WONDER WOMAN #24

A Star In The Heavens, Part One of Two:  Celebrity

November 2008

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Bernard Chang

Inks by Bernard Chang

Cover by Aaron Lopresti

Synopsis

On Themyscira, Wonder Woman takes Tom Tresser to meet her mother, Hippolyta.  In Hollywood, Wonder Woman meets with executives to discuss the movie production based on her life.  When she sees what they have done with her life story, Wonder Woman announces the film has been canceled.  Suddenly, she starts to fight with the various actors portraying roles in the film.  In the middle of it, she realizes that she is the victim of poison.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This feels like two issues into one and while the issue works well enough, I think Simone might’ve benefited by making these two separate issues, rather than part of one, and give more pages to the stories that she is trying to tell.  The first part is easily the best and it just ends way too soon for my liking; I wanted more.  I loved the way Simone mixed the real-life aspects of meeting your girlfriend’s mother with the fantasy aspect of meeting the Queen of the Amazons.  The second part is good, but it seems condensed and rushed and I think might’ve benefited from more space to tell the story.  There are moments that don’t quite make sense (Diana’s hug of the film executive) and moments that Simone addresses that seemed to be glossed over (Diana never does explain what her uniform means).  The revelation of the villain of the story also lacks dramatic weight; she barely appears before the story comes to an abrupt end. 

As much as I really liked the first part of the issue, I think I would’ve liked it a lot more if Simone had waited until she had the chance to establish the relationship between Tom and Diana.  It feels odd that Tom would meet Hippolyta so soon.  I don’t think we have actually seen Tom and Diana on a date; beyond the ceremony we saw several issues ago, the two have basically been apart from each other.  Despite that fact, the exchange between Tom and Hippolyta is wonderful, with truly genuinely funny moments and a few tender moments as well.  It is easily the best thing that Simone has written for this title that does not include the gorillas.

Speaking of the gorillas, they appear again in the second part of the issue and, as usual, provide some of the best comedic moments (“What did you put in your briefcase”).  I gotta tell ya, talking gorillas is comedy gold. 

Comic Connection

She is not identified outright in the comic, but I think the villain is the Queen of Fables, who previously appeared in JLA (issues #47 to #49), written by Mark Waid and Gail Simone, and in Action Comics (issue #833 and #834), written by Gail Simone.. 

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