Wonder Woman #14 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Tony Akins (pencils), Dan Green & Rick Burchett (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Even the Olympians have the one family member they don’t like to talk about.

The Review: I’ve come down pretty hard on Geoff Johns for his weak-sauce approach to Wonder Woman in Justice League, and a lot of my ire comes from comparing his take to Azzarello’s undeniably impressive version of her in her own ongoing.  It makes me wonder if Johns even reads Wonder Woman.  How can you reduce the demi-goddess of that book into the often uncertain and simple-minded princess who doesn’t even know how friendship works?

Even though I still think she remains a kind of unrelatable character, Diana strikes such a compelling balance between warrior and nurturer, in a way few superheroes from either of the Big Two do.  It’s true that given the connection between her and Siracca, it wouldn’t be that extraordinary for them to reach an understanding.  Nevertheless, how often do you see your heroes showing compassion and offering peace to their enemies?  How often do you see such unashamed, non-cynical love from a character?

This issue also reveals another surprising side to Diana’s personality: a quiet optimism.  It’s not something you’d have expected from the Wonder Woman of the past, but from this one, it feels very right.  Diana makes it clear she will never totally forgive Hera for what she’s done, but Diana also retains hope that Hera can right her wrongs.  Diana also embraces, rather than rejects, the one thing she’s gained from her troubles: “A new family,” Siracca included.

This little family probably represents the only branch of the Olympian tree that has mutual respect and care for each other, in contrast to the wholly divine members of the Pantheon.  Apollo’s gesture of goodwill, unlike Diana’s, fails to court much favor with his siblings—quite the opposite (Ares declares extravagantly, “I would happily murder you all.”).  Perhaps to his own doom, he’s focused too much on the future, not realizing that prophecy can entail the past.

The discovery of the “First Born’s” true identity is a big one, basically Azzarello rewriting Greek myth in a very big way.  He succeeds mainly by keeping within the spirit and tradition of those ancient stories: a dire foretelling, a remorseless attempt to avoid fate at all costs, pleas for pity that are only partly received, supernatural intervention.  And now that fate seems to be on course once more, this has all the marks of an Olympian Ragnarok that could upend heaven and earth.

Even the potential of this cataclysmic event seems poised to affect the universe as a whole.  When the Highfather of the New Gods interrupts his son to repeat, “I’m afraid,” you know that whatever disaster awaits, it will change everything.  If Azzarello manages to pull this story off and deliver the time-ending climax he’s going for, then he may be responsible for one of the most important and defining Wonder Woman stories yet—but that’s a pretty big “if.”

Akins once again delivers some of the better work I’ve seen from him so far, particularly in the scenes with the First Born and the New Gods, which has the kind of simple elegance you might associate with Cliff Chiang.  There are still moments where his cartoony style makes the action look non-threatening, and where the characters, especially Diana, look almost silly.  Our last glimpse of her, walking off and waving goodbye to Siracca over her shoulder, is almost Archie-esque in jolliness, which feels inappropriate for this title.  Wilson serves Akins as faithfully as he would Chiang, but the inferior figures results in an inferior product overall.

Conclusion: On a technical level, you have to admire and respect what Azzarello is doing here, although your investment in the series is more on faith than anything else.  Akins has proven an able fill-in artist, but tends to disappoint as much as fulfills expectations.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – The First Born’s history is even more complicated than what’s been revealed so far, since he managed to accrue some “wives” and weapons before being buried for seven thousand years.

– I always love the pains DC artists have to go through to cover up nudity.  At one point, a stream of “wind” conveniently passes across the First Born’s nudie area.