The New 52’s Wonder Woman #1 was met with plenty of controversy when her origin story was revealed to be a lie — instead of being molded out of clay, Diana Prince was revealed to be a daughter of Zeus.
The lie was created to protect her from Hera’s wrath, which gave her all the motivation she needed to protect Zora’s unborn child who was also being hunted down by Hera.
With Rebirth in full swing, Wonder Woman thinks upon the memories now returning to her mind and considers the truth of her creation. Using the Lasso of Truth on herself, she reveals to herself that she has been deceived.
It’s unknown who or what is in control over Diana Prince at the moment, but it’s powerful enough that when she teleports to Olympus, she arrives in a familiar but strange place.
Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1 doesn’t give much away, but it’s a sneak peek at what’s to come. With famed author Greg Rucka back on the title and artist Liam Sharp providing interiors, the future of Wonder Woman looks bright even if her journey will take her to some dark places.
Rucka’s point of entry examines the essence of Wonder Woman — the character acknowledges the word wonder may have once meant awe, but things have changed.
It’s very meta — it’s as if Rucka has taken into account all that’s happened since his last run, incorporating the public’s opinion into Diana’s introspection.
When she thinks, “And everything changed. Everything keeps changing,” she begins to crush Ares’ helm. The words seem to target the various changes her character has gone through, and by crushing something that should be otherwise indestructible, she symbolically dismisses her New 52 chapter as a dead end. With everything else in the DC universe being straightened out, it’s time for Wonder Woman to dispel the falsities and seek truth.
Or a better story befitting her legacy.
This is a critical juncture where Wonder Woman contemplates the point of it all, and it looks like Rucka will try his hand at redefining or reassembling Wonder Woman back down into her basic fundamentals.
Back to her — what was that word Geoff Johns kept saying when he talked about Rebirth? Oh, right — legacy.
It’s a great place to start even if the issue itself isn’t pitch perfect. The scripting is a bit choppy, and while Matthew Clark’s pencils have a bit of Terry Dodson in them, some pages look much better than others.
With Sean Parsons and Jeremy Colwell on inks and letters for Clark’s portion of the book, the artwork goes from good to decent as Wonder Woman rescues a woman from a sex-trade ring who seems ungrateful for the rescue. Details fade in some panels with eyes turning into dot-pupils to complement listless expressions.
Most of Clark’s pages deal with Diana standing in her hotel room, facing the truth of the Lasso and coming to terms with what she must do. Clark handles the quiet moments quite well — when Diana wraps her arm with the Lasso and listens to herself speaking, we’re given a bust-view of Diana, gauging the story from her facial expressions.
It’s a search for truth, and the artwork displays the one character who needs it most in panels that separate her from everything else. When she discovers the deception and shatters the mirror, the broken pieces reveal moments in her life.
Is it all relevant? Is every shard a piece of her worth keeping?
Only the creative team knows, and artist Liam Sharp takes over the issue as Diana doffs her suit for a new set of armor. Traveling to Olympus, the entire issue’s tone changes into something more classical, fantastic, and wondrous.
Overall, it’s a solid issue, considering it’s a stepping stone to something much greater. The creative team shows its strengths and some weaknesses, but given the nature of specials which are meant to tide readers over while affairs are being worked out, this is a Rebirth issue worth reading.
When Wonder Woman #1 hits, it will rewrite the past chapter — something that might cause a lot of controversy on its own depending on where you stand on the whole New 52. DC is really taking the Rebirth event seriously, and it’s a marked difference compared to how the company approached the New 52 reboot when its new line of titles were trotted out with flashy redesigns and changed pasts.
It looks like Wonder Woman will fight for her relevance. As one of DC’s big three, she has been the most neglected. I look forward to seeing the character get her rightful due as she reclaims her origin, and readers are hit with a dose of real wonder.
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