Wonderwoman, Valkryie and Green Arrow

What a combination!

My pull list this week was small compared to last week when I picked up a backlog of stuff that my schedule had not allowed me access to. Whew.

Here's what I got:

Wonder Woman 603

We are a few issues into the new storyline and the infamous costume. How's it hold up? Well aside from the changes in costume and this completely different origin the essence of Wonder Woman is there. The first two issues were gritty and urban in appearance and since then we have transitioned to a sparese, mountainous region and...minor spoiler, the underworld itself. It's still very unclear what is going on in the grand scheme of things, but continues to be engaging. The new costume looks awesome when she fights by the way.

Valkryie

This is a Women of Marvel 1-shot. My enabler, er... the shop guy had a stack of them to put out and told me to check it out. Marvel's 2010 Year of Women continues to be really fantastic and I hope that they realize they can keep it going. I'd hate to see these one shots stop. Hopefully they continue to highlight female characters as the years go on, even if it's a few a year. The art is really nice. Many pages have a golden sheen to them that is very subtle.

Green Arrow 4

Wow. Green Arrow's world has been very interesting and messed up. I have really been in to the Blackest Night to Brightest Day elements since they started. I love it. I don't want to go to much into this issue because there has been a lot of storytelling up to now. It's the Fourth out, so if you haven't checked it out yet you can probably still get a hold of the earlier issues.

Read Comics in Public Day

Today is International Read Comics in Public Day. Some people continue to perpetuate stereotypes about comic book readers and some of us comic book fans have internalized that fear of being bullied. You can read more about the day by going to the site dedicated to it.

There has also been a push to encourage women to read comic books in public. A tumblr has been dedicated to that and can be found here.

I've read a few criticisms of the day which amount to people saying "I read comics in public all the time". While this is true for a lot of us the reason behind days like this is to achieve what I think of as critical mass. People are more likely to notice and be curious if there are large numbers of people doing something in public. Aside from that argument I also just think days like this are fun. You can connect with others in your community and over great distances through the internet thanks to a shared love of something.

I enjoyed hanging out around the downtown of my community sipping some delicious real sugar Mexican coke from my game/comics shop Castle Perilous while reading Green Arrow. My out of town visitor also enjoyed learning about the new Wonder Woman as we ate at the vegetarian coffee shop downtown:

I really felt more in touch with my town as I explored a few downtown stores, bought lunch, and even picked up some dice at Castle P. This day was a wonderful excuse for me to get out and do something fun and it felt a bit more special than a normal walk around downtown would feel.

Wonder Woman in "Couture Shock"

In the foreword to the TPB Love and Murder (2007) Jodi Picoult introduces us to her experience writing Wonder Woman. Interestingly, she mentions in the third paragraph that, "My first attempt to effect subtle change was to take her out of her bustier, as any woman writer would know it's impossible to fight crime without straps. I was soundly rejected"

Well Ms. Picoult guess who got some straps today!

Ms. Picoult is not the only one over the years who has had concerns over Princess Diana's wardrobe. If you read Wonder Woman regularly you may recall the hilarious exchange between Black Canary and Wonder Woman when they put on costumes to go incognito in Japanese underground fighting. Wonder Woman's was awful. It had flames and flared pants.

The Wonder Woman costume has undergone tweaks over the years but remained mostly the same. It is well loved. However, that's where a potential problem may come into play. Superman is linked to his cape and tights, but I would wager to guess most people know his origin story, at least the Krypton part. Meanwhile, Batman has had many costume tweaks, but again we know his origin. For Wonder Woman I think in some regards the costume eclipses her identity, supplants it. Part of this is the obvious lack of a live-action Wonder Woman movie franchise. The TV Show followed the comic books, but younger generations may not be familiar with it.

Having said all of that I personally don't care if the general public can tell me facts about Diana's past or that of any other comic book character. There are plenty of elements of other subcultures, like football, that I know next to nothing about. Just because the vague "public" whatever that is, doesn't appreciate something, doesn't make that thing any less valuable. The history of a character does not have to be known by the majority of society to be legitimate. However, that is a different subject all together.

When I found about the costume change I felt a twinge of worry. Now that I have actually read issue #600 I find myself surprised at how much I LOVE the new costume. It has been soundly criticized online, however, the pictures online don't really show the true features of the costume. In the pictures I have seen it looks like she is wearing stirrup leggings with a padded bolero style jacket. This is not the case.

What it actually looks like is the contemporary or urban version of armour. Those "shoulder pads" are actually more like spaulders. The stirrups are metal details on her boots. This costume is actually perfect. However, I think one would have to read the issue. It starts with a series of vignettes and pin-up pages by wide variety of artists. Then, something happens during this.... I don't want to spoil it, but I was very happy with what happened.

Bottomline: Excellent new storyline that takes Wonder Woman into a territory she deserves to go. The character is really going to be explored in a very stunning, new way. The costume? READ THE ISSUE! If you still hate it, I understand, change is hard. However, I doubt we have seen the last of the bustier.

Finally, check out the issue if, for nothing else, the Power Girl and Wonder Woman story by Amanda Conner. I think Amanda Conner is one of my favorite comic artists. It was also so nice to see her version of Power Girl again.