With Wonder Woman returning to Themyscira, the Gods bring the fight to her homeland.
What They Say:
Hera, Queen of the Gods, does not take her vengeance lightly–and if Wonder Woman is so foolish as to stand in the way of her whim, then Wonder Woman is her enemy. But it’s Hera’s daughter that Diana should truly fear. The Goddess of Discord is coming to Paradise Island!
The Review:
Following up the fantastic first issue, #2 slows down a bit to flesh out the characters and the world of Wonder Woman a bit more before starting the next conflict. After surviving the battle in issue #1, Wonder Woman, Zola, and Hermes return to Themyscira to recover. A good bulk of this issue simply shows the Amazonians interacting with each other and participating in sparring games. This setting not only allows for us to meet other Amazonians and see how bad ass Wonder Woman is compared to her peers, it also allows for Hermes to drop a brief origin story about Wonder Woman.
Some people were taken slightly aback with the revelation in the first issue that Diana is a child of Zeus. This modified Diana’s previous history quite a bit; but I found that it added additional elements that could expand Wonder Woman’s legacy and create some very interesting adventures. In this issue, Hermes tells of Diana’s origins as being “according to legend”. Here we receive the most popular origin…that of Diana being born from a clay figure created by Queen Hippolyta. Adding this was fantastic and the best way to approach Wonder Woman’s past in this rebooted series. It shows that the origin we all know is the story that has been passed down. But making it “according to legend” allows Azzarello to define his own Wonder Woman without betraying fans. He can modify Diana’s past and make her being a daughter of Zeus more palatable for long time fans.
That’s what makes this series so good. Not just knowing the old history but being a good enough writer to reboot the series, include the old history, and create a brand new history that doesn’t alienate fans new or old. Anyone can get into this series and immediately become entrenched in the story, love the action and characters, and not have it matter if you’re a Wonder Woman die-hard or not; it’s just that versatile and good. The book ends with Strife, sister of Aries, attacking Themyscira. This is a very intriguing cliffhanger because at the beginning of the book we see Strife speaking with Hera about destroying Zeus’ unborn child within Zola. We see the hate from Hera and her determination, but Strife is not as easy to zero in on. She appears to wish to follows her mother’s demands but follows her own aim once landing on Themyscira. What is that aim? Only Azzarello knows, and he makes damn sure we want to come back for issue # 3 to find out!
In Summary:
Azzarello is definitely following through on his promises with Wonder Woman. This series just feels like something completely different than the rest of DC’s line up. With the utterly beautiful artwork by Cliff Chiang that is both alien and familiar, Wonder Woman starts off strong as one of the hands-down best of the New 52. Azzarello and Chinag’s efforts also allow for the series to have a ‘breather’ issue or heck, down the road, even a bad issue and still readers will want to come back. This issue is by no means boring though. Sure there is mostly character interactions and world building…but they’re Amazons! This means that we learn through their fighting. Through their games of sport and their gruffness towards each other and the rest of the world. These elements are much more telling than other series that spend too much time with exposition. They are exciting, fun, and did I mention beautiful to look at? Wonder Woman is a winner and by adding a darker tone and more Greek mythology with decidedly less superhero elements, Wonder Woman is a must read no matter which way you look at it.
Grade: A
