George Perez’s Wonder Woman

As with many, many other comic book fans, I was deeply saddened by the announcement this week that longtime artist & writer George Perez has been diagnosed with cancer, and has been given an estimated life expectancy of six months to one year. Perez is one of the all-time great creators to have worked in American comic books over the last four and a half decades.

While I have mentioned Perez on this blog in passing, regrettably I’ve never taken any sort of in-depth look at his art or writing before. I really want to rectify that now, while Perez is still among the living. And so I am going to showcase several examples of his work on one of the characters with whom he is most identified: Wonder Woman.

People like to throw around the word “definitive” but that is exactly the term I would use to describe George Perez’s iconic run on the Wonder Woman series from 1987 to 1992. In my mind, he wrote and drew one of the definitive versions of the character.

I had one heck of a time narrowing it down to just 10 examples!

Let’s start at the beginning. Here is George Perez’s beautiful cover for the first issue of Wonder Woman volume two (Feb 1987). Perez’s intricately detailed work superbly depicts Princess Diana, Queen Hippolyta, the Amazons, the Greek gods, and the island of Themyscira.

I really believe that Perez’s post-Crisis On Infinite Earths reboot / revamp of the Wonder Woman mythos is one of the primary reasons why the character of Princess Diana has subsequently become such a major character. Or, as acclaimed comic book writer Gail Simone put it:

“The hottest artist of the day, with a string of hits behind him, decided to cast his ridiculous talents on Wonder Woman. And it changed EVERYTHING.”

I don’t know if Perez deliberately set out to top the first issue’s cover when he illustrated the fold-out cover to Wonder Woman #10 (Nov 1987), the first chapter of “Challenge of the Gods,” but he definitely succeeded.

The introduction of the post-Crisis version of the villainous Silver Swan was heralded by Perez’s incredibly striking cover for Wonder Woman #15 (April 1988). Perez’s utilization of highly detailed work, an unsettling layout and negative space all combine to really make this one stand out. I wish I knew who did the coloring on this, because it certainly complements Perez’s work.

I would be absolutely remiss if I did not showcase an example of Perez’s interior work. “Who Killed Myndi Mayer?” in issue #20 (Sept 1988) finds Diana investigating the brutal murder of Myndi Mayer, her vivacious yet troubled publicist. On the final page of this story Diana at long last learns the tragic truth behind Myndi’s passing. Perez’s storytelling & dialogue combine to deliver a shocking, somber emotional moment.

“Who Killed Myndi Mayer?” was written & laid out by Perez, from an idea by Carol Flynn (Perez’s wife), with finishes by Bob McLeod, letters by John Costanza and colors by Carl Gafford. It was justifiably chosen for inclusion in the collection Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told published in 2007.

Another hyper-detailed Perez cover graces Wonder Woman Annual #1 (Nov 1988), in which Diana takes her good friend Julia Kapatelis and her teenage daughter Vanessa to visit the Amazons on Themyscira. John Stracuzzi’s vibrant colors enhance Perez’s work. Lettering is by Todd Klein.

A talented line-up of artists drew the different chapters of Perez’s story for Wonder Woman Annual #1. One of the more interesting artistic teams on the Annual was Silver Age Wonder Woman penciler Ross Andru inked by Perez himself. Andru is an underrated artist, and his storytelling on this chapter is solid, beautifully enhanced by both Perez’s inking and Carl Gafford’s coloring.

Kudos to Todd Klein for effectively lettering Perez’s script for this Annual. That was one of the great aspects about Perez’s Wonder Woman stories; they were very dense & intelligently written, the exact opposite of decompressed storytelling.

When I started reading DC Comics in the early 1990s, the 16 issue loose-leaf edition of Who’s Who in the DC Universe edited by Michael Eury was an absolutely invaluable resource. Eury recruited an all-star line-up of artists to create the profile images for the DC heroes and villains. Of course he asked George Perez to draw Wonder Woman, who was cover-featured in Who’s Who #4 (Nov 1990). Coloring is by Tom McCraw.

As I previously touched upon in my post on the 80th birthday of Wonder Woman, my first exposure to the series was during the “War of the Gods” crossover… which was probably the absolute worst time to start reading it! I was completely lost as to who these characters were and what was going on with these various different plotlines.

Nevertheless, Perez’s stunning covers, as well as the beautiful interior art by penciler Jill Thompson & inker Romeo Tanghal, caught my attention enough that when several months later DC Comics presented a jumping-on point for new readers with incoming writer William Messner-Loebs, I dove in. Soon after I started to read the earlier Perez stories via back issues and collected editions.

In any case, here’s Perez’s atmospheric cover for Wonder Woman #59 (Oct 1991) featuring guest appearances by Batman and Robin.

George Perez’s epic run on Wonder Woman came to an end with issue #61 (Feb 1992). Nevertheless, he has subsequently drawn Princess Diana on several occasions since then, and his return to the character has always been welcome. Here is one of those, the gorgeous pin-up Perez drew for the Wonder Woman Gallery special (Sept 1996). Coloring is by Tatjana Wood. I scanned this from my copy of the book, which I got autographed by Perez at a comic con in the early 2000s. I’m glad I got to meet him.

A few years ago on Twitter writer Gail Simone shared the first page of Wonder Woman #600 (Aug 2010) with the following explanation:

“When George Perez specifically requests you to write his farewell story to Wonder Woman and this is just the first page.”

Perez has an absolute penchant for drawing literal armies of characters, and that is definitely on display here! Diana leads some of DC Comics’ greatest female heroes into battle on this dynamic opening page. “Valedictorian” was written by Gail Simone, penciled by George Perez, inked by Scott Koblish, colored by Hi-Fi and lettered by Travis Lanham.

During an astonishing career that stretched from 1974 to 2019, Perez drew literally thousands of comic book characters. Nevertheless, his work on Wonder Woman will always be one of the absolute highlights.

Doctor Who reviews: The Eleventh Doctor #11

Disaster strikes as the TARDIS crashes smack dab into the middle of a honking big time paradox.  In other words, it’s just another typically bizarre day for the Doctor and his companions in the pages of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #11 from Titan Comics.

The Doctor learned that the mysterious shape-shifting ARC is actually the mind of the strange Entity that he recently encountered.  ARC was ripped from its body by the ruthless interplanetary corporation SERVEYOUinc (damn it, that name is playing havoc with spellcheck).  Now hoping to locate the Entity, the Doctor has ARC plug in to the TARDIS telepathic circuits.  ARC discovers that it can navigate the time machine to back before it was captured by SERVEYOUinc, and attempts to alter its own past, despite the Doctor’s panicked attempts to stop this.

This results in the TARDIS fracturing from the attempt to rewrite history.  Alice, Jones and ARC find themselves in different portions of the damaged ship.  The Doctor is left drifting through space in a non-corporeal state, helplessly witnessing the agents of SERVEYOUinc attacking & capturing the Entity.

“Four Dimensions” is another temporal twister from writer Al Ewing.  He brings together some of the threads he (along with series co-writer Rob Williams) has been developing in previous issues.  Since the beginning of this series, the Doctor and his companions have been encountering various representatives of SERVEYOUinc, albeit in a non-linear fashion, hopping back & forth across the timeline.  It’s a very Steven Moffat storyline, with the Doctor meeting people who he yet to meet but who already know him from events that to them are the past.  And, of course, vice versa.  Ewing utilizes this issue to finally establish the chronological order of events, clearing up some of the confusion the Doctor and his companions (as well as the readers, no doubt) have been experiencing.

Ewing also looks at the fallout from the Doctor’s disastrous confrontation with SERVEYOUinc in the last two issues.  It’s been commented from time to time that the Doctor is usually most successful when fighting against overtly villainous foes such as invading armies and power-mad dictators.  When he has to deal with subtler adversaries, such as deeply entrenched political corruption or corporate malfeasance that is technically taking place within the boundaries of the law, he often ends up making a hash of things.

That’s exactly what happened in this case: the Doctor attempted to beat SERVEYOUinc at their own game by using time travel to raise enough capital to buy them out.  Instead, it completely blew up in his face, and the Doctor became a helpless pawn of SERVEYOUinc, corrupted by their promises & lies.  It fell to Alice and Jones to have to save him and everyone else.

This is followed up on in issue #11.  The Doctor is attempting to locate the Entity to prevent it from falling into the “wrong hands.”  To this, Jones offhandedly replies “What, like yours?”  Alice is furious at this rude comment, but the Doctor is forced to acknowledge that there is validity to what Jones said, that he really did mess things up in their confrontation with SERVEYOUinc.  Ewing has previously shown Alice role in keeping the Doctor’s ego in check.  Now we see Jones also playing a part in that.

After the TARDIS is cracked, the plot gets really wonky.  Credit goes to artist Boo Cook for successfully pulling this off with his inventive four-panel pages, effective layouts and off-kilter compositions as the action is split between the Doctor, Alice, Jones and ARC.

Cook has been alternating with Simon Fraser and Warren Pleece on art chores for The Eleventh Doctor.  Truthfully, Fraser has been my favorite until now, as his style fits in quite well with what I regard as “traditional” Doctor Who comic book artwork.  Cook, in contrast, has a much wilder, sketchy style to his work.  You might describe it as looking “early 1990s Image Comics.”

Cook’s unconventional work is a perfect fit for the story in issue #11, though.  He draws some really odd and interesting pages.  Cook even manages to pull off Jones’ latest fashion experiment, with the destined-to-be glam rock god wearing full clown regalia & make-up.

I definitely have to point out the contributions of colorists Hi-Fi.  I’ve noticed their coloring work on a number of occasions in the past.  In this issue, after our cast members are split apart, each of them and their surroundings are colored in a different hue.  This works very well in conjunction with Cook’s artwork.

Rounding out the issue is another humorous “Pond Life” back-up strip by Marc Ellerby.  The Doctor once again drops in on Amy and Rory, this time with Strax the Sontaran in tow.  The two are about to embark on their annual “pub crawl across the galaxy.”  Amy suggests that Rory accompany them, which he does reluctantly.  And over the next two pages, naturally enough, hilarity ensues.

I will admit that I found last few issues of The Eleventh Doctor a bit underwhelming.  They weren’t bad, just not as interesting as they could have been, at least in my estimation.  But Ewing and Cook definitely did excellent work on issue #11.

In any case, despite its slightly uneven quality, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor is still a good read, and I’m looking forward to what Ewing and his artistic collaborators bring us next.

The return of the Forever People

I was a bit surprised when DC Comics announced that one of their latest New 52 titles would be Infinity Man and the Forever People, a revival / revamp of the characters created by Jack Kirby.  Although I think the Forever People are cool, I will be the first to admit that they are probably among the lesser-known “Fourth World” characters devised by Kirby.  After their initial eleven issue run in the early 1970s, they were not seen again until a six issue miniseries published in 1988.  Subsequently they have not been featured in any other starring roles, only making guest appearances here and there.

However it is not entirely unexpected for the Forever People to receive a revival.  It is true that DC has actually attempted to launch a number of offbeat and experimental titles in the last three years.  The problem faced by many of those fringe books has been that DC put them out there with little in the way of promotion.  Most of them ended up falling below the radar, drowning in a sea of Batman related titles.  Based on that pattern, I honestly did not know how long Infinity Man and the Forever People would last.  But I figured I had might as well give the book a try while it was here.  After all, I am a fan of the characters, as witnessed by the Beautiful Dreamer tattoo on my left leg.

Co-writing Infinity Man and the Forever People are Dan DiDio & Keith Giffen.  They’ve made revisions to the original set-up by Kirby, altering some of the characters.  I generally am not too keen on that, and was underwhelmed by the New 52 re-conception of both Darkseid and Highfather’s origins in Justice League #23.1 last year.  That said, I have to acknowledge that the Forever People were never developed in too much detail by Kirby during their all-too-short original series, and their sporadic appearances since then has left them somewhat blank slates.  So it is not as if DiDio & Giffen are upending decades of storylines & characterizations.

Mark Moonrider and Beautiful Dreamer so far appear to be pretty close to their original incarnations.  Vykin the Black has been renamed Vykin Baldaur and made into a more cynical figure (as much as I love Kirby, I really thought it was unfortunate that the only two non-Caucasian members of the Fourth World mythos were named Vykin the Black and the Black Racer).  Serifan has been given a change in gender & ethnicity, becoming Serafina, the younger sister of Vykin.  Big Bear is now the oldest member of the Forever People, as well as secretly from Apokolips, apparently having been given elements of Orion’s backstory.

Mark, Dreamer and Serafina are shown to be students on New Genesis who are about to embark on a study abroad type of assignment on the planet Earth, but they are unable to activate their Mother Box.  Vykin, who dislikes Mark and doesn’t want his sister going off-world with him, arrives to object, only to find that he is the only one Mother Box will respond to.  Reluctantly he accompanies the other three to Earth.  They are greeted by Big Bear, who has been on Earth for some time, working with human scientists in an attempt to advance the planet’s technology and bring about greater prosperity.

DiDio & Giffen appear to be focusing on the “rebellious youth” aspect of the Forever People.  Back in 1970, when he devised the characters, Kirby was inspired by the hippy / flower children counterculture.  Truthfully I do not know how much of that came through in his stories, though.  After their devastating cosmic war with Apokolips, the people of New Genesis mostly turned their backs on conflict, and the planet became close to a spiritual paradise.  Because of this, I never really understood precisely what the Forever People were rebelling against.  They merely seemed to be more impulsive and hotheaded, rushing off to Earth to fight the forces of Darkseid.

In contrast, in the New 52 (both in this title and in the pages of Wonder Woman by Azzarello & Chiang) it is shown that New Genesis is a highly organized, regimented society.  Highfather is now a more militant figure, closer to his Izaya the Inheritor days from the Kirby continuity.  The Forever People generally, and Mark Moonrider in particular, are rebelling against their world’s “control.”

When the Infinity Man finally makes himself known to the Forever People, he positions himself as an agent of chaos.  “The universe relies on chaos. It needs to expand, to grow, to learn. There is a corruption, a corruption brought on by a need for order that prevents the natural course of non-prescribed evolution. Both New Genesis and Apokolips are guilty of imposing their forms of order on the universe. This must stop. That is why I chose you.”

One can discern a state of affairs set up by DiDio & Giffen inspired by Cold War geopolitics.  Apokolips, with Darkseid at its helm, is a force of totalitarian order akin to the Soviet Union.  It brutally oppresses its citizens, forcing blind obedience & uniformity from them, and it seeks to expand its empire via conquest.  New Genesis is cast in the role of the United States, ostensibly working to preserve freedom & democracy.  But in the name of preserving its security and opposing Darkseid’s machinations, New Genesis interferes in the affairs of lesser worlds, resulting in unfortunate side effects for those planets and their inhabitants.  And while not an identity-crushing police state like Apokolips, the government of New Genesis encourages conformity and obedience lest individuality and the questioning of authority weaken the planet’s strength & resolve.

While I am a bit hesitant to embrace a version of New Genesis that appears to have such common ground with Apokolips, I have to acknowledge that this actually provides the Forever People a very clear-cut political system to rebel against, an ideology to oppose.  They are rejecting both Highfather and Darkseid’s paths.  They are seeking the freedom to guide their own destinies, and to enable other beings to do the same thing.

In addition to co-writing Infinity Man and the Forever People, Giffen is also penciling the series, paired with the talented Scott Koblish on inking.  I very much enjoyed their work on the first issue.  Giffen has often had a rather Kirby-esque element to his art, and that very much suits this series.  This especially comes into play in a scene where Big Bear reveals his technology and explains “Kirby is my communal reconstruction bio engine. He’s responsible for building and maintaining this environment. Without him, none of this would be possible.”  That was a nice tip of the hat to the King of Comics.

Regrettably Giffen involvement in DC’s big Futures End crossover prevented him from penciling the next two issues of Infinity Man and the Forever People.  So, yep, we already have fill-in art teams on this book.  I hope that does not kill any sales momentum or reader interest.  At least the guest artists were mostly good.

On issue #2, the art is courtesy of penciler Tom Grummett and inker Scott Hanna.  I’m certainly a fan of both gentlemen.  Grummett has always been good at rendering Kirby’s characters, including the New Gods.  For instance, Grummett penciled an appearance by the Forever People in the pages of Adventures of Superman about twenty or so years ago.  I enjoyed seeing him now having an opportunity to depict the New 52 versions of the characters.  Offhand I don’t recall if Hanna has ever inked Grummett before.  They definitely go together very well here, creating some lovely art.  I was especially taken by their rendition of Beautiful Dreamer.

Everyone’s favorite cosmic comic book creator Jim Starlin is the guest penciler on Infinity Man and the Forever People #3.  He is paired with inker Rob Hunter.  Truthfully, I was not especially fond of their collaboration.  Hunter’s inking is in the vein of the house style of Top Cow, with flourishes reminiscent of Silvestri and Turner.  I did not feel this fit Starlin’s penciling.   I would rather have seen him inking himself, or by longtime inking partner Al Milgrom, who always does a good job finishing Starlin’s pencils.

That said, the sequence towards the end of the issue, when Dreamer is inside her subconscious, conversing with Anti-Life, is very well done.  Perhaps for this surreal tableau Hunter’s inks were somewhat better suited, as they give Starlin’s nightmarish imagery an extra punch.  (It appears that DiDio & Giffen are drawing inspiration from the long-ago declaration by Kirby in the pages of Forever People #1 that Dreamer “is one of the few whose mind can fathom the Anti-Life Equation.”)

Nice coloring work on these issues by the gang at Hi-Fi.  I’ve always found it to be a good sign when that name pops up in the credits.  They are definitely one of the better groups of computer colorists in the biz.

On the whole I did enjoy the first three issues of Infinity Man and the Forever People.  DiDio & Giffen did a good job introducing the characters and establishing the premise.  I just wish that the comics were a little bit longer.  Twenty pages just did not seem like sufficient space.  The book really needs an extra two or three pages to enable the story to breath a bit.

I am very interested in seeing what happens with the Forever People next.  I know that this month’s installment is a special crossover with the aforementioned Futures End storyline.  And then there are going to be a couple of issues tying in with the “Godhead” storyline running through the various Green Lantern titles.  Perhaps that will inspire some GL fans to check out this series.  Oh, yes, from the pages of Batman Incorporated, there’s going to be an appearance by Bat-Cow!  That sounds like just the sort of delightfully offbeat, bizarre humor the Giffen specializes in, and I’m looking forward to it.

Comic book reviews: Human Bomb

Human Bomb is the latest four issue miniseries written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti to reboot the characters from DC Comics’ old Freedom Fighters series for the post-Flashpoint / New 52 continuity.  The new Human Bomb is Michael Taylor, a former member of the United States Marine Corps who served with distinction in Afghanistan.  Michael is due to receive the Medal of Honor from the President, but in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, he is having nightmares that he is somehow going to explode, destroying the White House.

Reporting to work at the construction site for the new World Trade Center in Manhattan, Michael and his co-workers are horrified when a series of explosions begin going off, first throughout the City, and then the rest of the country.  Encountering another member of his unit, Michael suddenly remember how, during their deployment, they were captured & experimented upon by an organization called C.R.O.W.N. and turned into sleeper agents, literal human bombs who can explode when ordered to.  For some reason, Michael is able to disobey the command to detonate, and discovers he can fire off energy blasts.

After a battle with members of C.R.O.W.N., Michael is brought in by agents of the covert government agency S.H.A.D.E. (presumably the same group Frankenstein & the Creature Commandos work for).  Two of S.H.A.D.E.’s operatives, Uncle Sam and the telepathic Joan, fill in Michael on C.R.O.W.N.’s background.  They inform Michael that the reason why he is able to control his ability to explode, and not be killed, is that unlike the hundreds of others abducted by C.R.O.W.N., he was a latent meta-human, and the experiments gave him permanent super powers.  Michael decides to join S.H.A.D.E. and take the fight to the terrorists who turned his compatriots and many other innocents into unwitting suicide bombers.

Human Bomb has some quite good writing by Gray & Palmiotti.  The first issue effectively sets up an intriguing mystery, the second is an extended piece of exposition that details the background of these events, and the third & fourth issues contain some really exciting action sequences.  Gray & Palmiotti also do a nice job with the character of Michael Taylor, a patriotic everyman who is thrust into extremely bizarre circumstances.

I appreciate how C.R.O.W.N. was developed by Gray & Palmiotti.  After the first issue, I thought that it would be explained to be the usual nefarious shadow conspiracy you see lurking about comic books.  Instead, the forces behind C.R.O.W.N. are alien.  Yep, as in invaders from outer space, which takes the story to an entirely different level.

As much as I enjoyed the writing on Human Bomb, the major reason why I picked up this miniseries was the artwork by Jerry Ordway.  I’ve been a fan of Da Ordster for some time now.  He’s done amazing work over the years.  Among his diverse credits, he worked on the Superman books from the mid-1980s to the early 90s, co-created WildStar with Al Gordon at Image Comics, wrote, illustrated & painted the Power of Shazam graphic novel (featuring the original C.C. Beck version of Captain Marvel), both wrote and created beautiful painted covers for the follow-up monthly Power of Shazam title, and drew several issues of Alan Moore’s Tom Strong.  It was Ordway’s Captain Marvel stories that really caused me to become a huge fan of his, both as a writer and an artist.

The unfortunate thing about Ordway is that, even though he does amazing work, he is often quite underrated.  I do not think he has had a regular assignment drawing a monthly title for a number of years now.  He’s drawn plenty of fill-in issues and miniseries such as Human Bomb, but not a single ongoing book.  I try to keep an eye out for Da Ordster, so that when he does have new work published, I can pick it up.  But sometimes that’s difficult.  I did not even know Human Bomb was coming out, or that he was drawing it, until I saw a review of the first issue on one of my favorite blogs, Too Dangerous For A Girl.  Yeah, as far as I can tell, DC did little to promote this miniseries.  And that is a total shame, because the artwork by Ordway is up to par with his usual extraordinary efforts.

Coincidentally or not, a few days before Human Bomb #4 came out, Ordway wrote a post on his blog Random Thoughts entitled “Life Over Fifty.”  He addresses how, despite the many years of dedication he has given to DC Comics, currently it is difficult for him to locate steady work.  It is an excellent piece, and I highly recommend reading it.

Really, it is such a shame that this is the current state of affairs because, as I said before, Ordway is an incredible artist.  I sent my girlfriend a link to his blog post, and she agreed with me, that it’s a very unfortunately situation that Ordway has found himself in.  And when I showed her a few pages of his artwork from Human Bomb, she flat out declared “That’s so much better than half the shit being published nowadays!”

Okay, I didn’t mean for a blog about the Human Bomb miniseries to turn into a rant about ageism in comic books, or a rambling piece about how much Jerry Ordway is underrated.  But he did an amazing job on this book, so I really encourage people to track down the issues.  Combine that with an exciting story by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, and this really is a miniseries that is well worth reading.

You might want to drop an e-mail to the folks at both DC and Marvel encouraging them to hire Jerry Ordway for an upcoming project.  He says he’s years away from wanting to retire, and judging by his recent work, he’s still very capable of producing top-notch work.

And considering that Gray & Palmiotti have done a lot of good, solid work rebooting various members of the Freedom Fighters — The Ray, Phantom Lady, Doll Man, and now Human Bomb — hopefully DC will let them at least write a miniseries featuring the characters working as a team.  That would be a great book for Ordway to draw.

Oh, yes, one last thing.  I’m usually not a huge fan of computer coloring.  But I thought the colors by Hi-Fi were excellent, and complemented Ordway’s artwork perfectly.