Welcome to March’s book club, Wonder Squad! This month we’ll take a look at a series that delves into Irish mythology, with writing and art by the amazing Liam Sharp!
“When a Celtic god’s murder leads to a war between the fairy folk and a possible breach between worlds, Wonder Woman must find the murderer and keep the peace while Batman investigates strange occurrences in Gotham City. As Diana must turn to the World’s Greatest Detective for help, the two heroes quickly learn their cases may be connected.”
If you’ve read it and wish to discuss, drop your thoughts below when you’re ready!
You can join or learn more about The Wonder SquadHERE
Also, if you happen to have DCUI Ultra, you can read the collected version of this series. It includes a glossary of some of the Irish terms and mythological figures in the back, which I thought was pretty cool.
Awesome! Really liked this when it came out, should be fun to revisit it.
Also good to see that there’s a glossary there because, if I’m perfectly honest, some of the plot went straight over my head the first time because I didn’t understand ANY of the celtic myth stuff.
Sharp has an art style that is far too classical/traditional for my taste, what I remember not liking about comic books (and illustrations) when I was a kid, and would see artists like - probably Frazetta when I had no idea whom the artists were by name. Today, I far more dislike what people often call the web comic or tumblr style of art and I did appreciate a number of panels of what Sharp did in this mini-series and with Morrison on their Green Lantern book, so if it pencils out with the rest of my current schedule, I’ll also be interested in this. I’ve never really read it, I just dipped in and glanced at pages and some of the discussion during one or two story-times that happened on a forum when this dropped.
You know, this post made me realize something – we never got to see Frank Frazetta draw Wonder Woman, and that, to put bluntly, is a freaking travesty. His style was TAILOR MADE for Diana.
I enjoyed this the first time. I like that Batman’s role is more detective than fighting. I liked the art, particulalry the difference between the look of the male and female characters.
I confess it still annoys me how this one was originally planned as a Wonder Woman story, but it was rejected and declared to only be viable if Batman was the main character instead.
I actually tried reading this a while back, but for some reason, I dropped it after the first couple of issues. Maybe I was distracted by something else at the time. Anyway, since Liam Sharp is set to do the art and write “Spawn: The Dark Ages” over at Image Comics, I figured I should give this one another shot. That book also has a fantasy setting that touches on Celtic folklore, I’ll leave some promotional art at the end of my reply if any of you are curious. Anyway, let’s focus on this book!
The art is simply beautiful! I love the colors and the style, capturing a slightly more darker feel to a magical realm. Not Horror per se, but still a bit darker. And it still knows to incorporate some bright colors when needed.
I’m always amused whenever Wonder Woman has to interact with characters that are connected to other religions. I know that both DC and Marvel basically make every religion and pantheon real, but I’m always interested in seeing a character like Diana who is so deeply connected to one religion have to deal with another one in this kind of manner. Another aspect I enjoyed about this was that this were Faerie folk, who also play a notable role in a variety of books relating to The Sandman. While the ones in this book aren’t exactly the same as those from that corner of the DCU, there are similarities that I recognized and appreciated.
It wasn’t until I got to this thread that I learned this was originally planned as just a WW story but was forced to put in Batman. I do hate knowing that because now it also explains why this ended with the text “End of Book One” and there are clearly no plans for a follow-up. All things considered though, Batman’s role isn’t THAT out of place. Or maybe the part of me that ships WonderBat just likes seeing these two characters team up on an adventure. I do associate the title of “The Brave and The Bold” with team-up adventures anyway.
Everything said - I highly enjoyed this book! Very sad that it won’t get a sequel.
This month we’ll take a look at a series that delves into Irish mythology, with writing and art by the amazing Liam Sharp! 
If you’ve read it and wish to discuss, drop your thoughts below when you’re ready!
The Wonder Squad HERE
