Wonder Woman #32 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (breakdowns), Goran Sudžuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana gets her Braveheart on.

The Review: This all started with a squabble among gods: to save a pregnant Zola from Hera’s wrath, Hermes teleports her into Diana’s apartment. Diana hasn’t been able to escape the Olympians’ domestic affairs since, and now she finds herself leading the effort to topple the balance of power on Olympus itself. That’s the interesting thing about this series: Diana is a reluctant heroine, whose involvement has mostly been to clean up her relatives’ messes.

That’s a small-minded way of looking at this storyline, but what else are you supposed to think when these divine struggles seem to have no overt effect on the world at large? In fighting the First Born, Diana may be saving humanity from certain disaster, but no one, other than the Amazons and the gods themselves, seems to notice. With the kind of stakes involved here—even the New Gods are paying attention, for heaven’s sake—shouldn’t the ramifications be felt by people outside of Diana’s direct circle of supporting characters?

Wonder Woman #18 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Goran Sudzuka & Cliff Chiang (art), Tony Akins (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Who’s fastest—old god, new god, or demi-goddess?

The Review: I’ve officially reviewed Azzarello’s Wonder Woman for over a year and a half now, and I still feel like I haven’t quite grasped the nature of his craft just yet.  He doesn’t quite fall into any easy category.  He’s not really a character writer in the vein of Pete Tomasi or Paul Cornell; an ideas-man like Grant Morrison or Jonathan Hickman; or a weaver of universes like Brian Michael Bendis or Geoff Johns.  Of all writers, he truly stands alone.

In fact, Azzarello has something of all three elements in his writing, with such equal weight that it’s easy to take his work for granted.  While there aren’t any striking personalities in this title, over time the voices of the characters have grown distinct and recognizable, even unattached to a face.  Azzarello’s ideas are no less profound for being based in myth rather than science.  And by bringing old and new gods together, he’s done some of the most intriguing world-building of all.