I Met... PHIL JIMENEZ!
In the early days of Wonder Woman’s comic book, Mars was one of her archenemies. The cartoony, 1940s version of Mars was a clean-shaven, muscular god dressed in Roman armor. A Nazi sympathizer, his base of operations was the Iron Palace on the planet Mars... get it? His minions were the Earl of Greed, the Count of Conquest, and the Duke of Deception. Mars was featured in Wonder Woman #2, dated Fall 1942. The splash page reads, “Today the Spirit of War rules supreme over the entire earth. Whence does it come? Why do human beings every generation or so, since the beginning of history, feel an uncontrollable urge to fight and kill one another?"
Decades later, when George Pérez and company relaunched the Wonder Woman comic book for a 1980s audience, Mars, now known by his Greek name Ares, played prominently in the first story arc. Dressed in dark blue armor, this version of Mars was more frightening, due in part to Pérez’s more naturalistic style of drawing. Ares’ helmet hid his face from view, allowing readers to see only his red eyes. His base was the "Areopagus," a fantastic, reality-bending version of the "Mars Hill" that sits at the base of the real Acropolis in Athens, Greece. His minions were his children: Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia. Princess Diana of Themyscira, dubbed Wonder Woman by the media, was sent to stop Ares and his followers from starting World War III. Wonder Woman confronted Ares “using her gleaming golden lasso, which had been forged by the god Hephaestus from the girdle of Gaea herself, to show the war-god the truth of his actions,” namely that humanity’s destruction would leave Ares without worshippers, and consequently, without power. Ares charged “Diana to teach Man the difference between destruction and oblivion, and to save Man from himself.” So began Diana’s post-Crisis mission of proclaiming peace in “Patriarch’s World.”
Phil Jimenez, a 1991 graduate of New York City's School of Visual Art, once shared that one of his favorite comic book characters of all time is Wonder Woman. Why? Because she’s not motivated by vengeance like Batman and she doesn’t go around shooting people like the Punisher, but because she is a messenger of peace. Phil was one of George Perez's successors on the Wonder Woman title, writing and drawing issues #164 to #188, cover dated January 2001 to March 2003. He also did a number of Wonder Woman-related one-shot books, like Girlfrenzy: Donna Troy. Phil's style of drawing comic is similar to that of George Pérez, a comparison usually intended as a compliment. Phil is currently the artist on Wonder Woman: Historia, a limited series in DC's Black Label line.
One afternoon, probably in 2002 or 2003, I met Phil at a signing event at The Great Escape, a comic book store in Louisville, Ky. The first person in line (I was fifth) asked for a sketch, and struck up quite a conversation while the rest of us waited patiently. As he drew, Phil talked about the books he’d been reading lately, revealed tidbits about his upcoming projects, and shared pointers for drawing beautiful comic book women. After Jimenez drew a Jean Grey and a Joker, he autographed two books. Finally it was my turn. Since others had asked for sketches, I asked him to do a drawing of Ares. He wasn’t comfortable drawing him from memory, so he referred to one of the spot illustrations he did in the comic I had brought to be signed as reference. He guaranteed that I would be the only person to ask him to draw Ares that afternoon. Whoa! Here it is:
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