Diana Fights Herself and a Couple Old Foes in Wonder Woman #782

In “Through a Glass Darkly,” Diana has traveled with Deadman to the resting place of Seigfried to hopefully put her feelings of him to rest as well. Wonder Woman #782 is written by Michael Conrad, Becky Cloonan, art by Marcio Takara, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, and lettered by Pat Brosseau.

Cat Purcell: Andrea I’m so looking forward to writing with you again on Wonder Woman! A fair amount of adventure has happened since Wonder Woman returned from the dead and I’m eager to parse through it with your insight!

Andrea Ayres: Cat, thank you for sticking with me and dealing with all of my…well, shit. I am just so excited to be back writing with you. You always bring such insight into Wonder Woman.

Taking Flight

Cat: While en route to Sweden, Diana and Boston’s plane is swarmed by Wonder Women who shatter at the slightest touch. Boston tries to keep the crew and passengers calm while Diana uses her lasso to gain control of the situation. Do you have any theories for all these copies of Wonder Woman without any life signs, Andrea?

Andrea: Since I already read the rest of Wonder Woman #782, I pretty much know who is behind this, haha. That said, I’m not particularly sure how I feel about the idea of Diana facing more Dianas. I feel like this is well-worn territory for Conrad and Cloonan. What do you think?

Cat: It’s becoming a trope, I’m afraid. I never thought I’d say I missed Diana fighting grotesque monsters, but I sure am starting to. Wonder Woman fighting imitations while journeying the multiverse was easier to make sense of compared to this seemingly random attack on her and Steve.

That being said, I do enjoy the banter between Deadman and Wonder Woman. He challenges her once they’re safely back on the ground to remember this isn’t just her problem, and I thought that was important.

Andrea: Absolutely, the banter between Deadman and Wonder Woman tends to be pretty enjoyable. Like Boston, I, too, want a Swedish breakfast. Hell, I’d take any breakfast over my cereal and yogurt but, ya know, gal’s gotta make do here. Steve and Diana keep trying to connect via something I’m told is called a “telephone call.” Now that’s something I remember doing a few years back but have since forgotten. Steve and Diana are caught in a game of phone tag. At least we get some lovely views of Steve’s upper trapezius muscles, which is a personal favorite muscle grouping of mine. What do you think these two need to discuss?

Cat: All the art teams we’ve seen in this run of Wonder Woman do a wonderful job of drawing men, so kudos to that. Bonvillain’s color tones in this issue alone are incredible. She showed amazing intensity when Diana was in Asgard, but these muted oranges and purples are just as delicious as Takara’s Steve Trevor.

I could gush all over the art forever, but I will say connecting through phone tag when international is THE WORST. Especially added on to Diana having come back from the dead with little time to catch up with Trevor. From their break up before till now, I can imagine there are endless things to talk about, and I liked Siggy, but I would love to see them try it again. Steve and Diana will always be one of my favorite superhero couples.

Andrea: Steve and Diana are a classic couple, and it’s hard to stay mad at them even though I loved Siggy. I’m an equal opportunity hunk defender. It’s just hunks all the way down with this creative team, and I’m not mad at it.

Anyway, it looks like Dr. Psycho is back to his old antics. He’s going by Cizko now, thanks to a “rebrand.” Honestly, I can’t help but read Dr. Psycho as a Tucker Carlson type. That’s a delightful thing for me personally because I dislike both immensely.

Head in the Clouds

Cat: Tucker Carlson is exactly who Dr. Psycho reminds me of in this world! One of the things that struck me with this issue was how on the nose he felt. When Diana was dealing with Wonder Man in Earth-11, this was what I had expected Wonder Man to feel like. The bristling, spitting, frustration of a MRA type needing attention is depicted well in this shot of Cizko’s show. I could see several people in life inspired by Cizko the way Tucker inspires them.

In this bit, Cizko channels Matthias Knutzen. Now I had to do some research because I wasn’t familiar with him. Still, he seems to fit right in with these guys as a German Atheist who condemned organized religion, insisted there was no god or devil and that this life was all there was, among other things. This is certainly interesting to me being that Cizko’s seen first hand how the multiverse stretches into death, but hey, whatever, we know Dr. Psycho will twist things to his own end. What did you think of the allusion to who he channels next, Andrea?

Andrea: Damn Cat, excellent sleuthing. It’s incredible how many of these Carlson types have peppered our history. There are scared people, vulnerable people, and those waiting to exploit that fear and vulnerability. People believe in conspiracy theories for any number of reasons, but times of uncertainty tend to exacerbate the prevalence of these theories. In September, Pew Research released work regarding the 2020 election, partisanship and conspiracy theories. They found that a greater degree of partisanship is linked with specific news media diets. Those diets often contributed to how aware people were of a conspiracy theory and were somewhat indicative of their likelihood to believe in them.

This isn’t new, however. If you consider one of the favorite questions political pollsters ask Americans, it’s one about how people generally feel about the country’s direction. A recent poll from November indicated a whopping two-thirds of Americans felt the country was moving in the wrong direction. But again, this has been true for decades now. What does this tell us? It tells us that people are operating with a high degree of uncertainty and lack of trust in their institutions. We search for it when we don’t feel like we’re on solid ground in our personal (or perhaps professional) life. For some people, conspiracy theories offer that solid ground; a way of knowing and feeling less powerless.

Uhhh, whoa. Sorry to go on a tangent there. Um. Where was I? Oh, I remember now. I have no idea who Dr. Psycho is going to channel next. I was going to be coy and pretend, but I cannot. So, please. Relieve me of my misery!

Cat: ahhhhhh I didn’t know you could do gifs in a doc! What magic is this!!

I may be wrong, but I took the old, champion soldier to mean Siegfried! It’d be just like Dr. Psycho to get at Diana where it hurts the most as she’s currently trying to put her memories of him to rest. Speaking of, Diana and poor Boston are trekking across the tundra on their way to his grave. While Diana offers her fabulous coat and scarf to the freezing corpse, Boston reveals he senses Siggy hanging around with unfinished business and a huge longing. I thought it interesting that Diana was sharing stories of Siegfried with Boston over breakfast and now he’s able to tell her some pretty intimate things about him from beyond the grave. Do you think that ties into him being, ya know, dead?

Andrea: Where would I be without you? Not getting to a very clear conclusion, that’s for sure! That would be completely logical for Dr. Psycho. Of course, now I’m like, “Is it a feint?” You know Conrad and Cloonan love a red herring. I mean, I don’t know that, but I have yet to meet a writer that doesn’t enjoy misdirection. Oooo, okay, yes, let’s get back to Sweden.

First of all, Diana is wearing an entire look! Also, Boston’s host body is molting. Boston reveals to Diana that Siegfried’s end was a violent one he didn’t see coming. It left him, according to Deadman, with unfinished business. Crud, what do you think the unfinished business is, and will he be able to finish it?

Before we’re even able to appreciate the sensitivity of Diana returning the sword, Boston is like, “Ok, well, time to go!” Her phone rings and Steve informs her that things aren’t great in good ol’ Washington D.C. What do you think Steve meant when he said, “We need more time”? What has he been preparing for?

Cat: I missed that comment! Wow! My only guess is when he talked to Etta earlier as the news broke from footage from someone’s cell phone. I think it was VERY clever of our writers to point out that even though Deadman may have erased memories, cell phone footage still exists. He says he wants to know what these things are and where they come from. Maybe they didn’t have enough time to figure that out as the swarm of Wonder Women fly over DC?

Andrea: That would seem like the most logical conclusion. I tend to overread, uh, everything. I was like, “OOOO, what don’t we know? What does HE know that I DON’T?!” So, Diana is going to Washington D.C., right?

Smoke and Mirrors

Cat: So Deadman’s got his image back, but I can’t help but worry for whatever poor schmuck finds that discarded, autopsied corpse in the Atlantic as they fly back. Right as I was contemplating that, however, we’re met with a shot of multiple Wonder Women, all with slightly different facial expressions in rows of… mirrors? And a blindfolded man referencing Diana’s rightful domain? What is going on?!

Andrea: The Image-Maker. This is not the first time Diana has met the Image-Maker. We also see him in the 1962 issue of Wonder Woman #134. He was as menacing in 1962 as he is here. In issue #134, Image-Maker threatens to invade the real world from his Mirror-World and torture everyone with replicas of themselves. What is real, what isn’t? Who is the real you? It’s not good.

As you know, in any good fantasy or science-fiction story, you can’t come face-to-face with a version of yourself. It’s a big no-no. In #134, Image-Maker wants to go a step further than breaking the rules of the time-space continuum. He wants to cause all manner of havoc. It’s got me thinking: Image-Maker gives Conrad and Cloonan a lot of room to explore some topical issues. The more I think about it, the more it feels like we’re already living in a mirror universe… le sigh. What do you think, Cat?

Cat: I think you’re on to something! C & C toyed with the idea of Diana facing an “evil” version of herself back when we first met Janus and although it feels like we’ve been here before with them, the introduction of Image-Maker might just put a new spin on it, give them a chance to dive deeper, and connect well with whatever delusions Dr. Psycho is churning out. We’ve had some interesting tidbits of things as Diana has been back that seems slightly off, so this could be a cool chance to explore this villain and show how Diana has changed since coming back to life.

Cat: This was a THICK issue to dive into with so much to take in mentally as well as artistically and I am SO grateful to have you here to bounce ideas off of and explore these intricacies with, Andrea. We didn’t get to dive into the AWESOME stuff Ayala, Patridge, Fajardo Jr, and Carey get into in What Lies Beneath part 2, but make sure to read it as well. It’s got some cool things to say about what makes an Amazon. I’m really pumped to see what both teams bring to the next issue.

Andrea: I’m excited to see where this goes. Initially, I wasn’t sure I would vibe with Image-Maker as a villain, but there’s a lot of room for rich exploration.

Wonderful Whims

Love the implied idea of Siggy leaving Diana a voicemail from the dead.
Certainly wouldn’t turn down more chances to see Siggy and Steve Trevor drawn by Takara…