Monday, April 14, 2014

Wonder Woman v4: War HC

Duh, I read the collection before this one, right? Because I’m having a hard time remember what is going on here. Like, I honestly wonder if I finished it or not, because I don’t remember Hera’s new status quo, or what exactly Hermes did to Diana, or who that big nude guy in the arctic is supposed to be.

And my gosh, there are so many different children of Zeus running around now that I can’t figure out who half of them are anymore. I’m not sure if Brian Azzarello is trying to be particularly difficult or not, but I can’t make myself care about Lennox, or Wesley Willis, or any of the other folks when their motivations are so opaque to me. I honestly don’t understand what anyone aside from Wonder Woman is even trying to do in this story.

I’m lost.

I’m fascinated that Azzarello would use Wesley Willis as the inspiration for a Greek god’s mortal form, but heck, it is interesting, I’ll give him that. It is kind of like the returning Neptune; I wouldn’t have thought a big frog-fish-blob was the natural choice for the king of the seas, but I guess it works.

I’m also pretty thrilled to see Orion showing up. Highfather gets a moment, but this collection is Orion’s time to shine. He’s a bit of a boor, well a big jerk actually, but his heart SEEMS to be in the right place. Other than being a sexist pig, this is a pretty cool take on the character. That said, I like the old one more. There is no reason that Cliff Chiang’s brilliant redesign couldn’t have just been used on the real Orion in the old DCU.

Just like in the previous collections, the art is the strongest part of this series. Chiang’s work is deceptively simple. If I had to make a comparison, I’d say it is similar to Darwyn Cooke’s style; deceptively simple, exciting, and it cuts to the core of each scene.

I remain puzzled how the Wonder Woman who appears in this comic bears little to no resemblance to the one I’ve been reading about in Justice League. As I’ve said in the past, this feels like a Vertigo Wonder Woman series, with complicated, complex takes on Diana and her pantheon of relations. It isn’t bad, but it sure doesn’t feel like Wonder Woman.


Average

No comments: