Some Wondering about Wonder Woman

Well, I hope that you have all been good, and went out and bought Wonder Woman #14, because it is Gail Simone's first issue...and it rocks. Firstly, we have the dynamic duo of Terry and Rachel Dodson doing the art chores, and they make it beautiful. Then of course we have Gail.

Guess what? Diana is strong, confident and self-assured. She also has a rather dry sense of humor. No moping, no whining, so self-doubt. This Wonder Woman is actually competent and clever. What a novel concept!

And she gets to fight white talking gorillas, and that is just a sensational idea from the get-go. And furthermore, she manages to defeat them with her brain, instead of just pummelling them into submission. She realizes that they are being more or less just used by Grodd and are perhaps more angry than evil.

"Creature of ritual, well used to a social heirarchy. Misguided rather than blackhearted. This is why I prefer never to use Batman's methods"

*sigh* My little heart went pitter-pat. And I also greatly enjoy any scoring off on Batman, but that's just me.

Then there is the utterly hilarious scene where Diana takes all the apes back to her apartment, where they are getting a little...rambunctious. Tolifhar, their nominal leader is nice enough to apologize for the "flinging" incident. Diana shows that she's a true lady, by graciously telling them that they are her guests, and not to worry. And they keep calling her "Majesty" which is a nice touch. Then Nemesis shows up and barges in. The apes disappear, and he makes snide remarks about her lack of decorating skills. When the two of the go, the apes come back and start snickering about how the humans are obviously going to be rutting like weasels any time now.

Back at the office, Nemesis is nice enough to have set up a little celebration for Diana's "Birthday", which she herself, had obviously forgotten all about, and they even have cake. Diana's still not too sure about some cultural mores, but figures that humans can be forgiven since there IS cake.

Then Director Steel shows up and starts bloviating. Then Etta Candy shows up (oh Etta!) and puts him firmly in his place. And they get to fly around in an ivisible helicopter! How cool is that? Oh yes, and Captain Nazi shows up. In Canada of all places. Just NOT the sort of place that you think you'll find Nazis. Gosh, they are worse than cockroaches! And finally, the Nazis decide to invade Themyscira.

Now it is becoming pretty apparent that there must be TWO Themysciras at the moment. There is the one from Wonder Woman,where Hippolyta is wandering around, being hag-ridden, and there is the Winnick version, with Athena and Black Canary and a kidnapped Oliver Queen. Exactly how they are going to reconcile the two, has me baffled. Has anybody else, such as Batman for instance, realized that there are two mystical islands floating around? And that's not even bringing Kooey Kooey Kooey into the mix. I do have to say this about Ollie, he and Islands just don't mix.

Anyway. Nazis, talking gorillas, and Etta Candy. Not bad for a first issue!