Now Read This!

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-599-0

The Amazing Amazon finally gets her own volume in this generally excellent series, and although long-time fans may be disappointed that so much contained herein has been reprinted before – and often – it is a good sampling for casual and new readers to start their comic book addiction with.

The mandatory origin is taken from 2001’s graphic album Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth, by Paul Dini and Alex Ross. Hidden from the eyes of man a race of immortal superwomen has prospered in all fields of science and art, secure in their isolation and the protection of their Hellenic Gods. This all ends when planetary war forces US air-force pilot Steve Trevor down on their secluded home. Nursing him, Diana, young daughter of the queen – I know there’s no men, but don’t ask, just read the book – falls in love, and determines to return with him to ‘Man’s World’ to fight evil and be near him.

Following from that is the character’s second ever appearance from Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942). Popular psychologist William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter tell the tale of how the Amazon Princess returns wounded aviator Trevor to the modern world and chooses to adopt a human identity to be near him in ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’. ‘Villainy Incorporated!’ by the same team comes from 1948 (Wonder Woman #28), an epic-length tale of revenge as eight of her greatest enemies escape from Transformation Island where they were imprisoned, seeking the Amazons destruction.

Another team with long experience of our heroine is writer Robert Kanigher and artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Their work is represented here by ‘Top Secret’ (Wonder Woman #99, 1958) as Steve tries to trick her into marriage – something the creep tried a lot back then – and ‘Wanted – Wonder Woman’ (issue #108, 1959), as flying Saucer aliens frame our heroine for heinous crimes as a precursor to a planetary invasion. In the mid 1960s attempts were made to boost the sales and profile of the heroine and Kanigher, Andru and Esposito began recycling the stories and style of Marston and Peter. From that period comes ‘Giganta – the Gorilla Girl’ (Wonder Woman #163, 1966), when an evolutionary experiment transforms a great Ape into a seven foot tall blonde with the hots for Steve.

Huge changes were in store for Princess Diana. With the arrival of Mike Sekowsky and young scripter Denny O’Neil the Amazon would lose her powers and become an Emma Peel/Modesty Blaise -like character fighting evil with nothing but her wits, martial arts and the latest Carnaby Street oufits. From Wonder Woman #178 (1968) comes ‘Wonder Woman’s Rival’ the prequel to that big change and the new team’s first work on the character in a tale of blackmail, murder – and fashion!

Eventually our heroine regained her powers and petitioned to rejoin the Justice League of America. She set herself twelve tasks to prove her worthiness and asked for a different JLA-er to monitor each one. Wonder Woman #212, 1974 featured her saving the world from nuclear Armageddon with Green Lantern along for the ride. ‘Wish Upon a Star’ is a relatively thrill-free romp courtesy of Elliot Maggin, but has lovely art from Curt Swan and Phil Zupa.

Robert Kanigher returns for the sentimental but endearing ‘Be Wonder Woman… And Die’ (Wonder Woman #286, 1981), illustrated by Jose Delbo and Dave Hunt, as much the tale of a dying actress as the mighty superheroine.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-event of 1985, Wonder Woman was re-imagined for the post-crisis DC universe, and her comic series started again from #1. From the twentieth issue of that run comes ‘Who Killed Myndi Mayer’ (1988) by writer/artist George Perez, and inked by Bob McCloud, an intriguing, if heavy-handed, crime mystery surrounding the shooting of wonder woman’s publicist.

The volume ends with a pretty but slow day-in-the-life tale as Lois Lane interviews the heroine and cultural ambassador to Mans’s World during a typical day, providing readers with valuable insights into the heroine and the woman. ‘She’s a Wonder’ (Wonder Woman #170 – Second Series, 2001) is written and drawn by Phil Jimenez with inks from Andy Lanning and seems like a cosy way to wrap up this first volume.

Wonder Woman is a world figure of comic fiction, and looks set to remain one. This unchallenging collection might not be her best material but it is a solid representation of what gave her such fame.

© 1942, 1948, 1958, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1974, 1981, 1988, 2001, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By The Luna Brothers (Image)
ISBN 1582404836

We live in an age of celebrity. It is ghastly, but it is true. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before the venerable old super-hero genre got the treatment. Ultra is the “Hello” of the super set, dishing the Goss on the paranormals who live among us, complete with their Agents, Managers, stylists, entourages, trade associations and parasitic tabloid paparazzi.

The concept isn’t exactly fresh but the creators take it to its considered extreme, by concentrating on a week in the lives of three “typical” heroines when they aren’t world-saving, striving to illuminate the human in “Super-human”. Sadly, for me at least, the same type of contrived romantic entanglements and stagy, forced comedic set-ups that made me quit Ally McBeal at the end of season one and makes me immune to soap-operas and reality TV, made this feel like laborious and stilted twinky-fodder.

Another problem is the overly mannered artwork. Perhaps the drab and stilted pictures are intended as a metaphor for the bland, inconsequential subject matter, but the conceit of using “actual pages from Ultra” as a staging device is overused and the text pages rather than adding insight finally became a chore to read.

There’s an odd quirk that makes us overly interested in how the famous live, who they’re shagging, what they wear (obviously very little in a book about super-heroines aimed at a comic-book audience) and I’m sure someone’s already bought the movie option for “I’m-A-Celebrity-Who-Can-Eat-Steel-So-You-Better-Get-Me-Out-Of Here-If-You-Know-What’s-Good-For-You”, so I’m sure I’m wasting time whining here, but that’s just me.

And as for that quirk? I resist it. If we all did, maybe all those celebrities would stop primping for us and get on with their lives, too.

™ & © 2005 The Luna Brothers. All Rights Reserved.

By Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Andy Lanning & Doug Hazlewood and various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-KKKK-6

In super-hero iconography the Thing is the quintessential tragic hero. His simple origins as a slum kid made good by dint of hard work and a Football Scholarship, his selfless bravery as a pilot in defence of his country, the reckless loyalty that compelled him to pilot a rocket ship against his own better judgement all indicate a noble and hardy soul. To entrap that soul in the misshapen husk of an ambulatory boulder seems the harshest of judgements.

But as all fans know, that’s precisely the situation that has doomed Ben Grimm to a solitary life, even amidst his truest friends. How odd then that this beacon of noble misfortune is at his absolute best when he’s played against type, in stories of a lighter stripe.

Freak Show (collecting the miniseries of that name plus the Thing & She-Hulk: The Long Night one-shot) has ample slices of high tension, bombastic action and scurrilous villainy, but the basic everyman core of the character is the real attraction. The Thing is a man never too far from a hearty chuckle at adversity, which of course he’s seen more than his fair share of. The lead story, courtesy of Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Andy Lanning and Doug Hazlewood gives us a peek into Grimm’s childhood and specifically his reactions to a carnival of circus freaks ,and how years later the reappearance of those benighted creatures leads to some revelatory soul-searching. Comics form is sustained as these travails also involve two bands of rival alien invaders and a baby deity.

Although a much more traditional team-up, the Long Night (by Todd Dezago, Brian Hitch, Ivan Reis, Paul Neary and Randy Emberlin) also has these welcome touches of levity and humanity to leaven a rather dark tale of Subway Vampires and a big punch-up with the gigantic android Dragon Man.

The saddest thing about this volume, however, is simply that despite the popular films – and this is one of those rare super-hero books that isn’t mired in an impenetrable shield of nit-picking continuity – only the already converted are liable to read it.

© 2002, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Adapted by Wang Hsing-pei with drawings by Chao Hung-pen & Chien Hsiao-tai
(Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1976)
No ISBN

Although not strictly a graphic novel, this wonderful book is one of my favourite pieces of pictorial narrative. The Monkey King has been a popular figure in modern entertainment in the East and West almost since Wu Cheng-en’s epic mythological tale Pilgrimage to the West was first published, and he’s been given numerous celluloid and comic book outings too.

This particular version, from China itself, was first released in an English edition in 1964, with numerous reprintings since. I’m fairly certain that if I make any converts here, you could pick up a modern edition just by cruising your local Chinatown district. Stop off for a bite while you’re there, too, and impress the staff with your perspicacity by reading it at the table.

Told in beautiful, lavish black and white line drawings, in the manner of classical Chinese art, with one huge panel per page and a brief block of text underneath, much like Rupert Bear or Prince Valiant, the story involves Monkey, with his faithful companions Pigsy and Sandy, in an epic duel with the Queen of Demons as they escort their spiritual master, the Buddhist Monk Hsuan-tsang in a journey to discover lost Scriptures in the West.

This engrossing fantasy is spellbinding in its execution. The simplicity of the text allows the reader to be absorbed in the meticulous, yet airy line work, the magnificently stylish patterning and sheer expressionism of the characters, rendered familiar and exotic by the use of traditional Chinese operatic costuming and scene setting. This is a pretty, lovely, beautiful picture book. Go West, Young Fan, and see for yourself.

Presumably© 1964, 1973, 1976 – my computer can’t reproduce the Mandarin symbols, I’m sure they know who they are. If anyone can tell us we’ll happy correct this oversight. All Rights Reserved, I suspect.