Decent set up if anything

Jan 19, 2013

by Madpenguin
posted in Speech Bubbles: Comics & Graphic Novels

Rating:

In a wooden house located somewhere in the woods, a young girl by the name of Zola receives a message to flee her home or be killed. She's quickly attacked and her supposed savior hands her a teleportation artifact, which lands her in the bedroom of Diana aka Wonder Woman. Diana chooses to help the girl in her situation, and in the process learns something about herself. -summary

Wonder Woman really hasn't gotten the best treatment from DC before the reboot. She had went through hell with Will Pfeiefer's short time at the helm, and even though Gail Simone did some solid work for the character, I thought she had her slight misses as well. In regards to DC's trinity, I enjoyed Wonder Woman's stories the least; with that said, at first, I wasn't exactly looking forward to her reboot in DC's New 52. My interest was eventually piqued when someone mentioned to me that it was probably the best story since The Contest. Even though I thought there was some type of exaggeration going on, I came into this book expecting a little bit of greatness. Thankfully my hopes weren't very high since I wasn't impressed at all. Written by Brian Azzarello, the man who penned The Joker, Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood contains issues 1 - 6.

I know about the groans when concerning Wonder Woman's tweaked origin for this reboot, and when I saw where it was going it bothered me less because there's definitely potential here. The plot begins when the girl Zola learns that she was impregnated by Zeus. Hera, the wife of Zeus, is enraged knowing that there's another bastard child out there by her husband. She sends her minions to kill the girl, in which Wonder Woman steps in and takes the girl to Paradise Island for protection. And this is where post-crisis WW fans are going to become upset, but I rather leave this for potential readers to learn on their own.

The story is bursting with potential, but like Superman - Action Comics 1, in my case at least; there appears to be too much of WW's world crammed into one sitting, with more than enough Greek Mythology thrown out there than some people will be able to bare. And in the process, although WW is pretty well developed, there really isn't too much to truly attach new readers to her unless they're just very easy to please. There are subplots and many characters that steal her thunder; saying nothing of the fact that it could have used more skillful Wonder Woman action, as opposed to Wonder Woman the cunning strategist. This could have actually waited or not played such a heavy role in the story so early. Most mainstream comic fans feel Batman is the only character allowed to think and plan, and I blame that on DC due to their animated series and movies in many ways portraying Wonder Woman as nothing but brawn.

Now don't get me twisted and believe that I'm saying the story is horrible. No, there's some good to be found here through some smart and even witty dialog. There's a good blend of light comedy to at least show that WW's world has something of a sense of humor. In some ways, the story reminds me a little of Greg Pak's and Fred Van Lente's Incredible Hercules run, except at this point, minus the serious imagination.

I wasn't the least bit impressed with Cliff Chiang's artwork; I don't exactly think it was bad, only subpar for one of DCs big three opening series. If you take a look at Superman and Batman's artwork, and in the case of the latter, any of his New 52 books. It seems as if DC had more hopes for those two, and they already felt Wonder Woman just wasn't going to catch on. I mean hell, even Green Lantern: Sinestro boasts far superior artwork, but then again before the reboot, I would actually argue that Green Lantern had been DC's best superhero for a good while. Any way, there's some good imagination concerning the centaurs and even the leviathan that shows up later. The artwork has enough good backgrounds and Greek influenced character designs, that sets Wonder Woman's mythical fantasy world apart from Batman's crime-drama and Superman's sci-fi fantasy. The action is decent at best, and there's a small amount of gore.

There's only one thing keeping me from giving this book a lower rating, and it's the subplots setting the stage for future storylines, in which one appears to be a big deal plus the cliffhanger ending. I'm hoping that the next batch of stories build off this and deliver something truly worthy of the amazon princess. Overall, a semi-decent start that never truly bored me. For those who are new to Wonder Woman comics, I actually recommend waiting for this story to develop further before diving in, and during the wait check out some older stories that will better introduce you to Diana's world. Wonder Woman Vol 1: Gods and Mortals, Vol. 2 Challenge of the Gods, The Contest, and The Challenge of Artemis would be some nice books to start on.

Pros:
-At the very least readable

Cons:
-Not enough focus on the main character

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