Comic Crazy: Wonder Woman - A Celebration of 75 Years

Welcome to The Real World According To Sam! I've been talking about quite a few DC YA graphic novels this year. Now I'd like to talk about a comic collection I recently read - to officially bring back Comic Crazy. 

Wonder Woman - A Celebration of 75 Years 

Creative Teams: Various 

Year: 2016

Synopsis:

The most recognizable superheroine of all time, Wonder Woman has been an essential part of the DC Universe and an icon for female empowerment for more than 75 years. 

Armed with her lasso of truth and her bullet-stopping bracelets, the Amazon Princess journeys into Man's World again and again, spreading her mission of peace and goodwill and fiercely battling injustice where she finds it. She's a princess, a warrior and an ambassador. Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, stronger than Hercules, swifter than Mercury...she is Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years collects more than 400 pages of the iconic heroine's best stories, from her first appearance by William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter, to her mod '60s redesign by Denny O'Neil and Mike Sekowsky, to her present-day adventures by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Other legendary talents featured include George Pérez, Darwyn Cooke, Robert Kanigher, Gene Colan, Phil Jimenez, Mike Deodato, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone and more. 

Review: 

Last year, Wonder Woman actually celebrated her 80th anniversary - so I'm a bit behind with this one. However, last year was when I REALLY got into the character and started reading many comics starring her. I was excited that my library had this collection, since I haven't had a chance to explore Diana's history as much as others who have been reading her stories longer. I had already read her debut issue (included here) and a couple others included in this collection, but for the most part this book was FULL of issues I'd never seen before. 

The book is divided into four parts, focusing on four distinct periods in Wonder Woman's publishing history. From her origin and early days to her New 52 days, there are eighteen selected issues in this volume. I really enjoyed seeing the side-by-side progression of her journey, as well as comparing the progression to recent releases I read last year centered on her newest Infinite Frontier iteration. The Rebirth and Infinite Frontier eras are noticeably missing, but that isn't to be helped given when this volume came out. 

Wonder Woman has undergone quite a few changes and her adventures have changed a lot too. Collections like these are great for seeing the way a character has been viewed and interpreted by different comic teams operating in different eras of time. This collection likely won't do very much for long-time fans of Wonder Woman. It doesn't have a lot of analysis or commentary within it and it's definitely possible to already have exposure to most of these stories. But, since I didn't, I had a blast seeing what happened next for the heroine. I also liked seeing the shifts in artistic trends and comic illustration. Wonder Woman is an amazing character and she has easily become one of my top favorite DC heroes. I used to mainly just enjoy Batman (due to film/tv exposure over comics), but in terms of comics, Wonder Woman is starting to pull ahead. 

As a newer fan, this collection was perfect for me. It helped expose me to more and helped to increase my knowledge of Wonder Woman and her history. For another fan, this book might not be nearly as enjoyable or helpful. For me, I give Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯ stars. For more experienced fans, I'd probably say they're likely to dock it down to three. I'm definitely going to be diving more closely into a few of these eras and creative teams' runs and am grateful for the direction this collection has given me in working on that. 

Thanks for joining me for today's Comic Crazy review here at The Real World According to Sam, where I bring the books to your screen and put in my two cents about them! See you at the next review!