World Famous Comics: Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses
Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses
By: John Byrne Publisher: Prima Lifestyles Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Number of Pages: 320 Publication Date: October 08, 1997 Release Date: October 08, 1997 Studio: Prima Lifestyles
Product Description: Byrne's fantasy novel features the most famous and recognizable heroine in literature. Molded from clay and brought to life by the power of the Greek gods, Wonder Woman is an Amazon princess trained in the arts of war and peace. She now walks among ordinary mortals, a proud and caring defender--but ot all trust her, and a few even wish her destruction.
His best Wonder Woman work but it's Prose not Graphic ^ If some of the other reviewers were not illiterate they wouldn't be reviewing this as if it was a Graphic Novel which is comic book geek talk for a collection of comic books in a Trade Paperback or Hardcover.
This story, as was a Swamp[ Thing tale earlier, was deemed to controversial for the comics. Thank You Religious Right!
As a PROSE novel published by Prima Lifestyles and not published under the DC logo it was allowed to see print. If you can't separate your Judeo-Christian religious beliefs from it's fictional function as just another mythology , this is not for you
I'll Huff And Puff And Blow Your House Down! ^ I was hesitant to get this volume for a long time. Firstly, I've heard a lot of complains about John Byrne's work on "Wonder Woman". Secondly, I've just read the bulk of George Perez's and Phil Jimenez's work on the Amazing Amazon and therefore, I consider myself a new fan - I can't bear the disillusionment should I come to hate her portrayal by Byrne. However being the completist that I am, I finally did. Here's what I think...
"Second Genesis" collects the first five issues of Byrne's tenure as plotter, scripter, penciller, inker and letterer of Wonder Woman. Yes, you read that right. This guy does it all himself. Only the coloring is done by someone else (in this case, the ultra-talented Patricia Mulvihill). And herein lies the problem. Byrne is no Eisner or Kirby but he sure tries hard! The end result is a little mixed. The work here is neither very bad but neither are they very good. I think many would agree with me that Byrne's best work were those in the past - X-Men, Superman and even She-Hulk.
The story: Diana moves to Gateway City and becomes a superhero there - much like all the other superheroic-guardians-of-fictional-cities that populate the DC Universe. This is clearly a move away from the more mythological-heavy tone of George Perez's recreation in 1987. While I love Perez's work, I wouldn't say that a change is necessarily bad. In fact, I'd say that the second half of Perez's run on the book was a little too slow-moving and often concentrated more on the book's supporting characters (Inspector Indelicato, Julia Kapatelis, Vanessa Kapatelis, Eileen, Lucy, and the countless Amazons like Menalippe, Phytia, Iphtime, etc. etc.) than on the title-character herself. And that's one thing that has been corrected by Byrne here. Diana takes centerstage in this story in a glorious fashion. And that's all I have to praise about Byrne's approach - it's good to see Diana on nearly every page and panel. The rest are all complains:
1) Darkseid's attack on Themyscira seems forced and his exit seems to abrupt. The whole thing felt a little pointless. I don't know whether this particular plotline is followed up upon much in the preceding issues (having never read them), but in this book alone, the reader is left feeling like there's no point to the whole thing. I mean, Darkseid murders 1,200+ Amazons and he just leaves? Where's the resolution to that?
2) I don't really like Diana's costume redesign. Byrne switched the star-spangled panties (?!?) with another pair that has only two stars in the front. Then he gave her a belt that is so big that it needed to be tucked into her golden WW bra! Yes, it really is like that - see for yourself!
3) Byrne's art almost always suffer when he inks them himself. DC should have hired another inker like Terry Austin or Brett Breeding and this work would've turned out better. In many panels, Diana looks too skinny and haggard. There is a difference between battle-worn and downright shoddy.
4) The new supporting characters introduced here are too similar to Perez's that you feel like Byrne is "redoing" Perez. Cassie and her professor mother is very much like Vanessa and Julia Kapatelis. Detective Mike Schorr is just another version of Officer Indelicato!
5) The foreword by Byrne himself is quite painful to read. And I'm saying that as a Byrne-fan myself for many years! You see, I buy this book primarily for a Wonder Woman story. And the foreword is really about "Let-Me-Tell-You-The-Epic-Story-Of-How-DC-Finally-Got-ME-To-Work-On-Wonder-Woman!" I find that quite laughable. Byrne is a comicbook writer/artist. What else would he be doing if not comicbooks? Wonder Woman is just another job - not an epic undertaking by any great stretch! But the way he described his taking the job was like it had to do with the fates being aligned and that it's got some cosmic significance. Seriously, I don't think even Leo Tolstoy would be saying this if he's been picked to do the book!
This book is recommended only for Wonder Woman completists and DC historians. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone that I'd like to introduce to the character.
Wonder Woman: Restoration? ^ In his first story-arc, John Byrne sets out to restore Wonder Woman's long-forgotten position as one of DC's top three superheroes, with physical strength second only to that of Superman. Diana forges a new beginning for herself after the reprehensible machinations of her mother, Queen Hippolyta, caused the death of Artemis, the renegade Amazon who temporarily took over Diana's role as Wonder Woman. Diana moves from Boston to Gateway City, adopts a new look, and gains a new mentor (middle-aged museum curator, Helena Sandsmark, who has a teen daughter) and a new potential love interest (Mike Schorr, a Gateway City cop). This is NOT a good beginning from John Byrne at all - his laziness rears its head in two obvious ways. Firstly, the new look Wonder Woman is nothing more than Byrne's desire to avoid having to draw too many stars - Diana's star-spangled bottom is reduced to only two HUGE stars at the front, and none at the back. Secondly, Byrne's "new" characters show disturbing similarities with old ones created by George Perez. Helena Sandsmark is a [copy] of George Perez's creation, middle-aged archaeologist, Julia Kapatelis, Diana's previous mentor who also has a teen daughter. Gateway City cop Mike Schorr also echoes another of George Perez's creations, Boston's Inspector Indelicato, who also has a crush on Diana. Such weaknesses aside, the story does get roaring - Darkseid invades Paradise Island, slaughtering over 1,000 Amazons, before Diana manages to repel the invasion with the help of Mike Schorr. Diana is portrayed as a no-nonsense super-heroine who is well aware of her strengths. This strong characterisation of Diana has been carried over to the Justice League of America, where Diana has been portrayed as a capable and confident leader since. All in all, "Second Genesis" is not a bad read, but John Byrne's Wonder Woman stories get progressively worse in subsequent issues - in quick succession, Byrne tries to alter Hippolyta, Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl / Troia's origins. In George Perez's 1986 revamp of Wonder Woman, Hippolyta was the spirit of a murdered pregnant cave woman given new life by the Greek Gods while Diana was the spirit of her unborn child. Byrne tries to subvert this new origin by introducing an unnecessary character, Magala, the Amazon mystic who looks like a cave woman, suggesting that the cave woman we saw in George Perez's first issue of Wonder Woman was actually Magala, not Hippolyta. Hippolyta somehow becomes War God Ares' daughter in a convoluted sub-plot that still eludes me. Worse still, Byrne sends Hippolyta back in time into the Second World War to become the Golden Age Wonder Woman, thus messing up all of DC Universe's continuity. In the process, Perez and Wolfman's 1988 revamped origin of Wonder Girl / Troia also gets flushed down the drain. I was truly glad when Byrne finally left Wonder Woman - Phil Jimenez has since tried to undo some of the damage Byrne caused, though not always successfully. But at least with Jimenez, we have a writer who has profound respect for Wonder Woman's history.
just this ^ I don't need to talk about the plot because previous reviewers have already done that job. At first, I was going to give this book 3 stars, but after reading the other WW novel, Mythos, I said, "OMIGOSH! The one by John Byrne was a better read!" There's a scene in this book where a priest of the Judeo-Christian religion gets to interview Athena, the goddess of wisdom of the ancient Greeks. She honestly and humbly admits that the gods were not responsible for the creation of man. And that the gods did not create the souls of the Amazons (including that of Diana) but that these souls had already been existing before; the gods merely had them reincarnated into the Amazon nation. This led the priest to believe that his Judeo-Christian God was the ultimate source of all life. What a beautiful confirmation of his faith! The only thing that unsettles me is Athena's indifference to the name of Jesus. If you were to come across this scene, you will notice that Athena knows little about Jesus, despite the fact that Christianity had helped sculpt Western civilization. I know that it would have been silly to have Athena convert to Christianity and leave Mt. Olympus for Mt. Zion, but I wish Byrne had made her speak a little more about the goodness that this divine personality had contributed to the world, regardless of Christianity's superceding the ancient Greek religion. I wish she had more reverence towards Jesus; she certainly can't compare herself to Him in terms of holiness. There are some myths that portray her as being silly, not at all befitting a goddess of wisdom (e.g., Arachne, the Trojan War).
Fantastic Story--Two Thumbs Up! ^ WONDER WOMAN: GODS & GODDESSES is sure to delight diehard comics fans and neophytes alike. Our heroine finds herself in quite the dilemma when a popular televangelist sets her sights on the Amazon Princess, convinced that the star spangled heroine is nothing less than the devil incarnate! Now the Amazon must bring to bear all her powers and legendary weapons in order to clear her name and find out who's behind this diabolical plot!
Featuring a varied and colorful cast of characters, the story is quite engaging and never fails to entertain.
And, as every good Wonder Woman story does, it has a message that we can all learn from.
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