Review: Wonder Woman ’77 Special #2

Wonder Woman ’77 returns to give us a trio of stories set in the classic television show.

Wonder Woman, as made famous by Lynda Carter, is back with three all-new stories set in the universe of the classic show. As is normal for these retro-themed books, they are released digitally first and then collected to release in print.  Two of these stories have already been available digitally, with the third story in print first and scheduled for a digital release next week.

In the first story “The Cat Came Back” we have the return of Cheetah, in the form of Doctor Barbara Minerva who works at the Madisonian Institute in Washington DC.  She is upset because her exhibit got shelved in favor of an exhibit honoring Wonder Woman. An accident occurs while she is packing up her items and she is turned into the superpowered Cheetah. Her rage and frustration quickly takes a violent turn and is aimed squarely at Wonder Woman.

The second story “Celsia 451” is a tale of political corruption and murder as a supervillain is killing people connected to Positron Power Industries.  The killings seem to be connected to a nuclear accident that left a small town exposed to lethal radiation.  The victims are being killed by both fire and ice.  Wonder Woman and Director Steve Trevor soon discover a supervillain named Celesia is behind the killings.As Celesia’s motives for revenge are revealed things get more complicated with the Atomic Knights who want to put down both Wonder Woman and Celesia.

The final story “Wisdom of Solomon” has Wonder Woman enjoying some relative anonymity with Steve Trevor at the local fair on Halloween.  The fun times are quickly cut short by a couple being attacked by Solomon Grundy.  Only Wonder Woman is there to save the young couple and stop the undead Grundy.  Turns out Grundy is only after the boyfriend, though.  He has been abusing his girlfriend, a descendant of Grundy’s and Grundy is there to protect her.

The Positive

The writing in all three stories feels like it is straight out of the 70’s, and the artwork is solid throughout.  Each story has it’s own unique look and feel, but the styles are all similar enough that it’s not jarring going from one story to the next.

The opening story with Cheetah is probably the best story out of the three as Wonder Woman deals with both a human and a supervillain who hates her.  She shows that every life is sacred to her.

Both Cheetah and Celsia nearly steal every scene they are in.  They are great villains who give Wonder Woman a good challenge.

The Negative

With the stories and writing being inspired by the 70’s TV show they can feel a little dated.  Each story ends with Wonder Woman giving a kind of moral lesson.  The dialogue feels as stiff as a 70’s TV show at times with several moments of long exposition.

The final story is significantly shorter than the other two and ends very abruptly.  I feel like there should have been more to it.

“Celsia 451” has the opposite problem with it getting overly complicated in the final pages.  The inclusion of the Atomic Knights seemed unnecessary, there was already enough going on in the story without them.

The Verdict

I really enjoy these retro-themed comics.  The shows continue to remain popular and these unique takes on the classic characters are a lot of fun.  This book does have all the campy fun of the original show.  That classic feel is both a blessing and a curse as some items can feel very dated to that era.  Wonder Woman fans of all ages will find a lot to enjoy in this book.