To tie-in with the new live action feature film comes DC Comics Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to the Amazon Warrior, a 200-page large format hardback book celebrating 75 years of the character. It covers the original Golden Age, the mid-point Silver Age, the new millennium’s Bronze Age, and the recent Rebirth. Incorporating major villains, reluctant allies, and storylines, this is the perfect way to get the background on this newly re-emerging fighter for justice, equality and truth. It is published by DK Books on high quality, full colour paper.

If, like me, you’ve picked-up only a passing knowledge of Wonder Woman, you might be surprised at what you didn’t know. I had no idea the Amazon island from which she originates is called Themyscira. I had no idea her enemies include Cheetah, Giganta, Circe, Doctor Psycho and Ares God of War; or that the Olympian Gods are still so prominent. I also learned about the strengths of the Golden Lasso of Truth, the Royal Tiara (thrown as a weapon), the Sword of Hephaestus, and the Bulletproof Bracelets. Choice quotes are dropped in throughout the book which display the conviction and empathy of Diana.

Let’s be honest; Wonder Woman hasn’t got the appeal or depth of character that Batman (whom I love) and Superman (not so much…) have. Just looking at the timeline in the book shows that Wonder Woman has been relaunched from the beginning not once, but twice, with many of the same events having taken place again. The more recent storylines explored include: Dark Age (which involves other heroes too), Flash Point (which is the Flash’s story), Darkseid (which is a Justice League joint story), and Wonder Girl (not Diana at all, but another young Amazon). So, you see the problem. Hopefully, the new Wonder Woman movie, along with the upcoming Justice League project, will take the character in a new and innovative direction.

However, this is about the book. It’s very well laid-out, with some lovely artwork – and I’m not just talking about the more recent examples. People often forget that the early artists had only a handful of colours, whereas nowadays artwork is more commonly done on computer using millions of colours.

7

Ty Power