Wonder Woman #19
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artists: Goren Sudzuka, Tony Akins
DC Comics, $2.99, color, 20 pages
I have loved every issue of Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman, and this issue is no exception.
Not that this issue is a major one of any kind. I trade-wait Wonder Woman, so I haven't read the several issues preceding this one, but even so I can tell this is a process issue, a moving-players-into-position issue.
I mean, not a lot happens. Two different groups of gods conspire against our heroine, and against each other. There's some debate-cum-characterization between the members of Wonder Woman's "team," and two appear to quit. Oh, and Orion's true face makes an appearance, which seems to be a surprise to at least one other character.
But this is all of a piece, and I love the big picture.
For one thing, I've maintained since I started reading Wonder Woman in the 1960s that the character needed to have a drastic revamp. Not only was the "living clay" idea kinda weird, but it was beneath the status of comics' premiere super-female, who needed to be far more iconic. Plus, her rogues gallery was B-list, her boyfriend an idiot, her status quo boring ... well, I could go on and on.
And in one fell swoop, Azzarello fixed the bulk of what was wrong with Wonder Woman, without changing a jot of her past. He established in the first issue that Wonder Woman wasn't made of clay (her 1940 origin) or just any ol' Amazon who happened to win a contest (her 1958 origin) but the daughter of Zeus -- and her mother had simply been lying about it, because Zeus's illegitimate children usually came to bad ends, usually at the hands his wife, Hera! So comics' #1 super-heroine finally had an iconic origin, one that elevated her power levels, her status and her character at a go. Plus, like the best superhero origins, it can be explained in a sentence:
* Rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, Superman uses his otherworldly powers for truth, justice and the American way.
* Having watched his parents gunned down by a street thug as a boy, billionaire Bruce Wayne devotes his life as Batman to preventing tragedy from striking others.
* Failing to prevent the death of his beloved Uncle Ben due to selfishness, Spider-Man learns that with great power comes great responsibility.
* Born the daughter of Zeus and trained in mind and body by the legendary Amazons, Wonder Woman uses her Olympian powers and Amazon training to fight injustice.
Beautiful!
And speaking of beautiful, I can't say enough about the artwork of Sudzuka and Akins. I don't know who does what, but I love the soft, organic feel of the series. Faces have expression, and differ one from another. Gods are striking, but sometimes grotesque. And best of all, Wonder Woman is gorgeous, but not exaggerated. There's no "fan service" here, no soft-core porn. Diana is a very attractive woman, but her proportions are normal and her costume no more revealing than a sundress, and far less so than your average bathing suit. Thank Zeus!
So let me recommend Wonder Woman whole-heartedly. Wherever you get on board, you're going to see high-stakes adventure and strategy as the Amazing Amazon works to protect humanity (and some humans in particular) from what Azzarello calls "the original crime family," the Greek gods. It's Wonder Woman as she always should have been: strong, confident, and a shield between the best of man and the worst of gods.
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