NuDiana? JMS' Wonder Womans Progress Part 1

This will be the first entry into what is happening with NuDiana. For those who don't know, Wonder Womans got a new costume, origin, and attitude. This report is not going to be about my opinions, which I will probably mention in other blog posts, but about the sales and critiques.

First off, sales.

Wonder Woman #600 which debut the new team and additions to the character landed at #24 with an estimated 53,521 units ordered. Plus 10,175 second printings. So that is 63;696 issues in circulation right now.

Issue 601 hit spot 38 with 39,672.

This is all good in comparison to previous issues. However lets look at the reboot under Allan Heinberg.

June 2006 4 Wonder Woman #1 $2.99 132,580
July 2006 251 Wonder Woman #1 (Reorder) $2.99 3,225
September 2006 244 Wonder Woman #1 (Reorder) $2.99 2,010

The sales go down drastically but Heinbergs run, whether you liked it or not, sold incredibly well. Part of it, of course, is that its a new number 1 but also Heinberg had huge success on Young Avengers and a JLA arc pre-Infinite Crisis which I believe helped this too.

If you go back further, Greg Ruckas run towards the end was doing well.

July 2005 36 Wonder Woman #219 $2.50 53,460
August 2005 74 Wonder Woman #219 $2.50 32,567
September 2005 189 Wonder Woman #219 $2.50 6,137

That's a combined 92,164. Huge for WW at the time and this tie in to the OMAC Project and IC blew Diana's numbers up. Orders around 40k units not counting various reprints. So some issues had around 50k.

Check here for more info on comic sales charts. Here for Wonder Woman numbers particularly.


Now, to some of the reviews for the recent issue, #602.



Major Spoilers: 2 1/2 Stars

IGN: 7.5

CBR Review: 2 1/2 Stars

League...: 3 Stars

Lost Man: B Grade

Newsarama Best Shots: Because there are a lot of moments here that Straczysnki comes up with — whether it's Diana's heart-to-heart with a statue of a goddess, or the two splash pages of Diana tearing through crowds of people — that I think would have translated better with more detail, more movement, more time. Yet in this static medium of comics, I think a lot of JMS's stage direction is getting lost, even with the art of Don Kramer and Eduardo Pansica.

Average Rating=B-

Some other reviews. Good and bad. But its looks that some people are mixed about it. Not necessarily bad but not engaging them or changing their opinion on the character. Others, liking it quite a bit but very few really getting A grades. At least on comic review sites, message boards its different.

I'll check back in a while.

Part 2