SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

January 13, 2016 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Review: ‘The Legend of Wonder Woman’ #1

January 13, 2016 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Legend of Wonder Woman 1

The Legend of Wonder Woman #1
Writer: Renae De Liz
Artists: Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon
DC Comics; $3.99

DC’s digital-first Wonder Woman anthology comic Sensation Comics may have come to an end, but the publisher’s replacement for the series is a pretty perfect one: A nine-issue, digital-first series focusing on the fantastical origins of Wonder Woman, written and drawn by Renae De Liz.

De Liz is probably best known for her lushly illustrated 2010 comic book adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, and, like many of the best contributors to Sensation Comics, she’s an outside-the-box choice for a Wonder Woman comic…in that she’s not someone whose name shows up in the credits of DC comics month in and month out.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

For The Legend of Wonder Woman, she looks to Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston for inspiration, but she also look past Marston to Marston’s own inspirations for the character in classical mythology, coming up with something that’s Marston-esque but eschews elements of his utopian, sci-fi inspired Paradise Island and replaces them with bits of myth.

In De Liz’s formulation, Queen Hippolyta is one of a band of immortal Amazons who are eventually invited by the Greek gods to join them on Themyscira, a specially-created retreat for these gods’ creatures and creations. An immortal, Hippolyta herself cannot conceive a child, but one is magically created from the sand of the island, and that is her Princess Diana.

The story jumps ahead to Diana’s early girlhood, where her mother is grooming her to be the ruler of the island, though the princess would rather learn how to fight. This is mostly because she senses a danger to the island that almost no one else can, although one suspects it might also have something to do with the fact that combat training looks like a lot more fun than having her hair done by her mom and talking isolationist politics.

By the end of the first issue, it should come as no surprise, we learn that Diana’s suspicions were in fact correct, and she is set to begin training how to fight–in secret.

The background story creates a new version of Themyscira/Paradise Island that is quite familiar but also fresh; whether this is your very first Wonder Woman story or your fifty-first Wonder Woman story, you should be able to recognize the place and its culture. It is, after all, built out of the familiar materials that have informed fantasy literature for about as long as there has been literature. In this early part of the story, at least, De Liz accentuates the mythology aspects of Wonder Woman; it will be interesting to see if she will continue to do so throughout the series, and how Diana’s eventual, inevitable blossoming into a full-fledged all-American superhero squares with this take.

De Liz’s art, inked and colored by her husband and frequent collaborator Ray Dillon, has a cool, American shojo look in its character design, but the fully realized, fully rendered backgrounds suggest the sorts of illustrations more commonly associated with picture books. In other words, this comic not only doesn’t look anything at all like the current Wonder Woman comic book, it doesn’t look much like any other comics on the stands these days–and in a good way.

It’s always difficult to judge a comic as a whole by its first issue, so I suppose we shouldn’t attempt to do so. But judged on its own, this single issue is a gift to Wonder Woman fans of all ages, and, more exciting still, i seems like the exact sort of comic that will convert readers into fans, regardless of what they might have thought of the character and concept before reading De Liz’s version.

Variant cover by Dustin Nguyen
Variant cover by Dustin Nguyen

Filed under: All Ages, Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
DC ComicsRay DillonRenae De LizThe Legend of Wonder WomanWonder Woman

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2023

Andy Warner's Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

My Sister, the Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

October 2022

A Costume for Charly | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

September 2022

History Comics: The Roanoke Colony | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Sydney Taylor Blog Tour: THE TOWER OF LIFE by Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

“… A relationship of reciprocity with the Earth.” Diana Sudyka Discusses Her New Picture Book, Little Land

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Haley Newsome on Unfamiliar | Interview

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Showing Teens It’s Okay to be Angry, a guest post by Lauren Blackwood

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

A Woman’s Place Is in a Graphic Novel: Outstanding Works for Young Readers Center Women in History

15 Returning Faces for Graphic Novels Shelves | Series Update

Reviews and Coverage of the 2021 Eisner Award Nominations

13 Graphic Novels To Look Forward to in 2020 | Stellar Panels 

Top 10 Manga of 2022

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023