I am back and it has not been a month! Welcome to part 2 of my coverage of Wonder Woman Vol. 2: Year One. Today I am going to tackle issues #10, #12, and #14. For me this whole reading of the issues by evens and odds was weird and that is how I read it. I realize some of you might have read the issues as they were coming out and I would be very curious to know how that reading experience went. I also hope that my new shorter format is a little bit easier to read and consume. If you still need to read part one, check out the link at the bottom of this post. Onto the story!
Year One, Part Four: Steve, Etta, and Barbara think that they should take Diana shopping to get her used to life outside of Themyscira. At fist Diana is overwhelmed, but she quickly recovers and she uses the word, wonderful to describe it. Then she starts to observe women and is less sure, but she does like seeing children. While eating Barbara presses Diana about the gift the Gods have given her, like her strength. Diana doesn't know the extent of her gifts, but she says they will reveal themselves as needed. (I feel the need to note that this feels like a deviation from the usual origin story, but it is possible the Gods are just telling her she has gifts not that they are giving them. It is a little unclear and I admit I don't love that they have kind of depowered her a lot.) There is a cute moment where everyone is holding the lasso, aka, the Golden Perfect. Suddenly shooting breaks out and quickly escalates. Diana quickly jumps into action and takes out two of the five shooters and Steve takes out another. Diana stops a grenade with her bare hands and then stops the last two shooters. Turns out Diana can add flight her list of growing powers. We learn one more important thing in this issue. The group that Steve was going after in issue two and the group that attacked the mall are the same. They are called the Sear Group and they have tattoos of a spooky tree (this tree keeps popping up guy, probably important).
Year One, Part Five: There is a ton of news coverage of Diana's big rescue. They call her Superwoman which is fun. Also fun is the sexual tension between Etta and Barbara, "Suffering Sappho" indeed. Steve and Diana are out "training" and we learn that Diana can chat with animals and because of her lasso she is picking up English quickly too. Diana reveals to Steve that she can never go home (I am not sure why she thinks this, because that was not clear when she said goodbye). Steve super awkwardly asks if Diana has someone special. She talks about a partner named Kasia that she will miss. Back at headquarters everyone gets back on the same page about the evil tree and Diana tries talking to the shooters from the mall. They are all pretty far gone, going on and on about terror and war. They are all sick with some bio-chemical agent that makes them go crazy and kill until they are killed or the drug kills them. Steve and his men when down on their way to stop the manufacture of said drug. Barbara and Diana have a private conversation where we learn that Sear is just an anagram for Ares. Before that can be discussed further the God of War himself barges in.
Year One, Finale: There is fighting, "Ares" seems to need something from Steve. Diana fights back but then tries to just talk the guy down. He wants to know where Themyscira is (seems that is all anyone wants to know these days). Other Gods, in animal form have gathered around to watch. Diana doesn't know how to get to Themyscira though (guess when you leave, you forget how to get back). Ares monologs but Diana is pissed so she and the other Gods (still in animal form) start fighting. They seem to defeat Ares, but he splits into a bunch of animals. The Owl (who I am guessing is Athena) gives Diana a phone and they all somehow learn that a global attack releasing the bio-chemical. Diana and Steve fly around the world stopping all of the attacks (in one page guys)! They get to the last location but there is nothing there, Diana somehow figures out that the group is not attacking the adults but all the children. (They are at some kind of of global summit and all the kids are in an assembly.) Diana arrives and gets all the kids out, but gets gassed and trapped in the building. She takes all the bad guys down and cures herself with the her lasso. This storyline wraps up with our team enjoying some new papers all naming Diana, Wonder Woman!
Thoughts: Well this was certainly a roller coaster. As fair as origin stories go this one wasn't bad. It ticked all the boxes. She looked super dope in her outfit. She has the lasso and most of her powers. I think I liked this story more than the one in volume one where she is so full of doubt. We can now start to see some of the overlap between the stories too. It is almost sad to see the younger version of Barbara so hopeful and smart verses what she becomes later. I will continue to hope that there are happy times ahead for Barbara.
I loved the art in this volume. There was one main artist, for issues #2, 4, 6, 10, 12 and 14 and that person was Nicola Scott. I really loved the way she drew a young and happy Diana and brought Themyscira to life. Also shout out to any female artist! For issues #8, Bilquis Evely, another female artist, stepped in and made me love Barbara Ann. Click on their names if you want to see more of what these awesome ladies are up to.
Best Line: I wasn't sure about a best line, but I will share my favorite bit of foreshadowing that happens in issue #8. The old women, who I assume is a Goddess in disguise calling Barbara kitty is really clever.
Favorite Cover: Okay so I simply could not narrow it down to one. So please enjoy these two covers both done by Romulo Farardo, Jr. I actually loved all of his covers but these two are my favs.
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