Customer Reviews

Just Imagine Stan Lee's Wonder Woman

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this along with the Just Imagine Superman title, primarily out of a love for the characters and a nostalgic fondness for Stan Lee. Avoid the Superman title (look up my review on that page) but this one is worth the money.

Lee's writing is broad and under-nuanced, but at least with Wonder Woman he doesn't have a checklist of mythical elements he feels compelled to include. This frees him to write a more compelling and breathable story. That's not to say it IS a compelling story - it's just a MORE compelling story than the Superman title.

What saves this book is the breathtaking art by Jim Lee, with the amazing production values and special effects that he is an expert at utilizing. The character design is excellent, and Jim Lee gives Stan Lee so many more panels to work with that Stan is actually able to write a good amount of text. The back cover by Adam Hughes is stunning, but the backup feature "On The Streets" is fairly blah.

All in all it's less painful than the Superman title, and worth your nickel - for the art.

I loved this story or Wonder Woman. The art was beautiful and Stan Lee and Jim Lee really did a great job portraying a heroine of stunning proportion. I think people are much too stuck in the past of the "look" of Wonder Woman with the blue star underwear to give a new idea a fair shot, but I have to say this has been a favorite read of mine of Wonder Woman and I wish they would continue this epic story.

I love Stan Lee. I love Jim Lee. I love Wonder Woman. So why didn't this work? Well, for starters, there is just no way that you can easily unravel the history that comes with the name Wonder Woman. (As DC found out when they revamped Wonder Woman with issue 600, and as they'll no doubt find out in the post Flashpoint continuity.) I think this tale about a woman named Maria Mendoza would be MUCH more suited if it were a story that was not reimagining Wonder Woman, tribute or not. The original creative elements are all there, but the story telling is... I don't want to say bad, because it's not. It's just very VERY dated. It throws back to the era of Stan Lee's early work, when comics were less dark and serious, though he tries very hard to go to a dark place here. But Stan's light hearted writing just shines through. Jim Lee's art? Well, it's SPECTACULAR, like always. As a Wonder Woman collector, I'd say this is unique enough and enjoyable enough to be worth adding to your collection. But don't go into it with any preconceived notions, because Stan did his job here and vastly shied away from preconceptions. Overall, I'd have given this a 3.5 stars. Since that's not an option, and it's no quite 4 stars, it got rounded down to a 3. Enjoyable, but different, and it feels very dated. So anyway, that's my $.02 on the matter.

Thanks so much for your time folks.
Sincerely, R.A. McDowell

I was expecting some sort of an Elseworlds scenario in this title, but this Wonder Woman by Stan Lee is totally far-fetched. I'm glad WW was created by William Moulton Marston and re-created by George Perez. DC succeeded in selling this short-lived title, but now I wish I had never bought it!