Tim Hanley's Blog, page 39

America! I am leaving my igloo and my maple syrup farm behind to come south and visit your nation. More specifically, Chicago! For a series of very fun events surrounding my newly released book, Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet’s Ace Reporter. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to Chicago before, but everyone says it’s a great city and I’m excited to explore it when I’m not chatting about Lois.

My first event is at the bookstore Women & Children First, on Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30pm. It’s a panel discussion called “The Legacy of Lois Lane”, and I’ll be talking about the history of Lois as well as several other female comic book characters along with my super fantastic fellow panelists. They include: Anne Elizabeth Moore from the Ladydrawers and the upcoming Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking (it’s really good, by the way), Lauren Burke from the Ladies Night Anthology series, Caitling Rosberg from The A.V. Club, and Katie Schenkel from Panels, Comics Alliance, The Mary Sue, and more! It’s a killer line up and I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts on Lois Lane and the history of female characters in comics. It’s going to be a lot of fun. For more information, check out the panel’s Women & Children First event listing and/or the Facebook event page.

After that, I’ve got Thursday all to myself for the most part. If there are any Chicago locals or Chicago enthusiasts reading this, hit the comments tell me what awesome things I should do with my day!

Then it’s C2E2, which should be awesome. Comic conventions are always a good time. My publisher’s distributor, Independent Publishers Group, has a booth at the show, #640, and my official signing times there are:

Friday, March 18, 3:00-4:00pm
Saturday, March 19, 1:30-2:30pm
Sunday, March 20, 11:30am-12:30pm

We’re going to have books for sale and fun stuff to give away, so if you’re going to be at C2E2 you should definitely stop by. I’ve got bookplates for both Wonder Woman Unbound and Investigating Lois Lane, so your books will look extra snazzy. And if you don’t want to buy anything or get things signed, you can just come over and we can talk about Lois for a while; I’m always game for some Lois chatting.

So yeah, it’s going to be a very fun trip. I’m excited to find out if Chicago is my kind of razzmatazz. Though I’m also preparing myself not to be disappointed when all of my favourite fictional Chicago things prove to be not real; I’ll be sad if I don’t spy any Winslows, ER doctors, or the Steak Me Home Tonight food truck, but I’ll get over it. Hope to see you all soon, Chicago people!

Let’s get right to it: This issue kicked some serious ass. It’s a testament to Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon’s storytelling skills that we’re seventeen issues into the series, digitally, and we haven’t had much in the way of fight scenes. Fight scenes are the lifeblood of superhero comics in a lot of ways; heck, the next two big superhero movies are pitting the heroes against each other so as to have even more fight scenes. Everybody loves crazy action. But The Legend of Wonder Woman hasn’t gone that route. There have been a few skirmishes here and there, but the story has moved along at its own pace, building relationships and developing the characters in non-combative ways. And it’s been absolutely fantastic.

But now the Duke of Deception is almost on top of the Allied forces in Europe, and someone’s got to step in and stop him. Enter Wonder Woman! Or rather, almost Wonder Woman. She hasn’t got the whole look together yet, and De Liz has continued the slow build to her emergence in a very cool way. When Diana left Themyscira, she wasn’t given the classic Wonder Woman uniform. Instead, she was given golden artifacts: The boots of Hermes (more sandals, really) that allowed to glide on the winds, the girdle of Zeus to enhance her physical strength, the tiara of Athena to heighten the strength of her mind, and the impenetrable bracers of Artemis.

Diana put on all of the separate artifacts before heading out to the battlefield, without the usual red top and star spangled bottoms to tie it all together. Instead, she just wore them underneath a military uniform, and it looked pretty rad. I mean, check this out:

This comic is worth buying for that bad ass pose alone. Also, could we please make this book a hit so that I can get an action figure of this?

I love how The Legend of Wonder Woman is building up to Wonder Woman, step by step, and it’s so fun that she gets this sort of intermediate stage. It’s such a common plot point in the origin stories of other heroes, and it’s one I really enjoy, that first time that they go out to fight bad guys but they don’t have their uniform together quite yet and sort of don’t know what they’re doing. Think Bruce Wayne disguising himself as a street tough in Batman: Year One, or Iron Man’s clunky first suit from the Iron Man movie. Wonder Woman tends to just emerge fully formed in her origin stories, and I’m really enjoying seeing her grow and evolve into the role here.

And, as always, I love the callbacks. In the Golden Age, Wonder Woman couldn’t fly; thus the invisible plane. Then, in the Silver Age, she learned how to fly by gliding on air currents, just as she’s doing in the panel above. It’s great to see yet another reference to her history. The way this series builds on classic Wonder Woman stories while being wholly its own new, fresh thing delights me to no end.

Also, things happened! I’ve spent so much time talking about the costume that I’ve forgotten the plot. Diana is finally face to face with the Duke of Deception, and it seems that they have some kind of connection. She can see into his past, and he knows to be wary of her, like he was expecting her. It’s a curious situation that I assume will be explored in the issues to come as their battle continues. There are ten digital issues to go, so I don’t expect things to be resolved any time soon. If anything, I’m guessing this current battle will just be their first skirmish, with more to come later on.

So we’ve got yet another great issue of The Legend of Wonder Woman, adding yet another enjoyable twist to Wonder Woman’s origin. She looks so cool! And is super bad ass, deflecting bullets and zipping around the battlefield. This book is such a blast.

In the last month before DC Comics relaunches their superhero line yet again, the publisher’s female creator representation is set to be on the low end of their current average range. Thus far in 2016, DC has had at least 20 different women writing and drawing their comics each month, and this May is no exception, but the numbers have ticked down slightly from the two months previous. Let’s take a look at who’s doing what at DC in May 2016:

Amanda Conner: Harley Quinn #28 (cover, co-writer), Harley Quinn and her Gang of Harleys #2 (cover), Starfire #12 (co-writer, cover)
Amy Chu: Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #5 (writer)
Annie Wu: Black Canary #12 (art and cover), Gotham Academy #18 (interior art)
Babs Tarr: Batgirl #52 (cover)
Bilquis Evely: Legends of Tomorrow #3 (interior art)
Eleonora Carlini: Batgirl #52 (interior art)
Elsa Charretier: Starfire #12 (interior art)
Faith Erin Hicks: Gotham Academy #18 (writer, interior art)
Gail Simone: Clean Room #8 (writer), Secret Six #14 (writer)
Helen Mingjue Chen: Gotham Academy #18 (cover)
Holly Black: Lucifer #6 (writer)
Jenny Frison: Clean Room #8 (cover)
Joelle Jones: Scooby Apocalypse #1 (variant cover)
Laura Braga: DC Comics Bombshells #12 (interior art)
Lauren Beukes: Survivors’ Club #8 (co-writer)
Marguerite Bennett: DC Comics Bombshells #12 (writer), DC Comics Bombshells #13 (writer)
Marguerite Sauvage: Unfollow #7 (interior art)
Meredith Finch: Wonder Woman #52 (writer)
Ming Doyle: Constantine: The Hellblazer #12 (co-writer)
Mirka Andolfo: DC Comics Bombshells #12 (interior art), DC Comics Bombshells #13 (interior art)
Natasha Alterici: Gotham Academy #18 (writer, interior art)
Renae De Liz: The Legend of Wonder Woman #5 (writer, penciller, cover), The Legend of Wonder Woman #6 (writer, penciller, cover)
Stephanie Hans: Lucifer #6 (interior art)

All together, there are 23 different female creators set to work on 20 different books in May, a double drop from April’s 25 women and 22 books. It’s not much of a tumble, more of a slight shift that we can chalk up to the vagaries of comic book publishing; things fluctuate. It is, however, DC’s second month in a row of lowered numbers, and the total of female creators is a fair bit off from the year’s high of 31 in January. So not disastrous, but certainly below what DC is capable of.

By and large, the women working at DC in May are the usual suspects, and it’s good to see so many female creators getting steady work at DC. For new creators, I don’t think Natasha Alterici has done anything at DC before, and while Stephanie Hans has done a ton of work for Marvel, her art on Lucifer might be her first DC gig, which is very cool.

For female characters, with a relaunch just around the corner there wasn’t anything new on the superhero front, but DC is set to begin their Hanna Barbara relaunch in May. There aren’t any female creators in the mix thus far, apart from a Joelle Jones variant cover, and the number of female characters involved doesn’t seem too high, at least in terms of lead characters. Daphne and Velma will be part of the new Scooby-Doo Apocalypse, and there look to be a handful of women on the cover of Future Quest #1, but the leads all seem to be guys.

So May looks to be a slightly low month for women at DC, but within their average range. June is where things will get really interesting, with scores of new books and special set to debut as part of the “Rebirth” initiative. Hopefully that will be a jump in the number of female creators; we know what books are coming, but we’ve got no official confirmation on any of the creators yet. A number of books will be double shipping moving forward as well, which will probably mean rotating art teams and thus more opportunities for work. It’ll be interesting to see who nabs those opportunities. As well as which books don’t make the cut for the relaunch, and where the female creators working on those books end up. It can’t be worse than the New 52 relaunch, I suppose. Surely there’ll be more than two women in the mix.

While Amazon has been shipping out Investigating Lois Lane for weeks now and it’s been in comic shops for a while, today is the official release date for the book! And it’s available in a bunch of places in a bunch of ways: online, in stores, Kindle and ebook editions. Basically, however you like to read and buy books, you’ll be able to get it now (here’s a page with a bunch of links for where!)

And you should get it, because Lois Lane is one of the greatest characters of all time. She’s been around since the very dawn of the superhero genre and has lived through it all as a constant presence in comics, television, and film (and radio and Broadway and a lot of other places too; the gal gets around). Her story often gets overshadowed by Superman, but Investigating Lois Lane brings Lois into the spotlight to explore her history and her unique perspective on the world of superheroes. The book covers every incarnation of the character from her creation in 1938 to the present day, hitting all of the obvious beats as well as delving into more obscure moments from her past. It also digs into the creators who wrote and drew Lois over the decades, looking behind the scenes at the real world motivations of her various depictions. It was so much fun to research and write, and I hope you check it out.

Here are some quotes from some amazing people who’ve already read the book and provided lovely blurbs for the back cover. I still can’t believe these blurbs; Kelly Sue, Gwenda, and Anne are some of the smartest and raddest people I know:

“A wonderful introduction to the character and history of Lois Lane, and how she has continually served as a canary in the coal mine for the treatment of women in comics in general.” —Kelly Sue DeConnick, writer of Bitch Planet, Captain Marvel, and Pretty Deadly

“Tim Hanley finally gives the iconic, enduring first lady of DC Comics the deep exploration and historical analysis she deserves. The result is a decades-long story as absorbing and filled with twists as any of Lois’s front page scoops.” —Gwenda Bond, author of Lois Lane: Fallout and Lois Lane: Double Down

“This smart, funny, and thorough biography of the long-suffering woman behind the Man of Steel and her world-renowned multimedia career will have you rethinking damsels in distress and their central role in Western media faster than a speeding bullet. If only I’d had this book as a young journalist and Superman fan!” —Anne Elizabeth Moore, author of Unmarketable and cofounder of the Ladydrawers Comics Collective

It’s wonderful and humbling that such spectacularly talented people like the book, and I hope that you’ll like it too!

If you want to know a bit more about Investigating Lois Lane, here are a few interviews I’ve done about it:

“Getting the Real Scoop on DC’s Lois Lane” at Newsarama
“New Book Investigates Lois Lane” at DC Women Kicking Ass
“Investigating Lois Lane” at Sequential Tart
“Behind the Scenes: Tim Hanley, author of Investigating Lois Lane” at Chicago Review Press

Also, I’m going to be in Chicago soon for a few events, chatting about Lois Lane and signing books. I’ll put this up on its own in another post, but I’ll be at Women & Children First on Wednesday, March 16, at 7:30pm for a panel discussion on Lois and other female comics alongside the fantastic Anne Elizabeth Moore, Caitlin Rosberg, Katie Schenkel, and Lauren Burke! I’ll also be at C2E2 from March 18-20, signing at the Independent Publishers Group booth (#640) on all three days. My official times are Friday 3:00-4:00pm, Saturday 1:30-2:30pm, and Sunday 11:30-12:30pm. So if you’re in the area, come on by!

So yeah, hooray book birthday! If you’re a fan of Lois Lane, of women in comics, or of superheroes and comic book history generally, Investigating Lois Lane is the book for you. Check it out and let me know what you think. Also, if you enjoy the book, reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and the like are always super helpful and would be much appreciated. Thanks to all of you for reading and supporting the book!

Diana Prince and her pal Etta Candy have made the long trek across the Atlantic Ocean and are now set up in Normandy, France. Diana’s just finished her nurse training and Etta is preparing for her first big solo show to entertain the troops, but there’s a darkness hanging over everything. There’s the war itself, of course, but more than that there is the Duke of Deception, stalking the battlefields of Europe and sending untold soldiers to their graves as he marches across the continent.

The legions of casualties are certainly keeping Diana busy at her new nursing gig. I really like that Renae De Liz has made Diana a nurse again; I’m all about a Golden Age callback, and when Diana first arrived in America in 1941 she became a nurse to take care of her charge, Steve Trevor, before becoming his secretary after he was well enough to leave the hospital. The original Diana was stateside with a fairly leisurely post, but De Liz stays true to the classic stories while adding some more excitement to the mix by posting Diana in Normandy, near the front lines.

Historically speaking, it was certainly a chaotic time to be in France. The date at the start of today’s installment of The Legend of Wonder Woman is July 3, 1944, about a month after the D-Day landings brought Allied troops to the shore of Normandy to begin the push back against Nazi forces. While D-Day was a roaring success, the Allies didn’t just march straight to Berlin. Months of arduous battle followed. Today, you can drive from Normandy to Berlin in about twelve hours; it’s a pretty easy trip. The Nazis didn’t surrender until May 1945, and the toll was high over those eleven months of conflict across the continent.

The comic makes what was a terrible situation even worse with the addition of the Duke of Deception. Few who face him survive to tell the world about it, which is why Diana wants to be near the front lines. Those who do survive rarely live for long, but being in the nursing unit allows her to gather information on the Duke from the injured soldiers before they succumb to their wounds. It’s an unpleasant place for Diana to be, and having to view the brutality of war and see people die clearly takes a toll on Diana.

This too is a departure from Wonder Woman’s original Golden Age adventures. Back then, the price of war never really came up. Wonder Woman was constantly in the thick of battle, but was breezy and carefree, throwing around quips as she defeated enemy soldiers with ease. She even sunk an entire fleet of Axis ships in one issue. In the middle of the war itself, there wasn’t much in the way of reflecting on the cost of the conflict and the horrible loss of life; it was all “Rah rah, beat the Axis!” I like that, from the get-go, De Liz is keeping Diana away from that kind of patriotic propaganda and is exploring the harsh reality of war.

The book isn’t all dark and dreary, though! Far from it. Etta’s there with Diana to cheer her up and take her out to her show, where they promptly run into their old friend Steve Trevor. Etta slyly leaves the two of them together to get to know each other better while she heads on stage to try to top Pamela Smuthers. Yes, friggin’ Pamela Smuthers is there too! They thought they’d left her in London, but nope. They can’t get away from her. So yeah, there’s a lot of fun in the mix, and perhaps the blossoming of some romantic feelings between Diana and Steve. They almost got to dance together before more casualties from the Duke of Deception had Diana rushing back to the nursing station.

All together, it was yet another great issue of this fantastic series. After the light fun of America, we’re now in the thick of the war itself and moving toward what should be an epic confrontation between Diana and the Duke of Deception. Having seen the horrors of war firsthand now, I very much doubt that Diana will be able to remain on the sidelines for long.

May is going to be another busy month for Wonder Woman, and will mark the end of her two mainline series. Wonder Woman is set to relaunch in June with a new #1 issue, while Superman/Wonder Woman will be done forever, thank goodness; that book never even got close to decent, despite three years of trying. But that’s June. In May, both series are wrapping up, plus Wonder Woman’s got a few other things in the mix, including a very cool surprise. Let’s take a look at what she’ll be up to in May, starting with Wonder Woman #52 and its two covers:

WONDER WOMAN #52

Written by MEREDITH FINCH

Art by MIGUEL MENDOÇA

Cover by YANICK PAQUETTE

Variant cover by DAVID FINCH and MATT BANNING

On sale MAY 18 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Hecate’s true motivations are revealed and Wonder Woman’s dream of a happy ending is called into question by the Amazon warrior herself. You can’t afford to miss the epic conclusion of the quest to save baby Zeke and the Olympians.

While we don’t have official confirmation on the new Wonder Woman creative team, all signs point to this being the last issue for Meredith and David Finch. And there was much rejoicing throughout the land. Their final outing wraps up the storyline of Zeke’s illness, and it sounds like Hecate might be up to no good. Really? The creepy looking witch goddess with the spikes coming out her head doesn’t have the purest of intentions? I did not see that coming (I actually did, in my review of the start of this arc last week. I think I was sarcastic about her then, too. That sounds like me).

Anyway, the Finches will be done and maybe the series will be good for a change from now on. Here’s hoping!

Onto Superman/Wonder Woman #29:

SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN #29

Written by PETER J. TOMASI

Art by DOUG MAHNKE and JAIME MENDOZA

Cover by KARL KERSCHL

On sale MAY 18 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

It’s the penultimate chapter of “Super League”! When all the Supermen have fallen, it’s Supergirl to the rescue! But can Kara and Wonder Woman stop a villain who wants to end Clark’s hope for future Supermen?

This is a whole big crossover scene with all of the other Super-books, and seeing as I don’t buy any of those than I’m guessing this issue won’t make a lick of sense to me. But it’s a Wonder Woman/Supergirl team-up, and that could be fun. Plus a Karl Kerschl cover! This issue has some stuff going for it, certainly. Though it also sounds like a fitting end to this series that has consistently focused on Superman over Wonder Woman, with a Super-crossover that’s yet again all about the Man of Steel.

We’ve also got a double shipping Legend of Wonder Woman in May:

THE LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN #5

Written by RENAE DE LIZ

Art by RENAE DE LIZ and RAY DILLON

Cover by RENAE DE LIZ

On sale MAY 4 • 40 pg, FC, 5 of 9, $3.99 US • RATED T • DIGITAL FIRST

Double shipping in May! In issue #5, the Holliday Girls are off to Boston! But while the girls go shopping, Etta and Diana have more dangerous errands to run. Diana visits the newspaper that published tales of the Duke of Deception…and discovers a new mission—perhaps she can save Themyscira by saving the people of Man’s World from him!

THE LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN #6

Written by RENAE DE LIZ

Art by RENAE DE LIZ and RAY DILLON

Cover by RENAE DE LIZ

On sale MAY 18 • 40 pg, FC, 6 of 9, $3.99 US • RATED T • DIGITAL FIRST

Double shipping in May! There’s a war devastating the outside world, and while Diana tries not to care, she cannot help but want to protect the many who are suffering. As she finally confronts the Duke of Deception and his minions, she must decide whether to chase her answers of home, or use her new strengths to defend the outsiders.

Double the shipping, double the fun! Two issues of the Legend of Wonder Woman sounds like a good deal to me. This book is so good, I’d gladly pay for it twice in one month. It’s the best Wonder Woman comic in years, by a considerable margin. We’ve seen the contents of the fifth issue already in digital form, and it’s super good; Diana and Etta hijinks are the best. And the next issue will finally have Diana going off to the war to battle the Duke of Deception, which should be an excellent time. It’s the best comic, gang. Buy it!

Finally, a fun surprise: A Wonder Woman coloring book!

COLORING DC: WONDER WOMAN TP

Art by GEORGE PEREZ, PHIL JIMENEZ, DAVID FINCH and others

Cover by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO

On sale JUNE 29 • 96 pg, B&W, $15.99 US

DC’s Amazon princess stars in a new coloring book focusing on her greatest covers, splash pages and more by some of comics’ top artists!

This sounds SO cool. Wonder Woman art by her classic artists will be so much fun to color, plus the book is 96 pages long! That’s a lot of coloring bang for your buck. I’m excited to see what pages and covers they include in the book, and I’m definitely going to pick this one up.

The solicits also listed several new Wonder Woman figures. We’ve discussed most of them before elsewhere on the site, but here are the details of when you can get them:

The DC Comics Icons Wonder Woman figure designed by Ivan Reis is out in September 2016 for $28 US.
The DC Designer Series: Greg Capullo line Wonder Woman figure is also out in September 2016 and also sells for $28 US.
The September 2016 fun continues with a Wonder Woman 3-pack of figures that includes her first Golden Age appearance, the Terry Dodson figure, and the New 52 figure. It sells for a surprisingly steep $75US.

Look for all of the comics in May, the coloring book in June, and the figures in September. Also, maybe start saving your pennies now because that’s a lot of things to buy!

Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman movie is still filming in England, and some new set photos have a lot of folks speculating on Lucy Davis’ role. The scene they’re shooting appears to be a celebration of Armistice Day, the official end of World War One, and shows Gal Gadot in civilian garb with Lucy Davis in tow, sporting a look that is very reminiscent of Etta Candy. Here are the gals together:

And a closer look at Davis:

Davis’ hair is usually long and blonde, so these shorter auburn locks are a big change that’s in keeping with Golden Age Etta Candy, as is her size. Here’s a look at a classic Etta panel, where’s she’s enjoying a picnic with the Holliday Girls:

So Davis definitely looks the part. We’ve got no confirmation from the studio on who Davis and most of the supporting cast are playing; they’re being pretty tight lipped about which characters will be in Wonder Woman. But that looks a lot like Etta.

Or rather, a specific incarnation of Etta. On the Wonder Woman TV show, Etta was a middle aged secretary who worked for the military alongside Diana Prince. This depiction continued in the Modern Age, though Etta was often more of an active military officer. In the New 52 universe, Etta is now svelte and African American. We’ve had a variety of Ettas over the years, plus Lucy Davis doesn’t quite match the Golden Age Etta she resembles. In the 1940s, Etta was a young American college student, while Davis is a British woman in her 40s. Perhaps the film is making up their own Etta, just as they’re making up a new origin for Wonder Woman by putting her in the 1910s.

If that’s the case, this movie is getting a little weird. Rather than going with any existing origin for Wonder Woman and her supporting cast, the filmmakers seem to be creating an entirely new take on the Wonder Woman mythos. A 5,000 year old Wonder Woman who debuts in World War One with her British pal Etta Candy is not a Wonder Woman that has ever existed before. I realize that most people probably aren’t familiar with the details of Wonder Woman’s origin, but making up a new one seems like an odd plan.

All of the successful recent superhero films have stuck to the characters’ classic origins, by and large. They get updated and tweaked, but they follow the broad strokes of the comics. Again, official details for Wonder Woman are sparse, but it looks like that’s not the case here, and it’s somewhat worrying. I’m concerned that we’ll end up with a Wonder Woman movie that doesn’t actually feel like Wonder Woman.

However, we still know next to nothing about the film apart from a few sparse details and a whole pile of rumours and speculation, so we’ll have to wait and see what’s actually going on. No matter how it works out, we’re getting a Wonder Woman movie and Etta Candy might be in it, and that’s pretty rad. As always, let’s just keep our fingers crossed that they don’t screw it up.

The annual ComicsPRO retailers meeting, in which comic shop owners meet with major comics publishers to discuss and preview the year ahead, is going on in Portland, Oregon right now, and yesterday DC made a major announcement that confirmed some long brewing rumours. Starting in June, DC is going to kick off “Rebirth”, a relaunch of their superhero line that will see all of their continuing titles debut new #1 issues (except for Batman and Action Comics, which will return to their original numbering and both be up in the #900s), premiere a bunch of new books, and have several series move to bi-monthly shipping.

Details were vague, but it sounds like DC is trying to merge the best of their New 52 universe with elements of their old universe. The name itself is a callback to past successful event books like Green Lantern: Rebirth and The Flash: Rebirth, both from the pre-New 52 era. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, DC’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns explained the intended audience for this new line:

If you have, like me, long boxes of DC Comics, you will be very happy. If you’ve never read a DC comic before, you won’t be too lost. This is definitely for comic book readers more than it is for casual readers, just like “Green Lantern: Rebirth,” but that doesn’t mean it’s exclusive of them.

“Definitely for comic book readers more than it is for casual readers” bums me out a bit, partly because it’s exclusionary and partly because it’s just straight up dumb. Hardcore nerds like me are going to be there anyway, no matter what DC does. Marketing directly to us comes with a certain ceiling, because our ranks aren’t exactly growing in any real way. That base has been about the same for the last decade. New readers are where growth can come from, and relaunching a new line in which they “won’t be too lost” is a bad idea. I appreciate that it’s difficult to branch out and bring in a new audience, but that’s how you keep your books from stagnating, like most of the line has since the New 52 relaunch.

Anyway, onto what’s up for Wonder Woman! The book will be one of several series moving to a bi-monthly schedule starting in June 2016. First there will be a Wonder Woman Rebirth #1 special and then the new series will launch. DC didn’t announce any creators yesterday (though myself and my entire Twitter feed had a collective heart attack when news broke that Meredith Finch would be writing a Lois Lane series; luckily it was just a hoax) so we have no idea who will be on the book; the biggest rumour is that Marguerite Bennett will be writing it, but another rumour is that DC is having multiple writers take stabs at the new books, often without them knowing that’s happening, and that most of the creative teams are still very much up in the air right now. DC says they’ll unveil the creative teams in a month at WonderCon, but I’d expect a slow release of names from DC starting in the next couple of weeks to build up to the full reveal.

So, Wonder Woman will be out twice a month. For $2.99 instead of $3.99, but it’ll be two issues so it’ll actually be $5.98. For that kind of money, it better be good. And the thing is, it’s hard to be good on a bi-monthly schedule. That kind of writing pace is ridiculously harsh, and pretty much impossible on the art side of things. That means rotating artists and fill-in teams, which will add up to inconsistent and probably often rushed art. If you’ve read any of DC’s recent weekly books, you can see what I mean; while not exactly terrible, they’re not exactly polished either. The pace is just too hectic. I worry that bi-weekly books are a recipe for comics that can only be average at best. It’s certainly not a recipe for high quality work.

It looks like Wonder Woman will have a supporting role in at least a couple of other new series that will roll out into the fall. I anticipate that they’ll be in one, if not both, of Justice League and Justice League America, and the new Trinity book seems poised to feature Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. Plus, Superman/Wonder Woman is no more, which is great news, even though it reduces Wonder Woman to just one mainline headlining title. I was hoping she’d get a second solo book like Batman and Superman, what with the movie on the way and all, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards yet. Maybe in 2017, as the film nears.

I’ll have more news on the new bi-monthly Wonder Woman once we get any more news other than its title and release schedule. The good thing is, Wonder Woman is such a terrible comic right now that it really can’t get any worse. There’s nowhere to go but up at this point, even though it’s going to be a somewhat expensive up with two books a month.

I figured that last week’s return of Steve Trevor to the book would mean he’d provide an avenue for Diana to go to Europe, and that’s just how things worked out. When Diana told Steve about wanting to help with the war effort, he pointed her in the direction of the volunteer nurses, one of the few options for women to get near the front lines of the war. Diana was all over it, and now she’s sailing across the ocean to finally face off against the Duke of Deception.

But that was the end of the issue, so let’s backtrack a bit. Steve’s home in America and he’s now a national hero for surviving his plane crash; Etta recognized him straight away, then peppered him with questions in typical Etta fashion. He doesn’t recall what happened after his crash other than a hazy memory of someone watching over him, and while Diana strikes him as vaguely familiar he can’t quite place her. The post-Themyscira memory loss hit him pretty good. Nonetheless, he’s clearly drawn to Diana, and will undoubtedly turn up again once everyone’s in Europe, I’m sure.

And by everyone, I mean everyone: Etta’s going too! She got booked to entertain the troops and is coming along for the ride, which delights me to no end. First, I love that this book focuses so much on Diana and Etta’s friendship. It’s comprised the core of the past several issues, and looks like it will continue to be a big part of the series moving forward. Renae De Liz could have made Etta a much smaller character, a bit of comic relief while Diana gets used to America, but she’s made her an integral part of the book. They’ve developed a great relationship, and it will be fun to see what they get up to in Europe.

Second, Etta coming along harkens back to the Golden Age, where Etta and the Holliday Girls followed Wonder Woman everywhere via the invisible jet, space kangas, and other bizarre modes of transport. De Liz and Dillon’s world is a little more grounded than the zany fun originally created by William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter; Diana and Etta are travelling by good old fashioned steamship here instead of some wacky contrivance. But the core of the story, of women working together to take down the bad guys, remains as true now with this book as it was in Wonder Woman’s Golden Age.

Finally, so many comics have Wonder Woman as a solo operator. On the rare occasions that she does have much in the way of a supporting female cast, they often get left behind or shuttled to the sidelines when danger arises. It remains to be seen how much of a role Etta will have on the battlefields of Europe; she may well be busy with that hussy Pamela Smuthers’ intercontinental smear campaign. But knowing Etta, if Diana ends up in danger, I imagine Etta will find a way to be by her friend’s side.

With Diana on her way to the battlefield, The Legend of Wonder Woman is poised to move into a new gear as she tracks down the Duke of Deception. I’ve really enjoyed the time the series spent in America, and I think it was important in a lot of ways for Diana as a character. Plus all of the Etta fun was rad. Now that Diana has her bearings in the world of men a bit, the story is in a good spot to move to the final act, and I’m glad that De Liz and Dillon took the time to set everything up. If they’d gone straight from Themyscira to the war, Diana might not have much of a reason to stay in the outside world, but now she’s invested and will thus (probably) stick around after confronting the Duke. I’m looking forward to seeing the gals’ new adventures in Europe next week!

Here’s the good news: “Rebirth” is coming. If the rumours prove true, DC is going to relaunch a bunch of their books in June or July, and apparently the top contender for taking over Wonder Woman is Marguerite Bennett. I am all for it. Bennett is a fantastic writer who’s been doing great work on a variety of different series lately, including writing Wonder Woman in DC Comics Bombshells, and I think she’d be a great fit. No artists have been announced yet, and nothing’s been officially confirmed in any way other than that “Rebirth” is some sort of thing that is going to happen this summer, but it seems like Wonder Woman will be heading in a new direction with new creators at the helm.

Until then, Meredith and David Finch are still on the book, running out the clock with a new storyline about Zeke, i.e. Zeus in the form of a child, suffering from a mysterious ailment caused by the chaos surrounding the Olympian gods. If this first issue is any indication, it’s not going to be a great arc. It may, however, be a fitting end to the Finch’s tenure, a nonsensical tale with offputting art and the lamest of twists and turns. We’ll discuss the issue momentarily, but first:

SPOILER ALERT!!

I am about to tell you everything that happened in this issue!

Look away if you haven’t read it yet!

Or if you hate reading about poorly crafted stories!

So here’s the scoop on what’s happening. Zeke is sick, and Hera sends Wonder Woman to find Gaia to try to get her to cure him. But Gaia won’t respond, and instead Hecate shows up; she’s a goddess of magic and witchcraft who’s all creepy looking with weird spikes coming out of her head. Despite Hecate being the sketchiest looking character ever, Wonder Woman decides to secretly work with her to help Zeke, and agrees to steal some orbs from the bottom of Hera’s pool, after which she gets knocked out by a cyclops and the issue ends with the one-eyed monster carrying her away.

There’s some other stuff in the mix, too: Hera seems to be doping Zola magically and may be up to something mysterious and/or nefarious, Ares and Eirene are maybe back together, and Apollo is on the prowl for a new lady. None of it is particularly interesting.

Wonder Woman working with Hecate AND not telling her friends about it is just straight up dumb. Stories like these drive me crazy; I hate it when characters who are supposed to be smart, sensible people do stupid things to add drama to the narrative. Such stories always reflect a lack of understanding of the character. Wonder Woman would never team up with such an obvious villain, much less keep her closest friends in the dark about it, no matter the circumstances. I get that she’s trying to save Zeke, but she’s not an idiot. It’s obvious that this team up isn’t going to end well for her, yet she launches herself into it and steals from Hera, who’s become one of her closer allies over the years. And now she’s captured by a cyclops and no one even knows because she was skulking through Olympus on the sly. This is why you always go with the buddy system, gang.

Also, Wonder Woman could take a cyclops, even if it snuck up on her. Cyclops are hardly good sneakers, anyway. They’re huge! She’d hear him coming and take him out accordingly. I mean, she’s Wonder Woman.

So the plot is silly and makes Wonder Woman look bad, which is uncool. Even worse, the design of Hecate is just pure David Finch. He’s actually done a solid job through this run of reining in his art some; his Diana started out looking like a weirdly sexualized teen, and he evolved her look so that she’s now more mature. Kudos to him for that. But before Wonder Woman, Finch was known for some bad, super sexualized artwork. His Catwoman in Justice League of America had her zipper undone to her navel. He created a character in Batman: The Dark Knight who was basically a playboy bunny. Historically, his work with female characters hasn’t been great.

Such is the case with Hecate. First off, the gal is barely covered, which is irksome. Any new female character design that is basically just some version of a bikini is hot garbage. It’s 2016; give her an actual costume. Also, this hot girl with evil tweaks aesthetic is played out. Finch draws Hecate’s face in his usual style; his range with female faces isn’t great, so her features are generically attractive. On top of this, he adds weird horns and tattoos and snake eyes to make her more gruesome, but it just doesn’t come together. It’s not a complete design. It’s a standard Finch face with evil accoutrement. Finch is actually really good at drawing monsters and creepy creatures, and I’d be mildly curious to see what direction he’d take a more monstrous version of Hecate that embrace the evil bits a little more. But a pretty gal with spiky horns is just boring.

Frankly, “boring” is a good word for this issue as a whole. The Finches are setting up lots of things, putting a bunch of balls in the air as the arc begins, but it’s all so dull. Nor does any of it feel true to the character, nor is any of it particularly well drawn. It’s yet another issue of this run where I find myself asking who thought that this story was a good idea, on any level but particularly with editorial. It’s just such a poor product all around.