Written by Brian Azzarello
Illustrated by Cliff ChiangHippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life — and when it’s revealed, Wonder Woman’s life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera herself — so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told?
I would assume “Make Wonder Woman More Important!” has been on the DC to-do-list for 50 years now, and that must have been part of the underlying reason for the relaunch – DC is simply wasting money by not having such an iconic character part of the overall plan for the line. However, the approach that DC is taking with her is, frankly, shocking considered how these reclamation projects usually go. No line-wide event. No crossovers with big ticket books. No hyperbolic “THIS STORY WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER” tag lines. Just a book with a solid team, telling the best story they can.
Writer Brian Azarello says he does not plan on, for the first year at least, having other DC characters showing up with any frequency in the book. So, given a fresh start, in an isolated title, without worry of Super or Bat interference, is the rehabilitation of Wonder Woman working? Click the jump to find out, and as fair warning, minor spoilers are discussed.
I have never been an active reader of Wonder Woman. In almost 25 years of reading comics, I don’t believe i have sought out more than 3 or 4 Wonder Woman comics. There isn’t another major comics character with a long publication history, from either DC or Marvel, for which i can say that. In fact, 90% of my Wonder Woman knowledge comes from her place on the various Superfriends cartoons and through pop culture osmosis. I’m too young to remember Lynda Carter’s show in any real detail, and although I’ve heard good things about various arcs (like George Pérez’s post-Crisis run), the only Wonder Woman stories I have experience with are those that are part of crossovers, or those where she is a character in an ensemble.
Even before the creative team was announced, I had decided I was going to give the New 52 Wonder Woman a chance. As a self-proclaimed (although the claim will be defended by the Multiversity staff) DC fan boy, I felt that this character is a major blind spot in my DC knowledge. When Azzarello and Cliff Chiang were announced as the team behind the new book, I was completely on board. Although I spent 1,000 words yesterday arguing that the relaunch was all about the Green Lantern movie, I think a similar case could be made for Wonder Woman being at the heart of DC’s desire to reset things.
Not only is her backstory convoluted and ever-changing (as is her costume), but here is a character with international sight recognition, and despite a few pieces of costume/equipment knowledge (wrist bands, magic lasso, low cut top, shorts with stars, invisible plane) and maybe an idea of her as an Amazon from Paradise Island, people don’t know anything about the character. If she is indeed part of the “DC Trinity” (a claim that Azzarello denies, by the way), compare the average knowledge base a non-comics reader has about Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. I doubt many even know her name is Diana. She needs to be re-branded, and although unconventional as it may sound, she is being rebranded as the hero in a hero story.
So far, the approach has paid dividends. Wonder Woman #2 sold approximately 80,000 (!) copies in October, after just missing 100,000 copies of #1. This is just after a year long slide which found the last two issues of the previous run not breaking the 30,000 threshold. Now, clearly, part of this is the New 52 bump that every book got, but I think this is also an example of not trying to do too much with the character, creating an interesting setting for the book, complete with interesting characters for her to rub shoulders with, tell a story that absolutely matters to the characters.
Continued belowIssue #3, more than the first two combined, gives the series its direction: This is a book about the gods and how they interact with the world. And given Wonder Woman’s new status as, basically, the female Hercules, she will be the interloper between the two worlds. And, even with this shift in her origin, Diana has always been an interloper on Paradise Island, because of her (now reveled to be bunk) “from clay” birth (even saddling her with the nickname Clay). This new status as a half-god half-Amazon both defines her as one of the most powerful beings on Earth and sets her on her own unique path; no longer will “female Superman” be an apt descriptor.
One of the most engaging parts of this book has been Cliff Chiang’s art. The pages are crisp and cleanly laid out, and yet are full of energy and inertia – there is nothing busy about Chiang’s pencils, yet these pages are brimming with energy. Each panel has the potential to be a powder-keg, with the tension visually palpable in every expression. His gods look menacing and threatening without falling into the stereotypical zone of simply being broad shouldered, beautiful physiques. I am saddened to see that Chiang will only be providing covers for the second arc (or at least just for issues 5 and 6), and I hope that he will be back on the book soon.
As this first arc is wrapping up, we see Zola emerging as Diana’s tether to the human side of the world. And since Zola is carrying Zeus’s child, similar to Diana in its geneology, I presume we will see Zola stick around as a part of this book for the foreseeable future. And that is a good thing; Wonder Woman needs some supporting characters. I also hope that Strife and Hermes, her half siblings, remain as a part of the book as well. If this book is truly to become a struggle between two worlds, we need bothe sides represented, and they are an interesting pair from the godly side.
Chiang and Azzarello are building a world here that no one could have foreseen, and more importantly, isn’t being seen elsewhere. Wonder Woman is finally put in a world where her character makes sense, and is given a chance to thrive.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
