Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons (2021-) #1

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This is one of the best issues of a comic I have read all year, if not the best. And even if you dont agree with that assessment, after having read this you'll see that its creators have made quite a hearty stake for that claim.

Ok, so first of all, the art from Jimenez here is just gorgeous, he really outdid himself big time. He did some great work on Batman too, but this is next level stuff. I like the fact that DC gave this book to an artist, regardless of his sex, and they reaped the rewards in spades. Good job there! Required reading for fans excited about the upcoming television series PARADISE LOST, announced by James Gunn as part of the first chapter of the new DC Universe media slate! The hardcore fanboys and canon holders will give their gripes, I'm certain. Those who are better versed in Greek myths than I likely will to, if they read this.Literally anything is possible in this brave new world of the future. Including, strange as it might seem, good comic books. I’m glad I gave the book an honest shot. Kelly and Phil have great chemistry and I do not doubt that Historia will be a complete epic by the end of the series. It may seem improbable that such a thing could be - an artist might just sit down and draw something so unspeakably beautiful as all that. Surely not! I have in the past accused modern artists of cowardice for neglecting the ink wash, and must hereby exonerate Scott from any such critique. Nicola Scott doesn’t take any shortcuts. She’s the closest we’ve got to Russ Heath. We should probably put her in a box somewhere so she doesn’t get hurt. Im quite certain if you're reading this you have either already read the book, or you already plan to. But in case those don't apply, I'll be the one of untold many to tell you do stop what you are doing and read this book.

The goddesses of the Olymp have had enough of the cruelty against and marginalisation of women that they had to witness throughout history. And it's not like they have been treated any better by the male gods of the Olymp. It’s easy, in other words, to write a story in which Zeus and Hera are pieces of plot furniture. Much harder to bring these hoary old geezers to life again. But that murder at the end of the second chapter is a real showstopper. We all know enough about these myths to understand that you’re not supposed to kill anyone in the temple of a patron god. Killing someone in the temple of Apollo, while in the act of praying to Apollo - well! You’re flinching along with me because we know how that’s going to play out. We feel it in our bones. That would be a sufficient response to reading a book like this as I have just done. But it certainly isn't sufficient to my tastes. What also is breathtaking about this comic is the glorious artwork. Yep, I called it glorious. It must be some of if not THE best artwork I've EVER seen in a comic / graphic novel: Jimenez’s introductory issue is the most riotous and colorful. Accordingly, there are three credited colorists: Hi-Fi, Arif Prianto and Romulo Fajarado, Jr. The color seems so integral to the finished product, I’d be interested to see what the files looked like prior.The tribe of demigoddesses created at the conclusion of the previous chapter live at night, well accustomed to hiding themselves, but eventually they attract a following, and soon that following becomes difficult to hide. This leads, with sure and certain inevitability, to the eventual reveal. This comes in the form of a murder in the temple of Apollo.

So I came in a good ways through William Messner-Loeb’s run (1992-95). He’s one of our more underrated writers, someone who focused on the human element of his stories at all turns. I was buying as much for the Brian Bolland covers as anything else, truth be told, but you probably could have guessed that. And I bought it through the Mike Deodato period at the tail end of Messner-Loeb, because I generally had and have no problem with Deodato’s art. Very dynamic, even then. And then he passed the torch to John Byrne (1995-98) - and I’m not going to lie to you, I enjoyed that run very much. At least the first half. The second half had a surprisingly strong Roy Thomas vibe. Lots of continuity work that not a lot of people ever wanted to deal with. But the first half was a dedicated fight book, where Byrne tried to prove a point: that Wonder Woman is really damn strong and should maybe have a big fistfight once in a while.The art is really fantastic. Different artists are used for each of the three issues, but all of them elevate the legendary quality of the story in many ways and there is still consistency across the stories even when another artist is at the helm.