Wow, hard to believe it’s been over a year since DC’s relaunch known as The New 52. Since then, we’ve seen the cancellation of a few series and the introduction of some others which have varied in quality. Today, I’m going to discuss the series I liked and others I disliked or avoided. I’m also going to talk about what I think worked and what didn’t, and where I’ll be looking ahead as DC continues into its second year of The New 52.
I’ll be honest: I’ve never had any interest whatsoever in reading Wonder Woman comics. Back when I watched Justice League: Unlimited I did like her character, but I never had the drive to learn more about her. Since the start of DC’s New 52 there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the Wonder Woman series, and ultimately I decided to wait until the first six issues collected in hardcover before purchasing and reading it. Does this series deserve the hype it received?
A few years ago, DC started a new line of collectible figurines known as Ame-Comi featuring their superheroines and villains rendered in a style influenced by Japanese Manga and Anime. These figures proved wildly popular and as a result DC decided to start a digital comic series called Ame-Comi Girls. The series started today and will be released digitally every Monday. I personally prefer print comics, but I just couldn’t pass up the chance to see what this series is about. DC put a strong creative team on Ame-Comi, and with so much invested there’s a lot of potential here.
For those that don’t know, the Second Wave of DC’s New 52 premiered today with a few titles including Worlds’ Finest (featuring Huntress and Powergirl), G.I. Combat (involving soldiers fighting dinosaurs), Dial H (about an average Joe using a mystical item to become a hero), and Earth 2 (a series about the parallel world of the normal DC Earth). These new titles, along with Ravagers and Batman, Inc., are replacing the six series that DC is phasing out including Hawk and Dove, Men of War, Mr. Terrific, OMAC, Blackhawks, and Static Shock. I’ve talked a lot about the New 52 in the past and am currently following several series, so I thought it prudent to give these new titles a look. Of the four out this week, Earth 2 #1 appealed to me most: who wouldn’t want to read about a world where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are heroes but don’t hold back on villains? How did this first issue hold out and how do things look for DC’s newest line of comics?
It’s week 2 of DC Animated Universe Month on Saturday Morning Cartoons, and this week we’ll be looking at an animated feature about one of my favorite comic book heroines: Wonder Woman.
I was really looking forward to this one, for a few reasons. First of all, I love the Wonder Woman comic book series, when the character is written well. Just before I watched the movie, I discovered that one of the most celebrated Wonder Woman writers, Gail Simone, had co-written the script. I’d also heard an overwhelming amount of praise for this film, most notably from Bruce Timm, creater of Batman: The Animated Series and god of all things DC animated. Timm claims that Wonder Woman is his favorite DC animated movie. By the time I actually sat down to watch Wonder Woman, my expectations were extremely high.
Did the film live up to my high expectations? To put it simply: no. With a little more emotion: hell no. With the amount of rage that I felt after watching it: WHAT THE ACTUAL F#@% WAS THAT?!