A relatively quiet week for Diana last week. Sure, you could look at the first page of the new Snickers-sponsored comic featuring ‘the Trinity’…
…but that looked quite dull, didn’t it? You could also have got a few tips on how to draw Wonder Woman from Jill Thompson and Nicola Scott.
To help Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Jim Lee’s put a bit of Wonder Woman artwork up for auction and you can watch him drawing Wondy, too:
But really, last week’s big fun was to be had with Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #9, which was a partial celebration of Wonder Woman’s 75th birthday, as well as a recasting of the status quo. A review after the jump, but for now, see if you can spot all the tributes in this rather special splash page. And see who doesn’t get a mention, too…
Wonder Woman (Rebirth) #9
Plot
An old enemy is reintroduced, three girlfriends go shopping, two lovers are reunited and a nation is restored.
Is it any good?
After finishing the previous storyline in #7, with #9, Greg Rucka is now laying his cards out on the table to say, “This is where we’re going next,” not just with the plot but with the characters. To actually go through everything would take too long, and you’re better off just reading the issue but in summary:
- Steve and Diana return to the US
- Diana goes shopping with her pals Etta Candy and the newly restored Barbara Minerva, who has an idea about where she might find Themyscira
- Veronica Cale is revealed to be the new villainess to watch out for
- Diana explains why she was dating Superman to Steve and they become a couple again
- Diana finds Themyscira, where her mother and the Amazons are apparently alive and well
It’s like Volume 2 never went away, isn’t it? Remove the bit about Steve, make Diana a UN ambassador again and you’ll have Greg Rucka’s run right in front of you, as though the past decade never happened.
However, given that the storyline is all about Diana not knowing what’s true and what’s lies, as well as resolving multiple continuities, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that not everything is what it seems, particularly given when last we saw Hippolyta she had dark hair, rather than Volume 1/nu52 blonde…
…and the time before that she was a ghost.
Indeed, although it could be explained by the different artists on the ‘Year One’ and ‘The Lies’ strands of Wonder Woman (Rebirth), the Themyscira and Hippolyta we see depicted here in ‘The Lies’ are very much like Cliff Chiang’s, rather than the more Perez-like issues in ‘Year One’. Given how much control Rucka has over the title, including the artwork, I’m pretty sure there’s more to this discrepancy than it first appears.
It’s also worth noting a few other things here:
- Diana once again casts doubt on her own divinity – maybe Geoff Johns was onto something – but Minerva highlights that even if she isn’t the goddess of war, she does at least have powers given to her by the gods and she has them for as long as the gods let her have them. Interestingly, no hint of “you’re Zeus’ daughter, you great numpty – of course, you’re divine.”
- Diana finds it hard to explain her relationship with Superman to Steve: being with Supes was “simple” and “uncomplicated”. Of course, how much credence should be given to this depends upon whether you’ve been waiting for six years or so for Diana and Steve to get back together or not and how much you disliked Superman/Wonder Woman: saying it was ‘simple’ and ‘uncomplicated’ could be synonymous with either ‘perfect’ or ‘not serious’, depending on what spin you want to apply. But it is worth remembering that Wondy and Superman were together in the nu52 for five or so years, she’s recently been bereaved and lost a man there was a good chance she would have married and had children with, given half a chance, so it seems unlikely it would be a simple palming off. Indeed, given she then hits on Steve, it could be a way to explain it all without hurting his feelings. But again, read it as you (or Greg Rucka) will.
- Diana reiterates that she’s a huge big bundle of love
Basically, it’s quite a dense issue, this one, and given Diana’s back with Steve, there’s old enemies and old friends aplenty, as well as that little splash page, it’s an impressive unofficial 75th birthday issue, even if it won’t please everyone.
Rating: 7/7 (Artwork: 6/7)
Disclaimer: Owing to the small fortune it would take to buy every single DC comic each week, this is not a guaranteed rundown of all the comics that feature Wonder Woman. If you know of any I’ve missed, email me or leave a comment below and I’ll cover them the following week
