Wonder Woman 600 review
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 1:33PM 
It’s amazing how a comic and be so wonderful but so awful at the same time. Wonder Woman 600 presents that problem to the reader. Is this a celebration of the life iconic character or merely her funeral? I would suggest that it is both. There is a lot of good that is worth you time to pick up and own as a long time Wonder Woman reader but then there is the horrible awful truth that the future is bleak and very wrong headed. I’m sure by now you have seen the redesign of the Wonder Woman costume and new edgier more urban look on line. I about crapped my pants when it came up in my twitter feed Wednesday. (Yes I am that shallow I get a good percentage of my news via twitter now). I was outraged of course and immediately fired off an e-mail to my best friend who has worked for about twenty years now at a comic shop. Having the unique vantage point that he has to the industry he replied to my hysterics in his most practical way. Here is what he said, “Sure, everybody is unhappy. DC just wants to sell books. It was probably do something radical or cancel it”. That’s when it hit me this was partially my fault. My refusal to buy Wonder Woman on a regular basis and thousands of others like me had driven DC to do the unthinkable and screw up a cherished childhood icon. The next thought in my brain maybe it should be cancelled if this is our alternative. There I’ve said it; I would rather not have a Wonder Woman book at all than suffer this atrocity. How is this possible?
Well like I said we are all to blame, I bought the recent reboot of the character as penned by noted author Alan Heinberg and very much enjoyed the story. He crafted well-written tale that was engaging but became chronically late. In fact due to his many other commitment to Hollywood and elsewhere the book had to be turned over to another noted writer Jodi Picoult. This is not unusual now days in comics unfortunately but what was unusual is the decision to push ahead with Jodi’s story before Alan’s was finished. It was announced that Alan’s final issue would come in the form of an annual or special. I can’t remember which now but needless to say it was very late in arriving. This got the new title, which should have been still running on the momentum of the relaunch off to a sputtering start. Jodi none the less bravely stepped up to fill the void and began telling her own tale which was hamstrung though no fault of her own of not knowing what Alan’s story entailed or how it ended. Much criticism was unfairly heaped on Jodi via the on line community. I found her story to fine but was saddled with an editorial mandate that had the Amazons at war with Wonder Woman and the United States for reasons that made little sense at the time. It was mostly to try to make a company wide event out of the miniseries Amazons Attack. While Circe was revealed to behind the Amazons unexplained attack it did not sit well with the readers and was pretty much a failure in the eyes of many readers.
I was still hanging in at this point when it was announced that one my favorite writers Gail Simone was tapped to write the book. I was overjoyed because her fantastic work on Birds of Prey. Gail had taken what was already a strong concept created by Chuck Dixon and brought it to a new level of greatness. Strong female characters who friendships were real and solid and portrayed the kind of women any man would want his daughter to grow up to be or kind of companion and partner you would only dream of having in your life. Barbara Gordon was brilliant, tenacious and sexy while never letting her being confined to a wheelchair stop her. Dinah Drake or the Black Canary was transformed from a sidekick to Green Arrow that was weak and cheated on by her lover into a lean mean martial arts machine that was formidable in any fight. While Chuck Dixson gets the credit for pairing this two to greatness, I believe Gail really built them to legendary proportions. She even rehabbed the Huntress character from the Bat books from a notorious slut to a compelling character with layers and depth. Gail seemed like the prefect choice to write Wonder Woman and even saying the writing the book was her dream job. However there was a price to be paid in that the Birds of Prey book was soon cancelled after Gail left to focus on Wonder Woman.
As I settled in to reading Gail’s version Wonder Woman a funny thing happened. I hated it. This was surprising to me. Wonder Woman for some reason ended up having an apartment full of talking Gorillas living with her. The running gag seemed to never get old with the writer and quickly got on my nerves. Why I could accept an Amazon goddess with super powers disguising herself as a secret agent but couldn’t accept an apartment full monkeys? Well I don’t know but I just couldn’t. There was also the matter of her love interest Nemesis a sort of James Bond type spy guy that worked with her. While many fans enjoyed this character since he was an old favorite that had been around for years in the backgrounds of other books. I on the other hand found myself bored to tears him every time he opened his mouth. The final straw was an issue with an alien invasion that featured a teen alien that was more concerned about her intergalactic version of myspace than anything else. I had had enough and dropped the book and there in lies the dilemma. Despite having one of the most capable writers in comics handling the chore of writing Wonder Woman, I gave up on the book. Apparently so did many others when I went to look at the sales for the book over the last few months according to Diamond sales charts I found it to be consistently in the nineties out of the top 100 books. Surprisingly lesser-written books such as Batgirl and a pretty decent version of Supergirl are far ahead of the Amazon princess clocking in at the mid 50’s in sales.
Do not take this the wrong way; I by no means blame Gail Simone for this. I have the utmost respect for her writing and am overjoyed to have her back writing the relaunched Birds of Prey and kicking ass again on it. I blame myself and others like me for what takes place in the final story in Wonder Woman 600. Gail has spoken at length about the fervor she has encountered traveling the country promoting various Wonder Woman days in cities across the land. She has spoken about people with true passion for the character and will buy drawing of her or trinkets and dolls made in her image. However the most frustrating thing she described was the fact that when asked if they have ever read her comic their reply was “no.” It seems illogical that such a rabid fan base exists but is cut off from the comic from where she came but it does occur. Perhaps that’s why I think that they should maybe take the Star Trek approach and shut the character down for a while and make people hungry for her return and relaunch her perhaps in tandem with a new big budget movie. It would be risky but not any more so than their current revamp. However I somehow feel that some of these fans will never truly connect with the comic book like they have with the character.
While this is puzzling I think it is due in part to the 1970’s TV show and how engrained Lynda Carter portrayal has become in the collective consciousness of our culture. There is a beautiful introduction written by the actress that graces the pages of issue 600 that is more eloquent than anything this poor blogger could come up with so I thought I’d share this portion with you that sums up how I feel about the character and why I am so upset. She writes, “While I am forever identified with the role, Wonder Woman belongs to us all. She lives inside us. She’s the symbol of the extraordinary possibilities that inhabit us, hidden though they may be—that, I think, is the important gift Wonder Woman offers women. Perhaps our real challenge in the 21st century is to strive to reach our potential while embracing her values. Wonder Woman is fearless. She sees the good in everyone, convinced they are capable of change, compassion and generosity. She’s kindhearted and hopeful, and she has a great sense of humor. These are just some of the important gifts the Adaptable Empowered Feminine has to offer. In an age when femininity is casting off restraints around the world, Wonder Woman remains an important archetype”.
Well said Lynda and bless you for saying it. The rest of the issue 600 is delight all except for the final story penned by J Michael Straczynski that basically throws out every thing prior to his version for the time being for his new street smart edgy Wonder Woman with pants. You see that was the problem, she wasn’t wearing pants. A woman must wear pants to be taken seriously as heroine. What is funny to me is that there are various pinups of the character by her many artists through the years that all are stunning and only bring the word beautiful to my mind.
Yet it is on the first splash page of Straczynski story that we get a drawing by artist Don Kramer of a full on butt shot of Wonder Woman from behind crammed into our face with her new super tight black spandex pants. It was the first image in the comic that made me feel dirty. It portrayed her to be a sex object like those that the adult industry serves up on their box covers to lure us poor stupid men into giving up our money to view them. That’s not how I want to feel about Wonder Woman.
Despite this blotch on what otherwise is an excellent issue I recommend you buy this issue but only because of the beautiful epilogue of the George Perez era drawn by the artist and written by Gail Simone. It is really what Wonder Woman is all about. There is also a wonderful story written and drawn by Amanda Conner with Wonder Woman and Power Girl that shows that perhaps Ms. Conner should have been the next voice to speak to us about Wonder Woman instead of the dreadful mistake they have decided to make. I am reminded of when Superman went though his “electric blue phase” with a similar revamp and I remember SNL Update with Norm MacDonald reporting on the costume change. He humorously offered up the reason for the change in Superman’s costume, as the old one was “not gay enough”. While I laughed at this off color joke, Norm took a unscripted moment and looked graphic of Superman and said “Geez what the hell is that? That is not Superman.” Indeed it wasn’t and thankfully did not last.
While I am very disturbed by this change and sickened by it, there is one thing I am sure of that the real Wonder Woman shall endure and triumph over this momentary lapse in judgment by DC. While I will continue to be part of the problem and not buy the comic because I refuse to support such trash like a gum chewing Amazon oracle and her hot pants street hooker looking Wonder Woman, I will patiently await our Amazon’s return. I will happily buy that issue when it comes out and those that follow. It is true what they say “You don’t know what you got until it is gone.”
EDIT I found some interesting sale figures online that only confirm the reason they did this so I thought I'd add them. I'm not sure of the accuracy but they are interesting none the less.
May 2010 82 Wonder Woman #44 $2.99 25,443
April 2010 78 Wonder Woman #43 $2.99 25,369
March 2010 85 Wonder Woman #42 $2.99 25,240
February 2010 71 Wonder Woman #41 $2.99 25,354
January 2010 78 Wonder Woman #40 $2.99 25,156
December 2009 80 Wonder Woman #39 $2.99 26,152
November 2009 74 Wonder Woman #38 $2.99 26,265
October 2009 77 Wonder Woman #37 $2.99 26,972
September 2009 87 Wonder Woman #36 $2.99 28,806
August 2009 74 Wonder Woman #35 $2.99 29,657
July 2009 66 Wonder Woman #34 $2.99 30,131
June 2009 61 Wonder Woman #33 $2.99 32,755
May 2009 50 Wonder Woman #32 $2.99 33,065
April 2009 78 Wonder Woman #31 $2.99 31,857
March 2009 51 Wonder Woman #30 $2.99 33,365
February 2009 49 Wonder Woman #29 $2.99 33,237
January 2009 52 Wonder Woman #28 (FOE) $2.99 32,622
June 2006 4 Wonder Woman #1 $2.99 132,580
Reader Comments (4)
I really don't get the hate. Much of the new costume is only slightly modified from the old one. She still has a red corset-ish top, with a gold belt and the logo in gold. She still has the bracelets (albeit more detailed). She still has the tiara. They just added a jacket and pants. This is enough to say you'd rather the book be canceled "than suffer this atrocity"? I just do not understand.
Skott
The costume looks nothing like the traditional. The atrocity comment was a knee jerk reaction that crossed my mind upon first sight of the redesigned look. People often think outlandish things when confronted with things they don't like and since this is a personal blog that sometimes reviews comics I thought the comment was valid to include. I thought I went to great lengths throughout the rest of the article to explain that I blame myself as much as anybody else for not supporting Gail's run of the book. I mentioned that perhaps the Star Trek approach of taking the character out of the public eye for a while might have worked as well as possible way to relaunch the character. What I didn't cover was the possibility that maybe Wonder Woman like Aquaman and Hawkman might now not be a strong enough character to support her own title as an on going. That is open to debate for sure. I thought I was pretty obvious that although I don't like this look I still believe the character will survive and endure going forward. If this didn't come though in the article well that is my own failure to articulate my thoughts well enough to be understood. To take one word or one sentence to describe my feeling about the redesign misses point of this post. Again maybe that is my fault for poor word choice.
Max
Look at her from the waist up. She's wearing an only-very-slightly-different take on the old costume with a jacket over it. (Compare - http://tinyurl.com/23k2mxr) From the waist down, it is a bit different, but the pants aren't really that big of a deal. Are they? Were they for Robin?
I'm sorry if it came off like I was snapping at you, that wasn't my intention. But it's driving me nuts that no one is discussing the new direction JMS is taking the story, everyone is just shitting bricks about the most superficial aspect of the relaunch - the costume. There are actually people commenting on the DCU Blog talking about how they actually threw up because of the costume. It's really a little silly.
I'm not really a fans of the story either, I was a day late getting the book and actually read it before I wrote this. The oracle asking her for chewing gum three times seemed particularly dumb to me. Total Hysterics over the costume aren't really necessary I agree which is why I included my friend's perspective that worked at the comic book store of "it was either do something radical or cancel it". Healthy debate is always welcomed. Who knows this could work? I doubt I will warm to this look though. I would much preferred going back to the skirt instead of pants.