Back again, what can I say, I like to enjoy my holidays. Hope you all had a fun 4th of July! Time to tackle one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. Wonder Woman has a complicated history and these first few volumes in Rebirth are tricky. Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies contains issues #1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and Rebirth #1. I am going to break this one up into three parts because I want to make sure I do it justice and to try and eliminate any confusion. Today I am going to cover issue #1 and Rebirth #1. Time to go figure out what is going on with Diana.
Wonder Woman Rebirth #1: We start with a few conflicting origin stories. Did the Queen of the Amazons make a daughter out of clay and wish her to life? Or did she fall in love with Zeus and have a child or children? Either way something the world had never seen before was born and we called her Wonder Woman. We catch up with WW fighting some bad guys and thinking about all the things she has been called. She used to feel admiration at the name the people gave her that it meant awe, but now she wonders if it ever meant that or if they were just wondering who she was.
Diana arrives home and all she can think about is the truth and how she doesn't know what that is anymore. In her mind she keeps repeating, "the story keeps changing." She puts on Aries' helmet and wonders if she is the God of War, she thinks she is. (Quick note: back in New 52, Wonder Woman becomes the God of War.) We flashback again to a young Diana training, the arrival of Steve Trevor, the warning from the Gods that Aries will destroy the world if he can. All the Amazons vie for the honor of going out into the world, knowing they could never return to Themyscira. Diana won the challenge and ventured into our world believing she would never see her family again.
In the present Diana removes the helmet and crushes it, again feeling that the story is wrong. She shouldn't have been able to crush it, it should be unbreakable just like her lasso, the Golden Perfect (I did not know that it had a name). She uses her lasso on herself and it confirms who she is, Wonder Woman, Diana, daughter of Hippolyta. When she asks what she is, she feels that she has been deceived. While looking in the mirror she wants to know who deceived her and why, then she calls herself a fool and punches the mirror into many pieces.
Diana cannot figure out when she lost herself but she is going to figure it out. She takes off her current Wonder Woman crown and changes into an older outfit, hoping to retrace her steps and find where the story went wrong. Her first stop is Olympus. On Olympus she finds herself alone, until she is attacked by some manticore looking sentries that she knows to be relentless, mindless, and following the instructions of someone else. Olympus should welcome her, but instead it is treating her like a pretender. The only other option is that she isn't in Olympus, it is just another lie and she is done with lies.
The Lies, Part One: Wonder Woman is in the Banakane Rainforest in Bwunda, she seems to be talking to herself, but she wants to talk to someone about the changing story. She doesn't want to bother the person she is looking for, but she needs answers. When she finds herself surrounded by men she gives them her first of three warnings that she is not an enemy.
Elsewhere in Virginia, Etta Candy goes into a secret bunker. She seems to be the commander of maybe an FBI task force. They are tracking someone named Cadulo, but her assistant says Wonder Woman was seen flying in the area of this guy they are tracking (a coincidence). In a command room Etta tries to get a hold of her team in the field, but the connection is bad. In the field we find none other than Steve Trevor and his team on a mission. Etta and Steve connect, she tells him he needs to reach the target before Cadulo (target is unclear).
Back in the rainforest, Wonder Woman approaches a large throne made out of bones. WW gives a second warning as some men that look part animal approach, she doesn't want to fight.
Etta is speaking with someone, I assume the director that was mentioned before, doesn't sound like good news. Leah, Etta's assistant, confirms that Wonder Woman was in the area of the mission. Now they are both wondering if Steve spoke with her and how that would be a no-no, breach of security and all that. Steve promises that he didn't and has no idea why Diana is in the country. In fact we learn that Diana and him have not spoken in a long time, but he is still carrying a picture of her in his pocket. (Fun fact: it is of Diana being arrested in an old outfit, I imagine this is a fun call back.)
In the Jungle, Wonder Woman issues her final warning, she wants to speak to the goddess who lives there. The beast men attack.
Steve and his crew roll up on a village that had been attacked by Cadulo's people. Many are wounded and we learn that this Cadulo piece of shit has taken all the daughters of the village.
Wonder Woman easily takes down all the beast men and demands that the person she seeks speaks to her. She is suddenly attacked by a blur of claws and teeth, but she doesn't fight back. Eventually, Wonder Woman stops the fight to ask her old friend Barbara Ann (aka Cheetah) to help her find her home.
Thoughts: Since we are back in volume one, it is time to reestablish the right story. New 52 made a bunch of people mad and so now we have to correct Diana's path. How better to do that then address all the backstories and move forward? I am not sure how this whole split story is going to work out, but I am enjoying that all the classic characters are here. Love Cheetah, Etta, and Steve. I hope this will mean a good story for Diana and I will go in with my hopes a little high, but not too high.
The author of the first four volumes is Greg Rucka. He is known for his work on the Old Guard comic and I first came across him when I read his Batwoman run in Detective Comics. So it is needless to say that I like the guy. This volume's main artist was Liam Sharp; he did all of the even numbered issues. He also worked on the Rebirth #1 issue, along with Paulo Siqueira and Matthew Clark. I enjoyed the art in this volume quite a bit, it seems I might be a fan of a more realistic style. If you want to learn more about these awesome click there names for their social media links.
On Friday, look forward to more of Wonder Woman trying to figure out who and what she is.
Last Week: Cyborg Vol. 1: The Imitation of Life, Part 1
Cyborg Vol. 1: The Imitation of Life, Part 2
Next Post: Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies, Part 2
Note: All images belong to DC™
I like that DC is acknowledging all the different origin stories they have for Wonder Woman and it's interesting how they're going about it by bringing Wonder Woman into it pretty directly. I'm curious to see where this story goes. The art is beautiful!
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