Wonder Woman 612

Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and PHIL HESTER; Art and cover by DON KRAMER and WAYNE FAUCHER; 1:10 Variant cover by ALEX GARNER


This is the one you've waited for! The year-long "Odyssey" storyline comes to an earth-shattering conclusion! Can Diana defeat the powerful forces that destroyed her entire reality? And even if she wins, she could still lose everything!

DC Universe32pg.Color

My thoughts:
We now get to see what is behind the door and who the robbed figures were who have been giving Diana cryptic messages and guidance.  The gods did not desert, they were driven out by one of their own and have been trying their best to offer assistance to Diana.  Here, Area, Zeus and more have been away from Olympus, driven out by Nemesis.  Nemesis was behind the Morrigan and behind the attacks that ruined the Amazon's homeland.  I am a bit ashamed to admit that I never considered, as Diana made her way behind the doors, what Nemesis would look like, but her appearance made sense.

Wonder Woman #611

Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and PHIL HESTER; Art and cover by DON KRAMER and JAY LEISTEN; 1:10 Variant cover by ALEX GARNER


The penultimate chapter of "Odyssey"! Who is behind Diana's altered reality? Who made the world forget that she is Wonder Woman? Who wants the Amazons dead? And, most importantly, why? The answers start to come right here!
 
My thoughts:
My big gripe is that the actual pages for Wonder Woman were really short.  There was, I guess you would call it a bonus issue of Super 8 in the middle of the book and then a preview of another title at the end.  I understand wanting readers to try out new things to get them to buy more, but this time it felt like the story was shortened so they could add something that, to me, did not add more value to the comic or the reading experience.
 
On the story itself, Diana is now coming after the Morrigan, not hiding or running from them and she sees her symbol, or what we know to be her symbol that she has some memory of.  Then she gets sucked into a supposed preview of the future where she is taking out other superheros because they didn't do enough to protect mankind.  I wonder if that is where this is really going.

E Readers

I have been toying with buying a Kindle or another e-reader since last spring.  In August I put one in my online cart and left it there for a week, before moving it into my save for later cart.  I just couldn't make the purchase.  It seemed like too much, there were so many choices and I couldn't see spending that much on myself, especially since my house is full of books that I am still planning on reading.  Then today when I as on Facebook I saw a post about the $79 Kindle and I put it in my cart.  I deliberated for a half hour and then went for it.  My birthday is coming up and, while it feels like an impulse, I've been wanting to get one for at least six months, maybe longer.  I have some small pangs of buyers remorse, but for the most part I'm just kind of excited.  I can't wait to give it a try and I am excited about the possibility of borrowing books from the library on it!

Wonder Woman #610

Synopsis from IGN Comics:

Revelations continue this month as Diana meets one of the Sisters of Fate, now an elderly woman confined to a hospital bed. Hester dramatically reinterprets Diana's origin story and even the fundamental source of her powers. I can hear some WW hardcore fans biting chunks out of their keyboards from here. Bear in mind that there's still no telling what will and won't stick when "Odyssey" wraps in a few months. All I really care about is that Hester grows and evolves the character, and he's doing an excellent job of it so far. He pushes Diana away from a place of rage and vengeance and towards one of love and compassion. It reads like redemption in more ways than one.


The script dips a bit when Wonder Woman dives back into action and enjoys a rematch with the trio of foes hunting her. I do grow tired of stories that feature a hero being badly beaten in one issue and then returning to easily mop the floor with her opponents later. Is Diana an X-Man now? But, in the end, this rematch is fairly unimportant, and it's the fight coming up that will really make or break the final leg of the story.

The lasso of truth gets a chance to help save the day, Diana Prince makes an appearance as a  nurse, Doctor Steve has a frame and she knows him, and she finds out that one of the fates kept weaving her another strand to keep her life force going, which I guess explains why she has had so many other lives.  Is Diana Prince just another strand on the web of her life?  The costume or outfit that Diana Prince gives to Diana is a melding of the old and the new.  It still has a more modern feeling, but has some touches of what most of us remember and call to mind when we thing of Wonder Woman.  Are all of the threads connected to lives and does that mean that she is living multiple lives at once?  Should I already know who is behind the Morrigan because honestly I don't.  I dislike how the last pages of the comic are used to give a sneak peak of a different comic book series.  They feel so shirt as it is, I am tempted to wait until they come out in book format and read them then which is what I may decide to do ultimately.  I think books rather than comics last longer and may end up being less expensive.


My thoughts:

Wonder Woman #609 Story by J. Michael Straczynski, Phil Hester Art by Don Kramer, Sean Parsons, Wayne Faucher

From Comic Book Resources:

Wonder Woman” continues its winding unsatisfying arc toward something nobody is quite sure of in issue #609 as Dr. Psycho leads Diana by the hand to all her supposed potential and greatness..


In this issue, Diana has been badly injured and is taking a mind trip with Dr. Psycho (going by "Edgar" here, taller and with a more handsome visage) as he leads her to all her “past lives” which are really just potential incarnations of Diana’s spirit. Phil Hester is clearly trying hard to get Diana back to who and what she should be, but it’s not effective or very compelling. At one point Dr. Psycho proclaims that, “Every era somehow finds a way to create you,” which is a nice sentiment in that it shows how necessary Wonder Woman is to the world. Later Dr. Psycho says, “It is not enough to merely become Wonder Woman, you must choose it. Create yourself,” which nicely reinforces the agency that Diana needs to have in her own life in order to be successful. However, since Diana has to be literally led by the hand to these revelations by her former enemy, the reality we experience as readers is of Diana continuing to be a tourist in her own life and book.

There’s some nice art here by Don Kramer, and some particularly gorgeous stuff toward the end when readers are treated to many different reflections of Diana as Wonder Woman. However, the art is inconsistent and sometimes really out of synch with who Diana should be, even in this incarnation. There are far too many panels of doe-eyed innocence, paired with “seductive” constantly open mouth syndrome. It’s pretty off-putting overall.

My thoughts:
I disagree with the reviewer from Comic Book Resources, I liked the trip through Diana's mind with Dr. Psycho.  We saw him rescue her from the three fighters that were sent to either take her out or capture her so I think it is fitting that he should make an appearance her as well.  Diana has been getting bits and pieces about alternate pasts since the first issue, so here she is being given a back story.  I'm not sure if we are to believe that she has been coming back as each of these different warriors, the blind woman, the pirate, the disowned princess and Wonder Woman or if it has just been her essence that has been a part of each of these lives.  Perhaps it is the whole parallel universe thing again.  I thought the cover was misleading because it made it seem like she was going to be fighting with herself or the memory of herself, but she wasn't.  Perhaps the cover with make more sense and the story continues.  The good part of having fallen behind is that I can read them each one after another without having to wait for a new issue to come out. 
Story by J. Michael Straczynski, Phil Hester

Art by Don Kramer, Sean Parsons, Wayne Faucher

Colors by Alex Sinclair, Pete Pantazis

Letters by Travis Lanham

Cover by Don Kramer, Chris Beckett

Publisher DC Comics

Cover Price$2.99 (USD)

Release Date Mar 30th, 2011

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris , Ian Falconer (Illustrator) .

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new illustrated collection of animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life.


In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty," a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In "The Squirrel and the Chipmunk," a pair of star-crossed lovers is separated by prejudiced family members.

With original illustrations by Ian Falconer, author of the bestselling Olivia series of children's books, these stories are David Sedaris at his most observant, poignant, and surprising.

My thoughts:
About five or six years ago I belonged to my one and only book club.  It lasted for a year and each month we lost more and more readers until at the end there were only two to four of us.  One of the books we read before losing so many members was David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day.  Two of the other women had read it before and raved about it.  I liked the second half but was bored during the first section, granted I only gave myself two days to read it before we were meeting to discuss it, but for me it didn't get funny until half way.  This was my second attempt at his books.

I'm not sure if I liked it or not.  While it made me laugh a couple times it was nowhere near as entertaining as Chelsea Handler's two books.  I'm afraid I loved those so much that they are now going to be the ideal I hold other books up to.  It could be that this type of humor isn't for me.  The stories that made the biggest impact on me were "The Judicious Brown Chicken" who keeps taking what happens to her and the other birds as lessons on what to be until she finally realizes that those things are just that, things, and she should be herself just in time to be selected by the farmer's wife for dinner.  In "The Parrot and the Potbellied Pig" the pig is so dissatisfied at being called potbellied when he barely eats and exercises all the time that he is consumed with dieting to the point of anorexia instead of brushing off the label and being happy with himself.  And lastly "The Mouse and the Snake" which features a mouse who keeps a snake as a pet until the inevitable happens, which she never saw coming.  Even a day after finishing it I can't say if I'd recommend this or not.  I liked the shortness of the stories and how they lent themselves to small moments of free time.  I think I will give Sedaris one more chance and if that book doesn't grab me I will admit that he just isn't for me.

Details
•Pub. Date: October 2011

•Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
•Format: Paperback , 192pp
•ISBN-13: 9780316038409
•ISBN: 0316038407

Wonder Woman #608 By J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester (writers), Geraldo Borges (pencils), Marlo Alquiza (inks), Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story from Comic Book Review: Diana is forced to take on Cheetah and the other fallen Amazonians in a brutal, bloody battle that the princess does not get the better end of. Fortunately, although the terrible trio manage to destroy most of the rest of the surviving Amazons, Diana has another, more unexpected benefactor come to her aid.

By J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester (writers), Geraldo Borges (pencils), Marlo Alquiza (inks), Travis Lanham (letters)


My thoughts:
So I am thinking I should know who the crazy looking man at the end is who is claiming to be a doctor, but I'm not totally sure.  I recall there being someone like that in the retroactive issue I read who wanted Wonder Woman to love him and be with him, but not his name.  I'll have to look it up.  Anyway, it seems like now Diana is all alone in the world.  All of her Amazonian sisters have fallen to this current onslaught and without her mysterious savior she would be gone too.  The two remaining Morrigan want to go and watch Diana be defeated and caught but are warned by the spirit of their dead sister that Diana needs to die so she her spirit can aid the higher power they are supposed to be working for, so now there is someone above the women who were above or behind the original burning man.  The ladder just keeps growing!  I'm thinking it must be a god but which one I am really not sure.