
DC Comics/Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by Andy Mangels
Illustrated by Judit Tondora
Coloured by Roland Pilcz
Lettered by Lois Buhalis & Tom Orzechowski
A sinister cabal known as CASTRA has attacked the Inter Agency Defense Command in Washington, D.C., leaving its director, Joe Atkinson, dead, and exposing classified information for the nation’s intelligence agencies, including the Office of Scientific Intelligence. I.A.D.C. agent Diana Prince (secretly Wonder Woman) and Jaime Sommers (secretly The Bionic Woman) are soon on the case, bonding quickly even as they race to retrieve stolen experimental missiles.
Little do the heroines know that a group of old nemeses — which include Gloria Marquez (now known as Dr. Cyber), Dr. Franklin and his son Carl, Dr. Solano, and Orlach Hoffman — are raising an army of Fembots… and that they’ve just sprung Nazi villain Captain Radl from prison!
Well this starts off cute enough with Jamie proclaiming about a costume change and the two stopping a missile from doing any damage. I like how Wonder Woman is on the plane’s wing and while Jamie’s flying it, shades of her ex-boyfriend coming to mind as they go about doing what heroines do.
Then Andy decides to really delve into the bad guys here. Maybe it’s just me but I felt like this was two separate issues. There wasn’t a good transition and it really did make me feel like one arc had ended and another one began. While the gathering of those assembled is impressive and combine the same elements from both women it does feel like this a brand new story happening amidst the middle of an issue. I was lost and had to keep going back thinking I missing something about why suddenly we went here.
When we get back to Jamie and Diana we see that things are heating up and it comes as no surprise that they are attacked by Fembots. As the crew of the ship was to head towards an island where Diana once fought Dr. Solano. Which was all kind of spoiled with that villain interlude. There had to be a better way to structure this story so that we didn’t need the bad monologue and instead surprise the reader by the attack and have us discover the truth alongside both women.
So by the end of the issue we get to see Max who will join the girls and then more fembots coming after Rudy in what feels all too familiar. I really was hoping that instead of relying on the tropes of the individual series we’d get a much better amalgamation of the two. Instead it feels like Andy’s trying too hard to make a square peg fit into a round hole. I mean separately these would make great stories but together it feels like it falls flat.
I really want to geek out like a good fanboy who grew up watching both franchises but it’s really hard to do. While we get some great stuff and the idea is there I think the execution is lacking.