Reading Comics #136 "And I Wonder, Still I Wonder..."

It's beginning to feel as if Wonder Woman really belongs in the Big Three at DC.  Much has been made of her inclusion in the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.  DC just announced a fourth series, Wonder Woman '77 (based on the TV series, like Batman '66), her second after Sensation Comics.  There's also Superman/Wonder Woman besides her eponymous series.  Pretty unbelievable.  There was a period, oh...a three quarters of a century or so, where it seemed no one believed she could handle that kind of load.  She handled quite a lot in her earliest years.  But when the comics bubble burst at the end of WWII, so did her widespread popularity.  She persisted, along with Superman and Batman, but at a reduced capacity.  Her placement in the Big Three always seemed more a concession to the fact that she remains the most prominent female superhero in comics.

Things are changing.

In September I caught Superman/Wonder Woman: Futures End and Sensation Comics #2.  I figured it was a good chance to see how things are going.  Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman run is concluding this month, and then we're headed into Finch territory, and at some point I hope to read the complete Azzarello, but I fell too far behind to have done so already.  But Wonder Woman: Futures End was actually a tie-in with Superman/Wonder Woman (some creators opted in, some out).

Charles Soule wrote this adventure, which doesn't seem to have much to say about his own just-concluded run on the series except that Superman and Wonder Woman are both involved.  It's more about Wonder Woman, and actually, something of a rebuttal to some of what Azzarello did, the whole Goddess of War thing.  Soule's conclusions make a good amount of sense and end the issue well.  Superman's arc in the overall Futures End story is more complicated than can be covered here, but that's another thing Soule gets around.

Damn.  I'm going to miss Soule at DC.  You'd better be good to him, Marvel!

It's Sensation Comics, which like Wonder Woman '77 will be is digital-first, that provides a little more to talk about.  There are a couple of stories inside the second print issue.  The first is from Ivan Cohen and plays around with the fact that like Shazam, Diana owes a lot of what she is and does to gifts she's been given rather than what she inherently is.  It's another difference between this particular icon and other superheroes.  It's probably easier to think of her as an ambassador (which was certainly fruitful material for, say, Greg Rucka), but Wonder Woman's biggest strength is her belief in herself.  Batman's obsessive quest makes him what he is, Superman's origins from another planet and subsequent adoption.  Cohen does a little trickery in his story but circles around to what truly makes his lead who and what she is.

But that's not the best story in the issue.  (It is the longer one, though.)

The second story comes from Jason Bischoff.  (These are both relatively new names in comics, I assume.  That's another difference for Wonder Woman.  Very often in the past twenty years or so, DC has tossed one big name after another at the character.  There's been some good material.  But maybe for someone like her, a fresh voice is needed.)  A few years back, Ben Caldwell presented an innovative take on Wonder Woman's origins within the pages of Wednesday Comics.  It was one of the best comic book stories I've ever read.  Now it has a rival, at least in terms of versions of Wonder Woman's origins.

Strangely enough, I've got to evoke another favorite comic book memory.  Two Septembers ago Peter Tomasi presented his version of Damian Wayne's origins in Batman and Robin #0.  Damian was the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, raised by Talia as a perfect warrior for the League of Assassins.  To "graduate" he had to be able to defeat his own mother in combat.

Cleverly, Bischoff does the same thing between Diana and her mother Hippolyta.  The story is narrated by Hippolyta, leaving the young Wonder Woman free to struggle toward her destiny on her own.  The result is another story I've read recently that could easily be expanded upon in the future (the other being the masterful Grayson: Futures End).  Gail Simone had her strongest material when she revisited Themyscira and the origin material, while J. Michael Straczynski's best work in "Odyssey" was exploring the teenage Diana.

That's another difference for Wonder Woman.  Batman as a boy (besides a subject currently be explored in the new Gotham TV series) isn't nearly as interesting as Batman as a young man.  Superman as a boy is pretty much Superman discovering his powers one by one, otherwise it's really just a story about the Kents, while Superman as a teenager is basically exactly Smallville.  It's Wonder Woman who has the most potential as a little girl.  And writers like Caldwell and Bischoff are finally getting that.

What I'm saying is, Diana didn't need to become Wonder Woman for her story to begin.  She didn't need a catalyst; regardless of the version of her birth you choose, that alone was all she needed.  She won a contest to earn the title and leave her home behind, but her whole life was already headed in that direction.

So that's what Bischoff got me thinking.

It's a good time to be a fan of Wonder Woman.