You’ll excuse us from being overly enthusiastic about this Wonder Woman week. Not only is one of the most iconic superheroes in western civilization finally getting her own big-screen Hollywood blockbuster, but early returns have Patty Jenkins’s film standing apart from virtually every other DC flick in recent years: it sounds like a hit! And for New Comic Book Day, the team that brought you one of our favorite books of the Rebirth initiative delivers the Wonder Woman: Rebirth Annual #1, a beautiful oversized issue with four vignettes centered on the original Princess Diana.
Unlike boxing fight nights or seasons of Game of Thrones, comic book collections like this always lead with the heavy hitter. The first story is what makes this book worth picking up. Writer Greg Rucka and artist Nicola Scott pull a precious moment from Wonder Woman’s “Year One” storyline, and imagine that first meeting between a young Amazonian warrior and the other two members of DC’s superheroic trinity.
The backup stories have merit too. Vita Ayala and artist Claire Roe highlight the Lasso of Truth in a conflict involving King Shark; the gorgeous painted art of Stephanie Hans is showcased in a fight with a Japanese werewolf thing; and Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and David Lafuente drop a kaiju on our hero’s lap. It’s more than a satisfying read for your five bucks. This annual is a wonderful reminder that all the great female superhero stories in recent years (if I had a vote, Mockingbird and Batgirl would be that much closer to taking home Eisners this year) are indebted to Wonder Woman. Seventy-five years and counting, still kicking ass and now inspiring a new generation.
Earlier this month, DC provided a special reprint edition of Rucka & Scott’s first issue in the “Year One” arc for Free Comic Book Day. This Saturday, they’ll be providing the introduction to the other half of the Rebirthed series with a Wonder Woman Day special edition of chapter one of “The Lies” by Rucka and Liam Sharp. Celebrate Wonder Woman Day by heading down to a participating comic book shop for a copy. Or, better yet, pick up that Rebirth Annual #1 and take advantage of the return of DC’s digital comic redemption codes. Along with the annual, you’ll get the special edition comic, and you’ll encourage the big publishers to keep providing those handy codes. When Marvel relented from their three-month code hiatus to bring back same-issue redemptions, I thought for sure that it was my signature on the Change.org petition making a difference; in truth, they were probably just keeping up with the competition. Either way. Keep our iPads happy.
Speaking of redemption codes, do yourself a favor and prepurchase your tickets for this weekend’s movie on Fandango. You’ll get a code from DC that you can redeem for a WW variety pack, including the first chapter of The Legend of Wonder Woman by Renae DeLiz. This flew under many radars because it was one of four origin-type tales to be released in recent years, but it’s every bit as good as books by Jill Thompson, Grant Morrison & Yanick Paquette, and the aforementioned Rucka & Scott.
The Institute of Idle Time 