Best Wonder Woman Runs

Paul,

An interesting melange there, that's for sure!

The "Greatest" moniker on that collection might be a bit over-stated, but that book is a fine way to sample many different eras of Wonder Woman's long history, although it finishes up with a story from the Phil Jimenenz run, so nothing from either Gail Simone or Greg Rucka, who both did stellar work more recently.

The "Twelve Labors" collection has some interesting stuff, but there's also some negativity around it, as why would a re-powered Wonder Woman need to be "tested" to see if she's worthy of re-joining the JLA? Hasn't she done enough previously, for Hera's sake? Still, some fun stories in the classic style, and not a bad read at all.

The "Amazon Princess" collection contains the stories that were my introduction to the solo adventures of Wonder Woman, so there's plenty of nostalgic value, and great art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, but the stories by Robert Kanigher are rather light on substance, and rather hard on the core values that Dr. Marston had deemed essential. That said, I do own this volume, and have enjoyed re-visiting the tales that helped cement my passion for the character.

JMS's "Odyssey" is something I need to check back in on, as I drifted away due to the pending re-boot. It was almost an Elseworlds tale, so I think if I take that approach, I might have a different read on it now than then.

As to recommendations, the George Perez run in TPB is OOP for the most part, but an omnibus is coming soon, but the Jimenez, Rucka, and Simone  eras are well-represented, and highly recommended by this office, as would be, of course, at least checking in to the first "Chronicles" to get a feel for what Dr. William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter created back in 1941 for comparison to what has come since.

For a quick Wonder Woman time-line, you could check out Wonder Woman Milestones , and for some engaging conversations on the subject of the Amazon Princess, there are both the Missfits Episode #21 Wonder Woman Spectacular and our own Talking Comics Wonder Woman Panel that featured Trina Robbins and Greg Rucka.

Hope this all helped, and have fun reading!

ditto.

Thanks for the recommendation Bob, MajorJay, Tony, and Henry. I have Pérez, Jimenez, Rucka, and Simone runs on the list. I am also adding JLA:Golden Perfect to the list. I had a hard time finding A League of One. In my search for books, I am finding that DC is terrible about keeping Wonder Woman books in print or putting the trades on Comixology. I am still holding out hope that DC will implement something like Marvel Unlimited so people can go back and read older stuff with ease and less damage on the pockets.

Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia is also pretty phenomenal (if a little too-short), if no-one's mentioned that as yet.

Reposting this from the Missfits thread on their Wonder Woman episode:


For those of you interested in our WW recommendations, they were:



--WW Volume 2, #1-62 by George Perez. The first parts of this are in trades; an omnibus with the first 24 will be out next year.

--WW Volume 2, #195-226 by Greg Rucka. 5 trades plus the standalone trade The Hiketeia.



--WW Volume 1, Sensation Comics, All Star Comics, Comic Cavalcade by W.M. Marston and H.G. Peter. Some are collected in trades called "Chronicles" 1-3.

--WW Volume 2, #164-188, especially #170, by Phil Jimenez

--WW Volume 3, #14-44 by Gail Simone



--Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman--this is the current digital first series by various writers and artists

--Spirit of Truth by Paul Dini and Alex Ross

--The Once and Future Story (trade) by Trina Robbins

--Wonder Woman #600, various writers and artists

--Smallville Season 11 #56-69 digital, #16-19 print (trade #5 just out) by Bryan Q. Miller

--Scooby-Doo Team Up #9-10 digital, #5 print by Sholly Fisch

--Team ups of the Brave and the Bold #33 by J Michael Straczynski, art by Cliff Chiang



--The Wonder Woman animated film (2009)

--Justice League, the animated series: Check out The Savage Time, The Once and Future Thing, Grudge Match, This Little Piggy...and many more.

--the Wonder Woman tv show, particularly the first season



Other stuff that's more mixed...:

--WW Volume 4, #1-35 by Brian Azzarello, art by Cliff Chiang. Some good in here, some truly awful changes to WW's origin, upbringing, and propensity to name-calling and violence

--WW Volume 2, #63-100 by William Messner-Loebs. Some good in here, but not much of it is collected. The most famous is "The contest" #90-100, which has a good story but very "bad girl" art. I would recommend this more than Bob.

--WW Volume 2, #101-136 by John Byrne. Not all collected either. Bob would recommend this more than me.