DC Digital Wonder Woman '77 #4

It's been a few weeks since the first Wonder Woman '77 story - it's on an alternating schedule with Sensation Comics - but she's back, and in a very strange place. 

As we join Agent Diana Prince she's in the street, waking from a fainting spell. All she can remember about her life is her name, and the fact that she's Wonder Woman. Hearing a crime in progress, she tries the magical spin. Nothing. Luckily, help is on the way. 
Yep, it's the team-up TV never gave us: Wonder Woman '77 and Wonder Woman '74, Lynda Carter and Cathy Lee Crosby. They don't actually get together in this first of three digital instalments, but bet that they will. And if the guests who show up on the final page are also in the heroic mix, so much the better. 

Returning writer Marc Andreyko gives us another fun story without poking fun at the polyester decade that was the Seventies. His sincere, humane Diana Prince is spot-on, and the mystery has my attention big-time. 
As for the artwork, oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Without the result looking at all photo-referenced, new guy Jason Badower captures Lynda Carter, well, wonderfully. It's as if a lost TV episode had emigrated onto the pages of a comic book, I cannot imagine a better artist for this series. I hope he's around for the next two instalments, along with colourist Romulo Fajardo Jr., who declares his talent on the first page with the close-up of Diana's eye-shadow, and keeps the quality constant from there. 
Thanks, too, to Wes Abbot, for fine work and an extra pat on the back if he's the guy who dug up that oh-so-Seventies TV movie logo. 

The only thing I dislike is that the Crosby costume isn't quite right - rather than the stylish little eagle emblem, it bears the horrendously mundane and wrongheaded 'Wonder Woman Foundation' symbol that debuted on the Eighties books. And the belt is different. And stars from the arms look to have slipped down to the tights. Almost certainly a decision made by someone other than Badower, the changes make no sense to me, and take a little of the shine off proceedings. 

But just a little. This chapter just has me grinning stupidly. 

I don't know if the full issue, collecting all three chapters, is in shops yet - the print version of the superb Scooby-Doo Team-Up tends to be ahead of the digital download - but if so, run, don't walk and grab it now. Or if you're Wonder Woman you could fly your invisible plane. 

Or even ride a donkey. 

Comments

  1. I was thinking they don't have the rights to the likenesses of the CLC WW, the CLC Steve, Drusilla, or the Queen, which is why they don't quite look like themselves, although the Queen does look like Lynda Carter these days.

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  2. Yeah, Steve had a tache all of a sudden! And you're likely right about the rights, Sean. I wonder if this is meant to represent the Carolyn Jones Hippolyta?

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  3. The Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman appeared in Infinite Crisis #7, albeit colored incorrectly (which is fixed in the collection editions).

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    1. Ah, is that where it was. In my mind, it was a Phil Jimenez issue!

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  4. They might not have the rights to use the actors' faces bit since Warner Brothers owns the 74 movie they certainly could do the CLCrosby costume (and hair) more accurately.., but in general the wish is a winner!

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  5. Hmm, wonder what was up with the costume, then!

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  6. Interesting, I wasn't expecting a Lynda Carter / Wonder Woman comic. I like the art.

    Cheers,

    www.artbyarion.blogspot.com

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  7. Hey guys! I'm the artist on part 4.

    Quick answers:

    The CLCrosby costume was tied up in legal. Instead of getting tied down by that we came up with something that fans would recognize but would avoid any issues. We also didn't have Kaz or Cathy's likeness - so I made up my own. We also didn't have any of Hippolyta's or Drusilla's likeness so I just drew Lynda as she is today and Lynda as she would be very young.

    Thanks so much for all the kind words! We're all huge fans of the show and loving every panel we get to work on.

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