Wonder Woman ’77 Chapter 24 Review and **SPOILERS**

Chill With That Cold War

Written By: Amy Chu

Art By: Dario Brizuela, Jenn Manley Lee

Lettered By: Wes Abbott

Cover Price: $0.99

Release Date: August 25, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

There’s not much I can say about late 1970s America that isn’t covered in the excellent documentary miniseries, The Bronx is Burning. So here’s episode one, I recommend you track down the whole thing:

And now, my review of Wonder Woman ’77, chapter 24!

Explain It!

Last chapter, we saw lead singer LeRoi of the famous funk band Superfunk kidnapped by a U.S. defector and two dastardly Russians, due to a mix-up at the airport that landed some national secrets in LeRoi’s Sony Walkman. Diana Prince ducks behind a van to become Wonder Woman, then blows off Steve Trevor and runs after the black sedan carrying LeRoi and his kidnappers away. She gains on them for a while, but they pour on the high-priced 1970s gas, so she asks a trucker named Clyde that looks slightly like Burt Reynolds to help her catch up to the Communists. She hangs out…uh, on the exhaust stack, because Wonder Woman is a bad-ass like that, while Clyde gets on his CB radio and rounds up some fellow drivers using that awesome trucker talk that was popular for like eight months in the late 1970s. A couple of trucks block the escaping Commies, so they turn around and fire right on Wonder Woman and the hurtling eighteen-wheeler!

Wondy jumps up on the hood of this truck and deflects bullets off her bracelets with ease. Then she chucks her tiara with absolute precision, blowing the front tire of the sedan and forcing it to flip over…almost. Wonder Woman catches it and retrieves her headband before anyone in the car gets hurt. The Russians and Doralee Bernly, the snitch, try to run away but Wonder Woman lassos them handily, forcing Doralee to admit that she turned into a Commie stooge because it looked like her job was in jeopardy due to some newly-acquired computers…which we know that it certainly was. So she was justified in her treason, I’m glad we all learned something here today! Now we’ve got another problem: LeRoi is out in the middle of nowhere, and Superfunk is supposed to perform for Jimmy and the Rosalynn Carter—like now! Wonder Woman flies him over in her invisible jet, something LeRoi says seems safer than flying in commercial plane even though I suspect it would be horrifying, pants-shitting terror. LeRoi descends on the outdoor stage on an invisible rope ladder, the sheer existence of which makes me happy. Superfunk makes the President and his wife get down—and even get that old stick-in-the-mud, Diana Prince to shake her booty! Go figure!

This was a pretty fun story with lots of cool late 70s trappings—perhaps too many references to the Disco Era, because the plot is rather thin. I mean, this chapter was basically a car chase, then a cameo by President Carter and the First Lady. Who, incidentally, looked nothing like the two, I needed to use story cues to get the gist. That’s the real disappointment with these two recent chapters: the art is shoddy and not ready for prime time. Wonder Woman kapweeng kapween-pweeng automatic weapon fire while standing on the hood of a moving truck is awesome whether rendered by a four year-old or expressed in beautiful poetry, so I had fun with it.

Bits and Pieces:

Concluding the story that began in the last chapter, this one is packed with lots of late 1970s references and some moderate action, as well as classic Wonder Woman butt-kicking. The poor artwork, however, took me right out of this story and made it a little difficult to enjoy. Not the best chapter in this series, but still a pretty good time for the price.

7/10