Thursday, December 06, 2012

Pallas will regularly announce to complete strangers that she has changed her name to Wonder Woman. This makes me happy. I never read much Wonder Woman, though. Nothing against her- I always loved her. Loved. You know, I was the exact right age when the Wonder Woman tv show was on. In fact, I think I'll go watch the opening credits on YouTube right now. Excuse me...
Nah, the main reason I didn't read her was she was DC, and I was Marvel. Even more recently I've tried a few WW collections just because the great Gail Simone was getting rave reviews. But there was just too much backstory baggage, even for a guy like me who thrives on backstory. But I picked up the New 52 Wonder Woman hardcover collection at the library and I loved it. Now I wish I had bought it. If only there were some annual day devoted to giving loved ones gifts to brighten our dark Decembers.
Azzarello and Chiang present a Wonder Woman with close ties to both her fellow Amazons, especially her mother Hippolyta, and the various Greek gods that like to muck about in the affairs of women. The art is wonderful, with kind of a Samurai Jack vibe to it, nice and clean but with plenty of moody silhouettes:


There's a part I won't spoil where Queen Hippolyta meets Hera that I love love loved. Good writing.
My only caveat- the gore level, while perfectly acceptable to me, makes it a bit inappropriate for me to read it to Pallas. Which is fine, there are plenty of good Wonder Woman story books targeted to her age level. Those centaurs in the page above? They get created in a fantastically gruesome way. I can't wait until she's 9 or 10, though, I think she'll love it, as I do.
Here is a classic fight scene featuring Wonder Woman.

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