Wonder Woman: The Ends of the Earth

Collects: Wonder Woman #20-5 (2008)

Released: March 2009 (DC)

Format: 144 pages / color / $24.99 (hardcover) / ISBN: 9781401221362

What is this?: A man with no soul sends Wonder Woman on a quest against a great evil, along with Beowulf.

The culprits: Writer Gail Simone and pencilers Aaron Lopresti and Bernard Chang

And to end Gail Simone Week, we have Wonder Woman: The Ends of the Earth. This is Simone’s second volume as writer of Wonder Woman (although again, it’s not like DC will tell anyone, omitting volume numbers).

Issues #20-3 make up the eponymous story, in which a nameless man with no soul forces Wonder Woman to gather Beowulf and a barbarian to fight the demon who has taken his soul. It’s a straightforward story, although Simone manages to get a few twists in. However, the major drama in “Ends of the Earth” seems to be whether Wonder Woman will lose touch with mercy and / or kill someone. Although that is threatened, it’s something that doesn’t seem very likely … Wonder Woman’s death seems more likely, since you can come back from death but not from being a murderer.

On the other hand, Wonder Woman has murdered a man, and the demon torments her with the knowledge. Wonder Woman did it for a greater good, but … the mercy / murder dichotomy seems to be part of Simone’s grand unifying plan for Wonder Woman, the idea that assimilates (or tosses aside) all the piecemeal characterizations Wonder Woman has had and finally gives her a proper concept. It doesn’t quite work here, I think; the opponent feels generic, and the threat doesn’t have enough dramatic heft to make Simone’s concept stand out.

The final two issues have two stories: Nemesis meeting with Wonder Woman’s mother, Hippolyta, for half an issue, and the rest with Wonder Woman on the set of the Wonder Woman movie, which has been hijacked by a villainess. Both of these B stories are better than the main tale. Hippolyta and Wonder Woman put the bewildered Nemesis through hell, tormenting him both as a test and because they can, and it is, at times, hilarious, although it is over the top. The Wonder Woman movie is amusing as it goes through all the bad ideas that have been thrown at the Wonder Woman character over the years and forces the character to face them. She is rightly embarrassed and wishes they would go away. The villainess is forgettable, but Diana’s superintelligent ape advisors amuse me greatly. I’m not sure I’d want their help on contract negotiations, as they’re too distracted by offers of fresh fruit, but I’m sure they’d be a benefit if discussions got too sticky.

The Ends of the Earth features a couple of strong artists. As I mentioned in my review of Wonder Woman: The Circle, I like the work of penciler Bernard Chang, who drew the final two issues. His Wonder Woman stands out as a warrior and not a pinup. Aaron Lopresti penciled “Ends of the Earth” and did a very good job, although his work is a little too generic — or perhaps Dodson-like — to truly stand out. Still, I have no quibbles about the art itself.

This one’s out only in hardback, which I’m a little disappointed in; the paperback is due out next March, according to Amazon. (Obviously, solicitations aren’t announced that far ahead of time.) DC often waits a year before putting out paperback version of hardbacks. I don’t like that, but it’s their company. On the other hand, this is my review, and I can’t recommend buying this in hardback. If you’re a Wonder Woman or Simone fan, by all means, get the paperback — but $25 is too much for this.

Rating: (2 of 5)

Wonder Woman: The Circle

Collects: Wonder Woman v. 3 #14-9 (2008)

Released: August 2008 (DC)

Format: 160 pages / color / $24.99 / ISBN: 9781401219321

What is this?: A reinvisioning of just what it means to be Wonder Woman, an Amazonian princess in Man’s World

The culprits: Writer Gail Simone and pencilers Terry Dodson and Bernard Chang (with some help)

Many comic fans much more prominent than I have wondered what is compelling about Wonder Woman. Does she have a claim to prominence other than being an editorially mandated peer of Batman and Superman? What is Wonder Woman, other than a female superhero — what’s her schtick?

Is she a warrior? A soldier? A diplomat? Martial artist Diana Prince? A superspy? The ambassador to Man’s World?²⁸ A goddess? She’s been all this and more, really, although she’s never really staked a solid, long-term claim to anything other than a warrior, and warriors in superhero comics are a drachma a dozen.

In Wonder Woman: The Circle, writer Gail Simone goes for the best of all of these things. As helpfully pointed out by writer Mercedes Lackey in her introduction to the volume, Simone has made Wonder Woman into the “Supreme Warrior,” who wants to end conflict — a diplomat, a warrior, a tactician, with compassion and strength. With a bit of the goddess thrown in.

That’s a heck of a standard to live up to, and to be honest, it doesn’t resemble the character I’d read about in Jodi Picoult’s Wonder Woman, v. 2: Love and War. But I have to admit, for the most part, Simone’s Wonder Woman does live up to the billing.

The Circle has two stories: one in which Wonder Woman deals with Nazi invaders and native fanatics in Themiscyra, and the other in which she is brought to a world of aliens, whose prior invasion of Earth she had thwarted, to end a war they are losing badly. The first, the eponymous “The Circle,” is the big one, in which Simone sets up her status quo and tells the reader who her Wonder Woman is going to be. And she pulls out all the stops to make us like her: there’s a couple of fights with intelligent gorillas from Gorilla City, a lot of punching of Nazis. Superpowered Nazis, even. And I’m impressed with how well the mostly-new, a-good-deal-different Wonder Woman works. She converts enemies into allies. She shows a decent handle on diplomacy, although some of it seems to be at the cost of long-term consequences. She tries to use tactics, although again I doubt some of her wisdom. And the reappearance of Lt. Col. Candy comes out of nowhere, but at least she’s a long-standing Wonder Woman character. The point is, Simone tries to pull off her Supreme Warrior Woman, and it mainly works.

I didn’t think the subplot worked, though. In it, Wonder Woman’s mother, Hippolyta, appoints four Amazons as her personal guards before Wonder Woman was born; when they see their queen pregnant, they think the child’s birth will tear the island apart, so they try to murder poor infant Diana. And fail. And when the island is invaded, many years later, they get free and try to kill the adult Wonder Woman. But the four Amazons have the feel of characters ret-conned in for a specific story — even if they weren’t, they have that aura — a story I felt went nowhere. Also, I remained unconvinced as to why those four felt so sure their queen having a baby would be such a catastrophe. Perhaps I underestimate the emotional power of an island full of childless women (who will likely remain childless), but the betrayal felt arbitrary. Simone may be setting them up for a longer-term plot, but that doesn’t make me optimistic.

The second story, “Expatriate,” is much more to my liking. Wonder Woman begins her formal and funny courtship of Nemesis, and an alien race she had trounced before calls her for help. And then a Green Lantern gets involved, and the questions of justice and genocide are put into play, and it really does seem deeper, in two issues, than four issues of punching Nazis and rogue Amazons do in four. The situation Wonder Woman finds herself in makes diplomacy a better option than in “The Circle,” although Diana’s solution should come back and bite someone on the ass, even if it doesn’t.

The art on “The Circle” is furnished by Terry Dodson on pencils and Rachel Dodson on inks. If you’ve seen the Dodsons’ work before, “The Circle” looks exactly like that, down to the identical noseline on every female character. It’s very pretty, and I have no real complaints, other than Wonder Woman usually seeming more like a model than a Supreme Warrior. Ron Randall fills in for half of one issue and most of another and does a good job — the same sort of pretty, smooth line but without aping Dodson’s style. However, I prefer the work of Bernard Chang on “Expatriate.” His Wonder Woman looks stronger, more human, and slightly different — definitely not standard Western European supermodel that most artists provide. His aliens are a little too human in their trappings, I think, but at least his females look different.

The Circle is the best Wonder Woman story I’ve read — not a major competition, really, but still an accomplishment. I have some misgivings about the plot, but I enjoyed the audacity of the character, the depth given to someone who was previously “the female one.” But this doesn’t feel like the same character I’ve read about before, and I have a hard time expressing how uncomfortable that makes me feel. Is this the real Wonder Woman? I have a hard time saying anything but “Yes.” If that’s true, then who was that other woman I read about? For some reason — unlike, say, Batman — I have a hard time considering multiple takes on Wonder Woman. (I have the same problem with Superman.) Given the mediocre / forgettable Wonder Woman stories I’ve read in the past, I’d almost rather Simone have created a new character; but given that Wonder Woman has cachet and a need for a definitive characterization (other than bondage model), then this will do well.

Rating: (4 of 5)

Wonder Woman, v. 2: Love and War

Collects: Wonder Woman v. 3 #6-10 (2007)

Released: September 2007 (DC)

Format: 128 pages / hardback, color / $19.99 / ISBN: 9781401214876

This is the second Wonder Woman book I checked out from the Carrier Library. The big draw for Wonder Woman, v. 2: Love and Murder, judging from the cover, is that it is written by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult. The name means nothing to me; more interesting is that Picoult claims in her introduction to be only the second woman to write Wonder Woman.

That can't be right, can it? But I guess it is. Strange. Well, how does this woman put her feminine mark on Wonder Woman?

That's difficult to say. (Picoult tried to get rid of Wonder Woman's traditional bustier, but DC nixed that.) I'm not scholar enough or in touch with my feminine side to definitely say what's feminine or not. There's romance of a sort. A central conflict is between Wonder Woman and her mother; another is between Wonder Woman, the good girl, and Circe, the wicked wanton.

But it's also a story that has been firmly — and somewhat awkwardly — shoehorned into DC continuity, as a lead-in to the Amazons Attack miniseries. I have heard nothing good about that storyline, and from what I see here, that's not surprising.

Love and Murder starts with Wonder Woman as Diana Prince, agent of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. She's teamed with the shapeshifter Nemesis on an assignment to capture Wonder Woman, but something's fishy with Nemesis and Diana's boss, and Circe brings Wonder Woman's mother, Hippolyta, back from the dead while tormenting Wonder Woman in Washington, D.C., for some reason. And then there's a lot of fighting.

(I have to ask, do all Wonder Woman storylines end with a nuke pointed at Themiscyra? Because this is the second Wonder Woman book I've read, and it's the second time someone's tried to bomb the Amazons' island back into the Stone Age.)

There's a lot to like in this book. The government conspiracy angle is nicely done, although it's slightly abbreviated. The flirting between Nemesis and Wonder Woman / Diana Prince is fun to watch, but I'm not sure I believe it between these two characters; Wonder Woman is a pillar of goodness but slightly reserved, from all the indications I've received; Nemesis is morally gray at best, and shapeshifters are rarely trustworthy. Still, these elements make the first three issues enjoyable enough.

And then the emphasis shifts to the resurrected Hippolyta going nuts and attacking Washington, D.C., and all my interest goes out the window. The attack seems so arbitrary; Hippolyta's reasons for attacking Man's World against the advice of Athena (that tells you something there) are never fully brought out, making her a baffling (and uninteresting) cypher. Circe's plan seems so ... overinvolved, and it goes for naught — or seems to — when she monologues in front of the wrong people. Somehow, Love and Murder was transformed from a simple, enjoyable little story into a mess.

The art is from three different teams; Terry and Rachel Dodson are the featured team, but they only provide the art for issues #3 and 4. The Dodsons deliver what they always deliver: clear art and characters with prominent noselines and breastlines. Drew Johnson and Ray Snider, with the help of Rodney Ramos, do a credible Dodson imitation for #1 and 2 -- or I should say their art, while being distinct from the Dodsons', does mesh very well. Paco Diaz, who does the art chores for #5, is a departure from the rest of the book. On one hand, that doesn't matter, since by that point the story has devolved into a fight scene completely separate from the rest of the story, but Diaz doesn't do the best work with the fighting. Diaz does well with the battle royale scenes, giving a sense of the scale of the conflict away from the main players, but in the individual scenes, his bodies are often awkwardly positioned.

Perhaps it's my lack of knowledge of DC that makes me dislike this story, but the whiplash nature of the mid-book story change means I really can't recommend it to anyone.

Rating: (1.5 of 5)

Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals

Collects: Wonder Woman #1-7 (1987)

Released: February 2004 (DC)

Format: 192 pages / color / $19.99 / ISBN: 1401201970

When Carrier Library at James Madison University began adding trade paperbacks to their collection, I jumped at the first two collections that hit the shelves, both of which were Wonder Woman trades. I am not a Wonder Woman fan, but my interest in these books high, and driving up circulation statistics is never a bad thing.

Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals reprints the first Wonder Woman issues after Crisis reset DC's continuity. George Perez was given the opportunity to both write and draw the title, essentially setting Wonder Woman's status quo (with writing help from Len Wein and Greg Potter). He makes long-time love Steve Trevor a dovish captain in the air force, and Etta Candy, her former sidekick, is a lieutenant in the Air Force and Trevor's aide. Diana is sent into Man's World from the Amazon paradise after Ares sends a bomber through a portal to nuke their island and is named Wonder Woman by the press.

The art is excellent; this is Perez at the height of his powers. His Diana is beautiful and powerful, and he tries his best to explain that ridiculous costume that he draws so well. Really, nothing more needs to be said about it.

The plot is simple in a Cold War way: Ares is manipulating the world into a huge war while his children give Wonder Woman some trouble. There's some fighting, some magical talismans ... really, the plot is not as important as establishing who Wonder Woman and her supporting cast are and showing Ares as a nemesis. That it does, although the exact plot isn't exactly remarkable.

There are a couple of choices that mar the book, however. Perhaps not seriously, but ... First, Perez chooses to fill most of the first issue with the story of the Amazons, from their creation by some of the Greek gods to Diana's winning of the Wonder Woman regalia. That's a lot to fit into one issue, and it also shoves Diana into a supporting character for the first issue of her new, relaunched title. That's sort of a weak start to the story, in my opinion, given that Perez tells the story strictly chronologically. Perez could have shown Wonder Woman as already a hero, but he chose to build up her bona fides. An interesting choice, but one that contributes to the forgetability of the plot; diehard fans of superheroes often get impatient with restatement of origin stories (see: any superhero movie).

It was a lot of inertia for me to overcome, reading about a bunch of characters who I knew wouldn't be all that important by the time the book was half over. Besides, none of the travails the Amazons are subjected to are particularly relevant for this book. (Perhaps they set up more down the line, but I don't need to know them.)

More serious is Perez's Greek gods. The gods of the Amazons — Artemis, Demeter, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Hestia — are passive. They see their vulnerabilities, and their only response is to create the Amazons. They don't oppose Ares, the villain of the piece, in any meaningful way; what does it say about the gods when they have mortals fighting their battles for them? It says it's time for new gods, that's what. Ares isn't all that bright of an opponent, given that he doesn't realize a nuclear apocalypse that kills all humans will wipe out all his worshipers; certainly Athena, goddess of wisdom, could have thought of a better plan to outsmart him.

Still, this has to be labeled a success. Gods and Mortals is never going to be compared to the great stories of the DC canon, but Perez crafted a recognizable, superheroic Wonder Woman and launched her supporting cast. Anything more could be accomplished going forward.

Rating: (3 of 5)