Wonder Woman #28
written by George Perez, art by Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg



Synopsis: Hermes offers to help Diana find the lasso, but Diana wisely is like, nah, bro, you're a naked creeper. I'll do it myself. Luckily, Julia is on the case; she and Diana recall that back in #9, all around a-hole Dr. Barbara Minerva had been trying to get her paws on the lasso. Nobody else thinks it makes any sense that some old lady would be able to kidnap aliens from the government in order to steal a magic rope, but Julia and Diana are pretty sure, so Diana heads off to England to find Dr. Minerva.

She arrives and finds Dr. Minerva's shriveled little butler/shaman guy instead. He slips Diana a mickey, which paralyzes her. As the slow acting poison is killing her, the shaman takes it upon himself to explain Dr. Minerva's backstory, and how she's actually the Cheetah. It's exactly as you might think. Dr. Minerva led an expedition to an ancient temple, where she found a secret race that was sacrificing people to their evil Cheetah god to keep the Cheetah avatar - and old woman - alive and young. Just then! Some army dudes from the local authorities show up and start shooting everyone, because, yes. That's what they should do. But Dr. Minerva intervenes and... TO BE CONTINUED!


Notes: On the one hand, the old "villain explains their whole backstory while the hero is dying" thing is kind of really played out, but on the other hand, even in her very brief appearances so far, Dr. Minerva does kind of seem like that sort of person.

Overall, though, this issue was a bit of a letdown. At least Hermes was wearing his helmet when he appeared, which is so much more appealing than his disgusting perm. But as you can see from the brevity of my synopsis, almost nothing actually happened in this issue. Diana flew to England, drank some poison, and spent the rest of the issue lying on the floor while Brother Voodoo told a pretty boring origin story about the Cheetah, who didn't actually show up in this issue other than a brief scene where she kills off the mercenaries who were working for her last issue. It just wasn't that exciting. I mean, I definitely prefer the book when it isn't all action, as the action is secondary to Geroge's character stuff. But this issue? Could have used some action, and not just Dr. Minerva shooting a couple tribesmen in a flashback.

I do, however, appreciate that Dr. Minerva is infirm, and apparently aging, though exactly how old she currently is I'm not quite sure. George has done a really good job of making his cast feel like real people, including having characters that are actually middle aged or elderly play a real role in the story. That feels pretty rare to me in mainstream superhero comics. Yeah, there's an occasional Perry White as a supporting character or something, but things like Steve Trevor and Julia being middle aged are cool touches. It feels more like a real world with these bits.

As part of Diana's trip to England, a footnote explains that she takes the time to bop over to mainland Europe to appear in Justice League Europe #1. I think she just guest starred in that one issue, probably solely so she could be on the cover. I dunno, I haven't read it in years.

There's a letter in the lettercolumn this issue where a reader really rips George a new one for the menopause thing at the end of #24. As I mentioned, that sequence bothered me a bit too, and it really, really ticked off this reader, who wrote a pretty impassioned screed lambasting George and the rest of the team for what she considers to be a sheep in wolf's clothing comic - a fundamentally anti-woman comic disguised as false feminism. She sees both Diana's subserviant position with Hermes and Julia's menopause copout as signs that George and the other men at DC are part of the problem, so mired in their male-centric worldview that they can't see how offensive their comic is.

I don't agree, of course. But I did and do have ap roblem with the menopause thing - as I said, I think I get what he was going for, but the timing of Julia bringing it up was poor, and did undermine what she was saying and doing in that story. She was right and Diana was wrong, but she tries to let Diana off the hook by basically apologizing for being right. I can see what the letter writer is upset about even though I thinks she's wrong. The stories in #1, #10-14 and in Annual #1 I think disprove her accusations that the book is secretly misogynistic, or is using feminist ideals as a convenient marketing tool to pander to female readers.

My Grade: C+. The fight in the lettercolumn over feminism was more interesting than the comic itself.

I'd forgotten about that letter. I dismissed it out of hand, personally, figuring that even though the situation made me uncomfortable, it was one of those things that would have come up in comics a long time ago if it was something that happened to men. I always kind of imagined some woman said to George "Hey, it's great that you're writing a woman-centered comic and even give a partial spotlight to an aging woman. When are you going to bring up menopause?"

I can see your point about it being poorly timed/used, as well.

For 2 of the 3 issues, he didn't bother to finish it before leaving DC, Bart Sears did the 3rd issue.

-M

Wonder Woman #30
written by George Perez, art by Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg




Synopsis: Diana faces off against an army of evil Amazons. She tries to reason with them, and when that doesn't work, she creams them instead. Finally, their queen offers a truce, and then immediately breaks it, poisoning Diana. What a jerk.

Diana is tossed into the dungeons, where the queen's evil scientist lady decides to experiment on Diana. This is a bad idea. Instead, Diana prays to the gods for power, and for once, they apparently listen, because she shrugs off the poison's effects and frees herself. The evil science lady dies in the process. Omelet, meet egg.

Meanwhile! Chuma has also followed Diana and Cheetah to Egypt. He finds her in dire straits, and begins a ritual to fix her. It involves a blood moon and presumably a lot of people-eating. While he's doing this, the evil Amazon queen and her evil Amazons are up to evil; they've hired themselves out as mercenaries, and their mission is to totally destroy a town. The same town that Cheetah and Chuma are in. Uh-oh! Too bad for the Amazons that Chuma's blood moon has already risen... TO BE CONTINUED!!


Notes: Now we're cooking again. I am curious how much of George's run was influenced by events in the previous Wonder Woman title. I've seen some parallels before; this time it's the introduction of a rogue splinter tribe of Amazons, something we saw back in #314, but which was never really epxlored thanks to the cancellation of that series. It feels pretty clear that George has been building up to this for a while. I just wonder if the idea came from Mishkin's run, or if it's just a coincidence. Or if they are both based on some other outside story about the Amazons that I am not familiar with.

The meeting of the Cheetah and Amazon plots remains unexpected, but we get some explanation in this issue, as Minerva explains to Chuma that once she got the lasso, it compelled her to come to Egypt and find the Amazons. Why? Well, we'll have to wait to find out, but it turns out it's not as random as it first looks. Which is nice, as it seemed completely inexplicable up until this point.

Someone writes in to the lettercolumn this issue that Hermes is their favorite of the Olympians, so apparently he's been reading some other comic.

My Grade: B. Still moving a bit slower than necessary, and the several-page sequence showing the evil Amazons bickering with the guys who hired them was totally superfluous. But it's moving, and in the right direction.

Wonder Woman #32
story by George Perez, art by Tom Grummett and Steve Montano



Synopsis: MEANWHILE! Back on Themyscira, Hippolyte reminisces about an incident from Diana's past where she learned to not question the will of the gods, because they know better than we do. Hmm. Foreshadowing?

In Boston, Rizzoli and Isles bring their sleuthing to Julia, who's all like "whoa, hold on, I just suddenly realized Dr. Minerva is actually the Cheetah!" So basically everyone is taking their sweetass time putting 2 and 2 together around these parts. The three of them are all worried about Diana, but can't do anything about it.

Etta and Steve are having their own issues. Etta's boss is transferred out, and her knew boss is General Yedziniak, the a-hole military guy from way back in the first arc. He's returned to give Etta problems. But Steve has problems of his own: Hermes has decided they're going to be roommates. Hopefully, this will result in Steve shooting Hermes in the head while Hermes is sleeping, but probably not.

Hermes, for his part, has even bigger problems of his own. He goes off to restore his waning powers, drained from fixing Boston a couple issues ago, and instead is zapped by a mystical whammy, which Menlippes is also hit with at the same time back on Paradise Island. What's this all about? Nothing good. And Diana is somehow involved. TO BE CONTINUED!!

Notes: A lot of setup in this issue, which is fine. It's a good change of pace issue, giving us a chance to breathe after the events of the past couple issues. Plus, SPOILERS! There's an exposition dump coming next issue, so we need to clear our mind for that too.

As far as what actually happens in the various stories, eh. I am not at all interested in Etta's workplace drama, in fact, I'm already bored with it and it hasn't even started yet. The stuff on Paradise Island was good, the Hermes stuff, both alone and with Steve, had Hermes in it, so it wasn't great. But there is some comedic potential with the pairing of Steve and Hermes, so there's that.

The one I had a bit of a problem with is the ongoing subplot of Julia and the dtective trying desperately to catch up to plot points already revealed to the readers several issues ago. The problem with the way this is paced is that these sequences have no drama at all for the readers, and creates no drama at all either. If these scenes had happened earlier - the investigation in Boston taking place while Diana was away on her own - it could have been intercut with the action, foreshadowing the dangers before Diana is confronted with them. That would have been effective. Instead, we get page after page of these characters stumbling towards a conclusion that is both obvious and irrelevant - they can't possibly affect anything, because the action has already happened! Yes, eventually this subplot is going to meet back up with current action, but as it's laid out, it has no impact at all except to be a drag on the story.

This is the last cover by George for a good while; starting next issue, Marrinan does the covers, with George inking. George's inks make a huge difference in Marrinan's art, so it's too bad George didn't have time to ink him all the time. Nothing against Blyberg, but Marrinan needs more help than Blyberg can give him.

Speaking of Marrinan and Blyberg, they are nowhere to be seen this issue. I'm guessing this is because they were working on Annual #2 at this time, but that's just a guess. Annual #2 will be coming out three months or so after this issue.

Finally, the lettercolumn is full of rebuttals against (and a couple slightly for) the menopause letter. That's got the hornet's nest riled up. The lettercolumn is pretty interesting at this point, with a lot of really long, thought out letters. It's too bad this sort of thing has gone the way of the dodo, because while internet commentary allows fans to discuss things much quicker and more completely, the deeper aspects of debate seem to often be lost compared to this gold age of lettercolumns. Is it just me, or were the lettercolumns from the 1980's by far the best lettercolumns ever? 60's Marvel definitely set the tone, but the columns from the 80's really were the pinnacle.

Boston Notes: There's a glimpse of a steeple or tower on the front cover, but I can't quite place it; it's neither the Old North Church nor the Old South Meeting House. It's also just about the only hint of Boston flavor we've seen in months. That aspect of grounding it in the real world seems to be slipping.

My Grade: B. Fine for what it is.

Not sure, but 1988 is the year DC adjusted the gap between cover date and release date with the Winter 1988 and Holiday 1988 dated issues, some series listed that, others like WW it looks like, had 2 undated issues (unless it was only newsstand issues that carried the date and direct issues were undated). That's why there were 14 issues that year, but every DC ongoing series had 2 extra issues that year.

Not sure if the adjustment meant they skipped a statement of ownership that year since it would have affected some of the numbers therein.

-M

Wonder Woman #33
written by George Perez, art by Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg




Synopsis: Hey guys. How about some exposition?! Hurray!

Diana goes back to Evil Amazon City with the Evil Amazons. They have Cheetah locked up and want to kill her, but Diana won't let them.

Diana and the new Evil Queen, Nehebka, both want answers about why the lasso and the girdle react to each other the way they do. So Nehebka tells a story explaining the origin of the Evil Amazons. Basically, the Amazon Phthia was held responsible for the murder of Queen Antiope - Diana's aunt - way back in olden times. She vowed vengeance on man, and when she got free, she founded the Evil Amazon City.

While Diana is learning this, back in Boston, the slowest investigation of all time continues. Julia contacts a dude she knows in Egypt and asks him to look for Diana. Then everyone spends a couple pages being really worried.

Suddenly! Evil Amazon City is attacked... by Hermes?! TO BE CONTINUED!


Notes: So, we get the origin of the Evil Amazons, and it's pretty much what I expected, as it ties in with the origin story of the Amazons which we have seen before, notably in issue #1. It was interesting, but at the same time, extended flashbacks and data dumps can only be so interesting. It's like reading an illustrated wikipedia entry.

I don't honestly have a hell of a lot to say about this issue. Hermes showing up at the end might be the first time I was interested in his presence in a story, as it really ratchets things up. He looks wicked pissed. Beyond Hermes, my frustration with the pacing of the investigation continues. They are unspooling a mystery which we as readers already know the answer to. So who gives a crap?

In the lettercolumn someone takes the creative team to task for having Diana claim in-story that she joined the JLE for diplomatic purposes, when the writer thinks it's pretty obvious she joined for real world commercial purposes. The editors feign ignorance, as in, they respond by saying they don't even understand what the guy means. Sure they don't.

Chris Marrinan gets his first cover and the results are less than impressive. There's better to come from him - and George - but this ain't so great. I again have to wonder if the much better covers the put together later might have had a layout assist from George.

My Grade: B-. Necessary and interesting character mythology, but not so exciting in terms of a story. George is relying on the Boston investigation to keep the suspense flowing, but since there is no suspense to it, that tactic is failing.