Wondabunga

  By Edgar Miraculous Dyer The first TEN issues of  Michael W. Conrad' s,  Becky Cloonan' s and  Travis Moore' s tour on the  Wonder Woman  comic, called  Wonder Woman: Afterworlds,  is an exceptionally written and illustrated literary work - all the more exceptional, ..being a comic book story. I suppose you could call it " a good start",  since the creative team just wrapped its opening story arc,  Afterworlds,  and is moving swiftly onto its next one, ..already much anticipated by fans. However, I think calling it a good  start  diminishes it, somehow. It is, simply put, one of the most entertaining story cycles to be featured in the  Wonder Woman  comic, in recent memory. It may be said to herald a second Golden Age, in crafting the sort of wildly imaginative, far-flung, pulpy adventures, we haven't seen, since  Mike Sekowsky' s work on the comic ..in the Mod Era 1970s. Afterworlds  is plain good re...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer JANUS might be the most important co ntribution of the current run on Wonder Woman,  ..2021-present. In Janus, the Roman god of Time itself, Wonder Woman finds the ultimate, never-ending battle for freedom, as no one - not even DC Comics superheroes - may resist the dominion of time.  Not since Gail Simone's universally appealing  Queen of Fables,  has a Wonder-comic villain been in a better position to threaten the entire DC Universe, in all its genres. Bringing magic and science together, as Wonder Woman herself does, ..Janus-creators Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan have finally given the leading lady the sort of classic, all-seasons archenemy, she's been missing since World War II! She is so much more, than Wonder Woman's  'Batman Who Laughs'.  I chuckle every time I see that in print, ..and I challenge any DC Comics fan or creator to read  Wonder Woman:   Afterworlds  all over again, if that's all they got o...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer A Wonderfan once said, "Nubia is perfection. Etta is perfect imperfection. Don't need 2 Nubias." I'm still there. Standing by that. I don't like to see writers or artists slimming down the original  Wonder Girl,  Etta Candy, for political correctness ..or modernity. I think it was a mistake tying DC Comics'  Wonder Woman  comic into that network-rejected David Kelley  pilot - you know the one, starring Adrianne Palicki, loosely based on Greg Rucka's critically acclaimed run. The fat, weird, fun and fun- loving   Etta  in the comic - the Golden Age Wonder Woman's Robin  - was one of the major casualties of this game-changing TV tie-in. Frankly, I don't see any reasons that Etta has to be black, anyway, ..except to tie-into that failed, never-aired Kelly TV show pilot. She might just as well be Irish, Mexican or Chinese. Etta can be anybody... any of us, ..and that was Wonder-creator William Moulton Marston's point in ...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer With DC Comics'  Rebirth publishing event in 2021, Greg Rucka's award-winning  Wonder Woman  reboot re-introduced us to the Immortal Amazon's enduring witch foe, Circe,  ..re-imagined as a quirky,  Doctor Who'ish creature, trolling the space-time continuum from her mystical and inter-dimensional palace,  Aeaea!   I have and have had, since the 80s, a real problem accepting a generic  sorceress as Wonder Woman's archnemesis, if only because I don't see 'fighting magic [?]' ..as a rationale for Wonder Woman's presence in the world of mortal men - that's NOT why she left her Paradise Island! Besides that, I just don't like sorceress antagonists much and never have. What does a world, conquered by Circe or any other sorceress, look like, anyway? Why should Wonder Woman or anyone fear it? Is it wild boar falling from the sky? Global chocolate shortage? All of humanity lost in a violent nightmare, she'll never let...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer (2021, October 22) 2nd Ed. Comixeurs know that  Marvel Comics  (even in the Timely days), the self-styled  House of Ideas,  has always mixed an element of  horror  into the iconic DNA of its most beloved heroes. From the Frankenstein-inspired elements in Captain America to the more obvious flashes of horror in the original Human Torch, the amazing Spider-Man, incredible Hulk, invincible Iron Man and uncanny X-Men - even the supernatural possession of Dr. Donald Blake, by the mighty, Viking sky god, Thor - this is and always  has been  Marvel's secret sauce. This is the  Marvel brand... And even the publisher's greatest  superheroines would not escape it. One need look no further, than  Sersi the Terrible!  Half-naked in the apocalyptic green of Eden, Sersi is a cosmic sorceress and member of Marvel's  The Eternals  (now, titular stars of a proper, live-action superhero flick) - who really is ...

By Edgar Miraculous Dyer Outfitted, head-to-toe, in cobalt and dark orange, Kirbyesque armor and known as  'the Viking'  among his compadres, Siegfried is mythical Odin's invulnerable, dragonslayer grandson! He is every little boy, who ever charged across a playground, TWIG for sword...vowing death to the Dogwood tree on the other side, ..and the newest member of Wonder Woman's classic, supporting cast! Why is this a HUGE deal? The Prince of Vikings beats ***! I want a 5X Ben Cooper Halloween costume and a Tarzan wig. (Emanuela Lupacchino art) One of the biggest surprises I have ever had, as sometimes fanboy journalist, has been having senior comixeurs, who read Golden Age  Wonder Woman  comics in the 1940s and '50s, tell me ETTA CANDY, the Amazing Amazon's cowgirl-coed sidekick, ..was their favorite character in the comic, ..next to Wondy, herself! It's a kick, as a kangalier (ride-or-die Wondafan), just to chat up an original Golden or Silver Age fan - a n...

Second Edition By Edgar Miraculous Dyer For a chick, with a turkey on her head,  Queen Clea  is one of Wonder Woman's nastier, more implacable, World War II foes and  could easily be her  Kurgan  ..or the  Ming the Merciless,  she needs to define her, the way Luthor or Loki define their superheroic adversaries. Wonder Woman - Princess Diana of the Amazons -  whom I've always argued is more  Flas h Gor don 's narrative cousin, than  Superman 's,  needs  a Ming, and she's never had one around, long enough to matter. By comparison, her other foils -  Cheetah, Warmaster  and  Grail  - seem to do little more than challenge Diana's athleticism. Diana is the daughter of a liberated nation of classical Amazons, mythical freedom-fighters, for whom love and freedom are literally a religion, ..and her archenemy should reflect that. Conceivably, Diana, who fought Nazis in World War II, should have a tyrant in her rogues...