George Perez era:
Issue 1
William Messner-Loebs era:
We find a surprisingly gripping and entertaining read during a good part of the run. At other times, orders from DC's PTB dictated that the series change to be as different from the Perez era as possible, and Diana's mythos suffered for it.
Without explanation, Diana was quietly depowered to much more interesting levels. She got injured even more than she did during the Simone era (if that's possible), and we got to see the steel in her spine as well as her gentleness. This was the era of TacoWhiz and Artemis, of T&A and a multi-faceted and vulnerable Circe. Of Space Pyrates and Diana with a sense of humor and understanding of basic humanity. Terrific new villains like the White Magician and Mayfly were introduced as well.
Though the artwork during this era varied greatly, it was not the greatest, unless you're really into Deodato T&A. However, Brian Bolland did most of the covers, so we also had one of the best eras of cover art that Wonder Woman has ever seen!
Operation: Cheetah: Wonder Woman Special #1, issue #63
Shadows and Eclipses: Wonder Woman Annual #3
The Heart of the City: issue #64
Fever Dream: issue #65
Space Pyrates!: issues #66-71
The Song of Creation: issue #72
Losses: issue #73
Greatness Calls!: issue #74
The Last True Hero: issue #75
Knowledge: issue #76
Worst Moments: issue #77
The Fast Contract: issues #78-80
A violent, T&A miniseries that starred post-mortem Artemis. Characters regularly found themselves impaled to death, only to be brought back to vibrant life in the next panel just so they could be bloodily impaled again. Why do such themes have to be linked to the Wonder mythos? A depressing and not that well-written piece. Glad it happened to Artie and not Diana.
An all-painted, 4-issue trade paperback Elseworlds extravaganza showing us the glory that is Superman. Wonder Woman plays an important secondary role while demonstrating what hypocrites (cough) Amazons are within the DCU. Debut of the Screaming Chicken outfit.
Kingdom Come (1996)
A kind of Elseworlds story doing duty as both fake history and an awkward public service announcement. Unfortunate inking.
The Once and Future Story: a graphic novel, 1998
Christopher Moeller's 2000 all-painted hardcover graphic novel actually told a Wonder Woman story that focused on... Wonder Woman! When had we ever seen that before?
Phil Jimenez era:
Phil tried to collect all elements of every era and squeeze them into the current version of WW. Personally, I think one should throw out the bad and keep the good.
There were lots and lots of terrific ideas presented. Only Phil had the courage to bring the long-simmering animosity between the Bana and Themies to a head. But usually I disagreed with the way it was done. For a while on the message boards I ran a running score of how many times Diana won a real victory during her stories, and it wasn't pretty.
While there was plenty of soap opera—mostly being shown that women were basically squabblers at heart—there was also OTT drama, which is something we should see in superhero comics. If pacing had been smoother, if we'd gotten a First Meet with TrevorB and Diana (and if TrevorB had been worth her wasting her time with him), this could be considered one of WW's finer eras.
As it was, it had some spectacular art, as long as Phil was doing pencils. We also had some fine Adam Hughes covers.
Gods of Gotham: Issues 164-167
Issues 168-169 Amazon Civil War
A 2002 hardback, beautifully-illustrated graphic novel written by an award-winning novelist who obviously respected and was well-versed in the Wonder mythos. It should have been fabulous. It should have been satisfying. And yet... and yet...
Walter Simonson era:
Walter Simonson knows how to write a bang-up superhero tale, full of action and adventure and the superhero's basic shtick. I still have very fond memories of him writing Thor as a frog over at Marvel. Now DC gave him a chance to write the final Plastic Age story for Wondie. It seemed to be a fill-in run between regularly-scheduled writers, but even with some hiccups it was still a nice little story.
The Game of the Gods: Issues 189-194
A three-issue TPB story from Matt Wagner, 2003. This supposedly showed the
first meeting between Superman, Batman and Wondie, but is out of continuity.
Greg Rucka era:
Allan Heinberg
With great fanfare, DC introduced Volume 3 of the Wonder Woman title without telling us why it needed to be reset at zero and given a soft pseudo-reboot that didn't really correct anything or reset much. Of course they didn't warn us that Amazons Attack was on the horizon either...
Alan Heinberg was in TV, notably (well, notably to me) a writer and producer of Gilmore Girls. He'd written the popular Young Avengers over at Marvel, and his Wiki entry says he co-wrote JLA for a few issues with Geoff Johns.
So he landed the job with Wondie, though apparently he'd forgotten to tell anyone that he already had a full schedule that would keep him from his duties with her. The books came out very late. By the time DC announced that WW was now on a bimonthly schedule, it was actually coming out quarterly. Fans screamed to high heaven. Heck, it got so bad even NON-Wondie fans shouted for DC to do something.
Other titles were also running late, but none to the extent that Wonder Woman was. DC hired a person to correct the situation company-wide (aren't such called "editors"?) and eventually things did get better. But we fans and later others began to demand that DC hire a writer who COULD produce in a timely manner, and have Heinberg finish his story (if needed) outside the WW book. What they finally did was just that. Heinberg's last, long chapter that finalized the setup to Volume 3, appeared in the 2007 WW Annual, quite some time after the book had gone on to other things.
Who Is Wonder Woman?: issues #1-4, WW (2007) Annual #1
Jodi Picoult
The Nadir of Wonder Woman
Will Pfeifer
For a (video) review of Amazons Attack! more thorough than I could ever hope to supply, go here for issues 1 & 2, here for issues 3 & 4, and here for issues 5 & 6, all from the brilliant blog "Atop the Fourth Wall."
J. Torres
Called upon to finish AA in the WW book, Torres also wrote a bridge or AA Aftermath, and then a fill-in issue which set up things for his Wonder Girl miniseries.
52 issues—that's 52 weekly issues that concentrated on Superman, Batman... and Wonder Woman! The writer was Kurt Busiek, one of DC's best, and someone who didn't write ooky female characters. He also is DC's resident expert on continuity.
Now, this HAD to be good. Right? Right?
Trinity (the maxi-series), 2008-2009
Gail SimoneThe rumors of Gail Simone coming to WW took fandom by storm, and when she arrived, she did so with an explosion of creative energy. We were treated to stories with poetry and humor, deep emotion, awesome action, and Amazon honor. Diana fought in the modern world, on extraterrestrial planets, in S&S venues. She worked side-by-side with super-gorillas, aliens, humans and gods. For a while it seemed like this would be the best WW era ever!
Gail was obviously targeting her stories to showcase Diana as a "kick-ass," no-nonsense kinda gal who was a master of battle strategy. Now when Wondie made appearances across the rest of the DCU, she began to be treated with respect and even awe.
The roller coaster ride didn't last long enough. Do they ever? After a while the energy fell so much that it was irritating to read. But it didn't hurt at all that Gail got some superb artists to work with! For the most part, Diana never looked better. Imho artist Aaron Lopresti was one of the top WW artists of all time. His work was gorgeous!
The Circle: issues 14-17
Expatriate: issues 18-19
Ends of the Earth: issues 20-23
During the summer of 2009, DC published a newspaper-sized weekly "Sunday comics"-type of presentation. Wonder Woman was one of the features, and her story was presented with the amazing, OTT creativity of Ben Caldwell.
All the then-current Titans got solo issues. This was Donna's: Feb, 2010.
Wondie fans get an advance look at how JMS might treat her one month before his Bold New WW Direction hits: June, 2010. WW teams up with Zatanna and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon).
Thanks to a postcard campaign and DC's 75th Anniversary, Wonder Woman found herself returned to her original numbering, more or less. (I still think #600 should have been issue #44. ::shrug::)
DC took the occasion of this special issue to wrap up the Gail Simone era as well as the George Pérez overarching era, to present some teamup stories, plug in a lot of pinup shots, and kick off the new JMS era by pulling a PR stunt that got the entire world talking and gave us world peace. Well, it got everyone talking, at least.
J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
DC gave us issue #600 and then they took WW away. This debacle was planned to be 12 issues (though it only had about 5 issues worth of plot), but was stretched to 14 to pave the way for the Nottaboot... even though no other DC title had to do such.
Odyssey: issues #601-614
DC decided to do a Wonder Girl one-shot, most likely to introduce the character Solstice, who doesn't appear on this cover because it was a special "one character, one symbol" gimmick month for the line. Note for Titans continuity buffs: according to the writer, this issue takes place before TT #88.
Wonder Girl (series 2, I guess) #1
No, I'm not reneging on my determination not to include minor or even meh-majorish minor WW appearances outside the mother book. Instead, this is to synopsize the era of JLA in which Donna Troy, the mighty superhero, the best team member the DCU had, the woman with 50 years' history of triumphs (including that of saving the entire freaking universe), actually got to be a member of the holy JLA for a time.
Justice League of America (issues # - )
DC Kids tried out B&B (nope, not Bullets and Bracelets) again, this time with a slightly different title: The All-New Batman: the Brave and the Bold.
Wonder Woman guest-starred in issue #4 along with an entire slew of supporting cast and old-time villains for a highly entertaining romp, what they called on the cover, "Wedding Bell Bedlam!"
The Bride and the Bold (issue #4 of the series)
I had to include this. Someone pointed a gun at me. Here it is.
Wonder Woman and the Furies (issues #1-3) and Flashpoint (in general)
DC RetroActive: Wonder Woman
Right before the Nottaboot DC chose a handful of titles and put out three "RetroActive" issues for each: one trying for a 70s feel, one an 80s, and one a 90s. In WW's instance, we got one of the all-time great stories... and one of the worst.
Brian Azzarello
DC didn't reboot its entire universe at the end of September, 2011. It didn't exactly NOT reboot its entire universe, either. But things were almost completely different (in most of the new 52 titles, which started from #1's).
True to the promise of Amazons Attack! and "Odyssey," DC did indeed reboot Wonder Woman until she was pretty much unrecognizable, at least to me. Horror was the genre now, as it was across all too much of the DC line. Gone were WW's mythos' positive themes, and she seemed merely a (masculinized) co-star to the evil Greek gods.
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