WONDER WOMAN '77: All The World's Been Waiting For You!

Wonder Woman '77 illustration by Nicola Scott

Reading Wonder Woman '77 has brought me, along with many other self appointed geeks, back to a very fun era. In my particular instance, when I was a child, I had an incredibly elaborate process for watching Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman television show (yup...I just aged myself!). This involved becoming the character Diana, with whom I clearly identified and idolized. This transformative process was an obvious foreshadowing for my interest in an acting career. There were days of prep time involved that included: researching the character, finding & creating costumes, and processing or practicing the character's essence. By the time Wonder Woman would air each week, you could find an ecstatic child (me) who would mimic every single action she did. To give you an idea of the thought I had put into this and just how much I was dressed to the "T" in my character's garb, here's what I had utilized to make the entire uniform:

• My mother's red boots, 
• Blue underwear and a red t-shirt from my Underoos at the time. 
• A golden belt made of yellow construction paper (or some other actual gold material), and yes, I had cut it into the shape of whatever belt style was appropriate for the season (NOTE: Season 1 belt was different than seasons 2 & 3). 
• Rope which I had colored yellow and latched onto my belt (The rope style/draping also changed between seasons 1 and 2/3), 
• A tiara made out of yellow construction paper with a red star drawn on it, 
• A t-shirt on my head so that I had long hair like Wonder Woman, and...
• Toilet paper rolls that I had cut, colored, and upon which I had drawn stars (the bracelet shape also changed between seasons). 

Geekly Roundup, April 19th: All The Movies Edition

On this week’s Geekly Roundup, Mark, Lauren, and Jim tackle the possibility of a Sailor Moon video game, round up some of the latest news in movies including Wonder Woman and Star Wars, and discuss the animated insanity that is Ethan Nicolle’s masterful Axe Cop — check it out for yourself and pair it with the lovely selection of links below!

Wonder Woman Director Shakeup!

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting today, only a week after the departure of highly regarded director Michelle MacLaren's departure from the Wonder Woman film, that Warner Bros had already replaced her. Thankfully, it's still a female director - Patty Jenkins, who wrote and directed Monster, starring Charlize Theron in an Oscar-winning role. Jenkins was once attached to Thor: The Dark World, although that film ended up being directed by Game of Thrones' Alan Taylor.

While director shakeups are not entirely unheard of, one that happened this quickly on a film of this size is slightly worrying - even more so because the official statement from Warner Bros stated that MacLaren left due to "creative differences." Jenkins is incredibly talented and a great replacement, but with Warner Bros' propensity to play around with these adaptations, I'm officially only cautiously optimistic.

DC Gives Wonder Woman Spikes, and Superman Bloody Hands

DC announced some major changes to the costumes of two of their major characters today, and they're...well, they're pretty on point for how DC has been, the last few years. As you can see above, Wonder Woman finally gets a costume that isn't a swimsuit - but it's a weird clash of colors, with giant shoulder pads,  and she now has Wolverine-ish blades coming out of her arms in a twist that screams mid-nineties. Meanwhile. Superman has decided to wear Kon-El's old outfit, because they wanted to make cosplaying as him easier I guess? And, of course, he's got his hands wrapped in bloody wrappings while blood drips on the floor all around him. Because if there's one thing Superman stands for, it's punching people until they bleed.

God damn it, DC.

The "One True King": Meet Jason Momoa as Aquaman

Last night, Zack Snyder tossed us one of those crumbs that reminds us a picture is worth a thousand words. So far, from our staff, those words were, "I'll be in my bunk," ".....Oh my god," and "This picture goes in my special collection." No female staff have responded to the image yet. Take a look:

We Already Have a Great Wonder Woman Show - It's Called Agent Carter.

Agent Carter promotional television show poster

During Maggie Gyllenhaal's acceptance speech at the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards last Sunday, she mentioned how proud she was to see that women were gaining a voice and being represented, multi-dimensionally, in entertainment. On a recent commercial, ABC made claims to being a leader in representing women by showing a span of a few of their television shows over the last decade, including ALIAS, Scandal, and now, Agent Carter. To me, (and many others out there) one character comes to mind with whom most identify women's equality, and that's Wonder Woman. Agent Carter, now three episodes in, has surprised me. Because Marvel comics has accomplished something that the owners of Wonder Woman haven't been able to do in almost 40 years. They've brought Wonder Woman's essence back, and done it better than the company that owns the rights to the character.

Thor #1 - But Be She Worthy?

I don’t like “Cosmic Marvel”. The series of events happening in space with their great powers. Oh, how I’ve tried. Issue after issue of Captain Marvel failed to invoke reaction. Journey into Mystery was quickly forgettable. Even at the height of my Guardians of the Galaxy fervor, only the Rocket Raccoon comic got considered (and I still forget whether I’ve read every issue of it). This isn’t to say the space adventures of Marvel are bad. It’s a taste thing. The very core of them doesn’t appeal in the slightest to myself, a fan of underpowered and angsty characters patrolling gritty neighborhoods.

So when I tell you that I’m getting a subscription to Marvel Now! Thor, I’m not isn’t just saying “It’s passable”. It’s saying that a single issue completely broke through all my negative thoughts about an entire subgenre.

Dawn of IN-Justice?: Zack Snyder's WONDER WOMAN Costume - by Brian J. Patterson

Wonder Woman collage by Phil Jimenez

For a long time now, Warner Bros. has teased audiences with prospects of a Justice League team-up film. This year, the Superman/Batman: Dawn Of Justice project has been on the tips of everyone’s tongues, and recently we were titillated with casting choices. One of the most talked about casting choices was that of Gal Gadot in the role of the iconic original female super heroine Wonder Woman. However, the dust has since settled on that news, and it isn’t the actor in the role which concerns people anymore, it is the costume which said actor will wear. During the Warner Brothers panel last month, at Comic Con 2014, Zack Snyder’s vision was finally unveiled to the public. This is what it looked like:

 The feedback that I’ve seen on this costume has all been very close to an equal 50/50 split of favor vs. disdain. The support of the costume has mostly centered around the fact that the character is overdue for an update, and the criticisms generally boiled down to these three: no originality, no functionality, and no respect for the source material. Having written a previous article  which utilized history as a predictive factor to remind costume designers that a more traditional iconic design for an iconic character has always been more successful (Hence, why the character would be ICONIC...She's easily recognizable!), I’d like to address each of these topics one by one. However, my findings may surprise you.

SDCC Day Two News Roundup!

Hey kids! Friendly neighborhood editor-in-chief Mike here. It's Saturday of San Diego Comic-Con 2014, which is when all the big news happens. Can't be there in person? Don't worry, that's what we're here for. Let's run down everything awesome that happened today:

Gal Gadot's WONDER WOMAN costume - Finally Legit or Time Quit? by Brian J. Patterson

This week the inter-web has been all aflutter from the "leaked" photos of Gal Gadot in what is allegedly her proposed Wonder Woman costume. I put leaked in quotes because we have all seen this type of audience testing before. You know. The kind where a certain director (David E. Kelly) takes photos of his or her star (Adrienne Palicki) in a comic book superhero costume that a designer (Donna Casey) has attempted in yet ANOTHER new design of said hero, and allows said photos to be posted on-line in an effort to garner audience feedback and test to see if said costume will do well. Nooooooo....we've NEVER seen this done before! ;) Regardless of what can obviously be seen as a social media audience test, we have seen this Wonder Woman costume test at least three times from DC Comics before and it almost always ends the same way.