It has been 75 years and dammit Wonder Woman deserves a comic like this. It might be $7.99, but it contains pinups and ten stories from fantastic creators. Question is, is it good?
Wonder Woman 75th Anniversary Special #1 (DC Comics)
So what’s it about? The DC summary reads:
An immense special issue celebrating seventy-five years of the Amazing Amazon, through phenomenal new stories, art, and stand-alone illustrations! Featuring a roster of incredible creators—some who’ve laid down legendary runs with the character, and some who’ve never drawn her before—including Rafael Albuquerque, Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, Renae De Liz, Brenden Fletcher, Adam Hughes, Karl Kerschl, Gail Simone, and many, many more to be announced!
Why does this book matter?
This is a huge collection running 76 pages of content. It contains not only pinups from classic artists but new ones too with stories that exemplify the character’s best traits.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
Um, do you know who she is?
There’s a lot in this book which means there’s a lot to unpack. The long and short of it is this contains a hell of a lot of examples of what makes Wonder Woman great–from her sheer strength, to her good nature, to ability to be godlike, but also down to Earth. Every story feels unique in their aim, but still contain some unique sliver of why she’s so great, from her ability to listen and understand the human condition (in Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon’s WW2 story) to her ability to inspire young women in Fabio Moon’s story. There’s a lot of love in this collection.
One of my favorites was drawn by Riley Rossmo and written by Mairghread Scott and it offers quite a tale for a variety of reasons. The first that sticks out is how Rossmo draws Wonder Woman, with big muscles and even bigger presences. She’s powerful, heroic, and above all impressive. She takes on a villain as heroes do, but faces an even greater threat when the villain is subdued. The story does well to show us Wonder Woman isn’t out to simply stop bad guys, but help change the negative outlook people have on others.
In another story, written by Greg Rucka with “photography” by Liam Sharp with Romulo Fajardo Jr., we get an interview with Wonder Woman conducted by Lois Lane. This story does a great job showing us how down to Earth Wonder Woman is, but also delves into the complexity of her persona.
Every story has a unique art style that do well to show editors had a good idea of what type of art should go with different types of stories. A more classic superhero artist like Colleen Doran goes well with Gail Simone’s fun superhero story. Hope Laron is paired with Ramon Bach’s art that allows the humor and cute young adult feel shine through. Karl Kerschl’s art does wonders to make the brief and light on dialogue story (with Brenden Fletcher on writing) feel like a meaningful and almost Disney experience. Then there’s the opening story with Rafael Albuquerque’s art that suits the historical setting written by Rafael Scavone and Albuquerque’s story.
It can’t be perfect can it?
I’m not a person who necessarily needs or desires pinups and this issue has lots of them. They’re pretty for sure, but they feel like filler in most instances.
This villain needs to grow up.
Is It Good?
This is a fantastic anniversary issue that captures the character’s complexity and uniqueness perfectly. Every story has merit and purpose. If you love Wonder Woman you owe it to yourself to buy this.
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