COMIC BOOK REVIEW - Wonder Woman: Iron

By The Masked Medic

Another round of nights means that comic book reviews are put on the back burner, but now I have a little free time coming up soon, so maybe you guys won’t have to wait so long. I felt that it had been a while since I read some of the more mainstream DC comics series, so I decided to return to Wonder Woman. The first two novels in this series had been pretty good and there have been calls for DC to use this series to inspire the third Wonder Woman film.

‘Iron’ starts with a flashback issue which sees a young Diana training on Themyscira. Struggling to fit in with her peers, one night Diana is approached by Ares, the God of War who happens to be her half-brother. He decides that he will train her and Diana attends these secret training sessions for a time. However, during her final lesson, when she refuses to kill, Ares angrily leaves her, ending their collaboration. Fast forward, to the present day, and Diana is keeping both Zola and Hera, who is now human, safe in her apartment. Still reeling from Hermes’ betrayal, she sets out to locate Zola’s child. To do this she’ll need the help of some of her half-siblings. Lennox leads her first to their half-sister Siracca and then to their half-brother Milan. However, things are complicated when the New Gods get involved, and Orion is sent to stop a prophecy that claims that a new threat will end up bringing about the end of time itself. Soon the paths of these two warriors cross and both have to make a decision about how they’ll go forward with their individual missions. Meanwhile, two other plots are happening concurrently. The first is that Apollo, who has now taken over management in Olympus is still out to get revenge against Diana. The second is that a group of scientists have revived an individual known as ‘First Born’ from ice and he’s looking to bring about a lot of change in the world order. How will our group of heroes fare against their many challenges in finding Zola’s child? Where exactly do the New Gods fit into this narrative? And just what will happen with Olympus now that Hera and Zeus are no longer in charge?

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I really enjoy the mythology aspect of this Wonder Woman series. A lot of these familiar names have been given new faces and it just adds a uniqueness to the world that DC has been trying to build here. That being said, I felt that the pace varied quite a bit and unfortunately, sometimes it didn’t feel like an authentic pace. In terms of character development, the novel does a bit to build on what we already know about Wonder Woman, but that first issue is where we see new aspects, in her training with Ares. I think going forward, I’d like more of those sorts of stories, but definitely to continue with Diana interacting with the wider DC world.

The artwork is a very distinct style. Cliff Chiang’s work is remarkable and although on the surface it seems basic, he can express some of the nuances of the character’s facial expressions! The covers were also quite good but I particularly liked this one above. Overall, not a bad novel and I hope that it continues in a positive vein!

Favourite Panel:

Hahaha, the ‘ugh’ really gets me!

Favourite Character:

I want to say Wonder Woman, but it’s more likely to be Orion who just has 0 tact.

Rating:

• Story Arc: ★★★

• Character Development: ★★½

• Artwork: ★★★½

• Enjoyability: ★★½

• Re-readability: ★★

Level: Intermediate