Customer Reviews

Wonder Woman: Love and Murder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Collecting Wonder Woman #6-10, Pens: Jodi Picoult, Pencils: Drew Johnson, Terry Dodson, Paco Diaz

I'll be honest, I was pretty displeased with this collection. It started out fine; Picoult was light enough, putting Wonder Woman in "Man's World" with funny consequences, but a severe plot twist ends up committing one of the comic book conventions that irk me so much: the Resurrection. Sure enough, if you're willin to believe it, the plot works fine and smoothly. The writing itself was fine. What was written - not necessarily.

Cameos by Black Canary and Catwoman were iffy and held no substance. I mean, it might as well be a stranger making those cameos; the characters are there without much of a purpose.

Wonder Woman's sidekick is pretty childish for a secret agent, and I find it hard to believe that Diana tolerates him.

Terry Dodson is the artist for Wonder Woman, but he required two fill-in artists. He pencils issues 8 and 9, while Drew Johnson has 6 and 7 and Paco Diaz rounds it off with number 10. Of them all, Terry Dodson is fantastic with Paco being tolerable. Johnson is there in the middle.

I really wish there was a single artist for this book. The book does feel disjunct. Don't get it if you want to check out the Dodsons' art, because it's barely there.

Overall, you get five issues for 20 dollars, with a foreword by Jodi on how she transitioned from novels to sequential art. Even at 14 bucks here at Amazon, it's not really worth it, because this is just a tie-in to another event: Amazons Attack. THERE IS NO RESOLUTION. The book feels empty. I expect some kind of resolution in a graphic novel.

Don't you?

After hiring Allan Heinberg to do the first five issues of the "Wonder Woman" reboot, DC turned to novelist Jodi Picoult to do another five-issue story arc. The result is a complete misfire on a number of levels, some of which are Picoult's fault, and some of which are DC's. Finally, there is the art (by, successively, Drew Johnson, Terry Dodson, and Paco Diaz), which is very good.

Beginning with the things that are DC's fault: "Wonder Woman v.3" has, from the start, been a disastrous revision to Diana's status quo, saddling her with her civilian identity of Diana Prince, as a US government agent, giving her a "human" form (which she is not compelled to use, but chooses to for some reason), stripping away the distinctive innovations made by George Perez in the 1987 reboot. Diana, a Themysciran diplomat, has now more or less decided that what she really needs to do is start chanting "U-S-A!" and be more 'human' (a major thesis propagated by the normally-talented Geoff Johns in "Infinite Crisis" being that Diana is not human already, which he seems to equate with being born and raised in America), and in order to observe humanity, she gets a job as a secret agent (certainly something most people can relate to), doing the same things she would do as Wonder Woman, except without her powers, and endangering other people in the process. Picoult, a big-name writer, doesn't even get to write her own story here, because the thrust is a tie-in to the abominable "Amazons Attack" crossover, which you will have to buy if you want the end of the story, since this trade ends on a cliffhanger.

And now there are the things that are Picoult's fault: while the plot was dictated to her, the characterization is all her own, and Picoult completely fails at capturing Diana's character. She acts like she just arrived from Themyscira (really, not even Perez had her act as naive as she does here), despite having been in Patriach's World for years (in fact, the IC reboot extends her time considerably, rendering this characterization choice even more nonsensical). Then there is her 'relationship' with Nemesis, the her partner at her spy agency; Heinberg introduced the character poorly, but Picoult takes the character and his interaction with Wonder Woman to new lows, depicting them as particularly stupid teenagers with juvenile banter.

The art, by Johnson (who I will forever associate with Greg Rucka's excellent run on the title in Volume 2), Dodson (who had rough going with Heinberg and Picoult, but is now working on Gail Simone's much-improved run), and Diaz is excellent; Diana has seldom looked better than she does here, even when the writing as seldom been as poor.

This is, overall, a terrible depiction of the character, a major part of why 2007 was Diana's worst year since her creation.

Ms Picoult should not be blamed for the faults of this book. On its own merits it is a story that has humorous characterization done quite well. However, it does not really develope well as a story since the writer prior, Heinberg couldn't finish his five issues within even a years time leaving Ms Picoult to figure out how he was going to finish his work (which DC was allowing him to do and that would be published after the completion of Ms Picoult's work as a Wonder Woman annual)

Her story is further curtailed by having to fit her work to work with the atrocious Amazons Attack miniseries which was written by the writer of Catwoman, Will Pfeiffer. Ms Picoult is left not being able to write Wonder Woman achieving anything within the story as Mr Pfeifer wrote his series more as a Batman feature with the Amazons cast as villains.

It is a shame that the skills of Ms Picoult were so wasted as the glimmerings of her writing only show the poverty of situation in which DC Comics placed her. The cover of the book is sadly misleading in that it is using the desigh used on the cover of many of her books. Unfortunately, though her name is prominent on the cover, DC Comics did not allow her to use her capacities as a storyteller inside.

I don't know Jodi Picoult from Eve, but I assume with her reputation she's a fine writer. This book, however, is not an example of fine writing. If she knows anything about Wonder Woman she certainly fooled me. The story is close to non-existent, and Wonder Woman seems completely out of character the whole time. Picoult travel the far too common road of cliched character introspection: "Who am I?" Wonder Woman muses.

The art at times is very good, but at other times (the art team changes 3 times in 5 issues) it's pretty bad. Paco Diaz's issue looks like it was sketched in an afternoon.

A part in the book summed this up great. Nemesis says, while likening the action to a game of chess, "but as any chess player known... There's Always a more powerful piece on the board." He goes on "Game, set, and Match." The author of these words, apparently, doesn't know much about chess, and I suspect she knows less about Wonder Woman.

What's going on? Lately, I've been collecting graphic novels of Wonder Woman after focusing just about my entire life on Marvel's X-Men. However, I'm disappointed in the storylines and artworks of Wonder Woman.

Admittedly, I got this book only because I was surprised to see Jodi Picoult penning a graphic novel for Wonder Woman. In *Love and Murder*, Special Agent Diana Prince has just been given an impossible mission. She's been ordered, along with her partner, to capture Wonder Woman.

The question is how is this possible?!?!

While figuring this impossible task, Wonder Woman suddenly finds herself battling against her Amazon sisters and her resurrected mother, Queen Hippolyta.

Ugh, how many times does Wonder Woman have to fight her Amazon sisters and get into it with her mother? Is that all Wonder Woman is good for? I found the storyline disappointing. However, I don't blame Picoult since I believe she's stuck with the storyline as it is a tie-in to another novel. She did her best to spice up the dialogues with humor here and there. Alas, it was not enough to do Wonder Woman justice.

I must say I'm so glad I did not buy this book.
The main problem with this trade, I believe, lies in the lack of continuity. Not universe continuity, but within this small arc itself.
I have not read Picoult nor kept up on the Wonder Woman series, so I was unfamiliar with both the author and where Wonder Woman was in the DC Universe. Unfortunately, there was little to ground me. Picoult's writing, while at times amusing, jumps from action to humor with little transition. (Nemesis' innuendo continuously fell flat for me because of its placement.) While Wonder Woman struggles to find her identity, casual readers are left non-plussed and confused by the lack of explanation (there isn't even a summary page in the beginning) and the disjointed nature of the writing and the art. With numerous artist changes, there is no flow to the visuals from chapter to chapter. Not only is there no preface, there's no resolution.
I cannot say I enjoyed this book. It left me confused and a bit annoyed. I will NOT follow up with Amazons Attack.

I started out with high hopes for this book because Wonder Woman is one of my favourite characters. However, this is a book for casual Wondy fans who care little or not at all for her backstory.

The artwork didn't disappoint. Terry Dodson, Drew Johnson, and Paco Diaz hit it out of the park. Each page is beautiful, and the full-colour splash page is worthy of a print. When the Amazons and Hippolyta attack, you feel the same awe-struck terror of the characters. They even managed to keep me from confusing Diana and Hippolyta; not all artists manage this. Their work alone would garner five stars.

However, the plot arc was a disaster. It started out well and had quite a bit of meta-humour with how Wonder Woman always gets the worst toys and always sells less than Superman and Batman. Nemesis is funny and just the right blend of charming and smart ass. Their romance seems a little forced, but I could believe that he would eventually become a worthy partner for Wonder Woman. However, toward the end, it got too confusing to keep track of. There are no less than three shapeshifters, all of whom portray multiple people. People keep bringing up the possibility that Hippolyta isn't the real queen, but it's never adequately settled. The reason for the continued attack made little sense to me as well. I can buy Hippolyta deciding to attack Man's World to save her daughter. But when her daughter is standing in front of her saying, "I'm fine, Mam. Call off the attack." why does she then attack her? It makes no sense if she is Hippolyta, and if she isn't, then that wasn't adequately explained (as I previously mentioned). The entire arc ends on a cliffhanger that leads to Wonder Woman's lowest point: "Amazons Attack." That's right, this is a Countdown to Final Crisis book.

And worst of all, this is the book that introduced the bee weapon. ("Bees. My God.") A "Stygian hornet weapon" is even stupider than a "Purple Power Ray," but at least the text has characters call out the latter. Super heroes the likes of Batman treat the Stygian hornet weapon like it's a legitimate concern and not something incredibly hokey. If "Love and Murder" had been a silly, throw back to the Golden and Silver Ages, I would've loved it. But the whole book had been a serious look at whether Wonder Woman was an Amazon or a super hero. The deadly bee weapon just derails the whole story.

Like I said, if you're a casual fan of Wonder Woman or a massive fan of Jodi Picoult, this book is well worth your time. But if you're a Wonder Woman fan who knows (and enjoys) her backstory, buy it for the art and don't bother reading it

The creator of the comic book character of Wonder Woman (WW) likely has the most interesting background of any person with enough imagination to create this type of fictional character. Doctor of psychology William Moulton Marston created the character in 1941 and he openly stated the reason as "a distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men." These are strong words that were completely out of character for the social climate of 1941. WW is a feminist icon, one of the few literary depictions of women of being as capable as men until modern times.
WW is an Amazon woman, based on the legends of the women of Greek mythology and she is a powerful woman, a warrior schooled in many areas of combat and possessing super strength. One of her characteristic tactics is "bullets and bracelets", where she uses the thick bracelets on her wrists to deflect bullets. Marston is also credited with inventing the machinery that became the lie detector and he firmly believed that women were more honest and trustworthy than men.
The story opens with WW as Special Agent Diana Prince of the Department of Metahuman Affairs with her male partner on assignment to capture WW. In a previous story, WW killed an evil man when her magic lasso bound him and when forced to tell the truth told her that the only way to stop him was to kill him. WW is now being sought and she is captured.
The evil Amazon Circe plays on WW's goal to be human and manages to get the entire Amazon population to go to war against the humans in Washington D. C. All of the superheroes rally to the defense of the national capitol in a battle between the two powerful forces. WW is actively working against the Amazons and there is an unresolved confrontation at the end.
This story is a strong violation of the ideals Marston originally instilled in the Amazons. Picoult depicts them as the Greeks depicted their gods, fickle and prone to executing mad acts when they feel insulted. To me, this violation of the original spirit of the Amazons made for a very poor story.

I've never been a huge fan of Wonder Woman, but recently I've been getting into her and checking out some of the older books about her. I'm finding out more and more about how cool she is the more I read about her. However this is not one of the best Wonder Woman books I've ever read. It's full of little inconsistencies and it's pretty stupid in some places.

For example, in the very beginning we see Wonder Woman is undercover as a secret agent and is working with the US government and she is teamed up with another agent, their assignment is to guard some TV star. They are in an amusement park that specializes in DC super heroes and they end up checking out some toys in a gift shop. One of the clerks mentions to the two agents that Wonder Woman toys are like 75% off because, "...she's never sold as well as Superman or Batman." Well that's very true about the comics, however it's kinda goofy to have this inside joke about the comic book industry actually be IN a comic book.

Something that I didn't really like is how inconsistent Wonder Woman's intelligence seems to be. In the past she's been able to use and understand alien technology. She's been an ambassador from her homeland to the US government and to the United Nations. She's also written a best-selling book about the Amazons and their culture. Yet she doesn't know what a credit card is? Or how to pump gas? She also doesn't know how to order a cup of coffee? Plus this icon of female empowerment that's gone toe to toe with Darkseid and Mongol, is stopped dead in her tracks by a subway turnstile?

This author really didn't do any research about this history of the character of Wonder Woman, and it really is insulting to any true fans of this great character.

Plus later on we see the Amazons attacking the United States, and an army officer yells "We're no match for their firepower!" Ummm, how do you figure? The Amazons are attacking with bows and arrows, swords, spears and chariots. Sure they have body armor on , but I doubt that'll stop a round from an assault rifle or a shotgun. Plus I'm guessing that pegusi are immune to bullets and anti-aircraft weaponry since our jets seem to be helpless against them.

And if that isn't enough, we find out that the Amazon's secret weapon is a bunch of bees. Really? Your secret weapon is something that I can stop with a can of Raid?

One last thing since I don't wanna drag this out much longer, how exactly does Circe know who the Chicago Cubs and the Spice Girls are? Just a little consistency would be nice.

The only saving grace of this book is the artwork, which is terrific. But that is not enough to make up for the crappy story. Don't waste your money.

Jodi Picoult isn't a comic book writer but at least she was brave enough to try. Not everyone starts out as a killer comic book writer and at the same time, not everyone is a wonderful writer. Miss Picoult tried her hardest. Though this book had its bad moments, the dialouge managed to come back although the plot jumped around a few times. Miss Picoult could very well write another comic series and later move onto a graphic novel but she'll need a bit more practice.