Wonder Woman

I have made absolutely no secret of my gushing, nerdly adoration of the Justice League animated series. Repeatedly. To the point of annoying the bejesus out of everyone here, no doubt. In short – it’s the greatest thing to happen to cartoons in, well, forever.

Building upon the epic stylings of the Batman and Superman animated series (masterpieces both), the Justice League animated series took all of this and added in just about everyone in the DC Universe. It brought obscure characters to the forefront of battles, threw in mentions of just about everyone else, spawned the most extensive comic-based action figure line ever, and really told meaningful, smart stories. So smart, in fact, that episodes aired in prime time and in a letterboxed format. That’s the kind of ‘classy’ we’re talking here. It’s rare to encounter a cartoon that can be defined as ‘powerful’, but this is one.

And I have to be completely honest here – I always cry like a baby during the episode ‘Epilogue’. Not only does it depict the perfect Batman, but it’s one of the best five television moments ever created.

This is not to say that the series didn’t have a few clunkers. Any show that depicts a ‘war world’ usually puts me to sleep, but the rest of the series more than makes up for it. Episodes featuring Batman singing, a Wonder Woman pig, and an episode where the JL is turned into kids that actually doesn’t suck all add up to a great experience. The series even manages to tie in the largely forgettable Batman Beyond series and give it some relevance to the bigger narrative scheme.

Justice League : The Complete Series, handsomely encased in a tin container, includes every episode from Justice League (2001 – 2004) and the follow-up series, Justice League Unlimited (2004 – 2006), despite just being called ‘Justice League’. This includes 91 episodes over 14 discs – and packaged in a much narrower set than all four previous DVD sets. These DVDs reproduce all of the bonus features that were originally included in the originals, except for ‘And Justice For All’, a mini-documentary about the transition between the two related series. This is replaced by a completely new documentary called ‘Unlimited Reserve’, which covers a lot of the same ideas anyhow. Even the images on the DVDs themselves are identical to the original releases, so you’re not missing any detail, really.

This whole set, which spans an insane 2062 minutes (which I include because the box says so, despite being a tremendously impractical way to measure time), can be purchased for around 70 bucks – less than half of what the original four sets would set you back.

It’s probably the best investment in an animated series you could make today, because they’re pretty endlessly rewatchable, have some amazing voice talent (seriously, Scrubs’ Dr. Cox as The Atom!), and hell, they’re just really good. It’s nice to see them all so respectfully gathered into one mega-set, especially because they’re so sequential and relevant to each other. Plus, as a 28 year old male with cartoons on your bedroom shelf, having them in a tin is slightly less repellant to the opposite sex.

You’d think that DC Comics and Warner Brothers would eventually run out of old Super Friends cartoons to put onto DVD. You’d think that Wonder Woman has lassoed every kind of dinosaur and/or alien invader, and that every Justice League member had faced their own evil doppelganger, or that Superman would just freakin’ stop putting himself in Kryptonite-likely situations. You’re thinking wrong.

The most recent DVD set from Warner Bros. is called ‘Super Friends : The Lost Episodes‘. While this might imply that there are a handful of episodes that never aired due to the show ending, or because Wonder Woman was animated without a top for a few seconds, these are definitely all episodes that saw the ol’ TV screen long ago. This collection of 24 episodes consists of a series of cartoons that were animated as the previous Super Friends series was ending, and were later shoehorned into the ‘Superman/Batman Adventures’ show in 1983 – but ‘Super Friends : Stuff That They Showed After The Main Show Was Over’ just didn’t have the same ring.

Once again, I must admit that Super Friends aired before my time – which is not to say that I didn’t experience my own Cartoon Network reruns, back when CN was a paragon of innovative cartoon revolution and classics. This batch of episodes seems to embody everything that I love about the Silver Age of comics, even more so than any of the previous collections. It’s not too long before you get Jayna turning into a giant crab to battle space robots the size of toys, and Superman being forced to garden by the awesome Mr. Mxyzptlk (which the show pronounces ‘Mix-Ull-Plik’… for shame). The screencaps for just about any scene in this collection are just beautiful examples of how absurd and great these cartoons were. They might not be the most amazingly plotted, voiced, or illustrated, but they provide more than enough ‘What The Eff?’ moments to make me happy.

It’s not as if the Super Friends are ever going out of style, either. Mattel recently offered a Zan and Jayna action figure 2-pack exclusively at San Diego Comic Con that people went insane over – and even more so when the remaining 2-packs were sold without their pet monkey, Gleek, on Mattel’s website later. And Gleek is definitely one of the most reprehensible things to ever happen to animation. Aside from that Bratz cartoon.

The DVD set is light on bonuses, featuring only a couple of scripts that can be downloaded from the internet using the DVD, but at this point, I’m sure that the extra features have been exhausted. To the best of my knowledge, and using the wisdom of TVShowsonDVD.com, WB has one more Super Friends related set to release, entitled simply ‘Super Friends’. This iteration featured teenagers Wendy and Marvin, who were precursors to Zan and Jayna, and was the very earliest Super Friends cartoon from 1973.

Pick it up. We’re almost at a point of completeness when it comes to collecting these old JLA cartoons, and even if they hold no nostalgia for you, they’ll be sure to tickle your modern animated sensibilities into submission.

As Bruce Timm declares in the DVD extras, Wonder Woman has always kinda been the forgotten character of DC Comics’ animated universe.

Sure, she had a pretty fair role in DC Animated’s magnum opus, Justice League Unlimited, but unlike her equals (in both popularity and power) Batman and Superman, she never got her own show. The ‘young, comic-loving’ demographic doesn’t always mesh too comfortably with the ‘enjoys stories about girls’ demographic – Powerpuff Girls notwithstanding. It explains why far fewer female action figures are made, and it explains why a Wonder Woman cartoon was never able to gather enough support to stand up on its own as a TV show.

DC’s master strategy, since JLU came to an untimely end many years ago, seems to be a periodic release of character-specific films direct to DVD. Starting with Superman : Doomdsay, and followed by a direct-from-comic adaptation of Justice League : The New Frontier, and an unexpected anime-influenced Batman : Gotham Knight, we finally have an animation that focuses on Wonder Woman. Each of these films has no relation to the characters as we encountered them in JLU, so every new movie is a re-learning process. On one hand, I’m compelled to question the logic of messing with simplicity and perfection, but on the other, I’m always up for interpretations of things I like. With this character-centric logic, a Green Lantern animated film is upcoming, as well as a film based on the comic series Superman / Batman. Can a charmingly comedic film about The Flash be too far behind?

Wonder Woman is a faithful, traditional retelling of the core Wonder Woman story, from her birth through to her first experiences with life off of her isolated home island of Themyscira. While this retelling is, in itself, a mix of a few previous retellings, it remains weirdly and unrepentantly faithful to the comics. Sure, Wonder Woman has an invisible jet. Why not? We’re not told why or how a race of people who haven’t interacted with external science or technology since ancient times would know how to build a jet, let alone make it invisible or bear a striking resemblance to a man-made jet, but I find that lack of reality a little refreshing, since we’re living in a world of fictions that feel the need to explain themselves, or make themselves realistic or ‘gritty’. Invisible Jet. Shut up, people. It’s from a comic. I thereby have nullified all of your arguments.

The film is rated PG-13, having been edited down from a full-out R version. Within the first few minutes, we have decapitations, lots of killing, and… ahem… bedroom humor. There’s drinking and innuendo, and all kinds of adult situations that we’re used to from your average prime time television show. If you let your kids watch TV between 7 and 9 PM, this is probably pretty safe fare.

DVD extras include a 10-minute featurette about the selfsame film, featuring the voice actors and creators. It’s pretty generic ‘we made a cartoon movie!’ stuff. The DVD also includes a good audio commentary from the creative team, but also inexplicably includes featurettes about  the other DC animated films. There’s a 2-disc version that includes at least two documentaries that are actually relevant to the character of Wonder Woman, discussing her evolution and history, so I’m not sure why Time/Warner would load up the 1-disc version with stuff that’s only marginally related to the subject matter of Wonder Woman. It feels more like a commercial for other DC animated DVDs than a valid set of extras, which is a bummer.

And while I usually don’t comment or criticize DVD box artwork, but the rear cover of the DVD is a Photoshop hack-job of epic proportions. I’m only mentioning this because it has the potential to completely put one off of the film, which is really very well done, mostly because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

It’s definitely enjoyable worth a watch, and for under $20, you can’t go very wrong. I think that Wonder Woman collectors would dig it as a new aspect of the whole mythology, and it carries a strong familiar feeling from the JLU that we know and love.

[Please read back here, here and here for previous articles about this year's Toy Fair, for all of its weirdnesses and delights!]

By now, I’d seen the fancy DC Comics dolls over at the immaculate (but welcoming) Tonner booth, but I had other DC figures in mind – and I knew that they could be found at the showrooms of DC Direct and Mattel.

DC Direct is Time-Warner’s in-house DC Comics merchandising group and toy company. DCD makes action figures, prop replicas, statues, Minimates and other great comic items, all aided by the benefit of having original reference materials and current comic artists at their immediate disposal. They are, after all, the source. They’re responsible for a large number of artist-specific and story-specific action figures, which number over 60 each year, created in (unnumbered) limited editions. While you won’t usually find a DC Direct action figure at your Toys ‘R’ Us, you can find them in comic shops and mall entertainment shops, usually at a price of around $15 per figure. They’re a great company if you want the newest bad guy from a recent and major story arc, but they don’t normally address figures like ‘the most iconic Batman’ in a 6” scale. They will, however, give you a Batman drawn by every notable Batman artist in the past 30 years.

Walking the line between ‘action figures’ and ‘dolls’ is the 13” figure line. These feature large, articulated bodies in cloth costumes, and unlike the small figures, these DO successfully capture characters at their most iconic and recognizable, often also accessorizing them with a bevy of weapons, removable parts and packaging them in a beautiful window box. Past offerings in this size have included over a dozen characters, including Batman, Superman, Robin, Catwoman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Lex Luthor, Two Face and more. Future offerings include The Joker, Harley Quinn, Green Arrow and Bizarro – but the only new announcement for this line during Toy Fair was a re-release of the original, rare Green Lantern figure, which has reached over $300 on eBay since it was released. This new edition will have a slightly different costume, as well as four interchangeable heads, including the basic Hal Jordan mug – with notable GLs Abin Sur and Tomar Re, as well as new fish-headed GL NautKeLoi, rounding out the variety. Sure, these figures are a little too big to fit in next to your 1/6th Sideshow toys, but they’re still fine enough to pass muster as their own thing.

A Wonder Woman figure has been on the drawing board for this line for over two years, with one undecided factor being whether or not she’ll have rooted hair, like a Barbie, or have sculpted hair. I put in my vote for sculpted hair as I spoke to a designer, and everyone else in the showroom chimed in and agreed. I’ve seen my niece’s Barbie-fros, and it would be an unbecoming look for a warrior princess. Plus, the appearance and manufacture of the series’ women should be consistent, and all have had sculpted hair thus far.

We will be getting a large Wonder Woman, though, as a Museum Scale statue. The most eye-catching thing in the showroom was this epic piece, with Wonder Woman standing at roughly 18” tall, wielding weapons and clothed in real fabrics. It’s a beautiful work of art, and it will accompany the previously released Superman and Batman Museum Scale statues. It’s not articulated, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a statue.

Next to her was a 1/2 scale (or, 50% smaller than actual size) Joker bust, which was another impressive and alluring (and slightly creepy) item, designed to accompany the previous Batman bust, also done in the same scale. Both feature details that are luminous and eerily human in person, but photography flattens them. Until you can see the statue’s pores shift in the light, it’s hard to communicate the level of detail in these. Batman’s stubble looks real enough to shave. Or caress, depending on just how you feel about stubble and / or Batman.

And then, we come to the regular action figure lines. 2008 will see the last wave of Alex Ross’ Justice line, rounded out with Supergirl, Captain Cold, Toyman and Batgirl. I’m still geeked out about the Jack Kirby New Gods figures, as well as the line of four ‘Showcase‘ figures, which pull from the whole history of DC Comics for favorite artists’ works to turn into figures – including the Superman with three alternate, wacky heads that show the effects of red Kryptonite.

Newly-announced in the All-Star line, which pulls images from both ‘All-Star Batman’ and ‘All-Star Superman’ comics. This line will have the first two Frank Quitely designed figures ever created, those being of Superman and a super-powered Lois Lane. Also in the line will be another Batman and Batgirl, drawn by Jim Lee.

Also newly announced is another wave of ‘Secret Files‘ figures, comprised of four Bat-villains : Hugo Strange (in a Batman costume, with an optional Batman head), Poison Ivy, Two Face and a tropical Joker from ‘The Killing Joke’. Slight variations of this Joker and Batman will also be released together in a ‘Killing Joke’ box set, along with a copy of the comic of the same name. Summer convention exclusives promise to be further variants of the same.

It’s also worth noting that DCD has announced a Huntress bust for their second series of ‘Women of the DC Universe‘ bust series, all designed by Terry Dodson. The first series, all designed by Adam Hughes, ended at the end of 2007 after a dozen great busts – some of which are worth three times the initial sale price. There are also new Ame-Comi figures happening, based on Donna Troy, Poison Ivy, Hawkgirl, and Zatanna – if you’re into that anime thing.

Here’s some news for World of Warcraft fans : we saw the third wave of figures but weren’t permitted to photograph them. They were great, and the line of four has TWO female figures in it – so run out and buy your Blood Elf chick from the first series now! I’m not a WoW kinda guy, but I like warrior women. My complete collection of Xena DVDs agrees with me.

And Minimates fans, nothing new was on display. Rumor has it that these amazing little guys won’t make it past an 8th wave, which breaks my little plastic heart. If you like them as much as I do, make some noise. It’s a great line, it plays well with others, and the character depth is stellar. I mean, AMBUSH BUG.

[Click here for the full DC Direct Gallery in our Community!]

[Click here for the full Mattel Gallery in our Community!]

After we saw DC’s showrooms, we made our way over to Mattel, who hold the other major component of the DC Comics characters licensing. Mattel takes a different approach to making figures than DCD, so there seems to be enough room for both companies to coexist – inasmuch as Mattel DOES go for the most iconic character appearance possible, and uses a broader selection of recognizable characters that fans have asked for, regardless of current appearances within the comics. Mattel also super-articulates their figures so that they’re very posable (wherein DC Direct uses minimal articulation), and use a build-a-figure system where one can build a 6th, bonus figure if you collect all 5 of the basic figures in a set.

These DC Universe Classics didn’t come with many new announcements, but the display of the next dozen 6” characters was exciting. Wave 1 has been on store shelves for a few months now, and Wave 2 will include Aquaman (modern and classic), Red and Blue Superman (from a brief period a few years ago when he changed his costume), Firestorm (modern and classic), Black Manta, and Harley Quinn, and with parts from 5 of these, you can build a huge Gorilla Grodd. Wave 3 will include Nightwing, Robin, Sinestro (modern and classic), Deathstroke (masked and unmasked), and Hal Jordan Green Lantern. Get five of these together and you can make a huge Solomon Grundy. The makeup of future waves was not yet revealed, but Cyborg and Wonder Woman are definitely in the mix, as 2-up sculptures were displayed of them.

I was surprised by the sudden announcement of the ‘DC Universe Infinite Heroes‘ line – a collection of small 3.75” figures spanning an unusual and diverse range of characters. While these little guys don’t yet come close to matching the quality of the large figures, they do seem to have appropriately simple sculpts with basic details, about ten points of pivoting articulation, and hearken back to the classic days of collecting from my youth. Their small size will allow for a larger range of characters to be made in a shorter time, and they’ll also be in scale with your Star Wars and GI Joe guys. That Han Solo / Flash smackdown that you’ve been praying for is about to happen. The reaction to the line has been very mixed, but I’m waiting to see the final product before I pass any kind of summary judgment, as most of the items on display were prototypes. No matter what, I’m getting a Bizarro out of it. Some of the other surprising figures in the lineup were Commissioner Gordon, Mirror Master, Thanagarian Warriors, Black Adam, Batwoman, The Question, and Hush – all of whom are usually second-tier characters at best, and don’t often (if ever) appear as figures.

Barbie collectors, note that a new Black Canary and Supergirl Barbies will be coming out, also! These should sit comfortably with the previously released DC Heroine Barbies of Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Harley Quinn. All of which are in my closet. Don’t laugh.

Mattel has also made action figures for the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. While the ‘Movie Masters‘ line is meant to appeal to the adult collector with a fixation on accuracy and display, a secondary line will feature the requisite Batman in a handful of impractical, brightly-colored armors with action features. Hello, Ice Lobster Helicopter Rescue Batman! Despite the recent death of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker in this movie, it’s reported that the action figure in his likeness will still be released at this time. I can’t help but wonder what the initial eBay hysteria will be like.

Finally, the kid-friendly Super Friends line doesn’t seem to have anything new to add to it either, as the most recent figures of Cyborg and Hawkman are just now trickling out onto shelves, with nothing more planned. A vehicle or two is on the way, and a series of plush dolls – but nothing too noteworthy for the collector. Cuddleworthy, yes.

These two companies are surely holding off on a few big reveals until April’s New York Comic Con, since most of the ‘new’ information was already a few weeks old. Here’s my vote for ‘Doom Patrol’ anything.

Stay tuned on Saturday for toys from your favorite non-comic book forms of entertainment – if you’re entertained by Hellboy and Heroes. Which I am.

The definition of the word ‘bust‘ can encompass many things. When implemented as a noun, we’re either referring to ‘a sculpture representing a person’s upper body’, or simply ‘the human chest’. In the case of DC Direct’s Women of the DC Universe sculpture line, we’ve pretty much got ample quantities of both.

Based on the artwork of Adam Hughes, the Women of the DC Universe series showcases some of the most well-known heroines in comics in miniature form, including Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. Adam Hughes is known for his classy, art nouveau take on comics, but more notably, rendering more-than-respectable bosoms on his female characters. Within comic fandom, you can basically draw a wobbly stick figure with a couple of watermelons glued to it and you’ll be hailed as ‘an amazing talent!’ by at least one industry magazine. Some of us are more discerning, but some of us also have had girlfriends that weren’t imaginary Drow Elf princesses. Adam Hughes is a talented artist though, his produce-aisle women included. The busts themselves are sculpted by John G. Mathews, and while they’re not entirely true to Hughes’ original artworks, they’re still effective pieces of sculpture.

More than being an excuse to make a bunch of statues with slammin’ racks, the Women of the DCU line is another example of an artist-centric line of products by DC Direct, who are giving more respect and honor to comic artists than has ever been given before. They’ve been giving fairly consistent kudos to original ideas and interpretations of their valuable character properties, and I commend them for it. But mostly, slammin’ racks. When the identity and recognition of their characters is what can make or break their success, it’s a bold move to allow so much freedom to their artists and writers.

This series of busts is cast in porcelain, and hand-numbered in quantities of about 3000 each. Each bust measures about 6 inches tall, and that includes 2 inches of base. For being in such a miniature scale, roughly about 1/8th of actual size, the busts have consistently exceeded my expectations. It’s a rare case when the box art, which features imagery of professionally painted prototypes, pales in comparison to the actual product. The busts are cleanly painted, well-packed and lightweight. They only measure about 2 or 3 inches across also, so there’s plenty of room for them on your collectible shelf. Who doesn’t like strong, empowered women? Who doesn’t like them when they happen to be easy on the eye? I don’t hear any guys complaining about feeling emasculated by the perfect fantasy physique of Superman!

Beginning this past January, DC has been releasing a bust every two months, beginning with Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, and just released this week, Catwoman. The rest of the year will be filled out with Hawkgirl, Harley Quinn and Supergirl, each arriving every two months. They’re all still fairly available for roughly 40 bucks each, and if you can justify them to your girlfriend or your mom, they’re really worth it. You know what? Don’t even justify them, because girls never listen about this stuff. Just tell them that you’re paying homage to a literary character, and if she can’t respect books, then you don’t need her. Catwoman will keep you safe and warm, and she’s clearly rich, with that diamond she’s smuggling into her… uh… safe deposit box.

Forget I said anything.