Review: Wonder Woman Vol. 1- Blood

Quick Summary

Pros: The story gives a fresh new take on the ancient Greek gods. It also delivers a wonderful story that is both smart and entertaining. In addition, the art looks wonderful and makes the gods look like they never have before.

Cons: Wonder Woman’s origin and lore is significantly altered, something hardcore fans may not like. It also is paced a little slower than some comics and ends up feeling more like a lengthy introduction than a story by itself.

Overall: This collection is a really great start to a series that will hopefully have a lot more greatness to come. It is an excellent story filled with action and intrigue that will leave readers wanting more. It is also very smartly written and incorporates Greek mythology in one of the best ways I have seen in recent times. If you like Wonder Woman or the Greek gods, then this is the book for you.

Story

Greek mythology has been done time and time again in numerous different works, often to rather lackluster results. Which makes it even more impressive that Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood, by Brian Azzarello, is as entertaining as it is. This is a fresh new take on many characters, yet the transition is handled well and launches a new, modern era for them. Overall, this is a solid comic book that generates plenty of excitement for future works.

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The way Azzarello modernizes and portrays the gods in this work is a delight to read. These characters are all shown in a unique and special light with very unique personalities that are derived from their mythical histories. It makes it so that fans of Greek mythology can appreciate the little details and nuances of the characters while someone with no knowledge of Greek history can still jump right in and enjoy the story. In particular I thoroughly enjoyed Ares in this book. While he is a huge departure from his pre-New 52 character, I really liked him being shown as a old man who is simply tired of everything going on around him. Hopefully Azzarello will show off more of the Pantheon in future volumes.

Another great part is how smartly written this story was. It honestly reminded me, more than anything else, of old Hellblazer stories. Sure Wonder Woman is showing fighting monsters and taking on gods, but this feels secondary to the character’s actual plans. Wonder Woman ends up gathering resources/allies and tricks the gods into doing what she wants, in a move not unlike John Constantine. This was one of the best parts about Hellblazer, making it a very nice thing for this book to emulate. It also serves as a well deserved break from superhero stories where whoever punches the hardest ends up winning the day.

This collection does make very significant changes to the mythos and history of Wonder Woman. It changes her family, the depiction of the gods, history and culture of the Amazons, and more. This does not mean much for the everyday fan but those strongly invested in Wonder Woman may not be happy with this massive status quo change. However, I personally am not too upset. Wonder Woman’s past and history has been changed by nearly every writer to get their hands on her. I personally think its probably best to just enjoy this story for what it is knowing that the future will probably change it yet again.

The only other problem with this work is it feels like an introduction in that it is heavy on information and a little slow. The story focuses primarily on laying the groundwork for its world building, which ends up taking away from the current story.  While somewhat detrimental, this is a necessary evil. To tell a story with as much complexity as this requires some setup and obviously that will happen at the beginning. Hopefully this will end up paying off with future volumes.

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Art

The art in Blood is great by itself but is made even better by how well it meshes with the story it is telling. The art is done with a little less detail than many works, but this is a very good thing. It makes the pages look crisp and fresh while also infusing them with color and attitude. I personally got large waves of nostalgia for the old animated Hercules Disney movie throughout looking at this book.

To match the gods newer attitudes and character, the gods have also received really neat new looks as well. These redesigns are great and make the gods fit in perfectly with this theme of the real world meeting Greek mythology. In Greek legend and in most other comics about the Greek gods, the gods are shown mostly as just super buff people dressed in Greek clothing. This comic breaks form and depicts them each differently with a build and clothing to match their specific powers. This is a fantastic take on the overuse of Greek mythology in media and helps contribute to the story being fresh and new again.

Continuity

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood starts the Wonder Woman New 52 series in a brand new continuity.

The story here continues in Wonder Woman Vol. 2: Guts (Review).