WONDER WOMAN - DC Collectibles Yanick Paquette "The Art of War" Statue

I like strong women. My shelves are filled with Lara Croft, Motoko Kusanagi, Cammy and Chun-Li, Catwoman and the like. But one particular "strong woman" has been conspicuously absent: I have only one Wonder Woman in my entire collection. It's the Benes Justice League action figure. Oh, I've had others: several of Mattel's DCUC versions, an animated Justice League figure or two, and even a DC Direct figure here and there. They always seem to "move on", though. None of them have really had the gravitas to stay in the collection. I'd been eagerly awaiting Yamato's Royo statue and was thoroughly disappointed once I saw the actual production statue, while also being super-relieved that I hadn't pre-ordered it.

With "Batman v Superman" on the horizon, my Wonder Woman interest has been re-kindled. I've got pre-orders in for all four MAFEX figures already, and I even picked up a couple of Mattel's figures (though I just couldn't keep that awful Wonder Woman and ultimately returned her; Armored Batman is the only one I'm willing to hang on to at this point). Despite being a fan of the Wonder Woman character, I must confess I've never read any of her books. I watched the Lynda Carter show as a kid, and I enjoyed her animated portrayal in the Justice League cartoon. I even picked up the animated movie, and liked that, as well, but I've just never really been swept away by the character; I'm hoping that will all change soon.

DC Collectibles has produced a line of porcelain statues dubbed "The Art of War". As of this writing, I think there are about 11 statues in the series. The concept is similar to the Batman Black and White line, where an artist designs (draws) a version of Wonder Woman, which is then passed on to a sculptor for creation in three dimensions. Each figure comes on a matching logo base, and is limited to 5200 produced. My first is the Yanick Paquette Wonder Woman, sculpted by Clayburn Moore. I decided to go with this figure first because I've never been disappointed by anything Clay Moore has sculpted. His Lady Demon figure was what got me into collecting beyond Star Wars back in the 1990's. In terms of musculature and capturing the grace of the human body, Moore is at the top of my list.

The statue stands about 7 & 1/4" tall, atop the base. She comes attached to that base, with her shield on one arm and her sword balanced against the ground under her other. Both accessories are nicely detailed and painted, though neither can be removed. The shield, in particular, has some lovely engraving work, along with a dark wash to bring it out. The figure itself is just beautiful, in a very unique way. Straight away, the body is simply gorgeous. The proportions are perfect, and she looks amazing from all angles. I especially love the way Moore sculpted the shoulders to look muscular and defined without making them overpowering. Nothing is too overdone - she looks fit and strong without being brutish. The face is where things shift a little bit. She's not "ugly" in any sense of the word, but the look does take some getting used to. Right out of the box, I didn't like it (even my kids commented that her face looks "wrong"), but it's really grown on me over time. The sculpt of the nose and the shape of the eyes give her almost a Middle Eastern look. The jawline is pretty long and comes to a fairly pointy chin. She's very pretty, but something seems "off". On the first figure I purchased, it almost looked like the face warped coming out of a mold or something. There was too much left side of her face, and not enough right side, with the nose and chin were bent askew. I returned that statue (the sword was broken, as well, straight out of the package) and got another (the one pictured here), which turned out much better. This face is closer to symmetrical, but still not quite right. I think the paint around the eyes is too thick on one eye as compared to the other, but the biggest complaint I have is with the eyebrows. They are very thick and sit high on her forehead, up closer to the tiara than the eyes. They look that way on the box, as well, so it seems to be intentional, but I personally think it throws off the look of the face completely. I've tried imagining how she'd look with her eyebrows lower down, and I think it would improve things, but I'm certainly not confident enough in my own abilities to attempt it.

The Paquette Wonder Woman looks outstanding from almost every angle except straight on. From that vantage, she looks merely great. I'm happy to have this statue in my collection - so happy, in fact, that I've gone ahead and ordered the Tony Daniel version to join her. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a small but nice shelf of Wonder Woman collectibles in my future. Here's hoping that "Batman vs. Superman" encourages that goal, rather than not...