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). 

DC Reveals The Cities Of "Convergence"

Not to be shown up by Marvel’s paltry attempts at uniting several disparate continuities into one in Secret Wars, DC has been working on its own universe-wide semi-reboot, putting all of their titles on hold for a two month period while they combine several cities from various disparate continuities into one in the Convergence.

Lest this sound too familiar, though, longtime DC fans may be thoroughly excited at DC’s take on the company-wide maneuver as a number of continuities thought forever lost to the sands of reboot time will be making appearances throughout the event!

Check out DC’s slowly expanding Convergence page here, as well as a preview guide featuring all of the cities hosted here by Newsarama — and io9 previously showed us some of the impacts and storylines we’ll be seeing from the various Convergence series.

For some of the highlight "cities" from the upcoming event, hit the jump.

DC Pulls Controversial Batgirl Joker Variant at Artist Request

For the 75th Anniversary of the Joker, DC Comics has been releasing a series of variant covers for many of their books, depicting the Joker invading the different stories of the DC Universe. It's a tried and true tactic, but one that backfired in their face when they revealed the variant for Batgirl #41, as drawn by Raphael Abuquerque. Now, after an outcry from fans, the artist has requested that DC pull the cover entirely.

The cover, which hearkens back to the Alan Moore story "The Killing Joke," was found to be disturbing by many in the community. We have the picture below the jump break, but please be warned it can be pretty triggering.

The Return of Battle Chasers

Joe Maduriera's beloved and often-delayed property that made him a comics superstar in the 90s is making a return as both a video game and a new comic book, Polygon revealed today. Not many details were revealed, other than the game would be a roleplaying game that allowed you to play as classic Battle Chaser characters, and that the comics would appear in three issue arcs, the first one tying up the cliffhanger from fourteen years ago. There's no funding or publisher for the game or comic in place yet, so maybe take this whole thing with a grain of salt, but it'd be nice to see the property return from the dead. Check out some concept art below the jump.

The Best Everything of 2014

This is it, folks. The last day of 2014. A day when we sit back and reflect on all of the awesome things we saw and did this year. We hope it was as awesome for you as it was for us, and thanks for tuning in each and every day to the Ace of Geeks. We couldn't be doing this without you, and we appreciate every since one of you guys. Next year, look for brand new content, new shows, more articles, and more coverage of conventions around the world. But for now, let's look back and reflect on the best of this year. Here, by popular vote, are our staff's picks for the best of 2014:

Secret Wars Revealed!

Yesterday, you heard our theory on what Marvel's Secret Wars teasers could mean. Today, more details were revealed by Marvel itself, and they're damned exciting. Hit the jump to watch the video!

Why Marvel isn't Rebooting their Universe.

It's a striking image, to be sure. After weeks and weeks of throwing us bones both exciting (X-men '92!) and confusing (Age of Ultron vs Marvel Zombies? Why?), it seems the endless teasers from Marvel for their Summer 2015 event, almost certainly Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars, have ended. They've ended on the above image, promising that everything will end. Before we get into what it could possible mean, let's talk about what we know.

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.

Geek Philosophy 101: Ethical Escapism by Justin Rhodes

We are well aware that consumerism is rampant in our society. There is a constant pressure to buy this, watch this, eat that, do this, do that, and try not to have your head spin while doing so. Most people get by just fine feeding into that machine minimally, but we, the few, the proud, the geeks, we buy into it whole hog. We consume media at an alarming rate, where binge watching is the norm. We are the orphan boy who says "Please, Sir, may I have some more?" and instead of the gruff Orphan Master's incredulous "MORE!?", we are greeted with something more akin to "Sure. Go ahead kid, knock yourself out." I'm not saying this is entirely a bad thing, but the question is, how can we make sure that we are not overloading ourselves and yet still enjoy all of our wonderful geekery? Is there a way to still devour the things we love, without having it take over our entire lives? Here are some thoughts for a more conscious kind of consumption:

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:

There are About To Be Too Many Comic Book Movies. by Kyle Johannessen

I know what you're thinking. This is Ace of Geeks! There can never be too many comic book movies! Well allow me to politely disagree with you, my friends. Don't get me wrong, I love comic book movies. One of my favorite movies of all time is a comic book movie (The Crow) and Marvel's films ever since the original Iron Man have been, at worst, entertaining and, at their best, wonderful to watch and instant classics.

But now DC Comics is revving up its Cinematic Universe. Most of you already know about Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice coming out in 2016, but more information has leaked that will see the number of super hero movies climb astronomically through 2018, with a whopping three DC titles a year. If you haven't seen it yet, here is the lineup:

FINAL CRISIS on INFINITE MULTIVERSITY - by Brian J. Patterson

 

Yesterday, I happened across this May 10th article by Andy Hunsaker. It talks about his chat with comics writer, and legend in his own time, Grant Morrison. The topic of Andy & Grant's conversation centered around two of Grant's upcoming projects: "Wonder Woman: Earth One," and also "Multiversity." Now, if any of you know me, you know that I can go on and on for hours upon hours about anything Wonder Woman related. Therefore, I'm going to stick to "Multiversity" and try to make this article short and sweet by getting to the point as soon as possible. 

This new "Multiversity" epic project is scheduled to release the 1st issue in August of this year. It's going to have rotating art teams, and most of all it will be a comprehensive guide to the many worlds of the DC multi-verse. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. However, in my day job, I'm an actor. This means in order to formulate opinions about things, I more often than not default to the human condition to be my predictor of events. In this case, I'm sorry to say, but to me the future is looking grim. Here's why: