The Legend Of Wonder Woman #1 - Review

The story of Wonder Woman is one that is very well known by comic book fans, as the character has been around for quite a while, but we have never really gotten to know her, before she donned the costume.

The Legend of Wonder Woman is a 9-part mini-series that for the first time provides a detailed look at Diana of Themyscira and the events of her life there, that helped her become the hero we know today. Before we even catch a glimpse of Diana, we are given a nice history of Hippolyta and the Amazons, from the time they rose up as a group of warriors defending their homeland from invaders, how things change for them once Zeus bestows upon them the gift of immortality and the problems that it can bring, all the way through to their separation of the mortal world when Zeus creates Themyscira for them.

By the time we get to meet Diana, we are half way through the book and to me it never felt like it needed to come sooner, the history we got helps set the scene for Diana and what she is going to do. We learn that all the women of Themyscira who are immortal are given a mortal child after a time and of course Diana is the daughter of Hippolyta, but while she is a princess, she desires to know more than what she is meant to learn. Diana believes the island, on which they all live is ill and while her mother and no one else believes her, she sets out to find out things on her own which is where things get interesting. This is very much an introduction of people and places, but of course, we know Diana won’t stay on Themyscira forever, so there will still be more to see, once she leaves the island, but what we get to see of the island, proves that there could be many adventures to be had there, with the creatures and locations discovered in the final pages.

The one aspect I never clicked with was the look, while the pages towards the back are tighter with their character design, the earlier pages have characters that look odd, specifically Hippolyta and her warriors, the design of Zeus and Olympus are both pretty cool, which helps them stand apart from that of the earlier drawings.  The mythical creatures are also well designed, the Pegasus and Hippogriff are both nice and clean, with the oversized Hyperborean Giant looming over everything else, the scale of those pages is impressive. Even the twisted creatures, such as the Manticore is really designed in such a way that it brings forth the elements that make up the creature itself, but with a different spin to it design, it stands out and it is the centre of the action, it needed to.

The first issue sets the stage for a far grander story, which has the potential to change how people see Wonder Woman, the little girl we are introduced to has no combat training, but knows there is more she can do for the people of Themyscira, which is a trait that defines Wonder Woman. While our time with Diana is short, it proves that while we know the hero, we don’t know the whole story.