Written By: Greg Rucka

Art By: Matthew Clark & Liam Sharp

Inks By: Sean Parsons

Color Art By: Jeremy Colwell & Laura Martin

In the most anticipated DC Rebirth title for me, this week saw the release of Wonder Woman Rebirth, under the skillful hand of Greg Rucka’s pen. After Azzarello and Chiang’s run, I’ve been chomping at the bit for more quality Wonder Woman, and this seemed like the place that it would happen. The results were curious, but certainly have me excited for more.

If you’ve been reading Wonder Woman since the New 52, you’ll know that her origin has been retconned. Originally being formed of clay, literally molded, it came out in the aforementioned Azz/Chiang run that she is actually the child of her mother Hippolyta and the God Zeus. This issue, and very mild spoilers ahead, manages to blow up everything. Diana is taking this opportunity, by bounding herself in the Lasso of Truth, to find out the facts of her life. In a way, Rucka is looking to clean up some muddy history for Diana, without outright dismissing anything that came before. Also, after the (SPOILERS) revelations coming out of Justice League, it looks like Diana has a brother, and she’s on a journey to find out more about who and where he is. Much like other Rebirth titles, the main purpose for this is to be a jumping off point for the start of the new ongoing. This achieves that, but also adds necessary establishment of the basics of Wonder Woman. Even though she’s questioning the world she knows, which she’s done since her childhood on Themyscira, she still opens the book by thwarting an assault. In her search for the truth, she’s still going to be looking out for what’s right, which is the core of the character. This is something that was lost in a few cases in the post Flashpoint world. More So with Superman, but Rucka is establishing the path from jump.

While the driving narrative force of this issue was Rucka’s writing, we got two tales in terms of the art. The first half of the book is drawn by Matthew Clark, with inks by Sean Parsons. This half left me a little cold. While some of the splash pages were well rendered, the storytelling panel to panel was a little choppy. For me, I’d rather have more dynamic panel to panel work rather than the big posing splash pages. The art wasn’t necessarily bad, just a little stiff,and occasionally, Diana looked a little inconsistent. It seemed the bigger the space to draw her, the more full of life the character. That said, there was a noticeable difference when Liam Sharp took over. In  a style straight out of 1970’s monster comics, the scale of the entire world (appropriately as she is transported to Olympus) explodes. Diana is rendered beautifully, as if done by Mike Ploog or Dan Brereton, in a hyper detailed but clear way. The creature designs, in centaurs and other creatures we know from mythology is also stunning. And while he has a little more space to make it work, Sharp is extremely kinetic panel to panel. This gives me hope for the future stories, as it’s split between him (doing a past story of her origin) and the incomparable Nicola Scott working on the present day.

This issue certainly lived up to the hype for me, even with the few setbacks in the art department. I will be happily in line for the Wonder Woman ongoing, and Rucka, clearly knows Diana extremely well.

 

4 Lassos out of 5