Wonder Woman #1 review

Diana wants to learn the truth about her past, and needs help. She's looking for it in the rainforest of Bwunda, but must fight her way past were-creatures before she can get it. Elsewhere, Etta Candy is overseeing Steve Trevor's operation to intercept a warlord named Cadulo in the same region. Coincidence?

The good: writer Greg Rucka has Diana totally focused on learning what's happened to her memories. Traditional supporting characters Etta and Steve are back in Wonder Woman having been utility players everywhere but her series for the last several years. Bwunda is a fun DC deep cut, being the location of Gorilla City, and there's a lovely bit of character work involving Steve and a photo of Diana. 

Liam Sharp draws the heck out of the latest Wonder Woman #1, producing page after page of sumptuous work. The new Diana costume looks pretty darn good, while Etta's 'refreshed' head and body are pretty pleasing. OK, she's still not proper fat - chubby kids need heroes too - but it's at least a step in the right direction. I was hoping Etta would look more like Golden Age Etta - you know, the one everyone loves in Legend of Wonder Woman - but there you go. The jungle looks beautiful, the monsters scary and what little we see of a redesigned villain, rather awesome. And Steve Trevor could be a refugee from Easy Company, he looks utterly heroic. Laura Martin's well-considered colours brings atmosphere by the bucketload, while Jodi Wynne's clever word balloon placement adds to an encounter with a tribal elder. 
The main cover by Sharp and Martin, and variant by Frank Cho and a colourist whose signature seems to read 'Nez', are both grabbers. I'm pretty excited by the characters in Sharp's movie poster-style image. 

The bad: where Rucka sees detail, I see dull; only last week I was noting, in another review, that his old Checkmate book was too jampacked with techie spy chatter for my liking, and here it is again. 
The heck with verisimilitude, cut to the chase. Rucka spends a page on what a writer of his skill could do in a panel. And I don't need to see Etta saying hello to everyone. 
Wonder Woman should be confident but she's so assured here that there's no sense of threat. More threat, please. 

This is a very nicely done first issue, but Rucka and Sharp only have 20pp a month to play with. I'd like to see every one add to the entertainment. 

Comments

  1. ...but is it better than his last run? I like Rucka generally, but not on WW it seems (so I avoided this despite the nice looking art..plus the hoary old memories are wrong plot didn't convince).

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    1. It's too early to say, Terence, but the dreaded D-word did come to mind...

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    2. Maybe her Mom gave her some dodgy memory tapes again.

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    3. Rucka's still doing Diana's dialog as stilted and boring I see. And Sharpe seems to be channeling Elementals era Willingham and that's not a good thing. So far I like the Finches run better than the two issues under Rucka...

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    4. 1) I only bought the book to see if "Jason" would appear.

      2) The only truth to be found in the book, is that Steve Trevor really loves Diana.

      3) Wonder Woman looks like a dude, Etta Candy looks awful, and Steve needs to do more than pine over Diana with a mugshot picture. Ugh.

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    5. Bring on the mists, Terence.

      Steve, so the Finches' run turned out to be decent?

      TA, I suspect the Jason stuff will be in a Justice a League book only.

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    6. With Azzarello as a 10, I'd give the finches a 7. This has been a solid 4. I think Meredith's only mistake was too little branching off on her own. I don't like the next writer to change too much without showing their work but Meredith didn't seem to do enough of her own. And every thing with the new Donna Troy just reeked...

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    7. It was the Donna stuff that sent me away after the trial period. Hopefully Meredith Finch will get another chance at DC, and try something more her own.

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  2. Enjoyed this, but man is the pace slooooooooow. I get this is a personal preference l, but man if anything can drive me away from this otherwise wonderful read, that can.

    Etta's thumbnail? Two close ups? Not getting where Rucka is headed there.

    I wish Steve had more typical,real world,human male dimensions. He looked to be superhero size jacked.

    I loved the look of Diana's hair. It contributed to her looking serene and calm. Love it so much. In a couple of panels the part seemed dead center, in others slightly to her left. It kept me entertained on a second level to notice that throughout. :)

    I didn't like (and this could be back to the pacing) that "can't get home" reveal. I thought the place she couldn't reach was Olympus, but now it's home? Too?

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    1. I was surprised that we didn't pick up the story exactly where Rebirth left off, hopeful all will be made clear, Anthony.

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  3. Love love loved this. The pace is deliberately slow, I think to make the reveal at the end that much more impactful. But it all works. Diana's voice here is great, strong and determined.

    You said sumptuous. I said luscious. The art is just incredible.

    I'm on board!

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    1. Having suffered the glacial pace of Rucka's last run, I'm not accepting any supposed justification... these things are pricey, pick up the pace!

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  4. I liked this a lot -- but man, the pacing bugged me. Our main character travels to ask someone a question, and in the end asks that question. It's a *great* question -- something I really didn't expect -- but man, I could've done without some of the (gorgeous) lead-up in favor of getting further in the story. And yeah, some of the lag was that time spent in the Ops room, for sure. I'm happy to see Etta, but man.

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    1. Yep, we're on the same page Rob, and it's one filled with Etta wandering around saying hello to people.

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  5. Good review Mart, I liked the issue myself. One question: do you know why Cheetah's henchmen were hyena people?

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