Sunday, July 23, 2017

Wonder Woman '77 - Volume 1 (written by Marc Andreyko)

Wonder Woman ’77 – Volume 1
written by Marc Andreyko with art by various artists [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Andreyko] 

Following the recent success at DC Comics of a comic-book series recreating the style and town of the late 1960s Batman TV series, Batman ’66, this short-run comic book called Wonder Woman ’77 came out a couple of years ago. It features stories about Wonder Woman set during the 1977-1979 time period when Wonder Woman was being portrayed on television by Lynda Carter. The art faithfully recreates Diana Prince/Wonder Woman exactly as Carter looked, not to mention Lyle Waggoner’s version of Steve Trevor. The writer, Marc Andreyko deftly mixes comic-book villains from Wonder Woman’s “rogues gallery”, with the kind of “cops and robbers/international spy stories” that made up the bulk of the TV show’s storylines.

I grew up on Lynda Carter, and her trademark “sonic boom spin” to appear in her satin costume. The theme song is forever imprinted on my memory as a part of my youth. I loved the new Wonder Woman feature film, starring Gal Gadot, but MY Wonder Woman will always be rooted in the types of adventures shown on the small screen 40 years ago. This comic book is a marvelous time capsule, bringing that feeling back, but with superb art. Two trade paperback collections of Wonder Woman ’77 are already out, with a crossover “Wonder Woman ’77 Meets Batman ’66” coming shortly, and a “Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman” collection coming in the Fall of 2017.

This first volume also features a nice afterword “Waiting in Wonder” by editor Andy Mangels, and preliminary sketchbook art by a variety of the artists included in this collection. I particularly enjoy Nicola Scott’s beautiful cover designs!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Batman ’66 compilations, by a variety of writers/artist, plus the other Wonder Woman ’77 titles.] [ DC Comics’ official Wonder Woman ’77 Volume 1 web page ] | [ Wikipedia page for Wonder Woman ’77 ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

No comments: