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The most convincing argument yet for not making a Wonder Woman movie.

While I have never been what you could call a big Wonder Woman fan, I’ve been following the title since Gail Simone revived DC’s long-dormant 1975-76 take on the Beowulf character (of which I am a fan) back in issue #20. I know Ms. Simone is a big fan-favorite, mostly for her long tenure on the Birds of Prey title, and more recently for the two Secret Six miniseries; me, I have been slow to embrace the charms of her scripting. And there are charms; while she doesn’t have what I would call a distinctive writing “voice”, that is to say a way of writing dialogue or captions or even story structures that exclusively identify her work as hers, she still has an understated way with the situations she cooks up and the characterization she writes that doesn’t dazzle, but it does tell a story and tell it well.

This particular issue is the second chapter of a two-part story, in which (after a interlude on Paradise Island with her new romantic interest Nemesis and her mother, which isn’t really relevant to this issue) she goes to Hollywood to negotiate terms and approve scripts for a movie based on her life (now where could she have gotten this notion?) with an entourage of intelligent apes (again, don’t ask, it’s part of the ongoing storyline from several issues ago), and winds up running afoul of Mark Waid’s Queen of Fables character, which troubled the JLA back in the immediate post-Grant Morrison days. The Queen forces Wondy to endure badly-scripted conflicts as the imagined film plays itself out, with potentially deadly results- Simone uses this platform to sneak in a few positive feminist messages (at one point WW thinks, via caption, “Why is it that people feel a belief in women equals a hatred of men?”), as well as some wry commentary about the whole recent froofraw about the proposed real-life WW motion picture. Not that this is any sort of polemic; she blends these sentiments in organically, and it doesn’t call attention to itself in any obvious way. This is pretty much your standard superhero story otherwise; we get conflict and resolution, even among supporting characters in that there is some unfinished business between WW and one of the film studio’s legal team which works itself out in feel-good fashion, even though it seems tacked on as an afterthought after the main conflict is done. Still, it helps show what seems to be her increasingly compassionate side (she’s a big hugger- whoda thunk it?). I also wish the transitions between reality and the Fable Queen’s fantasies had been a bit clearer, but it isn’t too jarring.

Art on the last two issues is by Bernard Chang (penance for How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, perhaps? Nah, most likely because he can draw the superheroic feminine physique very well), and it looks good for the most part; he’s fond of putting a harsh, angular line on his figures that reminds me of a more supple Tony Harris type style. All in all, it’s as good as it gets for polished, slick, mainstream Big Two superhero story artwork, and I can’t help thinking that Morrison could have used someone like him on Batman: RIP.

Simone has a rep for writing strong female characters, from a strong feminine viewpoint- and I remember thinking when she took over the reins of Wonder Woman, that a more natural choice could never be made. Now, not really being up on my Wondy fandom, I can’t say for sure how her tenure has been received- I’ve seen praise and I’ve seen brickbats hurled her way. Like Legion fandom, it’s pretty much impossible to please Wondy fans, I do believe. I don’t really understand how Wondy fans could ask for a better scripter for their character- she has a plan, and a pretty good grasp of what she is and what she represents (as far as I can tell) and seems to be doing good things here. Of course, its very consistency has the odd effect of making it blend in anonymously with the rest of the line, and pretty much smothers any buzz that might spring up among those who create buzz for this sort of thing. I don’t know if Simone’s ever going to elevate this title to elite-sales status, nor is she pushing comics in any particular direction, to coin a phrase- but she’s doing a good job, as far as I’m concerned, of telling entertaining Wonder Woman stories…and that should be good enough for now.

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