Reviews and more by Erica McGillivray
Comic book reviews for Wonder Woman Rebirth #1, Wonder Woman #1, and Wonder Woman #2 by Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark, Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott, Jeremy Colwell, and Laura Martin
Average rating: 4.3/5 stars
Continue reading “Wonder Woman Rebirth #1 and Wonder Woman #1 and #2 Comic Book Reviews”
Comic book reviews for Wonder Woman #48, Wonder Woman #49, and Wonder Woman #50 by Meredith Finch, David Finch, and Miguel Mendonca
Average rating: 1/5 stars
Continue reading “Wonder Woman #48, #49, and #50 Comic Book Reviews”
Comic book reviews for Wonder Woman #45, Wonder Woman #46, and Wonder Woman #47 by Meredith Finch, David Finch, and Miguel Mendonca
Average rating: 1.3/5 stars
Continue reading “Wonder Woman #45, #46, and #47 Comic Book Reviews”
Comic book reviews for Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #10, Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #11, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #12 by Sara Ryan, Christian Duce, Aaron Lopresti, Josh Elder, Jamal Igle, Derek Fridolfs, Tom Fowler, Matthew K. Manning, and Georges Jeanty
Average rating: 4/5 stars
Continue reading “Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #10, #11, and #12 Comic Book Reviews”
In this tale from Wonder Woman #2, Wonder Woman is defeated by Mars’ Earl of Conquest. Okay, she’s not really defeated, but almost. At least, she winds up back on Mars.
Conquest understands Wonder Woman’s Achilles’ heel, which is that she’s always up for a challenge. Thus, he devises a plan with the help of the Italians under Mussolini. (Which is the first time that Marston’s mentioned the Italians as an enemy.) Count Crafti is sent to seduce Wonder Woman, and his bodyguard Mammotha is sent to challenge Wonder Woman physically. In fact, Conquest’s astral body takes over Mammotha’s body for the story. Conquest makes Mammotha even stronger than the 8-foot giant normally is.
Wonder Woman being Wonder Woman and so in love with Steve Trevor, she does not fall for Count Crafti’s seduction. In fact, she just tries to sell him war bonds. (She’s always hawking war bonds these days. In fact, this issue ends with a short that I won’t cover where she tells the tale of a stranded soldier to get you to buy war bonds.) Continue reading “Wonder Woman Wednesdays: Wonder Woman #2, part 4 of 4”
In this tale from Wonder Woman #2, Deception promises to recapture Wonder Woman for Mars after Greed comes back a failure. He promises to play Wonder Woman for a fool, and truthfully, he made a pretty good play with Wonder Woman’s naturally trusting and honest nature.
The kooky Deception also seems to be the only one to really employ people versus just bribing or forcing them to do his bidding. Sure, they’re all slaves of Mars and chained, but he seems to get better results. Especially compared to Greed who had a hard time even with evil people like Hitler. Deception has a “lie factory where hundreds of slaves work day and night writing plots, deceptions, false propaganda, fake publicity and personality camouflage.” He also has things called phantasms, which are basically empty people shells that his astral body can take over.
Meanwhile on Earth, Wonder Woman sells war bonds. In fact, Wonder Woman takes the record for selling the most war bonds. Everyone wants to buy them from her, and soon, she’s tired out. Luckily, there are some Hawaiian dancers there to entertain the audience of war bond buyers. Continue reading “Wonder Woman Wednesdays: Wonder Woman #2, part 3 of 4”
Hitler makes his first appearance in Wonder Woman #2. We must be in the time where Hitler was making his rounds so every hero could punch him in the face. I’m greatly disappointed to report that Wonder Woman does not punch Hitler.
Instead, Hitler eats a rug. Yes, eats a rug. It seems that he’s under Mars’ control, and without Mars’ influence onto him, he flounders around in paranoia and second-guesses his generals. In a way, Marston writes a very mentally ill Hitler who’s a slave to Mars compared to a psychopath. I think we’re supposedly to find him comedic and pathetic, but this isn’t my type of humor.
Anyway, together Wonder Woman and Steve spy on a top-level Nazi meeting. Hitler and the other Nazis plot to steal the US Treasury’s gold, a plot suggested by Mars’ agent Greed. Mars has sent Greed to Earth in order to capture Wonder Woman to bring her back to Mars, the planet. Steve and Wonder Woman hide in the 13th half-floor, spying from above. I’m sure there’s a Being John Malkovich joke in there somewhere. Continue reading “Wonder Woman Wednesdays: Wonder Woman #2, part 2 of 4”
Wonder Woman #2 comes with an introduction about the creative team. Here William Moulton Marston takes off his mask and reveals the man behind the pen name. He’s also pictured with H.G. Peter and two editors. Unlike Wonder Woman #1, this shows an all-male team, instead of making motions of the women involved.
In the first story, Marston sets the stage with a conflict between Mars (Ares) and Wonder Woman. In the tradition of the lies adults tell children, Marston explains to his young readers that World War II rages on at the behest of Mars. Mars craves war and wants to keep it on the planet. Whereas Aphrodite, Wonder Woman’s goddess, only wants love, and unfortunately, Mars is currently winning this battle.
But, of course, Aphrodite has a great champion who’s currently turning the tides of war toward peace. Wonder Woman. Continue reading “Wonder Woman Wednesdays: Wonder Woman #2, part 1 of 4”
Wonder Woman #1 was published in the summer of 1942 and was the first full-length comic book featuring only Wonder Woman stories. It’s composed of four stories, and so I’m choosing to spread out this issue into four blog posts because Wonder Woman #1 is important.
As an introduction, there’s a biography of Miss Alice Marble, associate editor of Wonder Woman. Which is basically a fluff piece on how she’s making sure Wonder Woman stays true to herself and as a hero for girls. Plus, how even grown women love Wonder Woman. While Marble was famous for playing tennis, her secret life a spy on Nazis was perhaps far more interesting. She retired due to being shot in the back while obtaining Nazi financial information in Switzerland. Now that’s some serious real life bad guy fighting. Interestingly enough, this all took place after she started editing Wonder Woman.
In addition to Marble’s bio, there’s also a page called “Who’s Wonder Woman?” where Greek gods — Aphrodite, Athena, Mercury, and Hercules — are used to explain Diana’s powers and beliefs as an easy introduction for new readers.
The first tale is a retelling of the origins of both the Amazons and how how Wonder Woman came to be in America. Some details are rehashed, some are new, and others have been edited. I felt like Marston had an editor’s red pen scribbled all over his original story. Here there is little to none of his cabinet of curiosities, and while there are still some ridiculous elements, the tale feels a lot tamer and less full of wacky what were they thinking moments. Wonder Woman’s original origin story appears in All-Star Comics #8.
The story’s framed by a doctor at the army hospital finding a parchment dropped by Wonder Woman. He realizes it’s ancient and sends it to the Smithsonian. The parchment contains the story of the Amazons and how they came to inhabit Paradise Isle, among other things. Continue reading “Wonder Woman Wednesdays: Wonder Woman #1, part 1 of 4”
Comic book reviews for DC’s Wonder Woman #41, Wonder Woman #42, Wonder Woman #43 by Gail Simone
