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Friday 3 March 2017

Wonder Woman, Volume 1: The Lies Review (Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp)


Wonder Woman thinks someone’s fucking with her - “The story keeps changing” she chants, over and over, probably a meta reference to how her origins have changed over the years with different writers. She asks her arch-enemy Cheetah to help her figure out what’s happening, but first she must defeat an evil Swamp Thing-esque monster in Africa and get it on with Steve Trevor! 

So Wonder Woman’s still a steaming pile! I never read Greg Rucka’s previous Wonder Woman run but I’m guessing some readers liked it so that’s why DC courted him to return. I don’t really care, I’m not rushing out to read it but, since Rucka’s comics are almost always bad, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just as crappy as this is. 

Diana rejects the New 52 legacy of being the God of War and sets out to uncover The Lies about her reality, which is a storyline I’m on board for. Except that’s not what we get here. Instead we get a really bad story about Wonder Woman doing generic stuff: punching monsters and saving people. You don’t get any sense of who Diana is as a person, she’s just a bland, idealised super woman who hits stuff hard. I can’t imagine new readers being impressed with this version of Wonder Woman, let alone long-time readers - it’s so boring! 

She’s in Africa looking for Cheetah because she needs her help to find Themyscira (aka Paradise Island, her home) - but why would Cheetah know where/how to find it??? It’s just a contrived excuse for Diana to cross paths with Steve. There’s little else to say about the unremarkable story: Wonder Woman saves the day, Etta Candy’s black for diversity reasons, there’s a corny “GIRL POWER!” finale and that’s it. Rubbish! 

Liam Sharp’s artwork is beautiful - I loved the African backgrounds and the sequence in Olympus - and Laura Martin’s colours are really something too. But Rucka tanks yet another book with his unimaginative, witless writing. The first Wonder Woman Rebirth book is a very poor start to the series. At this point I’m unsurprised with Rebirth’s low quality; I’d be more shocked if I came across one that was half-decent!

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