The new run on Wonder Woman has finally begun, and this first issue is not an easy read. It's clear very quickly into this first issue that this run is going to be a heavy one, with some tough themes and stories that can prove challenging to certain readers. I say challenging to certain readers because I think that depending on who you are you can either look at this book as an interesting story, a fun thought exercise into the way King is taking the US's relationship to the Amazons, or it could be a very realistic glimpse into a world that feels frighteningly possible.
After some discussions and debates the government passes the Amazon Safety Act, which makes all Amazons illegal in the US, and requires any living and working there to leave the country. Amazons are met with mistrust, pained as criminals, made out to be dangerous attacks against men waiting to happen. And of course, because the US is a patriarchal society with a different kind of government to the Amazons they then become an attack on the very American way of life. America takes a fascistic stance against the Amazons; and it's disgusting.
A special task force is created to enforce the new laws, as we see them gun down an Amazon, murdering her in front of her wife and daughter. Her wife, who's a US citizen, is still taken by the task force and made to leave the country, whilst their daughter is taken from them; the book makes a point of showing us that the government doesn't see them as her real parents because they adopted her, which also feels like an attack on queer families.
One of the reasons why I said that this title will challenge some readers more than others is because I believe that for some people this book will be hard to get through. There were a few times when I wanted to put the book down and take a break from it. If you're in a minority group, if you've ever been victimised because of who you are, if you've ever seen your rights and existences threatened I think this story is going to hit different for you. I've seen people like myself demonised in the media, I've seen my rights to exist debated like a thought exercise, I've seen people campaign to change laws, I've seen people openly call for extermination, literally standing on the same side as Nazis. There are times where I quite truly fear for the future and my life. And this book made me think of that when reading it because to some this will feel like an extreme, impossible scenario, but for me it feels like a very real possibility.
Tom King has brought real world politics into the DC Universe in a way where a lot of readers will probably not even think that it's happening, but it's a harsh, brutal depiction of the world we're in now. The book shows how quickly social media, the press, and cruel people in positions of power can shape our world and make it into a worse place. This isn't a fun Wonder Woman adventure, this is likely to be the hardest, darkest story that gets told with her.
This is a choice that I honestly really dislike. Gadot's voice is Gadot's accent, it's not Diana's voice. Diana has never really spoken like this before in anything that I've read with her, and it ended up being hugely distracting and made the scenes with her talking in them the worst ones of the book. I hope this is something that gets toned down in future issues, because I don't want to read what looks set to be a brilliant Wonder Woman story where I hate it every time she opens her mouth. As it is, I honestly couldn't give this book the perfect score I would normally have done because it was too jarring and too big a distraction that kept pulling me out of the book.
The books art, by Daniel Sampere and Tomeu Morey is absolutely gorgeous, and there are multiple moments in the book that are beautiful to look at. The scene in which Diana fights the anti-Amazon task force in a snow covered cemetery is so amazingly done, and so beautifully choreographed that I'm left excited to see what other action beats might be coming in future issues. The book also depicts the horrors of this situation shockingly well, and there are several moments in this book that are hard to look at. Balancing that mixture of beauty and brutality is a hard line to walk, but this art team does it well.
I've heard that the second issue of the series is where things get really interesting, with the first issue having the task of laying out a lot of groundwork. Whilst this first issue is a slower issue one than some people would probably be expecting it's doing a ton of set-up, and is changing the landscape of the DC Universe in some major ways. If you find this first issue hard to get through, but are still interested in the story it looks like the next issue might be what you're waiting for. If, however, you just can't get into the book, if you're one of these people angry at the politics, or feel like a certain side of the political spectrum is being attacked and made fun of here then it might be a series that's just not for you.
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