Let’s talk about continuity for a moment.  I’m not someone who has a fit just because I read something in a comic that contradicts something printed ten years ago.  If I read that Wolverine hates Budwiser but then see him ordering a Bud three months later it’s not a big deal to me.  100% continuity is never going to be possible in a shared universe with multiple writers and editors working with the same characters. 

The Wonder Woman series however has been a train wreck in continuity since its One Year Later relaunch.  Queen Hippolyta is either dead, or being impersonated by Granny Goodness though its not clear which is the current standard in the DCU.  Paradise Island is either deserted except for Hippolyta and some apes, or it’s being controlled by Granny Goodness and a bunch of tricked Amazons.  Weren’t the Amazons banished in Infinite Crisis and then rendered powerless mortals in Amazons Attack, and yet now have their powers in Countdown? 

I’m not talking about decades of continuity, this book can’t even follow continuity from six months ago.  The problem seems to stem from the fact that each writer that’s worked on the series post-Greg Rucka have been tasked with fixing the character and thus have been given leave to basically do what they want.  Which is a fine sort of freedom to give someone like Grant Morrison or Brian Michael Bendis who are proven comics people, but Alan Heinberg has never met a deadline he couldn’t miss and Jodi Picoult was just filler.  That’s why we got two back to back Circe stories that seemed to not reference each other at all.

Maybe the best way to read this book is to imagine life as the guy from Memento, with no short term memory.  If it’s not tattooed on your body it doesn’t matter, and thus if you’ve not yet got the current status of Diana’s mother inked on your arm then it’s best not to worry about it.  Gail Simone crafts a pretty good story, and seems to have a better handle on the character than anyone since Rucka.  Ideally she’ll stay around long enough to establish some continuity authorship which should lead to some continuity in the actual story.  Also it’s a beautiful book, with Terry Dodson drawing the heck out of Wonder Woman.