Goddesses Give Gifts And They Take Them Away
Wonder Woman
Of all the New 52 comics with major changes to the titular characters, Wonder Woman is probably the best one. That isn't to say it's one of the best books of the New 52, although it is one of the better ones.
Wonder Woman, of course, started out in the Golden Age, one of the first superheroines, and definitely the longest-running. She's an Amazon from Themyscira, or Paradise Island. She was given gifts from various deities of the Grecian Pantheon, and grew up loved and trained by the other Amazons.
Until the new 52, where she's just another demigoddess cast-off of Zeus who grew up being mocked for her now-false origin story of being carved from clay and granted life by the gods.
If you can get past those changes, this is actually a pretty good book. The strength of it, however, is not in Wonder Woman, but in the reinterpretation of the deities. Cliff Chiang, one of the better artists in the business, and Brian Azzarello (in my opinion, a quite good but overrated writer) have breathed new life into the Olympians, made them strange and otherworldly immediately. It's incredible, and elevates the book completely.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; people say nerds don't like change, but really, we don't like needless or bad change, and giving Diana pointless angst through her changed origins is stupid in the extreme. But it's done. It'll either be reverted or it won't.
Of all the New 52 comics with major changes to the titular characters, Wonder Woman is probably the best one. That isn't to say it's one of the best books of the New 52, although it is one of the better ones.
Wonder Woman, of course, started out in the Golden Age, one of the first superheroines, and definitely the longest-running. She's an Amazon from Themyscira, or Paradise Island. She was given gifts from various deities of the Grecian Pantheon, and grew up loved and trained by the other Amazons.
Until the new 52, where she's just another demigoddess cast-off of Zeus who grew up being mocked for her now-false origin story of being carved from clay and granted life by the gods.
If you can get past those changes, this is actually a pretty good book. The strength of it, however, is not in Wonder Woman, but in the reinterpretation of the deities. Cliff Chiang, one of the better artists in the business, and Brian Azzarello (in my opinion, a quite good but overrated writer) have breathed new life into the Olympians, made them strange and otherworldly immediately. It's incredible, and elevates the book completely.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; people say nerds don't like change, but really, we don't like needless or bad change, and giving Diana pointless angst through her changed origins is stupid in the extreme. But it's done. It'll either be reverted or it won't.