For me Wonder Woman's finest hour came when George Perez was writing her stories. Perez's books were captivating and he had a way of making Wonder Woman seem fresh and exciting. Unfortunately, after Perez left the book, DC seemed to regulate the Amazon Princess to a second tier character. In my mind, she was only a relevant and/or exciting character when she was involved with the Trinity (Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman). Her stand alone books seemed boring, meaningless and without relevancy to anything of substance going on in the DCU.
Then came Bruce Timm and the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon series. Timm's stories made Wonder Woman once again a fantastic character full of heroics and humanism. He walked the line very well with Diane making her one of my favorite characters on the show. She wasn't just relevant within the Trinity, she was relevant in her own right. Diane was powerful, smart, compassionate, beautiful, humorous, intimidating and kind.
Recently, cartoonist
Ben Caldwell's fresh, new take on Wonder Woman has circulated in and around the Internet. Caldwell bring us a young and hip and continuity free, Wonder Woman packaged in a digest size format. His Wonder Woman is very cartoony (think
Skottie Young) with a skew toward the generally female friendly Manga style.
DC needs to take a good hard look (or another good hard look) at
Caldwell's take on the Amazon Princess. In my opinion, this new look and story(s) will bring in new young readers and bring back those of us that have always enjoyed Wonder Woman but have lost faith in her stories over the years.
I have posted some of Caldwell's Wonder Woman art that has been floating around the Internet for your enjoyment. Please take a look and let me know if you agree with me that his take could re-energize this once fantastic character.
