Category Wonder Woman

Dec 20 2012

Wonder Woman 15

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 15. Drew and ScottToday, Drew and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 15, originally released December 19th, 2012.

Drew: We’ve said it before, and I’m sure we’ll say it again: comic books are modern mythology. This is an idea Brian Azzarello has devoted Wonder Woman to exploring. I always like when art self-reflects in this way, but Azzarello never does anything so simply. The intersection of ancient mythology and comics mythology has proven to be fertile ground for essays on the nature of myth, but has tied the discussion to the world of fiction. In Wonder Woman 15, Azzarello confronts us with mythologized characters from reality, opening up the whole world of art-imitating-life-imitating-art discussions. It’s a strange, complicated arena of thought, but with Azzarello at the helm, I’m sure it will be a satisfying one. Continue reading →

Nov 23 2012

Wonder Woman 14

Today, Scott and Taylor are discussing Wonder Woman 14, originally released November 21st, 2012.

Scott: ‘Tis the season for excess. We eat too much, spend too much, we eat too much again and, when things start feeling a little hectic, we tend to think too much. So, as I sit here debating whether to have more stuffing or more mashed potatoes, I can’t help but wonder if Wonder Woman is biting off more than it can chew. Of course, that’s silly; this comic has proven time and time again that it is one of the most clever and well thought-out series around. So the fact that this issue followed four separate storylines in four distant locations shouldn’t worry me, right? But if Wonder Woman is going to turn into the great meal I know it can be, at some point all of these different ingredients are going to have to come together on one plate, so to speak (I don’t know if I’m trying too hard to make this into a Thanksgiving analogy, or not hard enough).

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Oct 23 2012

Wonder Woman 13

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 13, Taylor and Scott

Today, Taylor and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 13, originally released October 17th, 2012.

Taylor: Continuity is a something I appreciate. I enjoy waking up in the morning having a fairly good sense of who I am, where I am, what I’ve been doing and what I need to do during the coming day. I also appreciate continuity in its more mundane and nuanced forms; I appreciate the fact that I can expect my coffee to taste a certain way and even that I can expect the people I know to behave and think in a similar to fashion to that of the day before. Most days I can appreciate the regularity of the subway that takes me to work every morning, but as happens every so often (or more often than not lately), that continuity and expectation of service is broken. Whether it’s an equipment malfunction, signal failures, or a sick passenger, the Red Line of the CTA has a knack for failing to deliver on its promised, regular service that drives me to absolute madness. Maybe I appreciate regularity more than the normal person, but I think most people can appreciate a certain amount of continuity in their life, whether it’s in their daily commute or their comic books. Wonder Woman is a title that garners a fair amount of its strength from consistency, which by no means is a bad thing.

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Sep 25 2012

Wonder Woman 0

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 0, Drew and TaylorToday, Drew and (guest writer) Taylor Anderson are discussing Wonder Woman 0, originally released September 19th, 2012. Wonder Woman 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: There’s a lot we take for granted in art. We accept the two-dimensionality of the canvas or the artificiality of a omniscient narrator as givens. It often takes an artist commenting on the arbitrariness of those boundaries for us to notice them at all, but that in itself has become almost expected. In comics, those expectations manifest in creative layouts and narrative devices, but it’s rarer that a creative team might challenge the arbitrariness of their tone. In Wonder Woman 0, writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chaing set out to do just that, delivering a brilliant deconstruction of modern comics via an apparent deconstruction of the Silver Age. Continue reading →

Aug 17 2012

Wonder Woman 12

Today, Patrick and Peter are discussing Wonder Woman 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Patrick: One of the biggest strengths of Brain Azzarello’s Wonder Woman is the richness of its details. The gods are reinvented for comics and the resultant designs are full of specifics that delight by their own virtue. It’s not uncommon in this series to meet a new character or a new creature just because it’s going to be really really really cool. I took Demeter’s introduction last month to be one of those knock-me-down detail-fests that I love so much, but that was shortsighted of me. In any other narrative, introducing a character at this stage in the game would automatically foreshadow that character’s involvement in the conclusion of the story. It turns out that was the case here, but I was too suckered by the writing to see the authorial gears grinding away behind it. That’s awesome.

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Jul 20 2012

Wonder Woman 11

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Wonder Woman 11, originally released July 18th, 2012.

Patrick: Drew! It has been ages since you and I wrote about this series together. Last month, we had help from guest-writer (and voice of our Cram Sessions), Siri Hellerman. Otherwise, Shelby usually gets in on writing about Wonder Woman, and we’re thrilled to get that female perspective. It’s by pure random chance that you and I selected the butchest issue of Wonder Woman yet to review. Thankfully, the more action-heavy tone didn’t overpower the series’ usual style, cleverness and depth.
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Jun 22 2012

Wonder Woman 10

Today, Drew and (special guest writer) Siri Hellerman are discussing Wonder Woman 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Drew: Fantasy is always going to have an exposition problem. It’s hard enough establishing who everyone is and what their motivations are elegantly without having to explain the rules of various magics or the politics between various races. This is especially true of myths, where the stories are often distilled down to their essence, such that any details (which could otherwise be written off as just adding color) bears obvious narrative significance, as if Chekov himself were pointing them out for you. Brian Azzarello manages to side-step this issue both by relying on pre-esstablished myths (voiding any need for exposition), and by mirthfully keeping us in the dark regarding much of those telling details. Continue reading →

May 18 2012

Wonder Woman 9

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Wonder Woman 9, originally released May 16th, 2012.

Shelby: I love weddings. I love Greek mythology. I love comic books. I think I even love Brian Azzarello. Wonder Woman 9 has all of these things: therefore, I love it.

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Apr 20 2012

Wonder Woman 8

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Wonder Woman 8, originally released April 18th, 2012.

Patrick: Last month, we were promised a trip to Hell. Given all the characters in-play in Wonder Woman, I foolishly assumed we’d get something of an Orpheus story. But that assumption proved too narrow and too literal: Brian Azzarello may have been given license to explicitly alter the Wonder Woman mythos, but he takes the same liberties with Greek mythology. The result is a trippy adventure through the underworld that is recognizably epic (in both the traditional and modern sense of the word) and wholly, boldly new.
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Mar 22 2012

Wonder Woman 7

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Wonder Woman 7, originally released March 21st, 2012.

Shelby: The Greek gods were the comic book superheroes of the ancient world. They are depicted in prose and art. Their stories were used to teach lessons and explain the world, and were filled with action, drama, and intrigue. They have convoluted origin stories and multiple lines of continuity. Is it really any wonder Brian Azzarello has tapped into this rich vein of golden characters to tell Wonder Woman’s latest adventure?
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