If you like Tom King-isms, you’ll probably like this issue. If you hate them with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns, go read “The Human Target.” It’s better anyway.
Spoilers ahead.
Cover by Daniel Sampere
and Tomeu MoreyWritten by Tom King
Illustrated by Daniel Sampere
Colored by Tomeu Morey
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
THE AMAZON WARRIOR IS NOW A WANTED OUTLAW! A NEW ERA FOR THE AMAZON WARRIOR BEGINS, FROM THE SUPERSTAR TEAM OF TOM KING AND DANIEL SAMPERE! After a mysterious Amazonian is accused of mass murder, Congress passes the Amazon Safety Act, barring all Amazons from U.S. soil. To carry out their plans, the government starts a task force, the Amazon Extradition Entity (A.X.E.), to remove those who don’t comply, by any means necessary. Now, in her search for the truth behind the killing, Wonder Woman finds herself an outlaw in the world she once swore to protect! Writer Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) and superstar artist in the making Daniel Sampere (Dark Crisis, Action Comics) join forces for this action-packed relaunch and the beginning of what will undoubtedly become a groundbreaking run on the character.
“Wonder Woman” #1 is an exhausting issue. A display of all of King’s worst tendencies. An unholy combination of his Miller & Moore influences including, but not limited to, killing off C/D-tier supporting characters for shock value, nine-panel grids for slow-motion & exposition, and overwritten pages of non-sequiturs. At a slightly oversized 30 pages, it feels like slogging through 60. I blame the narrator.
Narrators in comics are not a problem. They serve an important purpose, particularly when the narrator IS the main character and we’re simply replacing their thought balloons. Here, the narrator is a separate (unknown) character, monologuing at a different (unknown) character, obliquely about the events we’re seeing without actually providing relevant information, at least not until the end. What’s worse is we’re meant to be following it AND the other, immediate conversations happening on the page, for multiple pages. Both are vital for grasping the comic’s events and the set-up for the opening arc.
In essence, we are being asked to perform twice the work for half the understanding.
This has always been a pet peeve of mine, this cluttering of comprehension, but I only placed it after Kieron Gillen pointed it out as one of his pet peeves. Were the dialog purely decorative, or the narration commentary, this wouldn’t be a problem. The two (or three or four) work in concert rather than discordance. It is a “rule” I’ve come to appreciate. Of course, as with all “rules,” there are many examples of breaking it being the correct move. Here it doesn’t. Here it actively works against the issue, made worse by the narration continuing across the entirety of “Wonder Woman” #1.
I should also get ahead of it and say I do not like Tomeu Morey’s coloring work. It’s very good work – there’s a reason he’s been coloring “Batman” for years now – I just find it overly processed, full of too much bloom, and, the sin “Wonder Woman” commits, overlaid on top of the artist’s work rather than integrated into it. This is true of, say, Adriano Lucas’ work on Sampere & Redondo’s art in their, and Tom Taylor’s, “Suicide Squad” too. However in Lucas’ case, I rarely feel like the coloring is actively at odds with the artist; it enhances the book not detracts from it by stylizing it with those flat(ish) cartoony blues and reds.
In this way, Morey’s coloring is perfect for a Tom King story – bright yet slightly grimy, a filmic version of reality that wants you aware of its lens and all the blood, piss, and dirt on it – and that’s maybe it’s biggest issue. Because I do not like this story. I do not like the tone. I do not like the approach. I do not like the odd structure. You could have easily started “Wonder Woman” #1 at page 10 and conveyed exactly the same amount of information in a tighter, better package.
These opening pages of “Wonder Woman” #1 are of a bar fight between an Amazon warrior, drawn suspiciously like a blonde Wonder Woman (it’s not her in disguise,) and a host of misogynistic, male bar patrons. She proceeds to murder them and then the issue fast-tracks us to an “Outlawed”/“Civil War” state, complete with a(n) H.A.M.M.E.R./I.C.E. analog: A.X.E. Throughout it all, we are denied insight into this monumental change beyond some talking heads on TV and a veiled conversation between Steve Trevor and an as-yet-unrevealed Wonder Woman.
Continued belowBecause we do not enter in media res on a new status quo nor do we properly see it unfold, we are denied full understanding, that sinking feeling in the pit of one’s stomach, AND the satisfaction of a revelation.
It’s not even like Wonder Woman is a poor fit for this kind of story. Wonder Woman has always occupied this interesting space with regards to the military industrial complex thanks to her status as an explicitly foreign national and relationships with characters like Steve Trevor and Eta Candy. There’s a lot King can dig into both as a former CIA operative and as a writer with preoccupations in paranoid thrillers. I don’t doubt those aspects will be engaging and thoughtful.
I mean, “Wonder Woman #1” already does a few of them right.
Despite my deep dislike of “Wonder Woman” #1, I can’t deny Sampere’s dynamic and brutal action as well as the clarity of his figure work. For all the muddiness in the writing, the art tells a crystal clear story, a point also in favor of Morey’s coloring, while the steading lettering hand of Clayton Cowles keeps the flow going. The solidity of the issue’s structure is also a positive, though King’s formalism is a double-edged sword. Sometimes it doesn’t work – having panels in your nine-panel grid allude to “Heroes in Crisis” after killing the amazon Nyx? Fucking really?! – and other times it does – having the pages of Wonder Woman walking with Steve to and then from the Washington Monument mirror each other and pseudo-bookend the issue made it feel cohesive in a way it might not have otherwise.
But that’s not what got me to soften a little on “Wonder Woman” #1.
See, up until the midway point of the issue, Wonder Woman had been little more than a ghost. Talked about, shown from behind or at a distance, her words the only presence we get of her. Obscured. Then she is attacked in a graveyard and we get the first full-body shot of her deflecting a bullet. It’s a splash page and it, and the scene that follows, is magnificent
It’s a turning point. From this scene to the end, I was with Wondey as she began unraveling the conspiracy, bringing the purpose of the arc into focus. She demonstrates her passion, her strength, and the reason she fights. I don’t love the implications or the thematic revelations – I think a much more interesting narrative is the bare politics paralleling our own without The Sovereign thrown into the mix – but I was far more willing to give it a fair shake afterwards.
I suspect this will be a run almost as divisive as the Azzarello/Chiang one. It is taking big swings right out of the gate, completely upending the ground the series stood on, and shifts the focus back onto the national rather than the mystical. Whether that is good or bad depends on what part of Wonder Woman’s history you like more, and how much of King’s commentary you find effective.
Final Score: 4.7. A new direction for Wonder Woman, certainly, and not a terrible issue but it struggles to justify itself, doing little to endear itself to anyone except hard-core King fans.
