Wonder Woman dances in HELL!

Alrighty, its Friday, July 2, 2010, and today I'm getting my nerd on.

COMIX!!

OK, let's start with the big one: WONDER WOMAN #600. This of course rounds out the trifecta of centennial issues of the trinity of super-heroes, and unfortunately this one did not make it through without big funny book controversy. I'll get to that in a second, but first I want to focus on everything great about this issue.

First off, it featured some really great pin-ups by some of the hottest talent in comics. This includes work by Adam Hughes, Nicola Scott, Phil Jimenez and many others. The double page pin-up by Jimenez gets a special nod because in it we get to see almost everything related to Wonder Woman in one picture. He really outdid himself. It also has a nice little forward by Lynda Carter, which was pretty cool. The first story by Gail Simone and George Perez featured a ton of guest stars and was a who's who of the ladies of the DCU. And it wrapped around into a very fitting and quite touching little story after all the butt kicking was done. Next up was a little team-up with Power Girl thanks to Amanda Connor which was a lot of fun and a real treat. Then there was a team-up with Superman served up by Louise Simonson.

And then things get ugly.

The next story was seeming really off and weird. It was like it trying to talk about the character of Wonder Woman from the perspective of two people who didn't quite understand her but though that they did. Its supposed to be the prelude for the next Wonder Woman story. And then I see the credits. Geoff Johns: writer.

Oh crap.

And then the J. Michael Stracynski story kicks in and and I'm ready to throw up my hands in frustration. I had heard that Stracynski's THOR run had been good, so I had some consolation when I found out Gail Simone was leaving the book. And we have our new Wonder Woman. And its wrong in just about every way. I don't want to be this guy. I don't want to be the douchebag who gets pissed off when a writer decides to take a character in a different direction and gives them a new costume. But, this whole thing is just a bad idea from top to bottom.

The entire Wonder Woman story has been reimagined. Everything in that beautiful piece of work by Phil Jimenez never happened. The stories preceding this one in that very same issue high lighting everything that is just so great and awesome about the character are washed away. People used to wonder how she fought in the old costume. That's easy, the old costume was not cumbersome. She had complete freedom of movement. I'm wondering how she even gets into the new outfit.

In an interview Stracynski said that the character needed to be toughened up. The top hand-to-hand fighter in DC comics needed to be toughened up. The woman who kicks Batman's ass needed to be toughened up. She also needed to be modernized. So the character that is a link to mythology and the past in the genre needs to be modernized. Oh, and she gets a new and "improved" tragic origin now.

This the way it is set up, it seems like Wonder Woman has been dropped into some weird pocket dimension, so one she finds her way out things will return to normal. Also, hopefully this won't have an effect on Donna Troy or Wonder Girl, because if history has change in this fashion for Wonder Woman then the entire DCU is effected and not in a good way. So here's hoping the foresight has been there to keep this little experiment centered in one book.

So Stracynski is responsible for stories that will make Superman more human and Wonder Woman more modern and tough. He can go back to Marvel, the sooner the better, because he seems to not understand what works for these characters.

This while our heroes are in store for some pretty shabby treatment coming up, ACTION COMICS #890 hit the stands this week featuring none other than Lex Luthor. Its freaking awesome. While i don't care one lick about the Hal Jordan and his techni-color dance party-a-go-go which was "Blackest Night" there has been one very interesting thing come out of it: Lex Luthor has a new hobby. Penned by Paul Cornell, this Luthor is still a completely evil prick, but my God is he an enjoyable one. He's egotistical and just a complete bastard. Its like if Greg House decided, 'You know what? This whole helping people and dealing with my pain has gotten old. Its time to take over the world." Love it. Love it. LOVE IT!!

BREAK IT DOWN!!

This is what happens when reality TV goes above and beyond the call of duty. On SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE ballet dancer Alex Wong was made to do hip hop and partnered with Twitch Boss, the first guy/guy partnering the season. Alex was absolutely beside himself be cause everything he has been trained to do as a dancer had to be cast right out the window and he was partnered with one of the top hip hop dancers you're going to find. A recipe for disaster, but how did it turn out?

MUSIC!!

And now a little dedication. This one goes out to the YouTube used whole randomly sent me nine videos to let me know that Hell exists that I need to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I did not watch the videos as I'm pretty sure that they contain BATMAN AND ROBIN with Schwarzenegger as Mister Freeze is its entirety. However it didn't contain this video, so I'm just helping out the misguided do-gooder.

POP QUIZ!!

1: What do you think of the new Wonder Woman costume?

2: Who is your favorite bald dude?

3: What is your favorite style of dance?

That wraps things up for today. Remember to check out UFC 116 this Saturday because the main event should be awesome. Enjoy the weekend. See you Sunday.