Wonder Woman Day will happen … after the movie premieres

Wonder Woman will have a day all to herself — just not on June 2 as fans may have expected. Is that a bad or a good thing?

With Wonder Woman less than a month away from a theatrical debut, it seems like DC Comics has suddenly thrown out tons of advertising. (Make your own “crashed its advertising plane” joke here, which probably means that the fans themselves are Diana of Themyscira discovering the world of comics, which is not a bad thing, really.) The announcement of Wonder Woman Day, with a hat tip to The Hollywood Reporter, headlined today’s news.

Perhaps most interesting among the nuggets is that there will be a free re-release of Wonder Woman #1 from Greg Rucka and Liam Sharp. Those who participated in Free Comic Book Day earlier this month may have picked up what appears to be a similar comic. (It also has a #1 on the cover, which doesn’t help the confusion.)

However, the FCBD edition is from Rucka’s work with Nicola Scott. It avoids the criticism that DC doesn’t want to expose new and old comics fans to as many different aspects of the character possible.

To make things absolutely clear: the start of Rucka/Sharp’s work is collected in Wonder Woman: The Lies. Rucka and Scott have Wonder Woman: Year One. The two volumes collect alternating issues of the current run. This is not confusing at all. (And Wonder Woman continues to alternate storylines just because, I guess.)

As the official DC press release also notes, Wonder Woman Day will be June 3, not June 2. At first glance, that may seem a little ridiculous. Shouldn’t DC and Warner Bros. maximize Wonder Woman exposure on the very day her movie arrives in theaters? But THR points out the counter to that in its opening line: “The first weekend in June will belong to Wonder Woman.”

Let’s elaborate on that. Two out of the three weekend days immediately belonging to your iconic character is probably better than one oversaturated day on Friday. Additionally, people who don’t go see the movie on Friday might see the promotions and remember they want to see the movie. They might have trouble securing tickets for that weekend, but a ticket sale is a ticket sale.

Next: Wonder Women celebrates real-life wonder women

Are you making plans to go out on June 3 to celebrate?