Having recently been elevated to godhood Diana has repaired to the Amazon Isle of Healing where she hopes a mystical dream state will put her in touch with the humanity she fears she’s losing. Cue encounters with the current Wonder Girl, the often obnoxious Yara Flor.
… Donna Troy, the sweet original Wonder Girl…
… fun in-between Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark…
… onetime replacement Wonder Woman Artemis…
… best superhero friend Batman…
… other best superhero friend Superman…
… and Mum Hippolyta, also currently a goddess.
Finally, our heroine wakes up and tells interim Amazon queen Nubia she knows that she means many things to many people. Wonder Woman is feeling much more centred. Hurrah.
Hands up who’s old enough to have read Wonder Woman #300, or checked it out on DC Universe Infinite? That issue, written by Roy Thomas, saw Diana dreaming her way through various scenarios and meeting Jack Kirby’s Sandman along the way. It was a tour de force, with a gaggle of guest artists joining then regular genius Gene Colan, and introduced Lyta Trevor, daughter of Diana and Steve Trevor and future Infinity Inc stalwart Fury. I’d call WW #300 an instant classic.
I’d call Wonder Woman #800 instantly forgettable, even though it might be inspired by #300. Writers Michael W Conrad and Becky Cloonan, whose run got off to an incredibly strong start, don’t really have a story here. I’m not even certain I’ve correctly, in my opening par, summed up what happens. What we get is a series of vignettes, imaginary encounters asking the question, for the millionth time, ‘who is Diana?’ The offering is well-meaning, but over-earnest – and do we have to have Superman and Batman in here, and a weirdly characterised Superman and Batman at that? I’m so over this Trinity business. There’s some lovely art – illustrations by Joëlle Jones, Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales, Nick Robles, Todd Nauck, Skylar Patridge, Cully Hamner and Jen Bartel – but I’d far rather the writers had gone out with a big bash showing us who Diana is.
Talking of Trinity, that’s the professional name of Diana’s daughter introduced in a 10pp flash forward story backing up the 30pp main event. Hey, if WW #300 can introduce a Wonder Daughter, why can’t #800? Trinity – she has three magic lassos – is the creation of the series’ next core creative team, Tom King and Daniel Sampere.
And she is a nightmare.
She’s like that for almost the entire story, making Yara Flor look positively charming. King likes snarky dialogue and I suspect he finds her endearing. The story has Trinity railroading her elder ‘brothers’, Jon Kent and Damian Wayne, into backing her up on a quest involving an unnamed old person in a shadowy cell. Each of them has to deal with one aspect of a spell that gets Trinity – real name Elizabeth Marston Prince, we see what you did there – into the Themysciran prison to talk to the unseen enemy of her people.
That’s pretty intense. Trinity’s own trial sees her fight a spirit impersonating her mother, but a lasso around the neck wins the day. Later she threatens to hang the prisoner… this is not how magic lassos should be used, but it’s pretty typical Tom King. The story continues soon in a new Wonder Woman #1, the first for a couple of years… will the series be framed as a flashback? I do hope not, that makes Trinity seem inevitable in the current continuity, and I prefer to think of her as part of a future that may or may not come to pass.
She looks great, mind, with Lizzie seeming like a cross between her mother and ace Amazon Artemis… Olympian magic makes that as likely as any other scenario. Sampere has been something of an underappreciated DC secret weapon for years now and I’m glad he’s been given a high-profile gig. His surefooted storytelling and strong figurework is a gift to King’s script. Colourist Tomeo Morey and letterer Clayton Cowles bring their considerable skills to the table.
Yanick Paquette, as he has done many times, provides a lovely cover, and I like that the Production Department has given us an ‘800’ that matches the logo.
If you’re a Wonder Woman completist, buy this issue. If you’ve been following the current creative team, or are intrigued by the coming creative team, buy this issue. If you’re after a classic Anniversary treat, pass.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
How are we supposed to tell Tasha Yar, I mean, Yara Flor and Elizabeth Prince apart? Other than that one wears a snazzy outfit and is a PoC, and the other doesn’t/isn’t. I thought DC set Yara up to be the WW of the future? Now this snippy new gal is? Ugh on both. Ugh on this issue. Ugh on DC for what they’ve done to Wondie for the past 13 years (plus).
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Lots of ughs and I can’t disagree. Doesn’t real, classic Wonder Woman have any fans at DC? And what’s with the constant snarky Wonder Girls? I read a lot of reviews looking at this latest kid’s debut and no one likes her.
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Superman: “I can’t save them all. I have to allow some suffering.”
What????? Who approved this? Did they not see “Man of Steel”. Malpractice. Oh, new girl Trinity is an immediate jackass. Everybody wants to be Damian Wayne.
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Let’s allow Trinity to suffer.
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I started reading Wonder Woman again when I heard the Asgard arc was stellar but its follow-up was sooooooo boring I checked out again. This? It has King writing part and I’ve been burned by everything post Vision and Mister Miracle so bad I refuse to read it and will skip the new ongoing too. Why would I want to read a Wonder Woman that, if history holds true, has a characterization that will suit the story rather than any we’ve seen through the years?
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I wish I could disagree with you on this. I am expecting a car crash.
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I own Wonder Woman #300. Got it for the Sandman appearance, to be honest. Have always loved the concept and design of that character, and when he was drawn by Gene Colan, how could I refuse? Haven’t been reading this series, but I did recently invest in John Byrne’s Wonder Woman run from the late 1990s and it was a good time. Also he elevated her to godhood back then.
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I enjoyed that run too. Ignore the last shirts redesign and boilerplate tiara, and replacement characters, and the stories are pretty great.
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I had stopped buying WW after Trial of the Amazons – had prepared to use it as a jumping OFF point to quit before Trial, but lost my resolve. I knew the final two Wonder Girl issues had been repurposed as part of the Trial and I was interested to see how that series ended (to the extent it really did tie up that series – I think it might have, to some extent). But the Trial was a mess. Too many cooks and really no broth.
I picked this one up to see the Cloonan/Conrad conclusion, and to get a preview of what Tom King was going to do.
He named Lizzie after some girl who is a relative (I forget the actual relationship) and I wonder if that girl is as much of jerk as Lizzie is. That is one thoroughly unlikeable young woman.
Kudos to you for honestly reviewing this. I’ll be kind in my wording – it’s a big disappointment.
Besides Sampere’s work, which is always great, a few of the main pages do look good. I like what Joelle Jones has done here, and Jen Bartel’s work is very cheerfully colored and her art is always very easy on the eyes. She rarely does interiors. I think she did well with what she was given.
I admit I’m not able to identify all the artists – Todd Nauk’s contribution is obvious (and not up to par for him), and most of Alitha Martinez’s is. Some of the art is downright ugly. Like me, you also frequently express disappointment the art pages are so rarely credited these days.
Overall, bad, and it confirms my intuition to not pick up King’s series in September.
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Lizzie is one of his daughters. Which is nice for the other one.
I ignored the Trial business completely, the Amazons of the last few years have been either boring or obnoxious or both. Are these mini series for Nubia and the like actually selling?
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I got curious, so I found it – in Word Balloon, King said Lizzie named is after his niece who is his god daughter, and it pissed off her twin sister. It’s easy to see how people might recollect “daughter” from that.
He also mentions that his own daughters are 9 and 12.
(It’s at 17:00 in the podciast, or at 13:15 in the YouTube version of the podcast.)
I wonder if those nieces are closer to Trinity’s age.
They don’t need to be: his 12 year old is probably also showing signs of Trinity’s personality. Isn’t that the age when girls start rolling their eyes at everything their parents say?
While Trinity has generated pretty much universal dislike, I suppose there are countless teenage girls exactly like her. Parents are miserable about it but can’t really do anything but commiserate with their peers. But the thing is, we expect, and have found, our young heroes to be better behaved than that. We’ve seen plenty of immaturity in Young Justice and Teen Titans over the years, and the Supergirl from 2004 was immature, but none of them were total little sh*ts like she is.
Isn’t there something in the way Lizzie talks that even reminds you of Ruthye? She doesn’t use the awful ornate embellishments, but still she’s very long-winded, and I can hear Ruthye-itis in her rambling diatribes.
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Trinity? So she’s named for the nuclear test site? Sounds about right.
I cannot for the life of me understand while writers think depicting young women as entitled noxious jackasses (jillasses?) makes those characters look strong. An @$$hole is an @$$hole no matter their sex (or gender, if you must), race, or age. Sexism, misogyny, and racism exist but it doesn’t excuse characters who are complete *expletives deleted* for no reason. I have to admit I can’t fricking stand Damien either. Guy Gardner was an @$$hole it was enjoyable to read about because he was *obviously* an @$$hole but one with (a very few!) redeeming qualities particularly under Giffen/DeMatteis#; he wasn’t the colossal jerk who the reader was supposed to outright love and not see as a Homo Assapiens compare this with Yara Bore, Damien, and this apparently misconceived character, Trinity, and the difference is clear. Poo-doo!
Your review makes me want to read Wonder Woman #300, Martin, which is probably not what DC wants. Still, at least Jen Bartel and Joelle Jones’s art is quite good. It’s just a pity that too many of today’s comic book writers are alien to the concepts of fun, good characterization, and strong narratives that aren’t married to the one long mega-story concept.
#The Guy Gardner Warrior version of Gardner was misconceived from the off. The ludicrous tattooed living weapon version of the character was the pits. Macho toss written earnestly, conservatively, and boringly. In my opinion. Heh. Altho’ the way Geoff Johns stripped Gardner of his “Warrior” abilities was exceedingly lazy and goofy (as was much of Green Lantern Rebirth, even tho’ I quite enjoyed it in its entertaining dumbness – even tho’ it led to Saint Hal, another character written as a compleat @$$hole who the audience is supposed to think of as a kool “hero”)
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George, you’re educating me, I’d never heard that Trinity bomb business. Please don’t force me to go and see that Oppenheimer film.
The first time DC gave us an offensively written young woman was, I think, the Jeph Loeb Supergirl. What a nightmare she was. Happily, course correction was made, but they’re still coming out with new obnoxious types. No wonder there are so few female readers.
I only read a few issues of GG: W, he looked so daft. I did enjoy the bar business, though, and wasn’t Lady Blackhawk a regular?
Get thee to Wondy #300.
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Lady Blackhawk. Mmmmm.
Sorry, someone must have typed that while I wasn’t looking…
I wasn’t a regular reader of Guy Gardner either, the tone was too misconceived for me, and he DID look daft. Interesting that macho tattooed goofball Guy has multitudes of clones in real life (without the shapeshifting abilities). Good rule of thumb, if you have more ink on your body than is in a Bic pen then you are probably a twerp; male, female, or whatever (a few women can pull it off tho’. *ahem* Kind of.).
Oh, I wasn’t even thinking of the Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer (imaginative title); I only glimpsed the trailer today, when I saw Cillian Murphy at the beginning I thought it might be a teaser for the Peaky Blinders movie. Gather around children, and I’ll tell ye the story of the Trinity site; a story fit to freeze yer blood. (Why am I writing that as a cross between Robert Newton’s Long John Silver and John Houseman in The Fog? No man can tell.)
Comic Book Company: Read our comic books, ladies. This is what we think you are: Huge Jerks!
I’m look for that. Gene Colan!
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Thanks for reminding me about Wonder Woman #300. I’ve been working on putting together complete runs of All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. since last year, so I should also look for an affordable copy of WW #300, since it’s the first appearance of Fury.
If DC wants Diana to have a daughter, I’d much rather they bring back Fury. But I guess Neil Gaiman has dibs on her.
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Let me know if you have probs finding a copy of WW 300 over there, I see a few for sale online over here at pretty cheap prices.
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