Book Review: Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 by Marc Andreyko

Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77
by Marc Andreyko [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Andreyko]

I’ve previously reviewed volumes in both the Batman ’66 and Wonder Woman ’77 graphic novel collections for the Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide, and having jokingly said “I wonder if they’ll ever try to cross over these two comic book series?”, not thinking that they would, considering the 10+ year difference in their setting. And yet, here we are — they did, indeed cross them over. Batman ’66 is a series of comic books in which the comic writers/artists try to recapture the tone of the campy late-1960s Batman TV series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. The stories are set in that same era, and feature “comic-book” fight scenes (“POW!” “BAM!”) and Adam West’s typical super-serious Batman dialog to Robin’s young gee-whiz reactions. Similarly, the Wonder Woman ’77 comic books recapture both the era, and the style of the Wonder Woman TV series, in which Lynda Carter starred as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (after an initial season in which the Wonder Woman stories were set in the World War II era).

In this multi-part storyline, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman first encounters a very young Bruce Wayne at an event in Gotham City in which Bruce is still just a boy. Later, she encounters him again in the late-60s era in which the Adam West Batman series takes place. And still later, in the era of her own late-70s TV series, Wonder Woman must call the embittered and retired Bruce Wayne out of a self-imposed retirement back to active status, as well as former Robin (now Nightwing). All these storylines cross over with a single villain — Ra’s al Ghul. This legendary leader of the League of Assassins constantly seeks out rare spots where a rejuvenating elixir can be found, which bring him back his youth.

The fact that the over-arching storyline in this multi-comic-book-issue graphic novel covers decades of time is intriguing. The art is excellent. My one major complaint is that the writer takes the relatively light-hearted nature of the 60s Batman show and tries to make it super-serious, overlaying some of the more “dark” themes of the comic book onto something that was always supposed to be light and comical. Basically, they try to turn what Adam West always called “The Bright Knight” into “The Dark Knight” more familiar to recent comics fans. It’s a glaring change in tone and somewhat difficult to adjust to.

None-the-less, it’s both fun and intriguing to see the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman and the Adam West Batman co-exist in the same “reality”, in a storyline that makes logical sense. Ignoring the sudden and drastic change in tone for the Batman ’66 characters, I really did enjoy this title overall, and recommended it for fans of both TV series! The covers are particularly gorgeous, and are reprinted in a gallery at the back of this trade paperback collection.

[ Wikipedia pages for Batman ’66 and Wonder Woman ’77 ] | [ Marc Andreyko on the Comic Books Database site ]

See Scott’s review of Batman ’66 Meets the Green Hornet
See Scott’s review of Wonder Woman ’77 and Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Wonder Woman '77 Meets the Bionic Woman by Andy Mangels and others

Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman
by Andy Mangels, Judit Tondora & others [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Mangels (and) Hoopla]

A few months ago, I reviewed Wonder Woman ’77 Vol.1, which was a marvelous recapturing of the style of superhero storytelling as seen in the old Wonder Woman television series starring Lynda Carter. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of reading Wonder Woman ’77 Vol 2, and this, Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman.

This cross-over title was a whole lot of fun, especially for somebody who literally grew up on both of those television series. Wonder Woman’s pilot aired in 1975, and the series ran for three seasons from 1976 to 1979. The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner, also ran for three seasons, from 1976 to 1978. Each series also had some bumps in its network run — Wonder Woman began as a 1940s era series on ABC, before moving to CBS and updating to a contemporary (1977) setting. The Bionic Woman also began life on ABC, as a spin-off of The $6 Million Man, then moved to NBC for the final part of its run. Both featured strong action-oriented female leads, and both featured wild and outrageous science fiction and/or fantasy plots, that often strained viewers credulity.

I mention the outrageous storylines specifically, because they tie directly into this cross-over tale. This trade paperback combines the six-issues of a comic-book miniseries, written by Andy Mangels with art by Judit Tondora. Diana Prince (Wonder Woman’s civilian cover identity, a government intelligence agent), and Jamie Sommers, a bionically enhanced intelligence agent (for a different agency) encounter each other while at an East Coast conference when they both have to help stop a terror attack. The two women bond over their similar lives and are soon assigned, by their respective agencies, to work together to investigate a vast international conspiracy. It turns out that villains from multiple episodes of each of the series, all of whom were responsible for creating lifelike androids that were tools of evil megalomaniacs, have teamed up to combine their knowledge and goals. And they’re all working for a WWII Nazi mastermind, who wishes to invade Diana’s homeland, Paradise Island, and wipe out the Amazon Princess’s family and friends.

The plot of this six-part storyline is really dark, and totally nuts, but still a hoot to read. We have guest appearances but many, many supporting characters from both shows’ casts, and artist Tondora does a fairly good job of having the huge cast of major characters all strongly resemble the actors who orginally played them (particularly Fritz Weaver as one of the mad scientists, and Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman and Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Rudy Wells). Tondora’s depictions of both Lynda Carter and Lindsay Wagner aren’t perfect, but they’re successful more often than they’re wrong, and this really does feel like it could have been a TV mini-series crossover event. Some of the plotline and dialog is a bit hackneyed, but they that could also be said about both of the TV series at the time as well.

Overall, though I truly enjoyed this time capsule event — it is set in the late 1970s, and definitely felt accurate for the setting. And, seeing two of TV’s most memorable TV heroines fighting side-by-side against an army of Nazi soldiers and Fembot female androids is marvelous fun. I went out and bought this one for my own collection, but you can enjoy it here at the library!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Wonder Woman ’77 Volume 1 and Wonder Woman ’77 Volume 2, by Marc Andreyko, or The Bionic Woman graphic novels on Hoopla.]

[ official DC Wikia entry for this mini-series ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Wonder Woman '77 - Volume 1 (written by Marc Andreyko)

Wonder Woman ’77 – Volume 1
written by Marc Andreyko with art by various artists [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Andreyko] 

Following the recent success at DC Comics of a comic-book series recreating the style and town of the late 1960s Batman TV series, Batman ’66, this short-run comic book called Wonder Woman ’77 came out a couple of years ago. It features stories about Wonder Woman set during the 1977-1979 time period when Wonder Woman was being portrayed on television by Lynda Carter. The art faithfully recreates Diana Prince/Wonder Woman exactly as Carter looked, not to mention Lyle Waggoner’s version of Steve Trevor. The writer, Marc Andreyko deftly mixes comic-book villains from Wonder Woman’s “rogues gallery”, with the kind of “cops and robbers/international spy stories” that made up the bulk of the TV show’s storylines.

I grew up on Lynda Carter, and her trademark “sonic boom spin” to appear in her satin costume. The theme song is forever imprinted on my memory as a part of my youth. I loved the new Wonder Woman feature film, starring Gal Gadot, but MY Wonder Woman will always be rooted in the types of adventures shown on the small screen 40 years ago. This comic book is a marvelous time capsule, bringing that feeling back, but with superb art. Two trade paperback collections of Wonder Woman ’77 are already out, with a crossover “Wonder Woman ’77 Meets Batman ’66” coming shortly, and a “Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman” collection coming in the Fall of 2017.

This first volume also features a nice afterword “Waiting in Wonder” by editor Andy Mangels, and preliminary sketchbook art by a variety of the artists included in this collection. I particularly enjoy Nicola Scott’s beautiful cover designs!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Batman ’66 compilations, by a variety of writers/artist, plus the other Wonder Woman ’77 titles.] [ DC Comics’ official Wonder Woman ’77 Volume 1 web page ] | [ Wikipedia page for Wonder Woman ’77 ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!