Wonder Woman 1984 #1 // Review
Director Patty Jenkins' second Wonder Woman movie has been pushed back to a December 25th release. In advance of that release, DC has put out a comic book prequel to the film. Wonder Woman 1984 #1 features a couple of stories. The main feature has writers Anna Obropta and Louise Simonson delivering a story set in the film's 1984. That story is brought to the page by artist Bret Blevins. There's a back-up story set in the 1980s which had previously been published in DC Digital Firsts' Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #6. While far from being substantial stories, the two featured in this special issue are a sharp rendering of the long-lived character's continued appeal.
Diana Prince is showing a few students around a "Tools of War" exhibit at the museum. Their interest is overshadowed by distrust in authority that Diana understands all too well. The students' natural desire for justice is put to the test when a group of thieves breaks into the museum in an attempt to steal the Noble Diamond. Diana Prince attempts to stop the thieves, but the kids' safety might be at risk as they try to help out. Elsewhere, Wonder Woman finds her lasso stolen by kids in a writer Steve Pugh and artist Marguerite Sauvage's "Wolf Cubs."
Obropta and Simonson's "Museum Madness" is a sharp, little prequel to Wonder Woman 1984. The writers' work might lack a degree of depth, but the overall story is impeccably well-balanced in plot and characterization. The seasoned Simonson works an impressive amount of characterization into a rather large ensemble for a 16-page story. She and Obropta balance their concerns deftly against the perspective of Diana. She is given just enough heart and background to firmly anchor her into the version of the character played by Gal Gadot for Warner Bros. The search for justice at the heart of the story is just present enough as a theme to make it apparent without weighing too heavily on a fun action story.
Blevins is a veteran talent with nearly as many years of experience as Simonson. His clean, dynamic work not only gives the action substantial impact, but it also does a pretty good job of capturing Gal Gadot's distinctive appearance in the role. Blevins carves out a look for the comic book that matches the film's overall feel without stiffly aping it the way so many comic book film adaptations do. This smooth contours and dynamic angles of the action are all Blevins'. He's drawing just enough from the visuals of the movie to firmly ground it as a prequel. (Blevins really knows what he’s doing. Honestly the cinematic Wonder Woman costume design looks better here than it has in any of the movies.)
Simonson and Blevins were working in mainstream comics back in 1984, but they never had a chance to work with Wonder Woman back then. (Among other things, Blevins did Marvel’s adaptation of The Last Starfighter. Simonson was an editor who also created Power Pack.) Diana had kind of a low profile back then. It's a bit strange for the upcoming film to feature Wonder Woman in 1984. It was kind of a nondescript year for the character in the comics. The 1980s weren't terribly eventful for Diana until the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths moved things in a completely different direction for her. Obropta, Simonson and Blevins do a good job of showing a little bit of what might have been if the character had more of a presence on the comics page back in the early 1980s.
