-blowing event from 2008 is collected in this spectacular new hardcover collecting FINAL CRISIS #1-7, FINAL CRISIS: SUBMIT #1, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2 and the FINAL CRISIS SKETCHBOOK, all written by Grant Morrison!
What happens when evil wins? That’s the devastating question Superman, Batman, the Justice League and every other super being in the DC Universe must face when Darkseid and his otherworldly legion of followers actually win the war between light and dark.
This oversized, slipcased hardcover comes with its own pair of 3-D glasses!

Try to enjoy Diana showing up toward the end with a dog face and accomplishing nothing, not unlike most of those Morrison/Porter JLAs.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS VOL. 2 TP
Written by TONY BEDARD and MARV WOLFMAN
Art by HOWARD PORTER, MIKE S. MILLER, LIVESAY and SERGIO SANDOVAL
Cover by ED BENES
On sale MARCH 14 • 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

This volume collects issues #8-15 of the twice monthly series as the heroes and villains of the DC Universe must form an uneasy alliance to combat the threat of Brainiac! As the battle rages on, tension rises not only between Lex Luthor and the heroes, but also between members of the Justice League!

Yeah DC, save this for perpetuity.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT: JIM APARO HC
Written by BOB HANEY • Art and cover by JIM APARO
On sale APRIL 4 • 512 pg, FC, $49.99 US

DC collects Aparo’s classic run on THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD in hardcover for the first time! These stories feature Batman’s team-ups with Robin, Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Teen Titans, Deadman, Wonder Woman, The Demon, The Joker, Aquaman, The Atom and many others, from THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #98, 100-102 and 104-122.

I'd probably enjoy this more than every other one of these books combined.

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #6
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
1:25 Variant cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale FEBRUARY 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard cover in a wraparound format.

In the aftermath of their battle with Superboy, the Teen Titans make a horrifying discovery: Kid Flash has been knocked out of synch! If they are going to save their teammate, the badly beaten and battered teens need to sneak into the New York branch of S.T.A.R. Labs – which means that this issue guest-stars none other than Virgil Hawkins, a.k.a. Static! But if the team was hoping to use the lab for some downtime, they are going to be disappointed, because now they must battle a new, young team of supervillains known only as 2.0! All this and the debut of Kid Flash’s new costume!

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #49
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO • Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale FEBRUARY 29 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E

It’s time to meet…the Squishy Titans! The pink blob Plasmus! The futuristic pet Proty! The stretchy Offspring! The diabolically dirty Clayface! Who’s the squishiest? Who’s the stretchiest? Join us as the Squishy Titans welcome a mysterious new member from the Orange Lantern Corps!

THE NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC
Written by MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, MIKE W. BARR
Art by GEORGE PEREZ, ROMEO TANGHAL, KEITH POLLARD, JIM APARO, MIKE DECARLO and DICK GIORDANO
Cover by GEORGE PEREZ
On sale APRIL 18 • 736 pg, FC, $75.00 US

The New Teen Titans battle threats large and small in this massive hardcover collecting NEW TEEN TITANS #21-40, TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #41-44, NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1- 2, TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #3 and BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5.

Betrayal comes from one of their own when it’s revealed that their teammate Terra is secretly working for the Titans’ deadly enemy, Deathstroke the Terminator.

This is a FANTASTIC volume. Excepting the Trigon arc that launched the deluxe format series, all the very best art and stories or in this collection. The creme de la creme

JUSTICE LEAGUE: RISE AND FALL TP
Written by J.T. KRUL • Art by DIOGENES NEVES, FABRIZIO FIORENTINO, MIKE MAYHEW and others • Cover by MIKE MAYHEW
On sale MARCH 21 • 224 pg, FC, $17.99 US

The Justice League of America must bring in Green Arrow for murdering the villain Prometheus in this title collecting JUSTICE LEAGUE: RISE AND FALL SPECIAL, GREEN ARROW #31-32 and THE RISE OF ARSENAL #1-4!

Hello, cameos.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: DARK THINGS TP
Written by JAMES ROBINSON • Art by MARK BAGLEY, JESUS MERINO and ROB HUNTER • Cover by MARK BAGLEY and ROB HUNTER
On sale MARCH 28 • 192 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Out of BRIGHTEST DAY comes this tale of the JLA (from issues #44-48) and JSA (from issues #41-42)! With the release of the Starheart, magic goes wild – and new metahumans emerge!

A JLofA Softcover.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: THE RISE OF ECLIPSO HC
Written by JAMES ROBINSON
Art by BRETT BOOTH, JESUS MERINO, JESSE DELPERDANG and NORM RAPMUND
Cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale APRIL 25 • 192 pg, FC, $22.99 US

Eclipso returns in these tales from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #54-60 and JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #43. And now, he’s going to take down the heroes who have defeated him so many times before! With his army of both heroes and villains under his hypnotic thrall, Eclipso may have the team’s number. Will the combined might of Batman, Donna Troy, Blue Lantern Saint Walker and even the all-powerful Spectre be enough to stop him?

A JLofA Hardcover. Gah! I'm choking on all these releases!

FLASHPOINT

FLASHPOINT TP
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by ANDY KUBERT and SANDRA HOPE
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
On sale MARCH 7 • 176 pg, FC, $14.99 US
The red-hot, sold-out five-issue miniseries from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert is on its way in trade paperback!

This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It’s a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war – but where are Earth’s Greatest Heroes to stop it?

It’s a place where America’s last hope is Cyborg, who hopes to gather the forces of The Outsider, The Secret 7, S!H!A!Z!A!M!, Citizen Cold and other new and familiar-yet-altered faces! It’s a world that could be running out of time, if The Flash can’t find the villain who altered the time line!

There is an absolute tsunami of this garbage all in one month, and I don't know who wants it, I've diverted the flow to run down the bottom of this post. Isn't it great that Wonder Woman is in every pointless bit of it?

FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT FEATURING WONDER WOMAN TP
Written by TONY BEDARD, JAMES ROBINSON, DAN ABNETT and ANDY LANNING
Art by ARDIAN SYAF, VICENTE CIFUENTES, EDDIE NUNEZ, JAVI FERNANDEZ, SCOTT CLARK and DAVID BEATY
Cover by ED BENES
On sale MARCH 14 • 272 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Don’t miss this Wonder Woman volume collecting EMPEROR AQUAMAN #1- 3, OUTSIDER #1-3, LOIS LANE AND THE RESISTANCE #1-3 and WONDER WOMAN AND THE FURIES #1-3

Not a dream, not an imaginary story, not an elseworld. This is Flash Fact: When Barry Allen wakes at his desk, he discovers the world has changed. Family is alive, loved ones are strangers, and close friends are different, gone or worse. It’s a world on the brink of a cataclysmic war – but where are Earth’s Greatest Heroes to stop it?

FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT FEATURING BATMAN TP
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO, J.T. KRUL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI and PETER MILLIGAN
Art by EDUARDO RISSO, MIKEL JANIN, JOE BENNETT, GEORGE PEREZ, FERNANDO BLANCO, SCOTT KOBLISH and JOHN DELL
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
On sale MARCH 14 • 272 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Don’t miss this Batman volume collecting BATMAN: KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #1-3, DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS #1- 3, DEATHSTROKE AND THE CURSE OF THE RAVAGER #1-3 and SECRET SEVEN #1-3.

FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT FEATURING SUPERMAN TP
Written by MIKE CARLIN, REX OGLE, DAN JURGENS, SCOTT SNYDER and LOWELL FRANCIS
Art by RAGS MORALES, PAULO SIQUEIRA, GENE HA, EDUARDO FRANCISCO, DAN JURGENS and NORM RAPMUND
Cover by GENE HA
On sale MARCH 14 • 256 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Don’t miss this Superman volume collecting WORLD OF FLASHPOINT #1-3, BOOSTER GOLD #44-47, THE CANTERBURY CRICKET #1 and PROJECT SUPERMAN #1-3.

FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT FEATURING GREEN LANTERN TP
Written by PORNSAK PICHETSHOTE, ADAM SCHLAGMAN and JEFF LEMIRE
Art by MARK CASTIELLO, BEN OLIVER, FELIPE MASSAFERA and IBRAIM ROBERSON
Cover by FELIPE MASSAFERA
On sale MARCH 21 • 224 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Don’t miss this Green Lantern volume collecting HAL JORDAN #1-3, ABIN SUR #1- 3, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN #1-3 and GREEN ARROW INDUSTRIES #1.

FLASHPOINT: THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT FEATURING THE FLASH TP
Written by SEAN RYAN, STERLING GATES, ADAM GLASS and SCOTT KOLINS
Art by IG GUARA, OLIVER NOME, RODNEY BUCHEMI, JOEL GOMEZ, SCOTT KOLINS and JOSE MARZAN JR.
Cover by ARDIAN SYAF and VICENTE CIFUENTES
On sale MARCH 21 • 256 pg, FC, $17.99 US
Don’t miss this Flash volume collecting GRODD OF WAR #1, KID FLASH LOST #1-3, LEGION OF DOOM #1-3, REVERSE FLASH #1 and CITIZEN COLD #1-3.

Justice League: Cry for Justice #7 (April, 2010)

2011-11-12T00:00:00.000-06:00

As many heroes as able descended on Star City, a quake-riddled shambles. Prometheus' device hadn't worked as intended, but the wanton destruction pleased him regardless. Donna Troy made the scene, without the slightest sign of her wounds, lifting debris over her head with bent wrists. Who knew the JLA Satellite had a purple healing ray installed? Donna Troy located the archer Speedy, who was supposed to be watching Lian Harper instead of chasing the Electrocutioner. Flying back to Roy's apartment, they learned Green Arrow and Black Canary had already found the little girl's body.

Dr. Midnight worked to save Roy Harper's life. Various heroes tried to locate and disarm Prometheus' devices, while others aided Star City's distressed citizens. Only half of this effort saw much success, as Prometheus had already accounted for all the heroes' powers and abilities. A similar accounting prevented anyone from successfully interrogating the villain.

Prometheus, bound securely to a chair, made a simple demand with a smile. "Free me and the death ends." The crew in the satellite couldn't make that decision alone, so a teleconference was established for other heroes to have a voice. Hawkman was adamantly opposed. Black Canary didn't see a choice. Wonder Woman said, "I don't bargain with killers." Jay Garrick saw a greater good at stake, as did Starman. Starfire and Animal Man couldn't reach a decision. Congorilla was in favor, Vixen said "don't!" It was a speech by Green Arrow that convinced everyone that the living were more important than principles or justice for the dead. Prometheus gave up his secret codes, then walked.

Prometheus returned to his otherdimensional hideout and the drooling Ira Quimby. Somehow, Green Arrow had followed him there. An emerald bolt pierced Prometheus' brainpan. Oliver Queen declared, "Justice." The seventh and final chapter of Cry For Justice, “Justice” was by James Robinson, Scott Clark, Mauro Cascioli and Ibraim Roberson with David Beaty.

1999 Wonder Woman painting by Joe Jusko

2011-11-10T00:00:00.002-06:00

Click To Enlarge

Joe Jusko Thursday

Hawkman @ Being Carter Hall
2002 Unused TV Guide Birds of Prey Cover Art @ DC Bloodlines
1999 Wonder Woman painting @ Diana Prince
2009 Zatanna Convention Sketch @ Justice League Detroit

2009 "The Wonder Woman" Watercolor by Shelton Bryant

2011-11-06T01:11:00.001-05:00

Click To Enlarge

"Wonder Woman comes ready for action on a 8 by 12 acid-free watercolor sheet (140lbs )."

Shelton Bryant

2010 The Vixen @ Justice League Detroit
2011 Aquaman @ Justice League Detroit
2011 The Atom @ Power of the Atom

10 WONDER WOMAN Stories Worth Checking Out

2011-11-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

Newsarama had another one of their little countdown features, this time involving Wonder Woman, and good 'ol Luke sent me a link. "10 WONDER WOMAN Stories Worth Checking Out" is really more like "10 Wonder Woman trades available for order at Amazon." Since there aren't that many trades available in total, it strikes me as a bit fussy to trim a selection of twenty or so down to ten. I also don't entirely agree with the choices, and could in fact see them as being off-putting to the new Wonder Woman reader. I've decided to offer a bit of commentary on the matter.

10) SPIRIT OF TRUTH
I was getting over Alex Ross before Kingdom Come wrapped, but I understand that a lot of people love his painted art dearly. However, Ross did five(!) of these self-important Treasury-sized one shots with Paul Dini in which super-heroes tackle real world problems and fail to address them. The Justice League of America one is easily the best, since it comes closest to a legit super-hero story with action and adventure. The other four have melded together in my brain as one massive, mealy PSA. This one had something to do with Wonder Woman being unable to represent all the women of the world because she wears a thong instead of a burka, or something. It's preachy and somber and your basic drag, so go in for the art or pass it by.

9) CHRONICLES - BOOK 1
The zany, cheeky Golden Age stories of creators William Moulton-Marston and Harry G. Peter are what separated Wonder Woman from all the other heroines of the day that nobody remembers today. She wasn't the first, just the best-- the most fun and weird and exciting of the lot. When Marston died, the life went out of the book, and decades of half-hearted Robert Kanigher Silver Age scripts are the reason Wonder Woman comics are looked upon with jaundiced eyes today. I don't know how many Chronicles collections are available, but the same material is available in volumes of Archive Editions. Be forewarned though, these stories are illogical and kinky, and a bit of an acid trip. If that doesn't sound appealing, keep your distance.

8) CHALLENGE OF THE GODS
The second volume collecting George Perez's Post-Crisis relaunch of the book. I assume this collects #7-12, which would include the great "Time Passages" the recaps the earlier issues in a way that's more involving than the actual issues, as well as the debut of a savage new Cheetah. "Challenge" itself is also a pretty good read, playing with the character's new history and showing what a dick Zeus is. I believe there are two more volumes collecting "the entire" Perez run, meaning only the issues he drew, since he wrote the title for five years. Honestly though, the writing petered out before the art did, so this is probably where your collecting should end.

7) JLA: A LEAGUE OF ONE
It's easy to forget this story on a Wonder Woman countdown because of the JLA branding, and that would be a shame. It's the best Wonder Woman original graphic novel ever made, which is almost a meaningless statement, but still. It's also an excellent introduction to the character and beautifully painted by Christopher Moeller. Plus, she kicks a bunch of super-heroes square in the ass. Easily the best recommendation on the list.

6) PARADISE LOST
These were the stories that broke me. I'd been reading the title continuously for 8-9 years at this point, and the previous two runs were pretty lousy, but I found Jimenez's writing so mind-numbingly dull that I couldn't go on. I still bought the book, and read the occasional issue, but I struggled each time. Most of this volume is preoccupied with a risible, forced team-up of the Wonder Woman and Batman families, followed by a war amongst the Amazons. Of what I've read, my only recommendation would be a guest written issue by Joe Kelly that tries to put the whole incestuous Superman/Wonder Woman "romance" to rest.

5) PARADISE FOUND
Another volume by Phil Jimenez, but I actually managed to read this one. The "Our Worlds At War" tie-ins are tolerable, even though I never saw the wisdom in the big death that caps the story, especially since it was all in service to glorifying Superman. The latter half is a Wonder Woman-centric event involving most every female metahuman in the DCU universe, which is sort of like a estrogen-fueled Crisis on Infinite Earths in the scale of its cameos, if not its stakes.

4) THE HIKETEIA
I've always found Greg Rucka's writing the be milquetoast and derivative to the point of being borderline plagiaristic. His being the best Wonder Woman writer of the past fifteen years or so says more about how wretched his company is than the merits of his work. This is an unremarkable graphic novel outside the art by J.G. Jones, specifically that provocative cover.

3) EYES OF THE GORGON
The best remembered Rucka story arc, borrowing heavily from Clash of the Titans, Saint Seiya and other sources. Rags Morales provided some sweet art on the chapters he bothered to finish.

2) THE CIRCLE
I was looking forward to Gail Simone taking over the book, as she's usually one of the best writers in the field. I feel that she was a poor fit for the character, however. It seems like every damned writer feels the need to go back to Diana's origin story and add jacked-up new wrinkles that the next writer forgets ever happened. It makes it seem like the character only ever treads water, because her story is always going backwards. This time, added distaste came from the changes being so unnecessarily grim. I've read two other Simone volumes, and it's just not her best stuff.

1) THE ANIMATED MOVIE
I think it says something that the reviewer was so desperate for material that they went outside comics for a "good" story. I'm in the minority in that I hated this cartoon, and I need to do a lengthy write-up someday to explain why. Your mileage may vary.

As I said, very little Wonder Woman material is in print, so there aren't a lot of suggestions I can add to these. I've already mocked Robert Kanigher's work, but there are four volumes of Showcase Presents Wonder Woman, and each has at least a few stories worth reading. The wacky Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl stories have a following, and the art is great throughout. Unsurprisingly, I have a deep love for Diana Prince as the New Wonder Woman, collected in four volumes of mod/retro action. She may not have powers or wear a costume, but the Diana Prince tales present an intelligent, independent, and intriguing character that is more than just a merchandising icon. I think fans of the TV show will find this series parallels Lynda Carter's adventures more closely than the crazier super-hero comics, and I may the value for your entertainment dollars highest there.

Justice League: Cry for Justice #6 (March, 2010)

2011-11-01T02:18:00.000-05:00

Using specific vulnerabilities against them, Prometheus managed to defeat Supergirl, Starman, Red Tornado, Zatanna, Plastic Man, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, the Guardian, Dr. Light, and the Vixen. The Maid of Might was shot in the shoulder by a bullet with bullet casings forged by Vulcan and acquired from Mercy Graves. Improbably, Prometheus fired shifts from a wrist launcher that somehow managed to pierce Donna Troy's bracelets and impale her against a wall. The Amazon denied this, chanting no as a mantra while she slowly, painfully wrested herself free. In the meantime, Prometheus took out Starfire, Firestorm, and Green Lantern Hal Jordan.

Green Arrow managed to draw on Prometheus, only to learn that it was merely a holographic projection, and accidentally shot Donna Troy in the right thigh. Donna, who had been running, collapsed and tumbled to the floor unconscious.

Prometheus continued to plow through the Atom, Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, and the Shade. Bleeding profusely, Donna revived and tackled the villain from behind. With swift, brutal fury, Donna ripped apart the helmet that directed Prometheus' actions, then beat him about the head savagely. The Shade ended up catching Donna by the wrist to stop her from going over the line. "My ardent dear. The last time I checked in the big book of superhero bylaws and whatnot... your kind doesn't kill. Unless you want to go down the dark lanes that I amble, I'd stop now... for the next blow will surely be his end. Besides, you've won. No need to show off."

The sixth chapter of Cry For Justice, “The Game” was by James Robinson and Scott Clark.

Justice League: Cry for Justice #5 (January, 2010)

2011-10-29T01:33:00.001-05:00

Donna Troy tagged along with her Titans bestie Koriand'r for a swim in her 52 co-star Buddy Baker's family pool. Buddy's son Cliff wanted to swim too, but wife Ellen argued, "Kory and her friend are out there, and it's always a gamble if Kory will have her clothes on.

Donna thanked Ellen. "You're being a very generous host. Letting us hang out here... catch up, away from all the craziness." Ellen basically said that Kory was always welcome, "And if you're a friend of hers, you're welcome too."

The doorbell rang, and outside Ellen found the blue-skinned Starman (Mikaal Tomas) and Buddy's old teammate in the Forgotten Heroes, Congorilla. After suffering personal injuries through the machinations of the villain Prometheus, the pair had begun working together to track him down. The trail having gone cold, they were now seeking help from former allies. Animal Man agreed to join them, so long as they were out for justice, not blood. Starfire had worked with Starman in the "Justice League of Aliens," so she was happy to help if needed. Donna added, "Need us or not, I'm in. This all speaks to something bigger that's brewing. I'm wondering if I should call in the Titans." Possibly, but in the meantime, the quintet paid a visit to the Justice League Satellite. It turned out to have already been infiltrated by Prometheus, who had severed the right arm of Donna's former lover, Roy Harper...

The fifth chapter of Cry For Justice, “The Lie” was by James Robinson, Mauro Cascioli, and Scott Clark.

2005 Wonder Woman San Diego Comic-Con sketch by Whilce Portacio

2011-10-26T00:00:00.002-05:00

Click To Enlarge

Liza?

Image Style

1985 Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and The Question art by Rob Liefeld @ Power of the Atom
1990 Martian Manhunter art by Jim Lee @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
2007 The Question convention sketch by Whilce Portacio @ DC Bloodlines
1986 Vixen fan art by Rob Liefeld @ Justice League Detroit
2010 Zatanna Commission by Rob Liefeld @ Justice League Detroit

Justice League: Cry for Justice #1 (September, 2009)

2011-10-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

Aboard the JLA satellite, Green Lantern Hal Jordan had taken stock of the deaths of Martian Manhunter and Batman during Final Crisis. He decided that the Justice League needed to actively seek out criminals before their plots could come to fruition, setting him in conflict with Superman and a more reactive group. "...These aren't the villains of yesterday, and our being 'good' and 'true' isn't scaring them back into the shadows. Not anymore."

Wonder Woman leaned into the conference room table. "Hal. This isn't like you."
"Cool, carefree Jordan? Not today, Diana."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying this will not stand. I'm saying they hurt us, we hurt back."

Superman wasn't sure he could allow Hal to go through with his plan, but Jordan scowled, "Try to stop me." No one did, and Green Arrow left with him.

“Cry For Justice: The Beginning” was by James Robinson and Mauro Cascioli.

2006 Wonder Woman on Paradise Island sketch by Mike Wieringo

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Click To Enlarge

A swell piece by the late great.

Sensational Comics for January, 2012

2011-10-18T00:36:00.002-05:00

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #5
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by TONY AKINS
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale JANUARY 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Wonder Woman has returned home to London…but leaving Paradise Island doesn’t mean leaving the gods behind, as two of the most powerful deities of the pantheon have come to town – and neither of them is leaving without being crowned King of the gods! Featuring guest art by Tony Akins (JACK OF FABLES)!

You here about the big reveal regarding Wonder Woman's origin? I'd hate to spoil it. Suffice to say, it's borrowed from someone I suppose doesn't need it any longer, and once again spits in the face of originality and the creator's whole point in devising it. At least there should be less Claymation Pinocchio crap.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #5
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by ERIC BASALDUA
1:200 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale JANUARY 18 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US

Now, with the teenaged powerhouse Cyborg at their side, this group of individual heroes must somehow put their differences aside to face the terror of Darkseid!
This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

Notice how Superman is the only person on this cover not wielding a deadly weapon? Sheesh.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #21-22
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by BRUNO REDONDO, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover #21 by MIKE S. MILLER
Cover #22 by HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
In a misguided attempt to save the Earth, Batman launches a chemical attack on an alien race. Will Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps arrive in time to stop the genocide? And in issue #22, the final battle begins! Under the leadership of Batman and Lex Luthor, the heroes launch an all-out assault on Brainiac – but the elusive Super Villain still has one more trick up his sleeve!
#21 on sale JANUARY 11
#22 on sale JANUARY 25
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED T

End. Soon.

WONDER WOMAN: ODYSSEY VOL. 2 HC
Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and PHIL HESTER
Art by DON KRAMER, EDUARDO PANSICA, GERALDO BORGES, TRAVIS MOORE, WAYNE FAUCHER, JAY LEISTEN and others
Cover by ALEX GARNER
On sale MARCH 7
192 pg, FC, $22.99 US
In this final “Odyssey” volume, Wonder Woman faces Cheetah, Silver Swan, Dr. Psycho and the mysterious Morrigan. And as the old gods die away, only Diana’s inner strength can see her through the battle to come.
And in the finale, Wonder Woman learns that the only way to defeat her nemesis may be to give her own powers over to her! But is Diana strong enough to control a force that seeks vengeance on all mankind, or will the warrior within her condemn her to a life of eternal bloodshed? Collecting WONDER WOMAN #607-614!

Anyone lining up for a reprint of a reboot that already got rebooted?

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #5
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
1:25 Variant cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale JANUARY 25
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.

In their first battle as a team, The Teen Titans square off against N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s most powerful weapon... The Superboy! But can the cunning of Red Robin, the speed of Kid Flash and the psionic might of Bunker stop a threat that has already taken out the powerhouse known as Wonder Girl? The fight rages from a battle cruiser docked in the Hudson River to the Central Park Zoo, but as a world stands up and takes notice, there is a very real possibility the Teen Titans might not survive their high profile debut!

No there isn't. Liars. Way to spoil the previous issue on the Wonder Girl front, by the way.

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #48
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale JANUARY 18
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
RATED E
Because you demanded it – Tiny Titans unmasked in a special all red hair issue! Barbara! Miss Martian! Starfire! Blackfire! And Speedy! Actually, Speedy’s hair is more of an auburn. Also, what’s Wonder Girl’s secret? What is she doing with all that fruit? A discovery is made when she reveals her secret oranges!

Wonder Woman Flying color pin-up by Bruce Timm

2011-10-15T00:00:00.001-05:00

Click To Enlarge

Bruce Timm Bits

Nightshade and the Question animation concept art @ Power of the Atom
The Huntress moon color art @ DC Bloodlines
The Vixen animation concept art @ Justice League Detroit
2001 Justice League Lunar art by Bruce Timm @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

The Warner Bros. Studio Store Wonder Woman Lithograph by Brian Bolland

2011-10-13T08:13:00.000-05:00

Click To Enlarge

I've never laid eyes on one of these myself, and my attempts to find information on the internet haven't come to much. The artist posted the image on his brand new blog, along with a large black and white detail of his cover to Wonder Woman #81. The lithograph is supposed to be huge, framed, and signed & numbered with a Certificate of Authenticity. You can see the original 17" x 24" art here, as well as a preliminary sketch. If anyone would liked to chime in with more details, I'm all ears...

The Huntress #1 (December, 2011)

2011-10-11T00:00:00.002-05:00

When I started this blog, it was going to co-feature the Huntress, a former back-up in early '80s Wonder Woman comics. It only took a few months to realize that I had too much to work with regarding Amazing Amazons to give Huntress due space, and I needed more heroines to cover at another blog, so she moved. Since I decided not to buy the latest Wonder Woman #1 (first by pre-order choice, then by it selling out within two hours of hitting local stands,) and I wanted to cover Action Comics #1 at Huntress' current home, I figured a special return guest appearance was in order...

Helena was finally back in Italy, and disembarking from the plane, wondered "how many corpses I'll leave behind this trip?" On reaching Naples, she was disgusted by the stink of the unresolved garbage strike. She was also down on men, even though she took advantage of them to get herself and her crossbow into the country without dealing with customs.

That night, the Huntress raided a ship with cargo planned to sail for Gotham City. She knocked out a guard with a weighted bolt, then insured that he would sleep through the night with a syringe full of nappytime. In a shipping container, the Huntress found crates full of guns behind the kidnapped young women of Arab descent. The women's pleas drew the attention of two guards, but Huntress' martial arts skills made short work of them. The innocents were escorted off the ship, and the container was destroyed in an explosion.

The next day, the sedated guard reported to his capo, Mr. Moretti. He couldn't care less about the women, who were easily replaceable, but losing a month's worth of smuggled firearms was infuriating. Moretti had security beefed up to deal with the mask, and shot the failed guard in the head.

Helena insisted on keeping things on a first name basis with Allesandro, the reporter who was part of a crusade to help exploited immigrants in the wake of the Arab Spring. "I am sick of reporting this disgusting story to a nation that does not get angry." Helena impaled a newspaper he was shaking to a wall with the toss of a letter opener. Italian citizens may not be concerned with human trafficking, but Helena made her point that at least they were on the case.

Helena, under the alias of Esposito, subtly requested from her bellhop that a prostitute be sent up. Soon, a dark-complected young girl in a tube top and microskirt showed up with a handler, demanding money up front. Helena kicked him in the face, but the scared girl called for help on her cell phone before the vigilante could convince her otherwise. Helena knocked out the call girl with a nerve pinch, then suited up for the inevitable armed response. "It's never simple. I wonder if Batman plans these moments better... or is he just luckier?" The Huntress beat the snot out of four armed enforcers, then left them tied up in her hotel room while she left with the hooker, Afaf. The men were found by more agents of Mr. Moretti, led by Giuseppe, who executed the lot for their failure.

"Crossbow at the Crossroads" was by Paul Levitz, Marcus To and John Dell. Based on a text piece at the back of the book, this story took place on the revived Earth-2, alongside the new Mr. Terrific series. While I always liked the Huntress gaining independence to become her own person, the piece hints that she may again turn out to be the daughter of that world's Batman and Catwoman... or not. Her last name was suspiciously withheld throughout.

With this script, Levitz clearly wanted to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Decompression, silent action, sparse dialogue, the absence of thought balloons in favor of captions, light exposition, mature elements, and a hero who speaks casually of murder. What Levitz couldn't hide was a clear, conventional narrative and a reliance on action movie tropes, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Of the four first issues I've bought of the "New 52" (though this is technically a 53rd,) I liked this the best. The art is also pretty, like the lovechild of Gary Frank and Sam Basri, without the excessive titillation of the latter's recent work (though it's not completely absent.) To never sacrifices storytelling for money shots, every picture is lovely, his Huntress is athletic while still feminine, and he's great about referencing complex martial arts moves. So far, this is a perfect match of creators and character.

DC New 52

Action Comics #1 (November, 2011) @ DC Bloodlines
Aquaman #1 (November, 2011) @ Justice League Detroit
Stormwatch #1 (November, 2001) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The '80s #1 (DC, 2011)

2011-10-08T00:00:00.001-05:00

A young girl was nearly run down in the street by a luxury sedan barreling through a red light at her. The car was caught and flung about by Wonder Woman, who learned the man responsible was some fat cat who felt above the law. Diana inflicted grievous bodily harm on the man and his driver, which even under the circumstances came across as excessive. Good thing Wonder Woman could just fly off before any police looked at her cross-eyed.

Major Diana Prince (she got promoted) returned to work at the Pentagon, and nagged Etta Candy about not sticking to her diet. No sooner had she arrived than a news report about the earlier incident sent her right out the door again. You see, that Wonder Woman was not Diana Prince. The Amazing Amazon was soon in her invisible robot plane, searching for her impersonator.

Inside a water tower, the "little ersatz Amazon" returned to the concealed lab of Dr. Psycho. A few weeks earlier, a plot by Ares to kill Wonder Woman through his newly created proxy Silver Swan had overlapped with Dr. Psycho's exploitation of Steve Trevor to create a perfect body for himself. Both plots ended in defeat. Silver Swan was left the powerless ugly duckling Helen Alexandros, but Dr. Psycho recognized that she still had usefulness. Using his Electroplasmotron, Psycho temporarily turned Helen into Wonder Woman, and promised to make the change permanent for a price.

Colonel Steve Trevor paid a visit to Major Prince's office, but finding her absent, asked Lieutenant Candy's advice: "How do I make Wonder Woman fall in love with me?" Etta had no answers, and with his efforts frustrated, Trevor blew off steam joyriding in a fighter jet.

Dr. Cyril Psycho's certified I.Q. of 237 had allowed him to devise a device to observe the invisible plane clearly. With the Electroplasmotron fired up, the false Amazon could pursue the true one. Further, if Alexandros were to kill the real Princess Diana, Helen could permanently absorb her essence. That's not to mention Alexandros' retaining some of her powers of flight from Ares, making her "Wonder Woman two-point-o!" Well, except Helen still bore the old eagle breastplate, while Diana had moved on to the "'Winged-W' sigil." The predictable fight ensued, with the unwanted telepathic encouragement of the doting Dr. Psycho in the former Silver Swan's head.

Diana had the advantage of experience, but Helen had more raw power. The deal-breaker was the invisible plane, spinning out of control, on a collision course with Steve Trevor's jet. Helen insisted on being the one to save him, recalling her infatuation with Captain Wonder. However, Helen was reminded that Steve was "only the pale prototype Psycho used to create him," and tossed the Colonel aside.

Diana had used Helen's reliance on brute force and lack of forethought against her, recalling the robot plane and catching Steve Trevor in midair. Since Psycho had experimented on him, Steve couldn't get Wonder Woman out of his mind, but assumed she could never love a man that she had to rescue all of the time. While Steve sulked, Helen smashed into Dr. Psycho's lab, sneering over her unwillingness to follow through on their deal. Rather than becoming the trophy wife of Psycho as agreed, Helen admitted that she was only ever in it for Captain Wonder, and in his absence, she was out. Dr. Psycho pleaded with her, but was backhanded for his simpering. Helen believed that she could still kill Wonder Woman, take her place, and search out a truly worthy mate. She shouldn't have showed her hand to Psycho prematurely then, because he caused the Electroplasmotron to self-destruct. The explosion killed Dr. Psycho, and the sudden loss of its power sent Helen Alexandros falling to her own death. Unable to hear her screams as the robot plane flew on, Steve Trevor noted, "Who could ever be a threat-- to the one and only Wonder Woman?"

"Double, Double..." was by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler, Tim Smith 3, Carlos Rodriguez, Joe Rubinstein, Jack Purcell, and Norman Lee. That's six artists for twenty-six pages of story. It starts out pretty well with Buckler and Rubinstein offering an unusually ripped but otherwise classic Bronze Age Wonder Woman. Thomas' script is cute, drawing on plot threads left over from his run, although he clearly should have reread his own scripts. He seemed to forget how his creations worked, and amidst all the flashbacks might have explained how the villains were reunited. Unfortunately, the good artists ditch on page fourteen with seriously cruddy replacements in the second half. If fact, the art is so terrible, I suspect Thomas had to rewrite those pages, because the story quality seems to deteriorate around the same point into a dunderheaded slugfest. The grim coda is jarring, in part because Rubenstein returns to own those last two pages. A nasty little retroactive cap on Thomas' run.

DC Retroactive

JLA - The '90s #1 (October, 2011) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
JLA - The '80s #1 (October, 2011) @ Justice League Detroit
JLA - The '70s #1 (September, 2011) @ Power of the Atom
The Huntress in "Trial by Fire" (October/November, 1978) @ DC Bloodlines

Sensational Demographics

2011-10-07T01:13:00.001-05:00

Page Views To Date:
According to Statcounter- 58,168
According to Google- 71,462

All the World is Watching You:
1) U.S.A. (53%)
2) Canada (6%)
3) U.K. (5%)
4) Brazil (4%)
5) Germany (2%)
Followed by France, Australia, Mexico, Italy & India.

The Top posts to date are...

10) The Top Five Giganta Covers: 387 Pageviews

9) Rule 63: Wonder Woman: 407 Pageviews

8) The Top 20 Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) Covers: 432 Pageviews

7) The Top 20 Donna Troy Covers: 511 Pageviews

6) The Top 20 Wonder Woman Covers of the 1970s: 642 Pageviews

5) Dragon*Con 2010 Black Lantern Wonder Woman Cosplay: 985 Pageviews

4) Dragon*Con 2010 Donna Troy Cosplay: 1,219 Pageviews

3) Jaimie Alexander on Wonder Woman in Maxim Magazine : 1,868 Pageviews

2) Dragon*Con 2010 Wonder Woman & the Wonder Girls Cosplay: 1,959 Pageviews

1) 2011 Wonder Woman TV Show Logo and Costume: 6,624 Pageviews

Thanks go to referring blogs The Idol-Head of Diabolu, Firestorm Fan, Paul D. Brazil, and Being Carter Hall!

2010 Wonder Woman Redesign art by Brett Booth

2011-10-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Click To Enlarge

"I decided to toss my hat into the Wonder Woman redesign ring. I think I finally figured out what was bothering me about the re design. She doesn't look like Wonder Woman.. meaning she looks to young. In fact she looks more like Donna Troy (she might be young in the story so I might be wrong about this.) I know it's just a sketch, and that Jim did it quickly. I worked with him for years and sat over his shoulder watching him crank out pages and sketches. I did have a question, when did Wonder Woman get these enormous breasts? She didn't have them originally and now she's so top heavy I'm surprised she can fight at all!

So I drew up my redesign, trying to make sure she looked a bit older."

There's a Superman reworking at the link, as well.

Wonder Woman #290 (April, 1982)

2011-10-02T01:35:00.002-05:00

Silver Swan tore through a brick wall to get into Dr. Psycho's lab in Virginia, intent on murdering Colonel Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman. Setting her beau on an operating table (and setting aside a flashback for late arrivals,) Wonder Woman explained, "We don't have anything to fight about, Swan-- not unless you want to give me good reason by trying to carry out your threat. But I'm warning you, lady... if you do, I'm more than ready to take you on!" Swan asserted that Diana and her boyfriend were living on borrowed time, "and I've just called in the debt!"

If she had to fight a madwoman, Wonder Woman was set on doing it outside, so as not to harm Steve. The pair engaged in midair wrestling, but Silver Swan easily shook the Princess off, and there were no strong air currents for her to glide upon. Wonder Woman instead relied upon her robot plane for salvation, grabbing a wing before turning back to lasso Swan. The Silver Swan was compelled to obey the Lasso of Truth, halting the fight.

Meanwhile, Dr. Psycho was infatuated with the Silver Swan on sight, like most men. "I've hated women my whole life, just as they've hated my hideous countenance. But I feel the strangest... compulsion... to aid her..." Although he was unable to affect permanent change without his equipment, Psycho's ectoplasmic powers still worked through the medium of Steve Trevor's unconscious mind, so that Captain Wonder was reborn. "I'll deliver the Silver Swan from Wonder Woman's power, and then the woman will be mine. For what woman could resist me in this form... one of such beauty and power...?" Possibly because every single design flaw in Wonder Woman's costume was magnified a hundredfold by the ambiguously gay Captain Wonder?

The Psycho Wonder sucker punched Wonder Woman right off her plane, freed Silver Swan, then caught the Amazing Amazon in her own lasso. Swan thought the Captain was magnificent. "My whole life, men have disappointed me... I was... the ugly duckling-- too hideous for them to even consider loving me! ...I hate men for what they've done to my life..." Despite their jaundiced appraisals of the opposite sex, it was "love" at first sight for Silver Swan and Captain Wonder, Psycho finding Swan lovelier than even his departed wife Marva.

Wonder Woman, Swan and Psycho had all had lengthy flashbacks, so Steve Trevor demanded his turn. He dreamed of his mission, begun on Trevor's parallel Earth of origin, from which he flew a jet through a vibrational barrier to Earth-1. Existentially, Trevor was aware that he was not of this Earth, but he was held fast upon meeting his angel, the Amazon Princess...

Mars was sorely displeased that Silver Swan had yet to complete her mission, and compounded his demands. Besides killing Princess Diana, "I wish you to destroy it all-- their President and this puny monument to their pretensions of power!" By this he meant that he wanted the robot plane to make a kamikaze run on the White House, where President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy were walking the grounds with Secret Service agents. None were appropriately responsive to the thunderous invisible missile aimed for them, as the game Captain Wonder carried on with Silver Swan.

Steve Trevor began to wake from his dream, destabilizing Captain Wonder. Wonder Woman sensed his vulnerability, and yanked Captain Wonder off the wing of her plane by the lasso used to drag her along. The Captain fell through the branches of a wooded area, protecting Dr. Psycho long enough to survive before his ectoplasmic construct dissipated. Wonder Woman saw this from above, and with stronger winds near the White House, was able to glide back toward her jet. However, Silver Swan caught her from behind, savagely tearing at the back of Wonder Woman's head with her fingernails. However, this afforded the Amazing Amazon a grip on the psychotic siren, an advantage she pressed until she batted Silver Swan to the ground. Dr. Psycho was as horrified by the "bone-shuddering" thump of Swan's body as she had been at the apparent demise of her newfound "love."

Agent Tomkins ordered President Reagan to "hit the dirt," but Wonder Woman's telepathic rapport with her robot plane allowed her to halt it before damage could be done. "Well. So that's this Wonder Woman I've heard so much about... I can't say as I much care for her method of dropping by to say hello, though..."

Mars was upset. "With all thy power, still you grovel in the dirt in the humiliation of defeat!" Helen Alexandros protested that the fight wasn't finished, but Mars found her unworthy of being the Silver Swan, and stripped away her powers. Helen hoped to find consolation in the arms of Captain Wonder, but instead discovered Dr. Psycho. Their eyes locked across a clearing, "but you see this time not the spark of love... and as one, you shudder-- before hurrying apart... in search of that which never truly existed-- a beauty that's forever gone." Wonder Woman didn't have time to capture either of them, hurrying back to Steve Trevor, whose "lovely angel" had finally enabled him to resolve the cosmic tug-of-war that had threatened his life.

"Panic Over Pennsylvania Avenue!" was by Roy Thomas, Paul Kupperberg, Gene Colan, and Romeo Tanghal. I had no idea that there was a change in scripting duties until I checked the credit box for this review. Despite the excess of flashbacks, this was a good issue that brought home the reason for mingling the Silver Swan and Dr. Psycho stories. Hell, for all I know, that contrast and the villains' aesthetic hypocrisy may well have inspired Silver Swan's very creation!

The Bronze Age

The Huntress in "Gotham Town Is Burning Down!" (August/September, 1978) @ DC Bloodlines
Manhunter in Detective Comics #439 (February-March, 1974) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
The Vixen in Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984) @ JLDetroit
The Atom in Brave and the Bold #152 (July, 1979) @ Power of the Atom

2010 DC Universe Vol.3: The Wards Wonder Girl art by alexmax

2011-09-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

Click To Enlarge and Expand

"The Wards, the pupils, the squires. The teenaged relatives or partners of the big guns. Less teen titans and more Young Justice, with Supergirl and Batgirl acting as chaperones to the teen heroes...

Wonder Girl: A little of everything for her. She changes uniforms every couple of years, so I picked and chose what I liked from all the different versions."

alexmax

Hawkman @ Power of the Atom
Lobo @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
The Question @ DC Bloodlines
Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit

1992 Wonder Woman #68 Unused Cover Concept Sketch by Brian Bolland

2011-09-26T03:51:00.000-05:00

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Wonder Woman #289 (March, 1982)

2011-09-22T00:00:00.004-05:00

While flying over the Bermuda Triangle, Wonder Woman spotted a Russian fishing boat being attacked by a "gigantic, many-armed Kraken." She lassoed a tentacle while riding the wing of her jet, hoping to compel the beast to her will. The Kraken proved too brainless to be controlled, but still managed to catch Diana with another tentacle. The Amazing Amazon ripped herself free, then dove into the ocean to take the fight to the monster. It began to flee, but she wasn't done teaching the Kraken a lesson, tying one of its tentacles into a knot. As for the Russians, "If you want to thank me, comrade, you can ask your government to cut down its trawling activities a little-- so that you and the Japanese leave a little sea food for the rest of the planet. Hola... and fare well!" Diana of course spoke their native tongue.

The invisible robot plane continued on to Paradise Island, obscured at the heart of the triangle. Hippolyta and Paula were giving their kangas some exercise, or in the queen's case, Diana's neglected Jumpa. The Princess feared her beloved Steve Trevor might be dying, and a surprised Hippolyta demanded that she bring him to the island at once for treatment under Paula's purple healing ray. This permission was exactly why Diana had made the trip.

Back in Washington, D.C., Wonder Woman dove off the wing of her robot plane and soared through her bedroom window. As Captain Diana Prince, our heroine learned from Etta Candy that new roommate Helen Alexandros was a great cook before the three headed to the hospital to check on Steve. Prince was shocked to learn Colonel Trevor had been signed over to a private doctor by the top brass. A nurse explained that he was "A real weirdie, Captain... 'Doctor Psycho'! Funny-lookin' little guy, too!" Etta and Helen shared a cab home, the former wanting to catch An American Werewolf in London, the latter bowing out of the cab early. Diana Prince had a plane to catch...

In the hills of Virginia sat a veritable castle owned by Doctor Psycho, his surname created when "a semi-literate immigration officer shortened my grandfather's Greek name..." This was apparently the first Earth-One version of the villain, who thirty years earlier was the butt of schoolboy mockery and schoolgirl sneers. Even onto his brilliant medical school career, he was still looked upon as a freak. Lovely Marva had screamed slightly on first encountering him, but eventually embraced Psycho as a friend. The Doctor wanted more, and through his mesmeric research, managed to hypnotize her into loving him...

"That's when I discovered I had the unique power to use Marva as a medium-- one through whom I could bring living substance out of the spirit world!" Psycho could create tangible ectoplasmic illusions using matter from the spirit world. Dr. Psycho became handsome to all-- so long as Marva was in his presence. "Perhaps I did come to hate Marva a bit, because I was so dependent on her, even for my self-esteem. I weeped when she died, though... so I couldn't have caused her death, now, could I? It was she who stepped in front of that car... I was nowhere around. Even the jury that acquitted me saw how grief-stricken I was over her demise." Dr. Psycho mesmerized other women, either with his hypnotism or his checking account, but it was never the same. That was, until he located another medium: Colonel Steve Trevor! Working with his hunchbacked assistant Melvin, Psycho planned to use Trevor in a test run of his Electroplasmotron device.

Batting aside heavily armed guards, Wonder Woman burst onto the scene. Having heard everything with her Amazon-trained hearing, Princess Diana was fighting mad. However, with Psycho's machine in operation, the Doctor transformed himself into an idealized version of Steve Trevor garbed in a (somewhat) masculine version of Wonder Woman's costume. "Captain Wonder" had all the power Trevor thought Wonder Woman had, which meant his construct was actually stronger than the real thing. Worse, Wonder Wonder woman kept pulling her punches against this vision of the man she loved. Regardless, the Amazing Amazon was the better fighter and strategist, hurling Captain Wonder into the Electroplasmotron. Besides disabling the device, it also woke Steve Trevor up, evaporating Psycho's illusion. Just as Dr. Psycho was under control and Steve Trevor free, Silver Swan burst onto the scene, intent on murder!

"His Name is Psycho!" was by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Romeo Tanghal. Aside from the new, peculiar origin of Dr. Psycho, there really wasn't much going on in this issue. As much as I enjoyed all the balls tossed up in the air last issue, veering off into the Psycho story felt like a distraction from the Silver Swan one, and obviously the kraken was thrown in as filler. That trip to Paradise Island was just plain dumb, which explained Hippolyta's incredulous reaction, and reflects poorly on Wonder Woman. The plot has overwhelmed her time management skills and good sense!

The Bronze Age

The Vixen in Action Comics #521 (July, 1981) @ Justice League Detroit
The Atom in Action Comics #521 (July, 1981) @ Power of the Atom
The Huntress in Batman Family #18 (June/July, 1978) @ DC Bloodlines
Manhunter (Paul Kirk) in Detective Comics #438 (December, 1973/January, 1974) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Sensational Comics for December, 2011

2011-09-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #4
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale DECEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Wonder Woman has left Paradise Island behind, but Hera is just arriving. Without the Amazons’ most powerful daughter to protect them, can they withstand the wrath of a God who once favored them? And why would Zola want Diana to march right back into the eye of the storm?

A screaming Diana's reflection in a pool of blood? Man, pretty positive Chang is wasted on this crap.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #4
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by ANDY KUBERT
1:200 B&W Variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale DECEMBER 21 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.

The superstar team of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee continue the origin of the Justice League as The World’s Greatest Heroes face the might of Apokolips – and find aid in an unlikely hero, as Cyborg is created! Plus, Andy Kubert returns an amazing variant cover – his first new work after the smash-hit FLASHPOINT!

This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

I'm all for people kicking Hal Jordan's ass, especially Aquaman, but I do hope Diana gets her turn. I'm sure Huntress and Lady Blackhawk would appreciate it.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #19-20
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by MIKE S. MILLER, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover #19 by MIKE S. MILLER
Cover #20 by HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
With Brainiac’s final play revealed, the Justice League – minus Superman – must find a way to stop this final threat to Earth. Can the newly empowered civilians from The Daily Planet building help? Where will Earth turn in this dark hour?
As Brainiac’s invading force prepares for combat, Batman must make a deadly decision that may put him at odds with the entire JLA. It’s a decision that could save the Earth, and the Dark Knight will stop at nothing – even fighting his allies – to guarantee success...but can anyone save him from himself?
#19 on sale DECEMBER 14
#20 on sale DECEMBER 28
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

You know, it's inevitable that I'm going to read at least a trade's worth of this someday, and I'll just as surely regret it. Working on this crap shows how far Howard Porter's star has fallen, but I'm glad Mike S. Miller has come back strong, even with the homophobia.

DC UNIVERSE: SECRET ORIGINS HC
Written by VARIOUS
Art by VARIOUS
Montage cover
On sale FEBRUARY 22 • 320 pg, FC, $39.99 US
The classic Silver Age titles are collected in hardcover for the first time, including SECRET ORIGINS #1, MORE SECRET ORIGINS #1, EVEN MORE SECRET ORIGINS #1 and WEIRD SECRET ORIGINS #1! Don’t miss the origins of Wonder Woman, the Superman/Batman team, The Challengers of the Unknown, Martian Manhunter, the Justice League of America, Aquaman, The Flash, The Atom, Bizarro and more!

THE DC UNIVERSE BY ALAN MOORE HC

Written by ALAN MOORE
Art by JIM APARO, BRIAN BOLLAND, PARIS CULLINS, GEORGE FREEMAN, DAVE GIBBONS, KLAUS JANSON, KEVIN O’NEILL, JOE ORLANDO, GEORGE PÉREZ, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, CURT SWAN, RICK VEITCH, AL WILLIAMSON, BILL WILLINGHAM, JIM BAIKIE and MICHAEL LOPEZ
Cover by BRIAN BOLLAND
On sale FEBRUARY 8 • 304 pg, FC, $39.99 US

The work of Alan Moore (WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN) during the 1980s is a benchmark for great stories with fresh approaches to iconic characters. Collected in this volume are all of Moore’s Superman and Batman stories, including ACTION COMICS #583, BATMAN ANNUAL #11, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, DC COMICS PRESENTS #85, DETECTIVE COMICS #549-550, GREEN LANTERN #188, THE OMEGA MEN #26-27, SECRET ORIGINS #10, SUPERMAN #423, TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS ANNUAL #2 & 3, SUPERMAN ANNUAL #11 and VIGILANTE #17-18, plus VOODOO #1-4, DEATHBLOW: BY BLOWS #1-3 and more!

I was sighing "again" until I realized this was treading into new (reprint) territory with the Wildstorm stuff. If you have a version of this already, let me say you're not missing anything. Maybe if they'd thrown in Spawn/WildC.A.T.S...

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #4
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale DECEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Wonder Girl has come to New York City to find Red Robin and fill him in on what she’s learned about N.O.W.H.E.R.E., but it turns out she’s going to have to go through the mysterious Superboy first! As two of DC’s most powerful young metahumans battle over the streets of Times Square on New Year’s Eve, Red Robin assembles his team to help Wonder Girl.

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #47
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale DECEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E
It’s Mrs. Atom’s turn to babysit the Baby Titans – Damien, Arthur Jr., Smidgen, Kid Devil and Jason Toddler. Can she do it alone? Maybe Miss Martian can help! What happens when our heroes get…lost in Metropolis?! Find out in this awesome baby-packed issue!

2011 Wonder Woman Unreleased NBC Pilot Pictorial Review

2011-09-18T01:06:00.000-05:00

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Thanks to Luke of El Jacone's Comic Book Bunker and the Hawkman blog Being Carter Hall, I finally got around to seeing the unaired NBC Wonder Woman TV pilot about six weeks back. I had as thorough a synopsis as I could find online ready for this blog within two weeks, but sat on it for another month while I finished up school and tried in vain to give similar treatments to some tie-in projects on other blogs. This article will only get colder, so I figure I should just pull the trigger already. After the network passed on it, early reviews of the leaked pilot started hitting the internet in late May, so four months seems sufficient duration for me to miss the bandwagon, as usual. Maybe I've waited long enough for the folks sick of hearing about it to give a second pass, eh?

An African-American teenager tells his family he's gotten his acceptance letter into college... right before collapsing and hyperventilating with blood flowing out of every orifice.

A bald white guy with near superhuman speed is chased down Hollywood Boulevard by Wonder Woman. The pair run over and jump across cars, with the footage sped up a few frames per second shy of a Keystone Cops short. Diana gets hit by a car, tearing up its front end and briefly putting her on her ass. A lasso to the throat stops the guy cold, and then Diana jabs him in the neck with a syringe to extract a blood sample. The cops show, forcing Diana to give up the cueball, but not before she spins him across the floor. The first words out of her mouth, protesting that the dude would just "lawyer up," make it clear actress Adrianne Palicki isn't remotely correct casting in the vocal department.

Cue silly logo with "pitchu! pitchu! pitchu!" sound effect.

While Wonder Woman landed her weird white microjetship thing on the roof of Themyscira Industries, two members of her supporting cast watch "Alan Dershowitz" complain on TV about the heroine's constant violation of civil rights (wiretapping, assault, etc.) Nancy Grace likes her, though. Dr. Phil thinks she's nuts. Diana walks with a limp, so suit #1 Henry Johns (Cary Elwes) presses her to visit the infirmary. Suit #2 is a lean black Etta Candy In Name Only (Tracie Thoms,) an enabler. Diana changes into her '80s teen movie "frumpy" Diana Prince identity with the glasses, which Henry Johns describes as "self-induced schizophrenia." He's right, and the rationale of leaving for the night with early morning business meetings awaiting as Princess Diana of Themyscira because she needs to feel "human" is mighty dumb.

Diana Prince checks her mail, eats potato chips, watches soaps, and promises her cat that this false identity will get her Facebook profile built tonight. She flashes back to the dinner where, after two years of living with Steve Trevor (Justin Bruening,) she breaks the news that she's decided that she can do the most good for the world by moving to the West Coast. Now she's all sad and alone in her stupid fake glasses, making Clark Kent seem less pathetic.

The next morning, Etta offers a rapid fire itinerary to which Henry adds a press conference to push back against media criticism with a new Wonder Woman doll hitting stores in a month. That all goes out the window when the mother of the bleeding kid asks to speak with Diana. We learn that her son was a junkie, and that the man Wonder Woman captured was probably his dealer. The mother, Janine, wants to see those responsible killed. Diana explains that Janine has three other children at home to care for, so leave the vengeance to her. "I'm kinda good at it." Adrianne Palicki's delivery and body language is rather awkward, but at least she conveys Diana's empathy with regular folk without being at all patronizing. On her knees in front of the mother, Diana confirms that she knows who is at the head of the super-drug trafficking network, and that she's "about to tell everybody."

At the press conference, Diana fingers Veronica Cale of Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals for distributing the body building supplement that had killed six young black athletes "from ghettos, by the way." The Great White Hope promises Cale that if the law doesn't get her for illegally using humans as guinea pigs in advance of FDA approval, Wonder Woman would. All of these statements were made without hard evidence, meaning the lawyers in the audience could shudder as hard as the rest of us when Diana stopped just short of addressing "the plight of the negro" or somesuch. David E. Kelly has no street card to pull. Afterward, Veronica Cale (Elizabeth Hurley) defends herself in the media through smack talk and bad acting. Etta explains to Diana what an idiot move she's made, especially in light of her blood sample from the pusher, John O'Quinn, coming back negative.

Diana is stressed out about not making headway on the Cale case, and takes it out on an overly endowed Wonder Woman doll in a board meeting. Diana shouts the word "tits," so Etta points out that Wonder Woman isn't vulgar. In a fit of unattractive self pity, Diana laments Wonder Woman's perfect tits, ass, teeth, and her never making mistakes. Later, Henry explains that all of Wonder Woman's crime fighting resources come from merchandising, including those ridiculous dolls, so it's a matter in need of resolution. Also, he prompts another flashback to why Diana dumped Steve Trevor-- fear of her loved ones being targeted by her enemies, and what she would become if domesticated.

Veronica Cale pays a visit, expressing her view that Diana is envious of the athletes she can produce with strength to rival Wonder Woman's. Cale also points out how she and the pharmaceutical industry have the government by the balls, which could lead to all sort of officially sanctioned hell falling on Diana's head if she continues pursuing Cale. Both actresses deliver gut-wrenching dialogue with little finesse, and I wonder if Lorenzo Lamas is going to turn up at some point.

Wonder Woman flies her goofy wittle jet-a-ma-bob to the hospital where bleeding kid Willis Parks (B.J. Britt) is recovering. Willis smiles and talks about "truth, justice and the American Way" in an "inspirational" moment where we're all supposed to forget that's a Superman line and that he was using illegal performance enhancing substances to land in the hospital. Know who else is there? Drug dealer John O'Quinn (Joseph Gatt) in police protective custody.

Wonder Woman manages to talk Inspector Ed Indelicato into giving her five minutes alone with the suspect, but can't convince Pedro Pascal to not be the worst actor in the show so far. The lasso of truth seems not to be all it's cracked up to be, as a) it looks like it came from Hobby Lobby and b) Diana has to physically torture information out of O'Quinn while audibly torturing the audience with tuff gal dialogue delivered unconvincingly. I'd be miffed if Diana had any business being a friend o'Chaney in the first place.

Cale plans to sell the super-steroid to an increasingly privatized military, even though its side effects include deformities. Wonder Woman knows the location of Cale's underground laboratory, but any evidence found there would be poisonous fruit in court. Indelicato is facing heat from his superiors, just as a senator friendly to Cale shows up looking to have dinner with Diana. Wonder Woman "cools her... jet." Henry recognizes that if Wonder Woman faces criminal charges, the Rico act could also bring down Themyscira Industries. Is it really an industry if all you produce is a license and some in-house merchandise? Henry called the senator a prick, so I'm sure the network would have loved running the super-hero show at 10 0'clock to appease censors.

Poor Edward Herrmann plays Senator Warren with a southern accent, because this show is set on making even decent actors look bad (see also: Tracie Thoms' nasal Condi Rice impression.) The senator offers a veiled threat in asking why an inhuman vigilante had not been investigated for her criminal activity, to which Diana replies that the government should be more worried about double wars, double dip recession, and double digit unemployment. I kept waiting for a zinger about her DDs, but it never came. Diana did call him on making the American taxpayer cover their $700 bottle of wine, and whether he'd ever "probed" Veronica Cale.

Willis Parks dies, so Wonder Woman suits up (at the local discount costume store?) Henry has Etta contact Ed Indelicato, who never finagled a search warrant. However, he would move in with police as pseudo-back-up once Diana's trespassing turned the underground lab into a crime scene. Cale figures that if Wonder Woman gets in, everyone involved will be arrested, which makes about as much sense as Indelicato's logic. Her chief preventative measure is a crew of super-roided guards, with head beefcake McRaven (Geoff Meed) curiously the best actor on the show. Wonder Woman bursts into their warehouse, and by burst I mean she pulls up the garage door with a girlie flapping of her arms while the film sped up for unintentional added comedic effect. Inexplicably, she's also decided that now is the time to run around with exposed legs.

McRaven is a fan, but figures twenty-to-one odds should more than even out a fight with Wonder Woman. A lasso around the neck is the initial evidence in disproving this theory. The stunt/wire work that follows seriously kicks ass, easily vindicating the existence of the otherwise south-of-mediocre show. The CGI lasso looks way better than the physical one, even if Wonder Woman only ever uses it as a whip to choke dudes by the neck.

Dudes get crushed by storage containers, bullets meet bracelets, and a lead pipe gets tossed into a security guard's neck. Day-um. I'm a noted critic of the Diana Warrior Princess school, but even I have to admit action this rad tells Batman that he can eat Wonder Woman until the sun rises over Gotham City. The coordinator on this has my kudos.

Veronica Cale confronts Wonder Woman with video footage and the might of the criminal justice system, so Diana lasso chokes and body slams her. I think she may have snapped into a Slim Jim at some point, as well. Wonder Woman finds the mutated lab rats as the police find her. Somehow, Wonder Woman goes free while Cale is arrested, like that'll last, and hundreds of Themyscira Industries employees are on hand in the middle of the night to give the returning Wonder Woman a round of applause. It's great when some random tenor tells them all to get "back to work." Those logs won't saw themselves, and sheep can't count themselves. Also, the Justice Department investigator sent by the corrupt senator to the company for a late night interrogation? Steve Trevor. Yes, really. He's a handsome guy generally, but in that lighting, gots Down Syndrome eyes. Anyway, he'd been transferred to Cali from New York six months earlier, but hadn't called on account of having gotten married, because Wonder Woman is Ally McBeal now.

Diana Prince built that Facebook page. Her only friend is Sylvester the cat. No credits, but there is a WB shield and that David E. Kelly Productions thing where the TV knocks over the old lady. I've read enthusiastic reviews and others that hilariously equate it to brain cancer. It falls somewhere closer to the middle, as the script and acting are uniformly bad, but it's shot reasonably well with decent production values and a sweet fight scene. I think we can all agree that David E. Kelly needs to stay far away from genre television, but the show could have been salvageable with better writers and actors informed to knock off the accents. Let's face it, the '70s show was also pretty lousy, getting by on it sweet nature, and I friggin' hated the direct to DVD cartoon from a few years ago. This was comparatively inoffensive, though I won't shed any tears for it, either.

A few final bullet points...

The Bad:

The Lasso of Truth being nothing more than a cheap looking rip-off of Catwoman's whip used solely to chokeabitch.
I can roll with black Etta Candy, but all the skinny versions of her miss the point. Melissa McCarthy would have been perfect ten years or so back.
We needed a better Steve and no Henry Johns at all.
In some respects, Diana Prince was cooler than Wonder Woman. She typically dressed way better, and who doesn't dig a cutie in glasses? Prince was never a loser, and her worst crime was her pining for Steve in the '50s and '60s while still being active in the military. Clara Kent needed to get gone.
Veronica Cale as an ongoing threat just would not have worked, nor would an endless stream of military-industrial complex asses. We need deformed midgets and catsuits, stat!

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The Good:

I'm glad the plane got in there. I really miss the plane, invisible or not. Batman flies one all the damn time, and he was a comparative Johnny Come Lately in that respect.
Themyscira Industries looked really nice inside and out. It's not the way I would have gone (too Bruce Wayne,) but having gone there, it was well put together.
I really liked the noblesse oblige on display, not so much in Wonder Woman's swagger as her sense of empathetic duty to the common man.
Aside from the lethal level of super-violence, I can't say enough about the action choreography. So freakin' rad, especially by TV standards.
Worts and all, it's worth seeing by any Wonder Woman fan with a sense of humor about it. Hopefully, the wirework will get CG'd out and we'll get a DVD release down the line. I'd pay $9.95.

Dragon*Con 2011 Wonder Girl Donna Troy Cosplay

2011-09-15T04:58:00.002-05:00

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Copyright © Brent Allen Thale

In a repeat from last year, here's George Pérez's niece in Nick Cardy's redesign of the Wonder Girl costume. I didn't get a clear shot of her sweet custom necklace before, so kudos to Mr. Thale. The lovely young lady also posed as Supergirl, who was snapped among a slew of same by Shag Matthews of Once Upon A Geek (starting on page 2, I believe.)

Dragon*Con 2011 CosPlay

The Aqua-Family @ The Aquaman Shrine
The Atom (Golden Age Al Pratt) @ The Mighty Mite
Booster Gold and Blue Beetle @ Comics Make Me Happy!
Damage (Grant Emerson) @ Power of the Atom
Firestorm @ Firestorm Fan
The Flash @ Speed Force
Hawkman and Hawkgirl @ Being Carter Hall
Killer Frost @ Firestorm Fan
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
The Vixen @ Justice League Detroit
Wonder Woman & Superman @ Diana Prince
Once Upon A Geek DC2011 gallery

2011 Wonder Woman art by Ivan Camelo

2011-09-13T00:00:00.003-05:00

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VanCamelot

Aquaman @ Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Power Girl @ DC Bloodlines
Wonder Woman @ Diana Prince
Ivan Camelo's deviantART gallery

Wonder Woman #8 (Late June, 2007)

2011-09-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hippolyta was back from the dead, asking Circe where her daughter was, rather than “Why am I not dead?” or “ Where is Imperiex?” or “What is your evil sorceress bitch-ass doing on my island?” Meanwhile, Wonder Woman remained trapped in an energy cell while the U.S. government tried to extort information of Themysciran weapons technology. Also, Tom Tresser had a boner for Wonder Woman (unlike his dumb old partner; a stunning, statuesque brunette in skintight white leather) as he explained to the V & V bartender and Sarge Steel, toward whom Tom seemed rather insubordinate and resignation prone (without saying the actual words.)

Circe visited Diana to make a “morality is relative” argument to try to corrupt… need I really go on? Do you not already know Tom Tressor used his mastery of disguise to impersonate Sarge Steel and bust Wonder Woman loose? Diana punched Tom to try to cover for his actions, but since the agency wasn’t full of morons, that didn’t work. Instead, they both escaped, only to learn Amazons were laying siege to Washington D.C. It all went back to Circe conspiring with Sarge Steel… maybe.

"Love and Murder, Part 3" was by Jodi Picoult, Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson. I'm out of gripes. It's like "What If... Jeph Loeb had a run?" My circuits have overloaded.

Brave New World

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #52 (July, 2007) @ Justice League Detroit
The All New Atom #9 (May, 2007) @ The Mighty Mite
Breach #8 (October, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter #8 (May, 2007) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
OMAC in DCU: Brave New World #1 (August, 2006) @ DC Bloodlines

2011 Rejected DCnÜ Wonder Girl Concept Art by Brett Booth

2011-09-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

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"This one almost made it through... until it got Vetoed;) Oh and the other lasso with the pokie things on it isn't barbed wire, it's thorny vines.

Best,

Brett"

2011 DC Fifty-TOO! Wonder Woman #1 by Nathan Fox

2011-09-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

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You might have heard DC Comics was rebooting everything in their line at issue #1 as part of their "New 52" titles. This inspired Washington-based cartoonist Jon Morris to fire off some emails. "Fifty-two artists (and then some) responded, and that brings us here - DC FIFTY-TOO, The New DC Universe as imagined by fifty-two independent cartoonists." One such artist is Nathan Fox, who seems to understand how thoroughly everything goes out the window for the Amazing Amazon in these reboots. Diana seems to have about the same attitude about that as the rest of us.

Fox writes...

"As a father of two daughters, one of which idolizes Wonder Woman - even before she can independently read a comic book - it is my hope that whomever picks up the torch from her on out, will give due justice and respect to the women characters in comics as well as the female readers of comics. "Men", for lack of a better term, will always be "served", but when strong female characters take the lead among men and carry the torch, as a father AND artist, it is something truly remarkable to behold. When you witness that kind of iconic inspiration on paper reflected in an anxious and impressionable girls eyes (guys too...). Anything becomes possible at that age and as long as "she" (The hero and the reader) is in the right and not wrong, she never has to take "no" for an answer, be backed into a corner or be ashamed of who she is, where she comes from or what she can become. Wonder Woman is an american icon as much as she is a role model, a beautiful amazon woman and kicker of much evil ass. I hope she never fades - as much as I hope she will continue to evolve and inspire millions."

Fox continues, and offers a detailed biography, at DC Fifty-TOO!

Wonder Woman #7 (Early June, 2007)

2011-09-04T00:00:00.005-05:00

Circe hung Tom Tresser off chains from the ceiling of the dusty Wonder Woman museum, and wrapped his body in serpents. The Amazing Amazon followed the trail, tore some snakes in half, beat up on Circe and got the old “we’re not so different/ you’re a killer deep down” speech. Circe then vanished into a mirror, leaving the princess to glare at her own cracked reflection. Yes, really. Wonder Woman freed Tressor, and even after just noting that he had lost a lot of blood from torture, she dropped him on the ground after a piggish comment for comedic effect. Afterward, fearing a hospital with her fugitive status (like she couldn’t drop him at an ER and fly out,) the princess broke into a veterinarian’s office to treat Tom’s wounds. Tom snacked on a dog biscuit. Wah-wah.

The pair returned to the Villains & Vixens Bar, a dive where super-villains get drunk in costume. A miscolored Brainiac, a Sivana with antennae, Psimon, Icicle, Ocean Master, Icicle and the rapist Dr. Light were all present. The Scarecrow was apparently not alone in loving the Jessica and Ashlee (Simpson) discs on the jukebox. Laughing yet? The dikey bartender was a big Wonder Woman fan. The princess found Circe hanging out in the bathroom, the pair fought, Catwoman apologized for interrupting, and Circe dove through another mirror, leaving Wonder Woman with her grim reflection again. This time, it turned out Sarge Steel and his storm troopers had a tracer planted in Tressor’s uniform the entire time, and used it to catch Wonder Woman in a trap. The princess went along quietly, only to be held without charge or representation until such time as she would be willing to turn over the secrets of her “Purple Death Ray.”

Meanwhile, Circe cut a deal with a mysterious entity to allow her entry to the dimensionally exiled Themyscira. “You may go… but for a price… Be aware: we may call in our marker anytime, anywhere.” Circe then cast a spell to resurrect the deceased Hippolyta.

"Love and Murder, Part 2" was by Jodi Picoult & Drew Johnson with Ray Snyder & Rodney Ramos.

When I first started writing in grade school, I had a teacher who got me to read my short stories in class. I gained an unearned reputation as a slasher film fan (although I later qualified,) and at the urging of fellow students, tried to write something about Freddy and Jason in complete ignorance. The only part of that thing I remember is Jason knocking off Freddy’s hat. My teacher read it, noted my obvious unfamiliarity with the subjects, and gave me a brief “write what you know” speech that has stuck with me ever since.

This comic reads like Jodi Picoult never got that speech. Worse, I think she was coached to reach a variety of editorially mandated plot points to set up a future risible crossover by other hands. In between those points are trite character moments that make no narrative sense. I mean, why don’t Sarge Steel and his team burst into the Wonder Woman Museum, where they already knew Tom had been taken? So that we could have the stupid little scene where Tom eats dog biscuits like Riggs in Lethal Weapon 3. The dialogue in this thing is also seriously cringe inducing. Stop. Just stop.

Brave New World

Breach #7 (September, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The Trials of Shazam! in DCU: Brave New World #1 (August, 2006) @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter #7 (April, 2007) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #51 (June, 2007) @ Justice League Detroit
The All New Atom #8 (April, 2007) @ The Mighty Mite

Wonder Woman #288 (February, 1982)

2011-08-31T01:48:00.001-05:00

I thought I owned DC Comics Presents #41, which featured the 16 preview premiere of "The Sensational New Wonder Woman" creative team of Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Romeo Tanghal. If I do, it's gone missing, so it's a good thing their recap explained that Captain Diana Prince and Colonel Steve Trevor had been attacked by enemy agents. Trevor was injured, but managed to pass a briefcase of secret documents for Prince to escape with. Wonder Woman dealt with the spies, only to be surprised by representatives of the new (unauthorized) "Wonder Woman Foundation." In order to gain financial backing to spread their message of equality, they asked the actual Wonder Woman for a show of support in the form of a newly designed (and undoubtedly copyrighted) breast piece. As Trevor was carted away in an ambulance, Diana flew to Paradise Island to consult her mother on the matter. Once there, she found the Amazons in chains, and had to outrace Mercury to recover Queen Hippolyta's magic belt of immortal strength. To free the Amazons, the Amazing Amazon bested the main schemer, Hercules, in a match of strength. Finally, Hippolyta advised Diana to abandon her classic eagle breast piece for the new double-W halter, to see if it would do some good in the world.

16 pages, and only 14 for the story. That would be at least one story arc today, and the recap alone would take up an issue.

Back in the States, Wonder Woman learned Steve's injuries were more serious than previously thought, and paid an in-costume visit to Metro General Hospital. This meant she had to brush past insensitive autograph hounds, Dr. Prescott that Trevor was slowly perishing from an unknown cause. Angling for the 1982 Least Credible Doctor Award, Prescott claimed "It's almost as if he-- I don't even know how to put this in medical terminology-- as if his body and his soul are struggling to get out of this world-- into another one!" Sister, I'd look cross-eyed at Zatanna over that line, so you might need to defend your license in the near future. Better yet, Prescott thought Trevor was dying an hour ago, but now "I just don't know." Diana cried and told Steve that she loved him with a kiss, and he woke up briefly for his angel. That's sweet, but nothing says I love you like a Purple Healing Ray, which never came up. Maybe Diana forgot about that along with her knowledge of having loved a previous Steve Trevor who died but had now fallen for this parallel Earth version that she had only known a few month. Yeah, the Crisis happened exactly because of stuff like that.

Cheerfully racing through the streets of the District of Columbia at super-speed, Wonder Woman ran smack dab into some bank robbers. Playing bullets and bracelets slowed her down enough for one thief to escape in a helicopter, until a woman dressed in white with artificial underarm wings flew after the chopper. The seeming heroine tossed a hood out of the helicopter, to be rescued by the grounded Wonder Woman. The vehicle lost stability, and the Amazon Princess noted, "Whoever she is-- she's apparently willing to let the pilot die! With my Magic Lasso, I can guide the 'copter down," into some sort of large water fountain. "Now to find out who that bird-lady is, 'cause she sure isn't Sacajawea... or the Black Canary!" The Silver Swan landed to thank Wonder Woman for her assistance and beguile every man on the scene with her beauty. "I must leave now... but remember my name, won't you?"

Wonder Woman continued on to the alleyway where she had hidden the briefcase full of classified government documents in a trash can, "Zeus knows" how many hours ago. The rubbish remained, and held an indention from the briefcase, but that was it. Wonder Woman mentally called for her Robot Plane to fly to the Pentagon and report her blunder.

Landing her invisible vessel nearby, Wonder Woman became Captain Prince with a spin of her lasso, and asked Etta Candy if their superior was in. "For you, roomie, he's always in." Even under the circumstances, General Darnell was gentle, welcoming, and totally skeevy, offering to protect Prince from inquires into her foul-up while caressing her hair. "I don't want any special favors, sir. May I go now... General Darnell?" Etta was eavesdropping the whole time, and drove her roommate home in her big orange sedan. "Whatever Darnell wants, Di, you sure got it! I haven't heard so much heavy breathing since my last obscene phone call." Prince didn't find it flattering, "since I made it clear I'm not interested in his attentions... or his 'protection.'"

Arriving at their apartment, Etta had forgotten to mention that she was soliciting a third roommate, since their $300 a month rent had just gone up by 50%. Diana was of course worried about her secret identity being compromised, but couldn't let on to Etta that she had vast Amazonian wealth. Their first prospect had already spoken to Etta on the phone, and came by to properly introduce herself. Helen Alexandros, a shy girl with a poor complexion, brought with her the gift of a lost briefcase. Helen had heard Diana and the General's names mentioned after witnessing the aftermath of Steve's attack, and connected her to the found briefcase. It was in fact the reason that she had contacted Etta, with the roommate proposition then offered by Etta. "I... I hope I'm not being pushy, coming over like this. But rooms are so scarce in the Washington-Arlington area...!" Helen specifically sought out Prince because "Men frighten me a little... They always have. I suppose it comes from being so plain all my life... not to mention this skin problem." Diana agreed to accept Helen as another roomie, and planned to make a "middle-aged general very happy" in the morning.

I must say though that based on this one story, Diana Prince is the worst secret agent ever. She left top secret documents in a trash can, had an impromptu meeting with her booster club, blew off Steve in the hospital to run to Paradise Island for a random battle, returned to visit Steve, had a team-up with Silver Swan, was actually surprised when the documents went missing, and then, upon retrieving them, decided to take a shower straight away while they sat unguarded in her living room. How did we ever beat the Russians?

Lieutenant Candy showed Helen to her room, and told her that she used to have zits, too. "My skin cleared up; there's just a lot more of it now." After the door closed, Alexandros laughed with "a malignant triumph... and a lingering, half-stifled bitterness." Helen grew up constantly berated by her mother for taking after her "dirty" father. Her one chance at being beautiful was through ballet, leading her to join a troupe that toured to an Ancient Greek theatre in Athens. The company was in need of a new prima ballerina, and while Helen had the talent, "In real life, the ugly duckling never really gets to play the swan. We'll give Karina a try, eh?" Furious at the injustice, Helen cried out to the heavens while alone in the amphitheater. "Why did you make me so plain-- in a world that values beauty over everything? I-- who was named for Helen of Troy, most desirable woman of all time! Oh, how I hate men-- men, and this cruel and horrible world they've made!! Do you hear me, you gods! I HATE MEN!!"

Helen's own immortal ancestor did hear her, but did not return the hated in kind. "I am he whom the Ancient Greeks did call Ares-- the Romans, Mars, God of War!" Zeus had come to mate with beauteous Leda in the form of a swan, and Helen of Sparta was born of that union. Helen's abandoning of her Greek husband for Prince Paris and Troy ignited the Trojan War, and caused much death and destruction. Helen had heard these stories all her life, and Mars sensed the depths of hatred within her that he hoped would drive her to cause even greater misery for human males. Mars bestowed upon her beauty that could turn strong men into "stammering fools," enhanced strength, the power of flight, and a devastating voice. For now, Helen Alexandros could only become the Silver Swan for an hour at a time, but she would be graced that form forever upon the death of Mars' arch-foe, Wonder Woman.

The Invisible Robot Plane flew the Amazing Amazon toward the Pentagon, and was trailed by the Silver Swan. As Wonder Woman leaped out to deliver the recovered briefcase, it was stolen from her by the Swan. Princess Diana slapped the briefcase from Silver Swan's clutches, though she retained the busted handle. Wonder Woman tossed the case to General Darnell and his men, who had been awaiting her outside. Silver Swan didn't care about the briefcase, preferring the life of the "star-spangled fool!" The flying Swan seemingly had the advantage over the earthbound Amazon, but amazing acrobatics leveled the field. "I'm tangling with that killer parakeet-- right now!" Wonder Woman launched herself high into the air at the Silver Swan, only to be blasted by "the soul-piercing cry of the Swan," which buffeted her about "like a straw caught in a whirlwind." The soldiers below were pained by the sound, yet also delirious for more. When the Silver Swan unexpectedly broke off the attack, she was acclaimed upon landing by the soldiers for her patriotism and aid in retrieving the briefcase.

Meanwhile, Dr. Prescott looked over the documentation of another physician who would be taking over the care of Steve Trevor. "...One must be doubly trustworthy, doesn't one-- when one has a name like-- Doctor Psycho!"

I'd never read Silver Swan's debut, but happened to buy the original comic a few months back. Swan was much more interesting in this first incarnation, even if the ugly duckling aspect of the character is as believable as the hawt geek girl from '80s movies, with her big blue eyes, lush lips, and "blemishes" that more resemble freckles. Silver Swan as I've known her since 1988 has been a bore. This story not only gives her the ol' ominous foreshadowing, but follows it with a well thought out origin that provides the character with strong motivation and a hook perfect for a Wonder Woman adversary. It also reminded me how much more effective a foe Swan could be when the Amazing Amazon is grounded. Since Wonder Woman can't just fly herself, you get a great display of physicality as she relies on acrobatics and her lasso as she's forced to adapt. It's fun hearing her trash talk, as well.

I'm not typically a fan of Romeo Tanghal's heavy handed inks, but I think Gene Colan's usual moody style needed the conventional polish to perk it up on an assignment like this. Tanghal necessarily tarts up the super-heroine, but is wise enough to get out of Colan's way where it counts. Thomas' plot is nice and dense, recapping a sixteen page preview comic in two pages, advancing subplots left over from the previous creative team, and still working out his own material.

Reading this story also made me realize what a huge mistake ditching the Diana Prince identity and divorcing her from the military were. I'm sorry, but "peaceful ambassador from an island nation" isn't the best story engine. Wonder Woman was far more iconic and motivated while managing a dual identity as an agent of military intelligence working out of the Pentagon than hanging out with a widow and her daughter in Boston. I don't fault Perez for shaking up a tired status quo, but I do fault all the writers that followed him for not restoring some of the elements once Perez's angle grew stale. Steve Trevor's spy games and General Darnell's sexual harassment really draw a reader into the soap opera. I really enjoyed how much information was packed into 26 pages, and that's before the cliffhanger that reintroduced one of Wonder Woman's best villains after a fifteen year absence. Good show!

The Bronze Age

The Vixen #1 in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (Fall, 1978)
@ Justice League Detroit
Manhunter in Detective Comics #437 (October-November, 1973)
@ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Superman starring in Action Comics #530 (April, 1982)
@ DC Bloodlines
The Atom in Action Comics #530 (April, 1982)
@ Power of the Atom

Wonder Woman #6 (Late May, 2007)

2011-08-28T00:00:00.004-05:00

Wonder Woman kept having to remind herself who she was, both her super-heroic role and her new cover identity as government special agent Diana Prince. She and Tom Tresser were assigned to bodyguard the new Maxi-Man, who had gained his powers from a reality television show competition. Tresser was bitching about the lameness of it all, including getting stuck with the inexperienced Prince as a partner. At an amusement park where Maxi-Man was doing a signing, a rollercoaster spontaneously fell apart, with a piece of track nailing Maxi-Man on the head. Wonder Woman showed up to save the day. Tressor was a fan, and was happy to buy his niece an action figure from the gift shop at a 75% discount, since the Amazing Amazon was still a national pariah. Diana seemed put out by the Wonder Woman Milkshake having been given over to Black Canary.

On the drive back to the Department of Metahuman Affairs, Diana demonstrated that she didn’t know the price of gasoline or how to pump it, making her look like an idiot in front of her partner. Sarge Steel once again put the agents on the trail of Wonder Woman, who despite being cleared of wrongdoing in the World Court for her involvement in the death of Maxwell Lord, was still wanted for questioning by the U.S. government. The agents had coffee afterward, where Diana expressed her concern that her attendant didn’t speak English when she kept repeating “Venti, duovent, grande, or uber.” Diana had a good cry over her detachment from humanity on a park bench with Tom. After Tresser left, Wonder Woman saved a girl from a mugger, who told her she had previously praised the princess as her subject in a paper for Feminist Theory class.

Outside a super-villain bar Tresser was staking out, he was seduced by a Wonder Woman who turned out to be Circe in disguise. A pair of authentic Amazonian bracelets stolen from the defunct Wonder Woman Museum were left behind for implication. Sarge Steel soon assigned Diana Prince to track down her kidnapped partner and the Amazing Amazon.

"Love and Murder, Part 1" was by Jodi Picoult, Drew Johnson & Ray Snyder. I thought people were ganging up on Picoult over minor fanboy details when these issues were coming out, chalking it up to the problems inherent in the starboinking assignments going out around that time. Having finally read the issues for myself, I now realize that they are in fact crap. Aside from the Maxi-Man reference, there is no indication that Picoult had ever read any comics prior to Allen Heinberg’s yet unfinished five issue run. I thought the whole point of “Who Is Wonder Woman” was to reestablish who the heroine was and relieve doubts in herself and others about her role. I guess because that point had yet to be made, Picoult restates the same concerns as was found in Heinberg’s scripts in such a way that you feel like she’s merely paraphrasing stuff readers would have just read. I’m also super duper sick of this Pinocchio “If only I were a real girl” bullcrap. Not only is it one of the most hoary of genre tropes, but it demonstrates an enormous misunderstanding of the central concept of the character. Diana is an immaculate conception based in feminine creativity, superiority and desire, not a friggin’ golem. Finally, the “comedy” and “human drama” is so awful and melodramatic, it makes me question Picoult’s abilities as a writer, period, rather than just how they translate to an unfamiliar medium.

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #6 (March, 2010) @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter #6 (March, 2007) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #50 (May, 2007) @ Justice League Detroit
Breach #6 (August, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The All New Atom #7 (March, 2007) @ The Mighty Mite

2011 Wonder Woman Movie Fan Casting: Peter Dinklage as Doctor Psycho

2011-08-25T22:00:00.002-05:00

After seeing The Station Agent, I had a man-crush on Peter Dinklage. He's a really handsome and charismatic guy who should be the first choice in a super-heroic little person movie. However, the Dink deserves better than Puck of Alpha Flight, so if he wants a plumb comic book role, he'll have to walk on the dark side. I like my Dr. Psycho googly eyed and ugly as sin, but since Villains United, he's tended to be modeled pretty close to Dinklage. Either way you go, I don't believe there's a better choice to be found for the part.

Diabolic Movie Fan Casting

Bel Juz 2011 @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Breach 2011 @ Power of the Atom
OMAC 2011 @ DC Bloodlines
Steel: The Indestructible Man II 2011 @ Justice League Detroit

2011 DCnÜ Wonder Girl Design Sketch by Brett Booth

2011-08-22T05:31:00.000-05:00

Click To Enlarge

"So this was sort of the 'final' costume we did of her. I has been slightly modified from this, specifically her right hand and the amount of red on the costume. Andrew's doing something cool with the star starting in issue 2 so I think I might go back to a darker look for issue 4, which I'll be starting in a few days. I just finished up 3 and need a few days off to recharge:) Issue 4... epic!

Best!

Brett"

The Top 20 Wonder Woman Covers of the 1960s

2011-08-21T00:00:00.123-05:00

The sixties were probably Princess Diana's worst decade in comics. The evangelical fire and brazen oddness of the Golden Age was gone, as was the sweet romance of the fifties. In its place were gimmicks, endless love dodecahedrons, a Steve Trevor you wished terrible ill upon, and closing out as a non-powered Emma Peel knock-off. Hopefully you don't weary just over the course of the top 20...

Honorable Mentions:
Wonder Woman #112 (February, 1960)
Wonder Woman #185 (November-December, 1969)

20 (tie) Wonder Woman #183-184 (July-October, 1969)

While there are elements of each of these covers deserving of attention, they are equally weak. The seeming death of Diana's mother is strong material, but the execution is rather weak. Meanwhile, Diana falling in battle is potent, but not when she and her all-male cohorts are indistinguishable from any random sword & sorcery comic.

19) Wonder Woman #122 (May, 1961)

A King Kong-sized Wonder Woman has run a normal sized one up to the very tip of the Empire State Building. Do I have to explain this?

18) Wonder Woman #177 (July-August, 1968)

The Amazing Amazon and her opponent Supergirl look great, but then you've got this dillhole in the middle taking up valuable space. This is an A-B throwdown, so see your way out, K?

17) Wonder Woman #176 (May-June, 1968)

This is another one of those "let's show Wonder Woman humiliated in the most misogynistic and sexualized possible under the Comic Code" cover, and yet it works.

16) Wonder Woman #118 (November, 1960)

Nice to see dudes in distress, but how the hell did Mer-Man get on top of a plateau in the first place?

15) Wonder Woman #126 (November, 1961)

I find that one of the easiest ways to validate my choices is to simply say them aloud. Wonder Tot punching a meteor while riding Mister Genie. Who needs to elaborate on that?

14) Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #93 (July, 1969)

On the one hand, it's kinda wicked to see Diana Prince judo-up Lois Lane while Superman cheers her on. Yet, since when is Diana a trained monkey, and where's the honor in walloping a perpetually imperiled reporter unskilled in the martial arts? Finally, Diana's only really recognizable attribute is her hair, which is not a progressive means of identification.

13) Wonder Woman #155 (July, 1965)

She married a monster. It's kind of a big deal.

12) Wonder Woman #181 (March-April, 1969)

I love the skier's P.O.V. and the weird masks, but the nondescript Diana Prince is the weak link of the image. I Ching seems awfully tall, as well.

11) Wonder Woman #175 (March-April, 1968)

There's something very weird and wrong about a comic where Wonder Woman attacks a child, even when the child is in fact Diana and the Wonder Woman is a serious see you next Tuesday from another dimension. I did a lengthy write-up of this story years ago for another blog, and haven't run it here because it would take forever to remove all the foul language and angry tirades.

10) Wonder Woman #124 (August, 1961)

Another great metatextual image, as the Amazing Amazon had to juggle all manner of contrivance across the decade, including competing with her own toddler and adolescent selves for page space.

9) Wonder Woman #151 (January, 1965)

Possibly the most striking non-Titans Wonder Girl image of the decade, though I believe this is the Diana version, or else it would have run in Donna's countdown.

8) Wonder Woman #179 (November-December, 1968)

Kind of a wimpy Diana, and this image would have had a lot more impact without the tears or coming before her heralded "permanent" reversion to Diana Prince, rather than after.

7) Wonder Woman #159 (January, 1966)

Pure salesmanship. The art is simple and buried in text, but the hype compels you to read on.

6) Wonder Woman #129 (April, 1962)

An excellent image to sum up oodles of stories from this decade. Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl in the foreground, Wonder Woman way in the back, all in peril, and the latter failing to save her mother. The only way it could be more representational is if Hippolyte was dropping Diana instead.

5) Wonder Woman #156 (August, 1965)

Deeply uncomfortable symbolism here, especially with Diana's splayed legs and vacant eyes. Still, you'll never forget it, right?

4) Wonder Woman #180 (January-February, 1969)

Somehow, both in-your-face sensational and subdued. That lime green border really makes it pop in a way only the sixties could get away with.

3) Wonder Woman #125 (October, 1961)

Only a Wonder Woman comic could revolve around a physical and emotional tug-of-war between Steve Trevor, Mer-Man, and Amoeba-Man over marriage. Again, a dick, a fish, and a giant sentient amoeba are romantic rivals. Just to bring it all home, let's stage all that before a fuchsia background.

2) Wonder Woman #160 (February, 1966)

Cheetah swung by the tail into a mass of monkeys with damned ugly human faces. So much awesome in one cover, including an advertized rare Dr. Psycho reprint. Such a glorious Golden Age throwback. Finally, one word: purple.

1) Wonder Woman #178 (September-October, 1968)

Despite the misgivings of some, can you honestly say that this wasn't the most shocking, iconic, and memorable Wonder Woman cover of the decade? No more secretarial work, pining for Steve, or running around in circles under mommy's command. There may have been a lack of outright wonder, but for the first time in too long, there was a woman behind the wheel.

Top Character Covers Countdown

The Top 10 Aquaman Covers of the 1960s @ Justice League Detroit
The Top 20 Atom Covers of the 1960s @ Power of the Atom
The Top 20 Blackhawk Covers (and lots more!) @ DC Bloodlines
The Top 20 Martian Manhunter Covers of the 1960s @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
DC75: Top Character Covers of the Dodranscentennial

2006 Green Lantern & Darkstar Commission by Darryl Banks

2011-08-18T01:51:00.001-05:00

Click To Enlarge

Green Lantern Kyle Rayner <3 Darkstar Donna Troy... at the Parthenon, I guess.

Sensational Comics for November, 2011

2011-08-16T01:11:00.000-05:00

Wonder Woman

JUSTICE LEAGUE #3
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:200 B&W variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The superstar team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee continue to make history as they unleash the amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, who joins the battle against a bizarre threat! And the not-yet World’s Greatest Heroes need all the help they can get!
This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

I've been complaining about the last two covers being a forest of funky sausage, so this one is a big deal. The Amazing Amazon takes center stage, and I guess Dan finally decided that she would do so with bare legs. I actually like the pants, although I would prefer blue to black, but the classic gams are also perfectly fine. The red boots need a comeback, though. While there are still elements I could do without, this is Jim Lee's best cover so far, and I appreciate the lack of a swordplay.

WONDER WOMAN #3
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale NOVEMBER 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life – and when it’s revealed, Wonder Woman’s life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera herself – so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told?

When a person has really bad constipation, their feces become impacted. What that means is that they have such an old, hard, dry turd in their bowels, it's like a cement block. Typically, their only relief is diarrhea that can seep around the impaction. I mention this because the "Wonder Woman as living statue" angle is the fecal impaction of her ongoing continuity. Coupled with the "Hippolyta is full of secrets" bit and the high probability that Brian Azzarello would never in his life read a Wonder Woman comic on purpose, my interest is stillborn before the first issue ships.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: WONDER WOMAN VOL. 4 TP
Written by BOB KANIGHER and BILL FINGER
Art by ROSS ANDRU, IRV NOVICK, WIN MORTIMER and MIKE ESPOSITO
Cover by ROSS ANDRU and MIKE ESPOSITO
On sale DECEMBER 14 • 520 pg, B&W, $19.99 US
It’s another value-priced collection of Wonder Woman adventures from issues #157-177 featuring Supergirl, Cheetah, Egg Fu and many more!

Damn it, how did I manage to miss Volume 3? Hope they offer it as a backstock Star item so I can order both to play catch-up.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #17-18
Written by TOM TAYLOR and MARV WOLFMAN
Art by BRUNO REDONDO, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover #17 by DOUG MAHNKE
Cover #18 by HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
#17 On sale NOVEMBER 16
#18 On sale NOVEMBER 30
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Hal Jordan is seriously conflicted as he and the Green Lantern Corps arrive at Korugar to “contain” the war between Sinestro’s Yellow Lanterns and Brainiac – but can they save the planet of innocents caught in the crossfire? And how desperate could things possibly get that would see Hal team up with Sinestro for one final battle?!
Then, in issue #18, following the cataclysmic events on Earth and Korugar, the Justice League regroups and begins an exploration of Brainiac’s abandoned scout ship...will it finally reveal answers or will it be the final stroke of Brainiac’s plan in conquering Earth? And how far will Luthor go to clear his name and save the planet?

Favorites Wonder Woman and (an) Atom (a blue eyed Ryan Choi or Ray in the wrong outfit?) are cover featured, and I still ask when is this thing going to end already?

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #3
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
It had to happen! A new Teen Titan shows up without so much as an invitation – and here Red Robin already had his hands full trying to get Bugg from Los Angeles to New York by train! Don’t miss the dazzling debut of The Wall! Meanwhile, Kid Flash is trying desperately to flee the arctic N.O.W.H.E.R.E. prison with a mysterious young woman who is unable to control her own super powers. And Wonder Girl investigates a lead that is going to bring her face to face with a certain halfhuman/half-Kryptonian clone!

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #46
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale NOVEMBER 30 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E
What happens when Robin is called away on a secret mission with Batman? The team will need a replacement! Enter: The Protector! Will he be welcomed with open arms? Or will someone like, say, Talon, have something to say about it? And where does Nightwing fit into all this?

TINY TITANS: THE TREEHOUSE AND BEYOND TP
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale DECEMBER 14 • 128 pg, FC, $12.99 US
In this new collection of issues #33-38, the Tiny Titans take a look at look-alikes, meet their counterparts from another world, travel to the center of the Earth and more!
A 2011 EISNER AWARD WINNER!

2011 Wonder Woman Movie Fan Casting: Jessica Biel as Diana Prince

2011-08-14T01:35:00.003-05:00

Now that the TV show is in the dead pilot pile, I felt like taking another swing at a potential movie fan casting. I'm sure that in the event a Wonder Woman movie finally gets made, all of my selections for the cast will be in Depends, but I'd like to coast on the mental images of what could have been.

I've gone through a lot of Princess Dianas of choice over the years, but Jessica Biel has managed to top my list for a good five years or more, and still has time left at 29 to get the job done. Besides having a perfect athletic body and the desperation to run around in star-spangled panties, Biel has a sweet smile and an inviting manner that reminds me of Lynda Carter. I know some folks want bigger muscles or greater ferocity, but I think that once you lose sight of Diana as a being motivated by love for humanity and endless compassion, you miss the point of the character. Of course the Amazing Amazon should kick all kinds of ass, but if you ever get the feeling that she's just biding her time for that opportunity, you end up with Xena: Warrior Princess with a worse tailor. I don't think Biel is all that great of an actress, but she seems to be a sweet person with solid moves, and that makes her perfect in my book for Wonder Woman.

Diabolic Movie Fan Casting

Aquaman 2011 @ Justice League Detroit
The Atom (Ray Palmer) 2011 @ Power of the Atom
The Huntress 2011 @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter 2011 @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

2006 "Princess & King" Wonder Woman and Aquaman Commission by Eric Canete

2011-08-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

Click To Enlarge

From the artist's blog:

"1) Aquaman is such a pretty boy - outside of the fact that he's 'King of the Seven Seas' and I crack on him for being one of the most useless characters ever created (calm down, you Aquaman freaks...I'm only kidding. I like him enough), he's also a pretty boy. And he knows it. Useless and vein, the Aquaman is. 2) Again with the bad planning. I gave ol' pretty boy a tuning fork but didn't leave enough room to draw the whole thing. I could say that I only had 90 minutes and I was worried more about the composition than the trident, but that's a crutch and almost a lie. I saw the mistake about ten minutes in and I didn't care.

Suck on that, Aquaman.

Oh hey, remember the old 'Superfriends' cartoons? If memory serves me right, 'King of Shrimps and Seahorses' here used to ride a whale in the opening credits before he sends out a telepath(et)ic call to arms to the other fish? Point is, he used to ride that whale like a horse...like a HORSE! Do you know how wide he's got to open his frikkin' legs to be able to mount a humpback like that?! Oh well, I guess he's the 'King of Liar Characters Who Are Useless' too. "

Preliminary Sketch

Wonder Woman Annual #1 (2007)

2011-08-07T05:07:00.002-05:00

So yeah, Wonder Woman killed a guy, but he needed killing, the World Court backed her up, and it was about time Princess Diana moved on and got back to the good fight. In fact, when you’re in Circe’s temple surrounded by an army of your enemies, whose powers have been enhanced through sorcery, it’s probably a little past due.

I have to applaud artist Terry Dodson for page four, where he overcame a logistical problem with Giganta by having time progress as a series or “stories” down the villainess’ body. For instance, Queen Clea and Gundra the Valkyrie were still trying to follow through with Circe’s plan to talk Diana into joining the collective against Man’s World. Diana took them both out, as well as The Mask, all while encircling Giganta and dodging the caption boxes with one-sentence biographies of each villain.

Kung, Cheetah, the Duke of Deception, Angle Man, Silver Swan, Doctor Cyber, Doctor Poison, Minister Blizzard, Doctor Psycho: an orgasm of Who’s Who information as each took their turn with Wonder Woman. A lesser artist would have folded as the writer tried to reintroduce decades of forgotten super-villains in the span of seven pages. Just when things started to get ridiculous, there was a two page spread of heroes led by Wonder Girl Donna Troy, come to save the day. Included were Green Arrow, Stargirl, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Robin (Tim Drake,) Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, Supergirl, Starfire, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Power Girl, Zatanna, Nemesis, the Golden Age Flash & Wally West, Liberty Belle, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern (Alan Scott,) Wildcat, Hawkman, Superman and Batman. Someone (Robin?) made the connection between the vegetation discovered at the scene of Donna’s kidnapping and the moly used to defend against Circe’s magic.

There was lots of fighting, and lots of yapping amidst the melee. Donna confessed that she never felt comfortable as Wonder Woman, hence her regressed costume. Cassie made it clear that old suit or no, the “Wonder Girl” name was taken. Batman somehow wrangled Cheetah. Heat Vision took out Minister Blizzard’s gun. Angle Man < Robin’s Batarang. Meanwhile, Hercules was trying to kill Circe, but Wonder Woman made it clear “If anyone does any killing today… it’ll be me!” Hercules didn’t believe that it was in her nature, so she kicked him in the head. “If only that weren’t true. When I killed Medusa, no one batted an eye. That was my job-- slaying mythological monsters-- putting malevolent gods in their place-- and you’re both.” Um, then it is true that you are a lethal agent, but we’ll forgive the grammar. Hercules then tried to woo Diana, followed by threatening to take her by force, “the same way I took your mother.” Diana bit his lip, head-butted him, and held a sword to his throat.Circe didn’t have faith in Diana to do the deed, so she renewed her attack, although what stopped her for the past four pages eludes me. “For now I’ll bind him with chains stronger than those that bound Prometheus,” for reasons that also elude me. Even though Circe had just finished killing oodles of people as Wonder Woman, while simultaneously getting a lot more done in that role than Diana, the Princess let her go off with Hercules. In the least perceptive line regarding Wonder Woman since she claimed to not really like women back in the ‘70s, “…I’m not even a real person. I’m a golem. A clay statue brought to life. I have no idea who or what I am. All I know is, I’m alone.” Circe punctured Diana’s emo bubble, pointing out all of her buddies fighting for her outside, and offered her a bit of humanity as a present.

Nemesis was given all the credit for the arrests at the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Agent Prince was assigned to catalog all the weapons collected from the scene, and was shocked when she cut herself on Gundra’s sword. Of course, Diana could always bleed, but the writer was so fixated on his Wonder Woman Encyclopedia that he seemed to neglect reading any actual comics. Anyway, Wonder Woman could now really become Diana Prince, a normal human, who still looked exactly like Wonder Woman in glasses. DC supporting casts have 20/120 vision, I guess.

Donna and Cassie had a girl power session with Wonder Woman, pretending that their relationship was like that of Batman, Nightwing and Robin. Okay, so how come Wonder Woman only pays attention to either girl when they finally get developed in best-selling team books so that their guest appearances can help buoy her own sales? Batman offered a final pep talk with a smile (*shudder*) after already giving Wonder Woman her new human identity, a job as a secret agent, an “invisible” plane, and limited use of his teen sidekick. That had to be worth at least a handjob. Can’t this bitch do anything for herself?

Speaking of bitching, I gave an overview of my complaints long ago in a trade paperback review, with a fair amount of axes ground in the previous two issue synopses. To keep this brief, Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson’s answer to the titular question “Who is Wonder Woman?” was “an ingrate.” Beyond the straw man arguments around which the slight plot pivots, it boils down to Diana being incredibly powerful and broadly loved and still pitying herself. Three-quarters of a century in, you don’t decide to take your shot at being Alan Moore by redefining Wonder Woman through the Pinocchio/ “I want to be a real girl” trope. Not only is it hoary as hell, but it is quite simply not what anyone wants from Wonder Woman (especially if they suffered through seven seasons and four motion pictures of Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

Writers, for Gaea’s sake, stop playing the clay card. Diana was a sculpture of a child brought to life by the gods so that she could be born completely outside the influence of man. It’s no different than the bible casting Adam out of earth. Wonder Woman grew up, sprouted tits, and bleeds ever twenty-eight days. What part of “woman” was unclear? It’s in her friggin’ name. What isn’t? “Golem,” a product of Jewish folklore regarding a misshapen manmade creature instilled with a terrifying caricature of life through magic (not unlike a zombie) whose name translates from Hebrew as “dumb/helpless.” You want to humanize Wonder Woman? Address the fact that she was raised as the only child on an island full of rape victims who is so traumatized that she remains a virgin well into adulthood and casts untouchable figures like Superman and Batman in her sexual fantasies. There’s your Alan Moore moment, you cowardly, unimaginative dorks. Alternately, write an inspirational super-heroine without resorting to literal feet of clay and storytelling devices from 1960s Stan Lee scripts that were only considered sophisticated in comparison to Mort Weisinger-edited Superman comics written at a second grade reading level.

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #5 (February, 2010) @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter #5 (February, 2007) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #45 (November, 2006) @ Justice League Detroit
Breach #5 (July, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The All New Atom #5 @ The Tiny Titan

Wonder Woman Day by Cat Staggs

2011-08-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

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Cat Staggs has done more fantastic pieces of the Amazing Amazon than I have the space/time to spotlight individually, so I thought a solid link post was in order. The headliner above features the Invisible Plane, which we need to see more of (*ahem*.) It's from 2006, and measures 11" x 13". You know you want more...

Wonder Woman #4 (February, 2007)

2011-07-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Bunny Bar. San Jose, California. Home to human trafficking no more. “…In Circe’s first twelve hours as Wonder Woman… she’s liberated over two thousand women on three different continents. And murdered every man who stood in her way.” Unlike the persecution of Princess Diana, Circe’s killings were going unchecked. It would be especially difficult to stop her, with the powers of Diana, Donna Troy, and Cassandra Sandsmark at Circe's disposal.

The JSA were helping the heroines with their power loss, and Stargirl insisted that between the JLA and Zatanna’s contacts in sorcerous spheres, no stone need go unturned. Diana refused all their aid, feeling such a mass assault would be figured into any trap laid by Circe. Cassie felt Diana had given up, but had no right to bundle her own Zeus-bestowed powers with Wonder Woman's stolen identity. The more agreeable Donna also intended to have that discussion with Zatanna.

Diana Prince couldn’t stop them, so instead allowed them to serve as a distraction during her own gambit involving the depowered Hercules and an Invisible Jet. “Not as invisible as the one I had as Wonder Woman, but my friend at Waynetech tells me it’s the latest stealth technology.” Diana admitted to Hercules that she missed being Wonder Woman, but teaching peace was the reason she came to Man’s World. “Actually, it turns out mankind never asked for my instruction. Nor does it believe in my gods, who-- it turns out-- are not all that peaceful themselves.”

Diana Prince and Hercules landed on “The Greek island of Aeaea, Circe’s home for the last few thousand years.” Prince provided a tranq gun for any roaming beastiamorphs, and the moly herb to counteract any attempts to turn Hercules into one of them. Circe was immediately aware of their presence and attacked. After Hercules’ rape of Diana’s mother and enslavement of the Amazons, Circe couldn’t believe Diana with ally with him. Penance and forgiveness were spoken of, and Diana was able to wrangle the Lasso of Truth back, which she used to gain mobility through a winged beastiamorph burning to help undo Circe’s spells.

Diana Prince reached Circe’s temple, and within it her grimoire, before being tied up with Wonder Girl’s Lasso of Lightning. Given the chance, Diana’s own rage might have fueled her agony, but Hercules got the drop on Circe before it could be fully employed. Diana could use her Lasso of Truth to trick Circe into saying the spell necessary to restore everyone’s powers, but Hercules got the drop on Prince before it could be fully employed. Just as Circe had hoped she wouldn’t have to kill a powerless princess, Hercules had hoped to make her his bride, but both had realized Diana was too dangerous to live. “Mankind doesn’t need a godly hero to save it from itself… it needs a god to worship and obey.”

“…When Athena decided to withdraw Olympus from the earthly plane,” Hercules decided to journey to the underworld in search of the God of War, but found Circe instead. The pair decided to team-up and love-up, until Circe managed to betray Hercules before he could do the same to her. Diana pulled her gun on Hercules, who threw Circe’s tiara at her. Diana caught it, and with a well placed throw retrieved the moly and the Lasso of Lightning. Hercules tried to compel Circe to transfer everyone’s powers to him, but Diana understood a new spell couldn’t be cast before the old one was reversed. Restored as Wonder Woman, Diana was prepared for a fight, and one had certainly found her. She was surrounded by the Cheetah, Dr. Psycho, Giganta, and many more…

Part four of “Who is Wonder Woman?” was by Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson. The book was already very late, thanks to the writer, so this would be his last regular issue. The story would finally wrap up months later in an annual, which as I recall was among a very few released that year (not that the industry has exactly been flush with them over the past decade or so.) I liked the idea of Wonder Circe, since it paid off on the influence Diana had over Donna Milton, and the softening of Circe's character ever since. At the same time, Circe's engaging in a feminist crusade seems to go too far the other way, and it's never really addressed why it would be such a bad idea to let it continue a while long. Don't launch a series by having a villain outdo the heroine unless you're going to address the matter with more conviction than "but she was going to lord it over us." I'm fine with that. Let Circe kill a few thousand more pimps (at least) and then defeat her, or else reveal that she gets her powers from inducing spontaneous abortions or something. Otherwise, she remains a better Wonder Woman than Diana, and that's the wrong way to leave things.

I also dig evil scumbag Hercules, since it returns him to the status quo of the Golden Age, and differentiates him from the Marvel Comics version. I have to ask though, if Hercules knew Diana Prince was Princess Diana, why didn’t she just disappear with Donna and Cassie in #3? What's the point of luring her to the island? Little help in backstabbing Circe, I guess?

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #4 (January, 2010) @ DC Bloodlines
Wonder Woman #4 (February, 2007) @ Diana Prince
Martian Manhunter #4 (January, 2007) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #44 (September, 2006) @ Justice League Detroit
Breach #4 (June, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The All New Atom #4 @ The Tiny Titan

1977 "Help A Hero.." NCG Merchandise Ad

2011-07-29T09:17:00.001-05:00

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Vintage "The Superhero Shop" ad from the Joe Kubert school.

Help A Hero..Give Him A Home! From Mego!

The Teen Titans Wonder Girl, Speedy, Aqualad & Kid Flash with Isis for just $4.19!

The New Wonder Woman Fashion Doll! 12 inches tall! "Each doll comes complete with Wonder Woman's own costume and her Army uniform as Diana Prince!" Only $10.95!

JLA #99 (Late August, 2004)

2011-07-27T00:00:00.001-05:00

Between the Amazons, the Martian Manhunter & Manitou Raven, the JLA managed to work out Crucifer's plot, back story, and a means of killing him. The League and Doom Patrol teamed up to free the prisoners in Castle Crucifer. The spell to release the Tenth Circle from their other-dimensional prison was ruined by the arrival of the super-heroes, but Crucifer still had a team of metahumans and a possessed town at his disposal. Most were subdued by the super-groups, but a number of vampires and other persons of interest managed to escape, including Crucifer himself. The Lord returned to his castle, where he was impaled by Vortex. Since there was no effect, Crucifer turned on the youth, but was then addressed by a sword-wielding Wonder Woman. In defense of Crucifer, Superman shattered the sword, and the vampire decided that he would turn the Amazon into his queen. However, upon the fateful bite, Crucifer vomited out "her" alien blood. "Wonder Woman" turned out to be the Martian Manhunter in disguise! Working together, Elasti-Girl, the Atom and Superman then finally managed to stake Crucifer to ashes.

Why didn't Crucifer decide to make Wonder Woman his vampire queen in their first encounter? It would have been a lot more impressive having the Man of Steel and the Amazing Amazon as power pawns again the JLA. Hold up-- would that have even worked, given Diana's divine and not entirely human origins? Plus, after everything Wonder Woman had gone through, she never got to avenge herself against Crucifer? In case you missed it, Wonder Woman isn't even in this comic. Superman gets the kill shot after being an instrument of Crucifer's for six issues, but Wonder Woman never gets to serve vengeance on anybody after being left for dead? Twice victimized, you bag of crap creators!

"Heartbreaker!" was by John "Die, Princess Diana" Byrne, Chris "Decent Elseworlds" Claremont, and Jerry "Worked with Simonson" Ordway.

The Tenth Circle

The Atom @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Anj at the Ends of the Earth

2011-07-23T01:41:00.001-05:00

Anj of Supergirl Comic Box Commentary fame has covered the supporting players from the Simone/Lopresti Wonder Woman story arc "Ends of the Earth" at our group blog, DC Bloodlines, all revivals of short-lived '70s series. Besides the individual issues, Anj also contextualizes them with art and cross-reference with the Wonder Woman story. Check it out!

Review: Beowulf #1
Review: Beowulf #2
Review: Stalker #1
Review: Stalker #2

As an added bonus, here's Anj's look at Grant Morrison Breaking The 4th Wall: Zatanna #4

JLA #98 (Early August, 2004)

2011-07-20T00:05:00.001-05:00

At Castle Crucifer, Vortex was branded a traitor by an attacking vampire, who tore his blue face mask off. The sight underneath sent the vampire cowering in despair, declared incurably mad by Vortex, then executed. "...No witnesses."

Themyscira. The Amazons managed to take Wonder Woman from death's door to a speedy recovery, but not a complete one. Diana was already up and donning her armor, which proved upsetting to her sisters. "Charon's boat still waits below, to carry your shade to the domain of Hades." Diana insisted that the fate of the world was on the line, that she had to warn her team about Superman and-- oops! Wounds reopened. Too bad she wasn't conscious in her hospital room to tell the JLA everything they needed to know, or that the team didn't have a resident telepath, nor the Amazons any sophisticated communications equipment. What a stupid story.

Barnes, Saskatchewan. Crucifer drained a host of human life energy, directed it into a small group of metahumans under his control, and laid the leftover mound of bodies in the shape of a Times New Roman font X in a football field. Apparently, ancient vampires hunted humanity for sport and meat, "Until we faced the Amazons. And found ourselves banished to a realm of unending torment." The banished Tenth Circle vampires merged with the metahuman hosts, just as the JLA arrived to quip on the grounds of a mass murder. Nice.

"Convergence," part five of "The Tenth Circle," can be blamed on the famous X-Men creative team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont, but leave inker Jerry Ordway alone. He was just following orders, and the book at least looked good most of the time through his efforts.

The Tenth Circle

The Atom @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Sensational Comics for October, 2011

2011-07-19T00:25:00.006-05:00

Wonder Woman

WONDER WOMAN #2
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Hera, Queen of the Gods, does not take her vengeance lightly – and if Wonder Woman is so foolish as to stand in the way of her whim, then Wonder Woman is her enemy. But it’s Hera’s daughter Diana should truly fear – the goddess of discord is coming to Paradise Island, and murder always follows in her wake!

Well, I'd rather see punk rock Patrick Nagel as a retro influence than the Chromium Age, but those pants are still not happening for me.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #2
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:200 B&W variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
What happens when the World’s Greatest Detective takes on the world’s most powerful alien? You’ll find out when Batman and Superman throw down. Batman will need all his intellect, cunning and physical prowess to take on The Man of Steel.
This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

Jim Lee's cover is terrible, and the team seems like such a sausage factory. I see Superman fighting Green Lantern and Batman, which reminds me that I hate all three characters more often than not. I feel really good about blowing this off.

MEN OF WAR #2
Written by IVAN BRANDON and JONATHAN VANKIN
Art by TOM DERENICK and PHIL WINSLADE
Cover by VIKTOR KALVACHEV
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+
In the split second after a heavy-weapons blast the air goes silent and still, just as it does in the ghostly realm of Circe. How will Rock and his team of men – battle-hardened, but still human – survive a villainess who can walk on the very wind?
Plus, Navy Seals Ice and Tracker go where no boots are on the ground, but when their mission is compromised, how will they tell friend from foe?

Wait-- Circe? Like, our Circe?

THE WONDER WOMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 2 TP
Written by WILLIAM MOULTON MARSTON • Art and cover by HARRY G. PETER
On sale NOVEMBER 30 • 192 pg, FC, $17.99 US
In this new title collecting WONDER WOMAN #2-3, SENSATION COMICS #10-14 and COMICS CAVALCADE #1, Wonder Woman battles Mars, god of war, and Paula Von Gunther, a treacherous German spy.

I prefer Archive Editions because of the vastly superior quality, but the price point here is nice, and these may someday progress to first time reprints.

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #15-16
Written by MARV WOLFMAN and TOM TAYLOR
Art by MIKE S. MILLER and BRUNO REDONDO
#15 cover by MIKE S. MILLER
#16 cover by DOUG MAHNKE
#15 on sale OCTOBER 5 • #16 on sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Following the tragic events in the last issue, the heroes must pick up the pieces of a shattered League. With Superman AWOL and seeking revenge, will Lex Luthor be the hero of the day? And can anyone keep the Man of Steel from hunting down and killing Brainiac?
And in issue #16, Hal Jordan and the other human Green Lanterns have been recalled to Oa under emergency circumstances. Brainiac’s main fleet has been located and he’s gone to war with the Sinestro’s Yellow Lantern Corps on Korugar! The mission: Containment, allowing both enemies to annihilate each other!

This thing? Still happening.

Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

TEEN TITANS #2
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
A strange creature haunts the streets of Los Angeles... and because of this creature’s age, both Red Robin and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. are racing to find her – but neither side is prepared for the horror known as Bugg!
Meanwhile, Superboy is on a collision course with the team, and Kid Flash plots his escape from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. with the most unexpected of allies!

Bugg? Color Me Badd, it's ggod-awful. Like, N.O.W.H.E.R.E., daddy-o!

TEEN TITANS: TEAM BUILDING TP
Written by J.T. KRUL and FABIAN NICIEZA
Art by NICOLA SCOTT, MARCUS TO, ADRIANA MELO and others
Cover by NICOLA SCOTT and DOUG HAZLEWOOD
On sale NOVEMBER 2 • 168 pg, FC, $17.99 US
There should always be a Robin on the team, but if Damian is the Teen Titans’ only option, maybe they’ll pass on having a Boy Wonder. Hopefully he’ll be able to help against the terrible menace of the rising villain, Headcase. #88-92, RED ROBIN #20 and WONDER GIRL #1 THE WONDER

Nicola Scott > Brett Booth³

Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)

TINY TITANS #44
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Cover by ART BALTAZAR
It’s the issue of doom! Join the Tiny Titans as they – walk to school! Beast Boy takes a wrong turn when confronted by the crossing guards he calls The Doom Patrol. Plus, witness Beast Boy’s first encounter with the Crossing Patrol Boys of Doom! Crossing the street has never been so tough!
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E

Since the character presumed to be Donna Troy has disappeared from the JLI cover solicit, I figure I should finally acknowledge her appearing in this book a bunch more than Cassie.

Wonder Woman #3 (October, 2006)

2011-07-17T00:00:00.014-05:00

Hercules caught Giganta by the foot, and then put her on her butt, allowing him to free the Donna Troy necklace. Cheetah leapt at this “…Wonder Man,” while Diana Prince looked after Donna. Dr. Psycho tried to mesmerize the ladies, but was clipped in the head by Hercules’ thrown headband. Hercules was about to stab Psycho, but Prince stopped him, allowing the Doctor to utter a magic word. All the bad guys plus Donna and Wonder Girl disappeared, and it was once again Diana’s fault. Hercules made sure to rub it in, as he had taken over Wonder Woman’s abdicated mission, and browbeat her for shirking her duties. Members of the JSA helped clean up Giganta’s mess.

Diana Prince briefed Nemesis and fellow agents about Hercules, who had raped and wronged the Amazons in the past. Sentenced to literally carry the weight of Themyscira for eternity by Zeus, his sentence was commuted when Princess Diana offered to help shoulder the burden. Hercules briefly acted as the super-hero Champion before being allowed to live among the gods, but was now back to Earth, giving press conferences regarding his new role.

Agent Prince was part of a Department of Metahuman Affairs team sent to investigate Hercules, but they found that he had been transformed into a minotaur. All the males on Prince’s team followed suit, becoming beastiamorphs through the enchantments of Circe. The sorceress had Donna and Cassie dangling from chains. Diana Prince was also effortlessly captured, and Circe figured that if Diana didn’t want to be Wonder Woman anymore, she just might have an app for that.

“When the gods of Olympus left this earthly plane, they entrusted you, Donna Troy and Wonder Girl with the last of their power. Power you squandered… battling cyborg centurions and psychic despots… when every day, thousands of women are beaten, raped, and murdered, because they have no one to fight for them. Because you were too busy being a superhero to be their champion. And now you’re not even a superhero. You’re pretending to be human. Well guess what? You don’t have to pretend anymore.” Suddenly, Circe was a terrifying new vision of a Wonder Woman…

Part three of “Who is Wonder Woman?” was by Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson. This was the last issue to come out on a proper schedule, and also the point at which I began to turn on the book. There were quite simply too many characters running around fighting without accomplishing anything, and the third straight issue where three of Wonder Woman’s biggest foes popped up screaming to find Diana, got in a fight, and then conveniently disappeared. If that wasn’t repetitive enough, we’ve got more heavy-handed Diana bashing without very convincing rationales, more of Diana vacillating on her decisions, and just plain random crap happening to advance a paper thin plot. When will writers learn that there are characters made to be weak/vulnerable/fallible, and characters that are supposed to be above reproach? People don’t want to read stories where Superman or Wonder Woman whine about how tough it is to be beautiful and perfect, but rather to revel in these extraordinary heroes defeating evils to make the world better for us all.

Worse, Heinberg has all the characters speaking subtext as text, resulting in cringe inducing purple prose and self-important screeds about whether friggin’ Hercules or Circe would make better Wonder Persons. Why would Circe want anything to do with that? We’ve had twenty years of Circe as a soulless vamp governed entirely by self-interest and personal pleasure whose motivation to kill Wonder Woman was the prophesy that Diana would someday take Circe’s immortality. Now we’re supposed to buy her as a defender of the molested and downtrodden, clearly in service to Heinberg’s storytelling agenda? Dude, create a new character for that, because Circe isn’t in that line of work. It just makes Diana look stupid for sweating her role and the readers feel cheated by this nonsense. Further, comics are escapist entertainment with a very precarious suspension of disbelief. Outside of “very special episodes,” you have to avoid “relevance” and pointing out the artifice of super-heroes, because the whole concept falls apart under that kind of scrutiny. That’s like sending Foghorn Leghorn through a Kentucky Fried Chicken processing plant. It’s a thing not to be done.

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #3 (December, 2009) @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter #3 (December, 2006) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #43 (August, 2006) @ Justice League Detroit
Breach #3 (May, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The All New Atom #3 @ The Tiny Titan

2008 Wonder Woman Icon Wallpaper by Richard Manship

2011-07-15T00:00:00.001-05:00

Click To Enlarge

JLA #97 (Late June, 2004)

2011-07-13T00:32:00.001-05:00

From out of a pink portal in the sky fell Wonder Woman tied up in burlap. ~~Ma and Pa Kent~~ an older couple swerved their RV to avoid the mass, and ended up rolling it. The couple were okay, and the man was a doctor, which was handy. Diana was soon at Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas, lying unconscious on supplemental oxygen, having miraculously survived her wounds. A warning from the 10th Circle the the JLA was founded secreted in her removed costume by her friends.

A group of haughty Amazons (are there any other kind?) demanded their injured sister be turned over to their care. Stewart insisted that she was in no condition to travel, but Batman ordered him to "Stand down, Lantern. They're here at my request." Batman felt Diana's injuries were far beyond the scope of modern medicine, so that advanced Amazon science was her only hope. However, Diana managed to get out of bed to protest by sheer moxie, which the Caped Crusader blew off as stupid. "You can barely stand... You've done your part. Leave the rest to us."

Crucifer presented Superman to his demonic overlords, but still had to explain why this story was dragging on, and was punished for his vanity. Nudge tried to help the blood-drained Faith, who remained unconscious, and was visited by the spirit of Manitou Raven.

I've read a lot of hate online for this story arc, which I thought was overheated, since the first half was just plodding and the storytelling quaintly anachronistic. With this issue, I'm starting to see where the venom comes from. Why wouldn't Crucifer chop Wonder Woman into pieces just large enough to identify if she was completely in his power and near death anyway? Why is it that only the female team members are brutally beaten and left for dead in this series? I can only recall two instances of Wonder Woman lying helpless in a hospital bed throughout my decades of reading her adventures, and both times John Byrne was the responsible party. Superman has remained a total mind slave the entire time, unable to prevent himself from all but murdering Wonder Woman. Instead of advancing the plot, the spectacularly unimpressive Crucifer keeps sadistically tormenting innocents to show off for no one. Byrne keeps doing these annoying dutch angle layouts, which are a pain to scan. Finally, and most importantly, this book is relentless in its treading of water.

"Interlude on the Last Day of the World," part four of "The Tenth Circle," and possibly the most pretentious story title of all time, was by the famous X-Men creative team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont, joined by the inks of Jerry Ordway.

The Tenth Circle

The Atom @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Wonder Woman #2 (September, 2006)

2011-07-10T00:21:00.003-05:00

The Past: Dr. Poison, Osira and Dr. Cyber acknowledged that Donna Troy was the new Wonder Woman, as she was fighting them, alongside Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark. Joking about being a “kinder, gentler” model, Donna chopped off Cyber’s arms, tossed the remains at Osira, and deflected bullets fired by Poison back into her shoulders. Garbed in black, Princess Diana secretly observed through binoculars from afar. She was joined by Batman, and explained that while it was best that she stay out of the girls’ lives so that they could move on, Diana hadn’t walked away from them entirely. Diana didn’t feel she could accomplish her mission as either a princess or Wonder Woman, and she didn’t want to saddle her friends with the weight of her killing of Maxwell Lord. Batman offered Diana a new identity as an agent of the reformed Department of Metahuman Affairs, with the side benefit of her being a mole for him when needed. “The glasses had to be Clark’s idea.”

The Present: Nemesis was resistant to taking on a new partner, but Agent Diana Prince’s background included three years in Army Intelligence, a masters in international relations from Hopkins, and prior employment as head of security for Waynecorp. Three Wonder Woman villains had clearly received upgrades, while Princess Diana herself was last sighted working with “an Eastern mystic code-named I Ching.” Nemesis would need all the help he could get.

Agent Prince felt that outside heroes would be needed, and that her former associates would continue to be targeted, so she contacted Wonder Girl. Cassie resented being abandoned by Wonder Woman in her time of most dire need following the Infinite Crisis, and blamed Diana for Donna’s capture. Robin was present during the women’s confrontation, and had to confess he knew about Diana’s decisions without telling Cassie, which only made her angrier.

Giganta began tearing up the city while wearing Donna Troy as a necklace and demanding to know where Wonder Woman was. While Agent Prince rescued an imperiled Nemesis, Wonder Girl began choking Giganta with her lasso. A vision of the deceased Superboy visited and then assaulted Cassie, which was of course Dr. Psycho’s doing, whose illusions were now powerful enough that even onlookers saw them.

Dr. Barbara Minerva managed to grab Agent Prince from the back of the neck, and was put through a store window via martial arts. However, the transformed Cheetah emerged from within, necessitating Prince look for a safe place to transform into Wonder Woman. As she began a TV show twirl, her arm was grabbed by Hercules, halting her progress. “Too many women have tried and failed, Diana. Time for a man, don’t you think?”

Part two of “Who is Wonder Woman?” was by Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson. Again, not a bad issue, if a bit busy. I was happy to see old Diana Prince continuity threaded into the “One Year Later” tapestry, and the government agent angle was promising, even if I did wonder why they couldn’t have just used the Department of Extranormal Operations instead. Cassie’s anger was valid, and I liked how it contrasted with Donna’s fountain of forgiveness. Diana’s rogues were also being treated with respect. Such potential…

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #2 (November, 2009) @ DC Bloodlines
Breach #2 (April, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #42 (July, 2006) @ Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter #2 (November, 2006) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
The All New Atom #2 @ The Tiny Titan

JLA #96 (Early June, 2004)

2011-07-06T00:00:00.003-05:00

Faith was tied to a chair in a darkened room. Just as her telekinesis freed her, Crucifer showed up, and mesmerized her into submission. The vampire then indulged in a superhuman nibble.

Superman and Wonder Woman flew to Castle Crucifer, whose owner knew Diana's mother, Hippolyta. The Amazing Amazon was surprised by this, but not nearly as much so as being punched in the back of the head by Superman. Diana recovered better than just about anyone, then fought the Man of Kneel for several pages. Nudge saw this as her chance, and beguiled Superman long enough for Wonder Woman to floor him and impale Crucifer with a thrown sword. Superman also made a swift recovery, while Crucifer extracted the sword from his chest. "You cannot win! If Superman falls, if I fall, the League remains! They'll find a way to stop you!" Crucifer tapped Diana with the sword so hard that she came up off the ground before lying deathly still upon it. "Whatever. Pity you won't be around to see it.

"The Heart of the Matter," part three of "The Tenth Circle," was by the creator of a lot of other really bad Wonder Woman comics, John Byrne. He dragged Chris Claremont and Jerry Ordway into this quagmire with him. It's a good looking book, but I can't believe I'm still dancing around the reveal of the second team as the classic Doom Patrol. It's really blatant at this point. I have to admit that the Superman sucker punch was pretty amusing, especially the cartoon stars and "KLUDD!" Pity Wonder Woman once again needed to grab a big metal phallic symbol and stab somebody with it rather than use her powers and non-lethal weapons. I bet the Lasso of Truth could have been loads more effective, especially with all the random crap vampires are vulnerable to. Has anybody ever tried kryptonite?

The Tenth Circle

The Atom @ Power of the Atom
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu

Wonder Woman #1 (August, 2006)

2011-07-03T02:07:00.002-05:00

Washington, D.C. The Museum of Natural History’s exhibit on Themyscira, where artifacts that had been held at a defunct embassy for a lost island had been relocated. Terrorists held Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Trevor hostage, demanding Princess Diana come out of hiding. Instead, they would get the new Wonder Woman, Donna Troy. Raised in the shadow of her sister, Troy would eventually follow Wonder Woman to Patriarch’s World to become a heroine herself. Following the killing of Maxwell Lord, Princess Diana passed her mantle to Donna and disappeared from public life. “But I keep thinking… if she couldn’t do it… what chance do I have?”

In the museum, Donna freed Steve Trevor, but was set upon by a cheetah. The Cheetah had regained her humanity, and was intent on keeping it, but still held reign over three of her namesake. Dr. Barbara Minerva wrapped Donna’s lasso around her neck, but learned nothing about Diana’s current whereabouts. “…Diana didn’t even trust her own sister enough to let her know where she was going? Then you’re of no use to me.” Minerva ordered Troy and Trevor dead, but Dr. Doris Zeul disagreed, believing Wonder Woman was bound to show sooner or later with them as hostages. In the grip of Giganta, Donna stabbed her finger with a star-shaped earring. As far as Troy was concerned, Wonder Woman was right there. Released from Giganta’s grip, Donna flew Steve to safety at a nearby park.

Minerva still held the lasso, and caught Wonder Woman at the ankle, hoping she could compel Troy to do her will. “The only thing that lasso compels me to do is tell the truth, Minerva. And the truth is… you and Giganta… are going down.” Wonder Woman tied Zeul’s legs with the lasso, but was brought down with the giantess. Minerva took Donna’s sword as she had her lasso, and prepared to chop her when a second lasso caught her wrists. Princess Diana fought Minerva, and was prepared to kill her as she had Maxwell Lord, prompting a conflict between the Wonder Women. “You’re not killing anyone-- ever again.” Diana was stronger, faster, and skewered Donna with her sword. “You-- you’re not Wonder Woman…” Lying in the grass with a bloodless “wound,” Donna watched the sword and the sister evaporate into the diminutive form of Dr. Psycho. “With all due respect… neither are you.”

Steve Trevor reported to Sarge Steel outside the museum, which had been surrounded by agents of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. So too was “Trevor,” who proved to in fact be the master of disguise dubbed Nemesis. Tom Tresser had lost Donna Troy, but was set to get her back with his new partner, Agent Diana Prince.

Part one of “Who is Wonder Woman?” was by Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson. This was not a bad debut issue. The major points of history were explained to new readers, the altered status quo was established, the pictures were pretty, the story fast-paced, and the villains all got nice new costumes. I was pretty excited about the return of Diana Prince in her cool white threads. Ah, how the good will would get washed away…

Brave New World

Doom Patrol #1 (October, 2009) @ DC Bloodlines
Martian Manhunter #1 (October, 2006) @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #41 (June, 2006) @ Justice League Detroit
Breach #1 (March, 2005) @ Power of the Atom
The All New Atom #1 @ The Tiny Titan

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