The last issue Wonder Woman’s adventures caused a wee bit of controversy amongst the fan community when a controversial change was made to her past. DC thought that changing her birth would stir the pot, but clearly they haven’t been listening to anyone but their own PR department.
Despite a rough moment, however, this comic has managed to stand above and beyond the majority of their other output. Now, after a bit of Anti-DC ranting last month, I was convinced by the others to talk about a book that doesn’t make me want to metaphorically put a metaphorical fist through a metaphorical wall.
Take a look after the cut for some thoughts on the latest “Wonder Woman.”
Written by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
Illustrated by Cliff ChiangTo march on Hell itself, you’re going to need some sensational weapons — and Wonder Woman intends to call in a few family favors to get them! Armor of Hephaestus? Check. The pistols of Eros? Check! But will any of it be enough to wrest an innocent soul from the grasp of Hades? And what does Hermes know that Diana doesn’t…yet?
Wonder Woman is the most powerful character that DC has in their arsenal, but she is painfully misused. Whole essays could be written about DC’s mistreatment of Wonder Woman on many different factors, but I think one of the prime arguments to be made about her is that she, like Superman, is just a character people are confused how to handle. From a completely objective standpoint, one would imagine that it is quite easy to make Wonder Woman accessible: she’s a smart, proud warrior who stands amongst the highest of the pantheon of heroes. Yet, briefly flipping through recent previous volumes and stories available, these stories don’t reflect that — and when they do, they’re usually muddied up in one assumed agenda or editorial edict of some kind (as much as I may have liked it, “Odyssey” is a prime example).
Yet as the DCnU began, a fantastic opportunity was delivered: the “fresh start.” Every character got it, and only a precious few truly delivered. The bar was set high for most established readers, and in many of the examples given, characters didn’t live up to expectations or what came before that. As DC threw the bath water out, they basically let the majority of their babies go out the window with them, with only a precious few surviving in any way that could be remotely perceived as worthwhile. It’s a jaded remark certainly, but amidst character regressions, sleazy storytelling decisions and full-on apathy towards the tales being presented, the DCnU did more harm than good.
Yet, there were a few diamonds in the rough. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s “Wonder Woman” was one of those titles.
The reason “Wonder Woman” stands out amongst the crowd isn’t hard to comprehend. Diana is a character who needed a specific touch to truly cross that line that makes her a compelling character. She exists in a potent world of mythology that is just begging to be exploited to the same extent that Marvel’s “Incredible Hercules” used to do, and she’s a character who aptly needed to prove she needed no one else to survive. She doesn’t need to exist in the regular DCU because outside of a few crossovers or a team-up book, that world is only partially hers. Diana’s world is of a much larger scope with that of a more universal focus, because she’s a character that was an ambassador to humanity. That’s how I always remembered the character, and taking that away from her and making her just another hero in a world full of heroes seemed counter-productive.
Not only that, but she needs an artist who understands the difference between a character being attractive and a book being blatantly trashy. Yeah, she’s kind of wearing a bathing suit, sure, but she’s also about to go fight the legions of the underworld; I don’t think, and I’m just guessing here, that an Amazonian warrior would bend angularly while trying to stop hordes of the damned. There’s a stark difference between having a physically attractive character versus expressing her sexuality as her only inherent trait.
Continued belowThat is, in a nutshell, what Azzarello and Chiang have done here. It’s a clever trick, really, almost as if pulled off by a magician; by taking Diana and giving her a singular human focus here, her strength’s begin to show more earnestly. One can’t help but identify with Wonder Woman now, as she moves beyond “just another superhero” in a sea full of dudes going on adventures and an actual hero whose adventures are worth following. Azzarello has charted her a course worth sailing within a meticulously choreographed Greek odyssey, employing the same sharp plotting that made “100 Bullets” such a gripping read. Heck, the moment those guns are on the cover, you should realize something’s up, and the devilish pay-off for it all is quite Greek indeed. (If the reference isn’t clear, click this.)
And the art, oh the art! A better artist for this title you could not find, to my knowledge. Chiang’s greatest strength here is in his portrayal of Wonder Woman. It’s very elegant, putting the character up on a plateau of sorts that effectively avoids disrespectful ideology and is replaced with a visual reverence. Chiang almost seems to be channeling Mike Allred here, and Wonder Woman moves through the book gracefully enough to be feminine and yet powerful enough to convey the more obvious Amazonian traits. From the opening arsenal scene to her battle against the undead in the London underground (pun intended), Wonder Woman at no point in time is lacking in a strong visual performance, with no exploitive undertones or anything of the sort that would ostensibly detract from a positive experience with the book.
It’s not a perfect book, by all means. Azzarello’s writing seems to be a bit uneven in terms of her characterization, and whether or not she’s a warrior first or second is an odd contrast between this issue and where the series began. When you compare how she first appeared, naked in bed with a “fists do the talking” awakening, as opposed to now, where she’s content to reason with Hades for the life an unborn child as opposed to charge guns a-blazing, it seems as if Azzarello is making a conscious effort to stray from his original patborderh. Yet, despite that change, the results aren’t inherently negative. “Wonder Woman” has slowly evolved into a mythical epic, with our heroine bravely stepping away from a more brash perspective in order to save an accidental family member in an impossible situation. Part of this could be Chiang stepping up to the plate to co-write the book while Azzarello participates in “Before Watchmen”, but hey, this fairly inconsistent version is still better than Johns’ Wonder Woman in “Justice League,” who seems at times like Christopher John Francis Boone for poorly timed comic effect.
This is what makes a superhero book so damn great: a hero has to rise to a challenge, not just wake up on a Wednesday and punch someone standing nearby for behaving badly. Wonder Woman isn’t exactly human, but she is certainly empathetic enough to be visibly relatable. DC doesn’t try hard enough to show off how much Wonder Woman matters, but Azzarello and Chiang are certainly giving it a go.
The last issue’s controversial moment might somewhat say otherwise to more passionate fans than I, but as someone who came to the Amazon’s sector of the DCU fairly late in the “game,” I’m finding this iteration of the warrior princess to be quite an endearing one. The classic elements (as I’ve come to understand them) of Wonder Woman as an icon are all still here; her selfless is at the forefront, her bravery is astounding and her role as a hero is adamantly clear. It feels like, for the first time since “Infinite Crisis”, that someone is really trying to make Wonder Woman a character available to everyone, and not just those who were fans before. (Whether they’re succeeding is, of course, up for debate, but for at least one inconsistent fan the formula works.)
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
