Wonder Woman: the Phil Jimenez years

Following Eric Luke’s departure from Wonder Woman, we had a string of one or two issue fill ins before Phil Jimenez came aboard as writer/artist (though with J. M. DeMatteis scripting the first few issues and George Perez co-plotting a couple).

It was the first time I’d picked up the series since John Byrne took it over. I didn’t regret it. The initial four-part arc has Bat-foe Maxie Zeus — pre-crisis a loonie who believed he was the mortal avatar of Zeus — summoning the Olympians to possess some of Gotham’s supervillains. This does not work out well for anyone, particularly when Deimos tries to possess the Joker, or when Phobos takes over Batman.

Part of what makes it stand out is the discussion of religion: Artemis and Huntress debating polytheism vs. monotheism, Huntress insisting the Olympians are just superhumans, Batman arguing that his becoming an orphan proves there’s no good. Another part is Jimenez’ art, which is terrific.

The next arc, co-plotted by Perez, has Themyscira explode into violence. Hippolyta, having taken over the role of Wonder Woman after Diana’s death during the Byrne run, has hung on to it — they’re both Wonder Woman now. Only Hippolyta’s a queen and she’s neglecting her duties on Themyscira — which erupts into violence between the Amazons who’ve been their for centuries and the Bana-Mighdall newcomers. Even though there’s a mastermind behind it, they’re working through real issues among the people, as Artemis points out.

Next up we have a one-on-one interview between Lois Lane and Wonder Woman — dialog heavy, but a good issue. In the next we learn Vanessa Kapetelis, a teen regular in the Perez years, has been warped into believing Diana abandoned her for Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark. That resentment has enabled billionaire Sebastian Ballesteros to mold her into the latest incarnation of the Silver Swan.

Then, unfortunately, we get Big Events. Wonder Woman and Hippolyta get embroiled in the Worlds At War crossover (Earth is invaded) and the WW annual ties in with The Last Laugh, a Joker-Centric Big Event. The Silver Swan issue was action packed and set a lot of stuff in play; the big events just stop it cold.

Things pick up as Wonder Woman and Trevor, a handsome black man she’s flirting with, go out on a date, wind up in Skartaris and discover it’s been conquered by Villainy, Inc., a modern day take on a Golden Age WW villain team

It’s a lively adventure bringing in DC’s Warlord, reintroducing Giganta — originally just a gorilla evolved into a human — as a woman who can turn into a giant (the same power set she had in TV’s Challenge of the Super-Friends). That’s been her template ever since.

From Skartaris, the heroes return home with the villains, all shrunk to ineffective mouse size. Unfortunately they land not in the present but in WW II, when a time-tossed Hippolyta was fighting crime with the JSA as Wonder Woman (something Byrne came up with). Diana has to help her against the Golden Age foe Queen Clea and Armageddon, a Nazi spy introduced in Gerry Conway’s Bronze Age run. It’s a good story and working with her mother (while hiding her true identity to avoid revealing too much about their future) lets Diana see her in an entirely different light.

In a backup serial, Troia (Donna Troy) runs into a modern version of Robert Kanigher’s WW villain Angle Man. The original was a slick schemer who “always had an angle”; In the 1970s, he was rebooted with a bad costume and an all-purpose weapon, the Angler.

Jimenez’ Angle Man is Angelo Bond, a charming, handsome Italian in Armani suits who’d really like to spend some time with Donna but hey, he’s got a crime to commit and the Angler’s ability to bend space lets him pull it off. Ballesteros has stolen the Cheetah power from Barbara Minerva; Angelo obtains McGuffins that let Minerva steal the power of the Furies from the Golden Age superhero Fury. The Furies are into revenge and Minerva wants some; who cares if a few civilians get killed in the process? Three guesses who.

Finally the Jimenez run ends (there’s a graphic novel, Historia, that I’ll get to eventually), with “Wonder Boys” a story in which Diana drops in on Trevor — who gave up on dating her after all the craziness — and meets his family. God help us, it’s the closest she’s come to having a relationship since she married Steve Trevor in the pre-Crisis, pre-Perez reboot era.

I really loved this run. Next up, Walt Simonson, one of my favorite writer-artists, gets a short run. I’ll blog about it soon.

The two Villainy Inc. covers are by Harry G. Peters and Phil Jimenez, all others are by Adam Hughes. All rights remain with current holders.