Wonder Woman #0 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matt Wilson (colors)

The Story: Just what every girl wants for her birthday—a romp with a murderous animal.

The Review: At his core, Azzarello is a mystery writer.  Being a very good one, he has become very practiced in the art of misdirection.  No one and nothing is ever as it seems in his tales.  Even outside a pure detective or crime genre, he’ll lead you down a primrose path, making you think he’s telling one kind of story, only for you to suddenly find somewhere along the way, he veered you off into a different place altogether.  Almost always, the detour is worth it.

So it goes here.  The first page sets you up to believe this will be a joke issue, what with the outrageous claim that “this magnificent missive originally appeared in ‘All-Girl Adventure Tales for Men #41”—a very pointed, if bald-faced lie.  At one point, you might even speculate the creators are merely killing time on a #0 issue forced upon them.  It’s pretty easy to consider “Brian ‘Kiss My’ Azzarello” and “Cliff ‘Chump’ Chiang” in the credits as a thinly veiled middle finger to editorial.

Wonder Woman #3 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Diana joins the ranks of women (and men) who have major daddy issues.

The Review: Even back in ancient days the concept of the Amazons captured people’s fancies.  Granted, society at that point was such that a race of women who lived and acted on the same footing as men had the same novelty as, say, hydras and sheep with golden wool.  Anyway, DC’s fictional Amazons for a while followed their traditional forbears in a strict ban on interaction with men, but Wonder Woman’s relationship to Man’s world weakened that prejudice over time.

In this new DCU, the Amazons are back to man-hating with passion; even male gods aren’t spared from their wrath and scorn, judging by their threats to the injured Hermes last issue.  Actually, the Amazons don’t tiptoe around any god at all, not even the literally shadowing presence of Strife.  Even as they bury the casualties of the demi-goddess’ power, that doesn’t prevent them from back-talking her with seeming impunity: “…you trick us into murdering our own…and now you mock us.”  “A god’s appetite truly has no shame.”

This brings up a question I bring from the original myths: if the gods are so inclined  and capable of interfering in mortals’ lives, why don’t they go all out in exercising that power?  The most likely answer, of course, is the gods simply enjoy themselves more going the hard way about it.  They indisputably have the upper hand in raw power, so the only amusement they can get out of us is to bring themselves down to our level and see if we can match them that way.  Little wonder why Hippolyta and Zeus hooked up; she saw a man who could actually match her skill in battle, and he saw a mortal woman who could give the king of gods a challenge.

Ultimately, the truth about Diana’s parentage indeed creates discord on the island (one woman darkly speculates on Hippolyta’s death), but it also brings to light tensions that have afflicted Diana since childhood.  Paradise, it seems, offers little protection from the usual mean-spirited taunts most people receive as kids (“…not since I was a little girl have I been called [Clay].”).

Wonder Woman #2 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Can’t you gods work out your issues on Maury or something?

The Review: Actually, it may have been in Wonder Woman that I read this, but I distinctly remember a character musing on the idea that gods, as idealizations of humans, represent not only the brightest, greatest, finest parts of humanity, but also humanity at its very worst.  Only the gods are ever so much better at it.  They not only scheme, nurse grudges, and arbitrarily act with the best of them, they have the power to carry out even their least thought-out agendas.

If you didn’t realize that before, this issue will ring the idea home, big time.  You have Wonder Woman carrying a wounded god in her arms.  She brings with her a young, pregnant woman to a secret island populated by outrageously tall, semi-barbarian women.  Her mother, a figure even more impressive than Diana, who carries a large double-headed axe in one hand, expresses fear of the future.  All this because of one goddess’ jealousy.  These immortals don’t mess around.