Wonder Woman #176by Barb Lien-CooperReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk.
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Credits Grade: 5 Some people say that they don't make comics the way they used to.After reading Phil Jimenez's take on Wonder Woman, I say, Thank Hera for that. Phil Jimenez may be a good artist, but he just can't write without overwriting. He can't give you a plot point once. He has to give it to you four times. His characters don't talk to each other — they speechify plot exposition and last issue recaps. There are maybe six panels in this whole comic where there's no dialog or thought balloons (one longs for thought captions, frankly). The speechifying during the fight scenes was particularly annoying. I mean, really — when you're kicking super-villain butt, how much breath do you have even to breathe, let alone talk? The only entertainment I had the entire issue was mentally blue penciling panel after panel worth of scripting. You too can play at this game. Look at the panels and mentally take out any repetitive lines points that Jimenez doesn't trust the reader to get the first time. I'll even start you off with one — how many times does Circe say in one way or another that she finds Diana to be sanctimonious, pious, and too goody-two shoes in this issue? Since no one else seems to know how to copy edit this comic, if you're going to read it, you'd better take on the job yourself. The set up: Princess Diana is visiting Boston after many years of absence. In the meantime, Vanessa, the daughter of Diana's old friend Julia seems to have taken up with the super-villainess Circe. Vanessa took up with Circe because she has some abandonment issues about Diana leaving Boston or some such (which seems a little weird 'coz Vanessa's in college by now). This paragraph took three sentences to write, but took Jimenez seven pages and a dream sequence to tell us the same information. Diana fights Circe. We have some thematic mother-daughter symbolism heavy as an anvil going on as Diana brings order to chaos with a feminine touch. Notice that it only took me two sentences to write what it took the rest of the issue to flail us with. You're an artist, Mr. Jimenez — let the art do some of the speaking for you. For instance, when Diana's protege Cassie (a.k.a. Wonder Girl) finds Vanessa's diary and old pictures (c.f. page eight), don't have Cassie tell us that Vanessa's nuts — we can see by the way Vanessa mutilated Diana's picture that Vanny has some mental problems (especially since we were told on the second page that Vanessa is a nut bar!). In fact, the whole page would have worked much better without any dialog. Phil Jimenez's work shows us that most pencillers should not be allowed to write titles unless they either previously showed their worth as writer-illustrators, show a lot of talent like Mike Grell did during his time on Green Arrow so as to be an exception to the rule, or are Jill Thompson, nature's law unto herself. Wonder Woman is strictly amateur night at the Apollo (the theatre not the God) writing. As to the art, if the writing reads like a tepid emulation of the eighties work of John Byrne (another artist who shouldn't be allowed to write, IMHO), the art reminds one of nothing more than early '80s X-Men. In fact, when Circe came out wearing an outfit the fashion police would deemed criminally retro (c.f. page 13) as far back as 1985, I fully expected Dazzler and her disco-blades to make a cameo. Jimenez's Wonder Woman is old-school art and old-school writing in its worst sense. Note that I have nothing against Mr. Jimenez. I don't know the man or know much of his work beyond the review copies of Wonder Woman I've read. I am not being cruel just to be cruel — I could level the same criticisms at many a mainstream writer-illustrator working in mainstream comics (particularly that speechifying the plot thing, which is a pet peeve of mine). Instead, I am being blunt because you, the readers of comics, deserve better books than the ones the old guard are giving us. We readers deserve the best writers the industry has. Guess that's why, when I need a superhero fix, I've been currently making mine Marvel, sugar (or as Rogue puts it "shu-gah"). Or, better yet, forget Marvel too and make mine Indie, toots. Written: May 7, 2002
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