Written by Greg Rucka
Penciled by Drew Johnson
Inked by Ray Snyder
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics
I’ve never understood the lack of respect for Wonder Woman. One of the longest running superhero books being published, the basic concept by William Moulton Marston was a strong one, and even revisions to it over the years have been generally a good thing. It spawned a successful television series, and Wonder Woman is a pretty recognizable pop icon around the world. So why is that most people won’t touch the Wonder Woman comic with a proverbial ten-foot pole? It’s a shame, because they’re going to miss out on the latest creative team that just took over that’s already showing a great deal of promise.
She has been royalty, and a goddess. She’s an ambassador, and a superhero. She is Diana of Themyscira, but is more popularly known as Wonder Woman. Now, she’s done something that might just be her most controversial action yet—write a book. Reflections: A Collection of Essays and Speeches puts all of Wonder Woman’s ideals and beliefs on display… and what better way to be attacked than by your own words?
It was about two and a half years ago that DC Comics first announced Greg Rucka would be writing Wonder Woman after Phil Jimenez would first take over the book for a year. Jimenez’s run on the book went a little longer than originally planned, and while we saw Rucka’s take on the character in Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, it’s been a long wait for Rucka’s eventual arrival on the book. Fortunately, it’s been more than worth the wait; Rucka’s very much harkening back to Perez’s run by bringing in a balance of Wonder Woman’s life as both an ambassador and a superhero. Rucka’s first issue introduced us to her staff and life, while the second has all the wheels set up from the first issue starting to move. It’s nice to see that one of her new foes, Veronica Cale, seems to be very much grounded in the real world by using her past as well as her writings to find gaps in Diana’s armor. At the same time, though, Rucka isn’t abandoning the larger-than-life aspects of Wonder Woman. The scene with Dr. Psycho is thoroughly chilling, for instance, and clearly the gods of Olympus will be playing a larger role in this story before too long. Always the most down-to-earth of the “trinity” of DC Comics, Rucka’s got a very strong handle on Wonder Woman and just where her book should be going.
I don’t remember ever seeing Drew Johnson’s pencils before, but I definitely won’t forget them. There’s a real grace and beauty to his art (inked by the always excellent Ray Snyder), from Wonder Woman’s flowing hair, to the divine beings of Olympus. You never forget that Wonder Woman is a being of great power under all that beauty, though; she’s carrying herself very strongly in the comic, and when she’s handing an axe to Io you know that she can use it well. Like Rucka, handing both the mundane and the supernatural are a breeze for Johnson and Snyder; they’re able to make a woman on a cell phone leaning up against a glass window just as exciting as a psychic supervillain attempting to escape his imprisonment.
DC Comics has found a really wonderful creative team to take over the pages of Wonder Woman; hopefully, people will pay attention to all the fun that Rucka, Johnson, and Snyder are stirring up here. With only two issues released so far, it’s certainly not too late to catch up. Between these and the already published Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia (which you really should buy if you haven’t tried it out yet), this is a good time to be a reader of Wonder Woman.
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