Originally published on Patreon
The latest issue of Wonder Woman kicks off a new arc with Diana returning to Themyscira after dealing with Dr Cizko and his menimists, and takes a bit of a break at the new statue erected to honour her mother. She's not been there long when Hipoolyta appears before her, reassuring her that things have worked out for the better; as well as hinting at some of the gods being up to something shifty.
After this, Diana is approached by a couple of the Amazon's seers, who tell her about a vision about strange flowers that have a strong connection to death. Realising that something bad might be coming, Diana sets out for Brazil and joins a group of Esquecida warriors. They find a heavily guarded operation on one of the rivers, where workers are collecting the dangerous blooms under the watchful eye of mercenary soldiers.
Infiltrating the complex, hidden behind a waterfall, Diana discovers connections to a big corporation, and finds that the scientists there are experimenting with the plants effects on animals. Worse still, they've managed to capture Barbara Minerva, Cheetah, and have put her into some kind of feral state.
One of the best things about this story is that it feels a lot more simple than what we've had for a while now. Just after Infinite Frontier Diana was jumping around into different afterlife, trying to find a killer god who looked like her, whilst travelling to different parts of the multiverse, and trying to get her mortality back. It was kind of a bit much. Similarly, the story we've just had with Cizko and his cabal of older Wonder Woman villains coming together and their schemes felt a bit bloated and never really felt like it was giving us anything new.
This story, so far at least, feels kind of fresh. We've got a brief moment on Theymscira before jumping into the jungle, then we go into a high tech lab. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous, and the shift from one location to another flows, creating a story that feels connected, whilst each place also has a distinctive quality. The story also doesn't seem to be trying to rush things, or cram too much in, and every story beat that happens here is given plenty of room to breathe before it moves onto the next one.
I enjoy Wonder Woman, but recently her own title has felt like the weakest part of all of the different Amazon books. But if this story continues with the kind of quality that this first part does I think that the series will have captured my love all over again.
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