Wonder Woman #750 is out 1/22/2020. — **Wonder Woman #750** is out 1/22/2020.

By Zack Quaintance — Wonder Woman #750 is out today, and it marks a celebration of the august character’s past, present, and future, accomplishing all of that by compiling nine stories by a host of creators and interspersing pin-ups between them. This is, essentially, the third time that a major DC character has gotten this treatment in as many years…with publisher slated to do the same for The Flash, Catwoman, The Joker, and probably more in the months to come.

With the first two giant-sized celebratory issues — Action Comics #1000 and Detective Comics #1000 — I put together rankings, ordering the stories within from my least to most favorite. I was fully prepared to do the same with the Wonder Woman vignettes today, but then it occurred to me. Wonder Woman was created out of a desire to unify mankind and with a central message that we should submit to the binds of love rather than the divisiveness of combat. Pitting all this celebratory Wonder Woman art against other celebratory art would fly right in the face of that.

So, instead of doing a ranking today, I’m going to instead offer my best encapsulation for what part of Wonder Woman’s history and character each of these vignettes speaks to….enjoy!

Wonder Woman #750 Stories

The Wild Hunt Finale (And a New Beginning)
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Jesus Merino
Inker: Vincente Cifuentes
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Lasso of Truth Says: This is a really well-done vignette that is a nice gift to the monthly, direct market Wonder Woman readers who followed G. Willow Wilson’s recently-concluded run (which has several of its threads wrapped up here) and plan to follow Steve Orlando’s forthcoming run. It’s maybe a little bit weird to start an anthology comic with a story that is so predicated on past issues it begins in media res, but I think this story is so well told that it works well enough. Wonder Woman battling Cheetah is also an easiest enough concept to quickly grasp. Anyway, if this story is indication, we should all be HYPED for Orlando’s forthcoming work on this series

From the story by Gail Simone and Colleen Doran.

From Small Things, Mama
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Colleen Doran
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Lasso of Truth Says: This vignette speaks to Wonder Woman’s historical significance as a role model to young girls the world over, often the only role model in the world of adventure stories and superheroes, depending on the decade. What I found especially touching about this story was an idea that snuck up on me at the end — that the strong have things to learn from the young too, and that we can all move forward together.

The Interrogation
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Elena Casagrande
Colorist: Sunny Gho
Letterer: Andworld Design
Lasso of Truth Says: In a lot of ways, this is the quintessential Wonder Woman vs. Ares, the God of War story, one in which he starts using deception and destruction, and she counters with constriction and bondage. This is also one hell of a creative team, from writer Mariko Tamaki to Elena Casagrande to Sunny Gho…one wonders what they could do if given a prolonged chance to work with this character.

Never Change
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Nicola Scott
Colorist: Romula Fajardo, Jr.
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Lasso of Truth Says: As the story above was the quintessential Ares story, so too is this the quintessential Cheetah story…and it’s brought to us by one of the best recent Wonder Woman creative teams in recent memory, Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott from Wonder Woman Rebirth. If I was ranking these stories (and I’m not!), this one would be near the top.

To Leave Paradise
Writer: Kami Garcia
Artist: Phil Hester
Inker: Ande Parks
Colorist: Trish Mulvihill
Letterer: Gabriela Downie
Lasso of Truth Says: This is the story in our anthology that delves deepest into the concept of Themyscira, which is as much of a presence in the Wonder Woman mythos as some of the supporting cast of characters (if not more so). It’s a wonderful glimpse into Diana’s home, her childhood, and the frame of mind she was in when she received her call to action. This story is as essential as they come in this anthology.

Emergency Visit
Writer: Shannon & Dean Hale
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
Letterer: Josh Reed
Lasso of Truth Says: This story really gives the whole anthology some range, possessing a funny premise and a fantastic artistic execution from Riley Rossmo, whose superhero work is truly one of a kind.

Bombshells
Writer: Marquerite Bennett
Artist: Laura Braga
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Lasso of Truth Says: This is probably the easiest story to summarize — it’s for fans of the bygone Bombshells comic, with the entirety of this vignette essentially focusing in on the many characters from that story, all of which are illustrated wonderfully by Laura Braga.

Always
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colorist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Lasso of Truth Says: This is the story that focuses on one of Wonder Woman’s steady (if underrated) villains, Silver Swan, who to my mind has always been sort of a study in contrasts with Diana. The two have a shared history, with something terrible befalling Silver Swan, Diana befriending her, and then bitterness turning the former against the latter. This story depicts it all basically as perfectly as you could hope for, and it’s great.

The opening to Scott Snyder and Bryan Hitch’s story, which just might mark a new beginning for the DC superhero universe.

A Brave New World
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Bryan Hitch
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Lasso of Truth Says: This is likely to be the story that most readers will be discussing now that the comic as out, confirming as it does an oft-reported rumor (including in this story I wrote for The Beat), that posits essentially that Wonder Woman arriving in man’s world during World War I would mark the appearance of the first superhero. Well, now we’ve seen a glimpse of what that looks like, and it’s interesting, to be sure. Also of note is that Snyder and Hitch’s creative work here is very well done. So, while Orlando’s story opens this book with a glimpse at Wonder Woman’s immediate future, this one seems to hint at her distant future…by going way back into the past (because, comics!).

The Good: Ive touched on a lot of the good above, but let me just say kudos to DC Comics for involving as many non-male creators with this title as they did. For major creators (writers and artists, specifically), it’s nearly a 50-50 split, which is basically unheard of in the world of superhero stories. It’s a nice tribute to Wonder Woman, who lost entire decades to sexist creators who didn’t understand her core concepts. Through that lens, it’s also an excellent indicator of things to come.

The Bad: It’s maybe a little bit weird to start an anthology comic with a story that is so heavily predicated on past issues, that it begins in media res, but I think that story as well as the others here are so well-told that the book overcomes it. After all, Wonder Woman battling Cheetah is an easy concept to grasp.

Overall: DC Comics just does not miss with these giant celebratory anniversary issues. This one again does an excellent job varying its stories in a way that depicts so much of Wonder Woman’s history and character, while also giving us a tease of what might be coming next. 9.0/10

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.