Review: Wonder Woman Vol. 9- Resurrection

Quick Summary

Pros: The book has some fun action. Wonder Woman’s character shines in some moments. The artwork looks great on nearly every page.

Cons: Wonder Woman’s character falters in a number of other moments. Character development for the book’s supporting cast feels contradictory. The majority of the book’s narrative is swamped in chaos.

Overall: The Wonder Woman series continues to devolve as its moves into its final volume. This collection has a number of problems holding it back and far too few positive features pushing it forward. The biggest benefit here is the art but the story’s problems are too significant for the artwork to make up for. Readers looking for a Wonder Woman book with good art may enjoy this collection, as long as they don’t care about the story at all.

Story

Wonder Woman Vol. 9: Resurrection, by Meredith Finch, is the worst volume in this series. The volume has problems with its characters, its storytelling, and the way in which it relates to the earlier volumes in this series. Meanwhile, the book’s positive attributes are all rather minor and fail to make up for the book’s flaws. It is sad to see the Wonder Woman series fall this far from grace but, hopefully, things will improve as the comic transitions into the Rebirth era.

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The positive attributes in Resurrection are small but can be found intermittently throughout the volume. There are a few exciting clashes between Wonder Woman and the enemies she comes up against. In addition, Wonder Woman’s pursuit of the truth and her commitment to her friends seems like an accurate representation of who she is as a character.

However, Wonder Woman’s accurate portrayal on some pages is contrasted against an inaccurate portrayal on other pages. Her indecisiveness and slow path to the truth makes her seem like a weaker character than she should be. After dealing with the manipulations of the gods for eight volumes, Wonder Woman ends up just as gullible as ever, which absolutely should not be the case.

Resurrection is not just unfavorable to Wonder Woman; it also actively works against more character development established throughout this Wonder Woman series. Ares ends up being a jerk who suddenly doesn’t care about the comradery he once maintained with Wonder Woman. Meanwhile, Hera is cast, once again, as the book’s main villain, despite making a lot of progress in the past. These sudden changes in character could have been justified or could have played a part in a deeper examination into these characters but the way it was handled here simply does not allow for this.

The entirety of the narrative in Resurrection is also hampered by some chaotic storytelling. The opening chapter feels like the introduction to a larger fight against Doctor Poison but, instead, she is dismissed with ease. Later on, when the book’s main narrative is in full swing, an interruption occurs when Ares suddenly demands to be God of War once more. There are also plot points introduced regarding Apollo and the rest of the gods that never actually develop into anything.

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Art

The one consistent element in Resurrection is the high quality of the book’s artwork. David Finch and, later, Miguel Mendonça are able to craft some seriously good looking visuals. They allow the characters to look fierce as they tackle the problems confronting them and are able to depict a wide array of cool locations. Both artists’ work is also creative and, thus, is able to bring some of the magical elements of Greek Mythology to life, which does a lot for the book’s appeal. It also helps that Brad Anderson’s colors are used throughout the entire collection, giving some consistency as the book transitions between pencilers. In the end, the artwork in Resurrection is one of the collection’s strongest features.

Continuity

Wonder Woman Vol. 9: Resurrection continues the story from Wonder Woman Vol. 8: A Twist of Fate (Review).

This Wonder Woman series ends with this volume. A new one continues the story in Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• A large portion of this book mentions Ares dying and Wonder Woman taking his role as god of war. This happened at the conclusion of Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War (Review).