Wonder Woman Historia - The Amazons // Review
It’s extremely difficult to manifest stories of the gods that feel suitably...godlike. All too often, the humanity meant to make beings of vast power relatable merely serve to make them appallingly human. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick brilliantly renders the world of the Greek gods for the page in the suitably overwhelming first issue of Wonder Woman Historia - The Amazons. DeConnick’s story is brought to the page by artist Phil Jimenez with grace and perspective that fuses inspiration from some of the great surrealist painters of the past. With comic book art that honors some artists who have worked with Wonder Woman over the years.
The history of the Amazons of Themyscira finds its way to the page in a new re-telling. A band of goddesses approaches Zeus demanding that he answer for the mistreatment of women over the centuries. He refuses to do so, prompting an agreement made in the shadows to create a race of warriors who are not men who will fight for justice for all. Initially, Hippolyte is NOT one of those created by the goddesses. She who is to become the queen of Themyscira must be born in strife and tragedy. She will gain strength and power in the pursuit of her own daughter.
DeConnick draws from numerous different heroic elements to tell the story of the origin of DC’s Amazons. Though there are a few shades of the quasi-Taoist origins that William Moulton Marston fused into the very first origin of the warriors. DeConnick’s tale leans much more heavily on a vividly gorgeous fusion of myth and heroic fantasy created by Greg Potter George Pérez for the first post-Crisis Wonder Woman series. There is power and poetry in DeConnick’s vision that makes for one of the most remarkable stories of gods, goddesses, and mortals ever to make it to the comics page.
Jimenez also borrows visual inspiration from the Olympus that Pérez sculpted for the post-Crisis era. Gorgeous Greek architecture fuses together at odd angles in the background. Jimenez is also drawing inspiration from some of the great surrealist painters of the 20th century. The tapestry of the realm of the Goddesses has a composition that feels inspired by Bosch with vividly surrealist visuals that feel like a mix of classical Greek as seen through the warped lens of Dalí. Aspects of humanity resonate through powerful figures in the foreground. There’s a breathtaking feeling of overwhelming scope on the page in the realm of the gods. Every scene with them plays out in landscape, while every scene with mortals is fused to the page in the more traditional comic book “portrait” format. The costume design for the many tribes of Amazons is designed with impressive detail. The Amazons are closer to goddesses than mortals, and their appearances clearly mark them as being something more than human. The drama of Hippolyte shoots across the page with intense emotion. It’s all so cunningly, devastatingly beautiful.
It took quite some time for this volume to make it to the comics rack. It was well worth the wait. The next issue won’t make an appearance until the other side of winter. If that second volume looks and reads anything like the first, Spring of 2022 couldn’t come soon enough.
