I promise I don’t just review Gail Simone comics, but it was either this or Booster Gold, and since the latter is the SECOND part of a 2 part arc…on we go!

The issue starts with some Wonder Woman and Nemesis stuff. I’m not really feeling it. I see no reason why Diana should want to go out with Nemesis in his current form and the relationship seems incredibly forced, rushed and awkward. For instance, they’ve just started going out and there’s already some talk about him someday helping Diana rule Themyscria and he’s an honorary Amazon?  If you’ve wandered around comics websites, you’ll know Gail has been assuring the fans the forced feeling here is on purpose and there will be a payoff, but for now it’s frustrating me quite a bit and denting my enjoyment of the story.

Moving on, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the issue. Obviously the issue deals with the idea of Wonder Woman having a movie made about her, something that might happen in real life in about ten thousand years or so. Clearly a dig at the delay of a real WW movie, the issue continues to be meta all the way through. We even have a woman commenting Wonder Woman shouldn’t be an inspiration to young girls, due to the violence she uses “and pardon me if I don’t think wearing a flag on your barely covered rear end is a good message for my daughters”. Diana defends herself too, by pointing out it’s not a flag to her (anyone who read George Perez’s relaunch of Wonder Woman knows the origin of this, but Gail has been hinting at something even more being revealed about Wondy’s costume) and that “and would you rather I be ashamed of my body?”

And there’s the hilarity. Gail is great at handling humor, and here she shows why we should be cautious in wanting Diana on the big screen, considering Hollywood’s, and especially WB’s, track record in their treatment of women. For instance, actor Diana is somehow even less clothed than the real one, and even more offensive stuff has Wondy getting very angry and wanting to stop the movie from happening.

And there’s those talking gorillas. Everything’s better with gorillas, I don’t care what anybody says.

Without spoiling too much, Wondy ends up meeting a few versions of herself, including my favorite moment when she one punches the depowered 70’s Wonder Woman (“Beware my claws, kitten! Don’t make me use my judo on you!), saying “Is there no sense of accuracy in the production? I wouldn’t be caught dead speaking like that!” It’s heaven for any Wonder Woman continuity geek and amusing even for the casual fan.

So expect a lot of laugh out loud lines in this issue (I haven’t even skimmed the surface), the return of an interesting villain and tons of meta textual stuff. Despite Nemesis, it’s a good, fun read.