Legend of Wonder Woman #1 Cover Reviews 

Pick of the Week: “The Legend of Wonder Woman” #1 or Once Upon a Time in Themyscria [Review]

By | January 14th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Starting life as part of DC’s digital-first line (where some of the most interesting and cool stories in the DCU are being told), Renae De Liz’s “The Legend of Wonder Woman” offers up a new take on Wonder Woman’s childhood. With her clear investment in the story and novel way to present her narrative, this first issue starts off excitingly and boldly. De Liz’s rendition of Diana of Themyscria’s beginnings manage to conjure magic.

Written by Renae De Liz
Illustrated by Renae De Liz & Ray Dillon

A new WONDER WOMAN 9-issue miniseries begins here with a story written and pencilled by Renae De Liz (The Last Unicorn)! In the beginning there was only chaos. But Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, saw a better future-and eventually, her daughter would be destined to bring that new world to life! Before her ultimate fate unfolds, though, Diana of Themyscira must learn the important lessons of an Amazonian childhood!

“The Legend of Wonder Woman” #1 presents Diana of Themyscira’s origin as a Charles Perrault-like fairy tale. Writer and artist Renae De Liz gives us a princess who feels trapped, caught in her duties and responsibilities, frustrated that no one around her seems to be taking her concerns seriously. Blatantly disobeying her mother, this princess flees into the woods, where she encounters the beauty of the wider world before having to confront some mysterious monstrosity. Of course she’s saved at the last minute, and taken under the tutelage of a wiser older person, as she tries to figure out what’s going on with her home.

Renae De Liz also fully embraces the mythological elements of Diana’s origins. She uses narration boxes that feel like some blind fool is singing them to an audience. Minotaurs and stags run rampant; we have cameos from Zeus, Pegasus, and Theseus.

Additionally, De Liz is well aware of the Wonder Woman stories that came before, and she mixes and remixes a good deal of those previous origins to help her make this particular world: you can see some of William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter’s peace-centered and egalitarian Paradise Island, some of Gail Simone’s heavy Hippolyta history, and some of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s fallible Amazonian family.

But the major structure her story is built around the more fairy tale ideas of identity and responsibility, and that particular take helps make this Wonder Woman story feel new and almost original. Novel.

None of these elements feel redundant or a retread of previous material (which is super rare in corporately-owned superhero comics), but rather a clear expression of De Liz’s interests and own storytelling ambitions. The book doesn’t play like it’s part of the DC Universe, but rather that it’s coming from an enthusiastic creator familiar with The Brothers Grimm, Disney, and Edith Hamilton.

The artwork further sells this feeling. De Liz’s pencils have a fantastic air to them. It’s no wonder that her previous works involved titles like “The Last Unicorn” and “Peter Pan.” She has this sort of old school Disney vibe to her characters; her pages have a twirl and flow from top to bottom with an almost musical grace. If you’ve been reading this digitally, it’s well worth looking at the full pages, where De Liz’s artwork is truly allowed to live and breathe. Inker/colorist/letterer Ray Dillon’s palette for the island is bright and playful, almost welcoming, so when there are violent moments, their impact hits harder.

Sometimes, though, De Liz is prone to these expositional info-dumps which jut out over the narrative. The middle section feels the most off-beat, with a bunch of secondary and background characters just happening to mention all the problems Diana’s having. Here, more than anywhere, you can sense De Liz trying to get through this information as quickly as possible so she can throw Diana out into the woods already. Part of that’s appreciable because De Liz’s only working with nine issues for this story, and probably doesn’t have a lot of time to dawdle. But there’s also this huge difference between the narration in the History of the Amazons prologue and these background-filling moments, which miss some of the flow and rhythm of the story surrounding it.

As it stands, De Liz has accomplished something with this series. It’s clear she has a deep investment in this story. With graceful and exciting artwork, she’s taken elements of fairy tales, mythology, and superhero comics and mixed them all together to create something that feels exciting and engrossing.

Final Verdict: 8.9 – This is the Wonder Woman story you should be reading.


//TAGS | Pick of the Week

Matthew Garcia

Matt hails from Colorado. He can be found on Twitter as @MattSG.

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