BIZARRO BREAK #4 – Wonder Girl
BIZARRO BREAK #4 (Wonder Girl)
“The Wonder of it All”
Writer – Mo Willems
Art & Colors – Ellen Forney
Seps – Matt Madden
Edits – Joey Cavalieri
What a weird turn of events here… a story by, Mo Willems?
If you’re not familiar with that name, well, lemme catch y’up. Mo Willems, among other things, is a children’s book creator… most notably, the Pigeon and Elephant and Piggie series’ of books. My wife, a second-grade teacher, is a huge fan and Mo’s books are a favorite of her students. So yeah, wasn’t ever expecting to cover anything by this fella here on the humble blog! The #BizarroBreak truly is the gift that keeps on giving!
Funny thing, apparently I bear a passing resemblance to the fella… and so, I have been mistaken for Mr. Willems by my wife’s students (and, oddly, co-workers) on more than one occasion. I guess all of us salt-n-pepper bearded white fellas look alike!
I mean, I guess I can kinda see it… though, thankfully my beard hasn’t gone that white yet! The rest of the hair on my head, however… well, no comment.
Anyhoo… let’s get down to it!
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We open with Wonder Woman (when she was a girl) reading a magazine, and finding an ad for a Lasso of Truth (only $99.95!). She calls out to her mother, I’m assuming Hippolyta, to ask for it for her birthday. Some four-to-six-weeks later, the booty arrives. She ka-rippps it out of the package, and immediately tests it out on her gal-pal, Etta Candy. Etta reveals that she only hangs out with Diana to get closer to Steve… and also, that she and Steve have kissed. So… this is gonna be one’a dem “be careful what ya wish for” sorta stories, innit?
Diana heads over to the football field to confirm all this… and, gets even more bad news. Looks like Steve kisses anything with a pulse! Also, everyone else she lassos up gives her some pretty brutal truths!
At home, Di elicits advice from her mother on what she should do next. Unfortunately for her, she lassos Hippolyta up before asking… and so, she learns just what a bother all of her silly questions really are. Wonder Woman (when she was a girl) bursts into her bedroom, lamenting the fact that she doesn’t have the courage to tell people what she really thinks… and so, she decides to lasso herself up!
Before we know it, she’s rocketing toward the Holliday Mall. After bursting through the wall, she sees her pals all having a heckuva good time. She decides her only “truth” is to be true to herself. And so, she ditches the lasso in a garbage can and joins up with her clique.
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This was a cute story… but lemme tell ya, I did not care for the art. It almost looks as though they were trying to make some of these characters appear as ugly as possible. Like, Diana herself is incredibly off-putting. Not sure why an artist would go to such lengths, when clearly not every character comes across as homely. Really made this story more difficult to read than it should’ve been. I kept wanting to look away… which, ain’t good.
As for the story… like I said during the synopsis, it’s one’a dem “be careful what you wish for” sort of deals… and, as such, it works! It works quite well. It’s pretty clever, and as someone who has read very little Wonder Woman, I’m not sure if this sort of thing is “well-trodden ground” in her stories… so, I found a measure of novelty in it.
Overall, despite my misgivings regarding the art, this was a harmless, fun little story.
When I first saw this my first thought was "alright, something (at least vaguely) Titans related." But then I saw it was just Wonder Woman as a teenager which reminded me of those WW stories of the 50s with Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot. In these stories she consisted with her teenaged and toddler aged selves. I'm not familiar with this era or WW in general for that matter but I assume this involved magic and/or time travel. By the 60s WG and WT were pretty much forgotten about until the Teen Titans comic came along and they needed a token female member and Bob Haney not knowing any better remembered the Wonder Girl from the 50s and mistakenly assumed she was WW's sister and used her. It took four years for the writer to realize this mistake at which point they had to come up with a backstory for Donna. What I never understood is why they didn't use Supergirl instead. She was a teenager and like the original male titans an already established character which I assume was what they were going for and that may have saved them so many continuity headaches over the next five decades. Well, except for when Supergirl would end up being erased from history. You probably knew all this about Wonder Girl already but all this to say I liked this story because of the whole throwback to those 50s stories whether that was intentional or not. Also, this leads me to a question I'd been meaning to ask you. Do you have a copy of Tales of the Teen Titans #91? I have a couple extra copies if you want one. It reprints New Teen Titans (volume 2) #31 but also includes a new backup story.
Yeah, not *quite* a Titans story here… though, I believe Wonder Woman (when she was a girl) has a poster of a Mod-looking band called the TEEN TITANS on her wall in the story!
We've done a deep-dive on Donna back on the Cosmic Treadmill podcast at some point… man, Bob Haney didn't give a crap about maintaining continuity, or even asking for clarification on a character! It's probably (definitely) why Donna Troy's entire existence has been full of stories trying to "solve" her!
I *do* have Tales of the Teen Titans #91 (the only Titans issue I'm missing from around 1970 is the first appearance of Deathstroke!)… though, I doubt I've read it. I just grabbed it out of completionism, and assumed it was simply a reprint. I'll have to give it a look!
I think DC released a reprint of NTT #2 (Deathstroke's first appearance from 1980) this past week according to comiclist.com
That's funny… the two "big" issues I haven't been able to find affordable first-prints on, and might have to resort to the "facsimile" editions for are New Teen Titans #2… and New Mutants #98. A pair of "New" books, featuring the first appearance of a "Wilson"!
I bought my copy of NTT #2 back in 1994. They priced it at $20 back then but they also had an ongoing sale: 1/3 off all back issues so really I got it for around $13. I had no idea how much it was worth until recently.
Oh yeah! The value blew up, especially with all the movie hoopla speculators and looky-loos starting to creep into the marketplace! I actually passed on the issue for around $25 a few years ago… definitely kicking myself for that today!
Heck, handful of years ago I also passed up NEW MUTANTS #98 for $20! That one hurts A LOT.
That also explains why Brave & Bold 200 is so expensive now because of Katana. I got it for just a few bucks back in the late 90s. Glad I did now.
Oh you also may be interested to know Tales of the Teen Titans #81 has some new material too. Not a new story just a few pin-ups in addition to reprinting the first story in NTT Annual #2 so I'm guessing they just needed to fill some pages.
No doubt about B&B 200… I was very nervous about tracking that one down during the BONUS BOOK coverage here, got really lucky finding that one for a couple bucks.
With the new DIY "Showcase" feature I'm putting together, we'll be looking at some extras and ephemera
Like you, I was just surprised to see Mo Willems in the credits. My kids were HUGE fans of his books.
Oh, he's hyooge! My wife dedicates an entire month to reading his books with her class. They're always devastated when that month ends! She goes all out, makes "Pigeon" cake pops, has the kids make Pigeon paper-crafts… they have a movie-day, it's a whole big thing!
All that to say, yeah! I was *quite* taken aback to see his name on this, haha