Posted in: Comics | Tagged:

Re-Review: G Willow Wilson's Wonder Woman #58 Mirrors the Movie Through a Dark Glass

Published Tue, 13 Nov 2018 08:00:06 -0600

First published on Bleeding Cool three weeks ago, republished, as Wonder Woman #58 by G Willow Wilson and Cary Nord is out tomorrow. Now with added art…

It's been announced that the Wonder Woman 1984 movie has been moved to 2020. But if you can't wait for some Wonder Woman on the lines of the first movie, you might like to try the upcoming comic book series that follows The Witching Hourevent, beginning with Wonder Woman #58 written by G Willow Wilson and drawn by Cary Nord.

Bleeding Cool has had a sneak peek at the first issue of their run (as well as the new The Green Lantern #1 over here) and what most surprised me is how little it is in departure from what has gone before, but how well defined it it for those who may have enjoyed the movie and now want to get into the comic books. Indeed, it does a lot of the same trick that The Green Lantern is also doing.

It begins, with somewhere Hippolyta describes as 'places even the brightest light cannot illuminate.'

No, not Twitter, this is the underground, below Paradise Island, where Ares, God Of War, has been imprisoned for a very long time.

And Cary Nord portraying those worlds with great distinction and a strong flow, and not a million miles from the George Perez/Phil Jimenez look that this comic used to enjoy, albeit one with more spot blacks, harsher angles and a slightly cartoonier facial approach.

And hell, there are moments that I could swear were pure Deodato as well.

It turns out that Grail, the recently introduced daughter of Amazonian assassin Myrina and Darkseid, with issues all of her own, is providing Ares with company. And all hell breaks loose – quite literally.

And as godly comparisons are thrown around, with Ares noting that 'mortal men worship a carpenter who never held a sword', Diana's world seems very far away. With Steve in danger, both in vision and reality, mythology leaking out into the rest of the world, we see Wonder Woman thrown into a war that's been built up with preserving treaties rather than any moral cause, and very much reminiscent of World War I – the setting for the first Wonder Woman movie.

However, it is one that has been complicated and darkened by a more Black Earth Rising morality including human shields that makes Wonder Woman's perspective far more distinct. And not necessarily the right one. You, the reader, get to decide what for you, is a treaty too far?

And naturally, Ares is down with all that as well.

It's a balanced tightrope walk that brings in the old Wonder Woman, the recent Wonder Woman and the movie Wonder Woman. It feels as if G Willow Wilson has designed this to appeal to many, and maybe loved by them too. I don't know if the first issue has the killer hooks that The Green Lantern does, but man this should be an easy sell to Wonder Woman fans of all varieties.

WONDER WOMAN #58
(W) G. Willow Wilson (A) Cary Nord (CA) Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson
"THE JUST WAR" part one! A new era of Wonder Woman begins as best-selling writer G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) makes her return to DC with art star Cary Nord (Conan, THE UNEXPECTED) joining the series!
Far below Themyscira, Ares, the God of War, has been imprisoned for generations, repenting his past sins. But his new cellmate Grail may have an unexpected effect on him…and the plan they've come up with will change Themyscira-and the world- forever! When Wonder Woman rushes to Eastern Europe to rescue Steve Trevor from a mission gone wrong, she'll find herself face-to-face with a very new, very different God of War! In Shops: Nov 14, 2018 SRP: $3.99