In an effort to make its stories more accessible to new
readers, DC recently launched The New 52, cancelling all of its existing titles
and starting 52 new series with revamped and rebooted versions of its major
characters. But how will the New 52 affect the DC universe? Will new readers
actually be attracted? Will old fans still be interested? Will the new titles
be fresh and new, or disappointing and unfaithful to the original continuity?
After buying and reading all but a few of the 52 new #1s that DC released over
the course of a month, I have set out to review some of the major ones and let
potential readers know which new titles are and are not worth reading. So,
without further ado…
Wonder Woman #1
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Penciler: Cliff Chiang
Review by Samuel N. Harris
What will the greatest and most iconic super-heroine of all
time be like in DC’s newly rebooted universe? Will she be greater and more
iconic, or a little less than wondrous? Honestly, it’s hard for me to tell so
far. So let’s take a look at a few different aspects of this comic to see what
we can figure out.
For one thing, Wonder Woman’s costume has changed—again.
Most readers familiar with Wonder Woman recognize her in the traditional,
star-spangled, metal-encrusted leotard that she has worn since her first issue
back in the 1940s. However, with the release of Wonder Woman #601 in 2010, she got a new costume, one that was
controversial among fans because it was more modern and less iconic than her
classic one. This latest reboot finds her in yet another costume (seen on the cover above), one that is more
similar to her traditional costume, but with some different color schemes and
slight modifications. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the new costume Wonder
Woman wore from 2010 until this reboot—not because it was bad in and of itself,
but because it looked more like the young, modern Wonder Girl than like the
iconic, larger-than life Wonder Woman. However, I approve of this current
costume in the reboot and am glad for the change.
The plot of Wonder
Woman #1, however, doesn’t get quite as high of an approval rating from me.
It feels incomplete and disjointed for several reasons. Wonder Woman, being a
warrior princess of the Amazons, has often fought against mythological or
supernatural villains beyond the comprehension of normal humans, but this issue
seems to lump several such villains together without much apparent connection.
From the beginning we see three different scenes, each involving some
apparently supernatural figure or event, but none of them with much explanation
as to what is going on or much relation to other parts of the story. These
scenes are confusing and uninteresting, since we don’t know what’s going on
yet, and they also distract from the main focus of the story, as it’s not until
about ten pages into the comic that we first catch a glimpse of Wonder Woman
herself. We see a dark man with glowing eyes killing some unsuspecting girls,
then a green-robed figure with a scythe killing a horse, then a few
blue-skinned figures and some centaurs breaking into a young woman’s home. It
is only once the young woman manages to grab a magical key from one of the
blue-skinned figures that she is transported for protection to Wonder Woman’s
residence—or at least somewhere Wonder Woman is temporarily staying, in London
of all places. Granted, most comic books these days contain complex, multi-part
stories that unfold over the course of several issues, so I’m sure that these
events will be explained in future issues and that everything will make some
semblance of sense by the end of the story arc. However, none of it makes much
sense to me yet, and it seems to me like an odd way to begin a comic that’s
supposed to appeal to new readers rather than confusing them.
The content of this issue deserves a note as well, and a
caution for readers. The issue is not particularly gory or violent (the most
gruesome scene is of the horse’s severed and bloody head and a new creature
that seems to arise mysteriously from out of the horse’s insides). The greater concern
in this issue is the sexual content. The young woman who Wonder Woman protects spends
the entire issue in a skimpy top and pink underwear, leaving her midriff and
legs always revealed. Also, the first time we see Wonder Woman, she is covered
in nothing but a bed sheet, and as she dresses into her full costume, we get a
few tantalizing glimpses of as many parts of her naked body as can be shown
without it technically being
considered pornography. Now, of course I object to this sexual content from a
Christian and moral perspective, but I also consider it to be bad storytelling
and bad art quality. I believe that showing near-nudity when the story does not
require it, when it serves no purpose for the character or the plot, is just a way
for the creators to pander shamelessly to the basest desires of male readers—a way
to make money and keep people interested rather than to produce good, quality
art. Comic books, as a male-dominated industry with a predominantly male
audience, have often been accused of such pandering, and of treating women
characters as sex objects rather than as truly independent female personalities. Of
course, not every comic book does these things to its female characters, and
one would think that if any comic treated women as independent people and not
as objects, it would be Wonder Woman,
a comic about a strong and powerful female superhero. Unfortunately, though, Wonder Woman #1 does not do much to
break or disprove those too-often-too-true accusations against the comics
industry.
Wonder Woman may be the most iconic female superhero, and
she may have a new and improved costume in this rebooted DC universe, but her
first new issue is definitely subpar. Since we don’t even see her for almost
halfway through the comic, she doesn’t even seem to do a whole lot in this
issue, other than fight centaurs for a few pages and protect that young woman
who goes teleporting around the world in her underwear. The quality of a decent
(but still not super-special) fight scene between Wonder Woman and the centaurs
is lost among the confusing, disjointed, and seemingly random different scenes
of the story, and the needless sexualization and objectification of the female
characters doesn’t help either. If you’re looking to get into the new DC
universe and trying to read through the New 52, do yourself a favor and just pass
over Wonder Woman #1.
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