WONDER WOMAN #1

Review by: JohnnyDestructo

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Avg Rating: 4.4
 
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Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

Amidst the myriad of Wonder Women that have populated the DC Universe since her inception, my fave has to be the Diana from Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier. She wasn’t on the take as far as guff was concerned and her stature promised as much. I have rarely enjoyed Diana as a character in her own book though. Sadly, other than trying to find different constellations on her bloomers, ole’ star-panties never entertained me as a character for more than a couple issues at a time.

My curiosity was piqued when Cliff Chiang told me that there would be a horror twist to this book, as I lerv me some horror. It seemed an interesting choice to make, considering the high-profile nature of the character. I’m actually in the middle of creating a Wonder Woman piece for a 5 year old girl to put on her wall, because she loves WW so much. That makes me feel torn, because like several other titles of the “New 52″, this book is NOT for the young’ins. A character gets pretty brutally gut-shot with an arrow. There’s a scene that mixes something from The Godfather, with John Carpenter’s The Thing. All we’re missing here is nudity, or at least a dollop of side-boob.

And listen…err..read, I guess: I like legs as much as the next guy…or any lady-parts for that matter, but I have to say I was a little impressed with the fact that DC was gonna be covering up nU-Diana with some J’eggings (jean-leggings for those less in the know.) Not because I hate looking at her legs, but because I see woman after woman come into my shop and snicker at the panty-shots all over the shelves and I’m not just referring to the self-shot Polaroids I leave lying around. And the bikini bottoms are just impractical for Diana. I mean come on! How much spray-adhesive does she have to use to keep her labia from attacking innocent by-standers every time she does a roundhouse kick? Other than that, though, I do like the modernized take on her stripper outfit. The bracelets finally look like more than just aluminum foil around her wrists and her corset looks pretty bad-ass.

I was also very curious with regards to the writer! Brian Azzarello? Sure he can be great. But his Batman: Broken City, in which Bats actually does 100 Bullets-esque word-play and…flirts with a female suspect? His Superman: For Tomorrow run with Jim Lee? NOT his best work, I’ll be honest. Thank Hera this work is way beyond that stuff and doesn’t get bogged down with overly clever word-mazes. There’s actually a lovely balance between being just wordy enough and going mute to let the art do the heavy lifting.

And let me tell you, Cliff Chiang’s art does said heavy lifting with nary a grunt. He handles suspense, gore, and action all with aplomb. His line-work is loose enough to avoid being static, and yet maintains a confident line.

If you’re curious as to the plot: it revolves mostly around a power play between some mythical beings for possession of a young woman named Zola. Magical teleportation key this, Wonder Woman that, horse-people and three bimbo oracles. That’s all you’ll get, but believe me, it’s good. Even if you haven’t been a WW fan in the past, pants or not, this one is a bad mamma-jamma.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

  1. Damn it, I might have to buy this tomorrow to see for myself! 0_o

    • MWAHAHAHAHAHAH…ahem. But no, really. It’s good. 😉
      Are you usually a WW fan? Or like me, not usually interested?

    • I have never read a WW book in my life, though I liked the character in the animated Justice League series. I just like to diversify my comic books and try new things from time to time (a.k.a. last week I picked up GL #1 and liked it and Frankenstein also!)

      Thanks for your early reviews anyways, it helps to make a decision before wednesday! 😉

  2. Great review! I totally agree on the pants issue, as I’ve stated many times before. DC will always have a hard sell to women if they keep dressing their female characters like hookers. I was less than impressed with the issue; one of my points of interest in the relaunch has been getting to know characters that I didn’t previously read. I figured that was fair since DC is making the biggest readership drive in comics history. This issue gave me little indication of WW’s history, origins, character… not much of anything. Hell, even Batman had a bit of back story on the character, and I would argue that only Superman is as known in our culture. It was an interesting start to a story, I just wanted more about WW so I had someone to side with along the way.

    • OOooo hoo hoo…good point. But I’m thinking *maybe* he’s going with a movie-style pacing, wherein we’ll get her origin as we drive through the story? I notice a LOT of the DCnU isn’t bothering with re-telling origins, as such..I guess they’re trying to ride the line of adjusting their characters without retreading too much

  3. I read the 1-44 vol. of WW & the LONG Odyssey arc that restarted at 600, so I am giving this a 1 issue trial. I hope this comic surprises me.

    Matthew

  4. Dam, I was going to drop this title for the new 52, but I guess I will be giving this a shot. Great review!!

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