Review: Wonder Woman Vol. 1- The Lies

Quick Summary

Pros: The book’s main conflict is exciting and serves as a powerful metaphor for real-world issues. The volume introduces some promising mystery to be explored by future volumes. The artwork is gorgeous and has an awesome level of detail to it.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: This is an amazing volume on its own and an amazing start to a new series. The story told here is exciting, meaningful, and is backed up by some gorgeous artwork. It also clues readers in on mysteries and hints at hidden truths that help build even more excitement for the future. Anyone with an interest in Wonder Woman or just in well-crafted comics in general should consider reading this volume.

Story

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies, by Greg Rucka, is an absolutely fantastic volume and a great start to a compelling new Wonder Woman series. About half of the collection focuses on a battle involving Wonder Woman, Cheetah, and an evil god. This battle is exciting on its own while also serving as a powerful metaphor for the damage that is done by toxic masculinity. The other half of the collection injects a tremendous level of mystery and intrigue into the series. It creates uncertainty regarding Wonder Woman’s past and implies that a powerful evil is at work in her life. Together, these narratives create a volume that is enjoyable on its own while also gearing the reader up for future volumes.

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About half of The Lies focuses on a confrontation between Wonder Woman, Cheetah, and Urzkartaga, the evil god who cursed Cheetah in the past. This confrontation starts with one between Wonder Woman and Cheetah but soon sees the two form a tense partnership in order to take down the evil god. This comes to a head as Wonder Woman defeats Urzkartaga and, thus, frees a group of hostages and frees Cheetah from her curse. The entire affair is as exciting as one could ask a superhero comic to be.

However, this confrontation is also layered with a powerful and meaningful metaphor that makes it even better. Urzkartaga’s tactic of utilizing power to oppress the women around him and, thus, overcompensate for his own weakness mirrors what real-world toxic masculinity does. The message here is that women should not be subservient and that systems of oppression should be disabled at their head. This message turns an already solid narrative into an even more worthwhile endeavor.

The rest of The Lies focuses on “the lies” themselves. Wonder Woman learns that her past conflicts with itself and that aspects of it are entirely wrong. The implication seems to be that someone has been deceiving Wonder Woman for their own gain and that this could be an even bigger threat than it would initially appear. It also implies that the truth is out there and that this truth will be explored as this series progresses. Altogether, this builds a tremendous amount of excitement for the future, as answers and climactic showdowns seem to be on the horizon.

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Art

The visuals in The Lies are almost universally positive. Liam Sharp’s work is wonderfully detailed in a way that allows both characters and backgrounds to look great. The characters are well-defined, with faces and forms that are distinct from one another. This helps convey the array of emotions on display throughout the volume and simply gives individual characters individual personalities. Meanwhile, the backgrounds have an equally impressive level of detail. The sheer number of twisting vines and sharp branches in this volume’s jungle scenes help better convey the dark and menacing tone required by those scenes, while the beauty captured by the interplay between the ocean and sky helps convey a serene tone for a scene on a beach. Overall, the entire volume looks beautiful and seriously enhances the appeal of this book.

Continuity

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies is the first volume in the Wonder Woman Rebirth series. It technically follows the events of Wonder Woman Vol. 9: Resurrection (Review), however, it has little to no direct connections to the storyline from that volume.

The story in this volume directly continues in Wonder Woman Vol. 3: The Truth. The events of Wonder Woman Vol. 2: Year One (Review) technically take place long before the events of Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies, however, these volumes were published at the same time and are somewhat designed to be read in tandem with each other. A more detailed explanation for this will be given in our upcoming Rebirth era update to our “Wonder Woman Reading Order“.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Various events from the New 52 Wonder Woman series are mentioned throughout this volume.
  • Wonder Woman was revealed to be the daughter of Zeus in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (Review).
  • Wonder Woman became God of War in Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War (Review).
  • Her mother was turned to stone in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (Review).
• Wonder Woman’s relationship with Superman (Reading Order) is mentioned. See ComicBookWire’s “Superman/Wonder Woman Reading Order” for titles related to their relationship.