Wonder Woman: Paradise Found

Wonder Woman (1987) (Collected Editions) #14

by Phil Jimenez

After Queen Hippolyta abolishes the monarchy on Themyscira, the former-princess Diana, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, struggles to adjust to her changed status and strained relationship with her mother while battling Imperiex and Circe.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Wonder Woman, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Philip Jiménez is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work as writer/artist on Wonder Woman from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005–2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, and his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The Invisibles.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main reason to read this is Jimenez's art. It's gorgeous, with lush detail. At this point Jimenez may have surpassed his mentor, George Perez. The Our Worlds at War issues can be hard to follow if you haven't read the rest of the story elsewhere. You get dumped right into the middle of it with little explanation in these issues, yet Wonder Woman's world is affected tremendously by the outcome.

The latter story The Witch and the Warrior works much better. Circe and her cronies have taken over Manhattan, turning all the men into animals. I like that Jimenez brings in pretty much every female character, good or bad, from the dusty corners of the DC universe for this story.

[Iain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off well, and there's a strong thread running through the story about Wonder Woman's relationship with her mother, her human friends and her fellow Amazons. But it all gets lost and confused in amongst a larger DC ark involving Justice League and other dimensions in the universe. As always with DC, I find the comics lose interest and drive when they try to pack too much in. 2.5*

[Nicholas Palmieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jimenez's art remains the highlight. Still as detailed and easy to follow as ever, he knows just how to draw characters to make them appear both real and other-worldly. There's a small section at the beginning and a small story at the end that are drawn by others, but the switch in art does not detract from the story.

Story-wise, it's a shame the series had to tie in with a crossover, but there's still some good work here. The first three chapters all tie in to a big event called "Our Worlds at War" (OWAW), which ran through major DC books at the time. Jimenez approaches each of these three chapters differently: The first is mostly unrelated and sets up a later story, but it gets the characters in place for the crossover; the second drops us directly into the middle of the world of the crossover, but gives us enough information and such a personal story that the fine details of the crossover don't matter; and the third issue is intimately tied to the event. In the first chapter, readers are brought up-to-speed on an old character who is brilliantly redefined and used well. The second is very focused and personal, resulting in a wonderful, emotional issue. But the point I got lost in the OWAW events was in the final chapter, as it had to play the double-duty of catching readers up to speed and acting as the concluding chapter of OWAW. So much expository information is thrown at the reader, only for everything to end ten pages later. The whole thing would have seemed futile if not for the unexpected team-up, the great moment with the Themyscirans, and an event that pays off in the final chapter. The OWAW chapters were somewhat uneven, but they are enjoyable if you look at each chapter separately and accept what you don't know.

The next three issues are a major Circe story. The first issue, the set-up issue, picks up on threads from the first issue of this collection. I'd imagine this first chapter works very well for readers who only jumped on at "Paradise Lost." Then the second issue is the all-out fight. This issue is for those of you who like things like Infinite Crisis, JLA/Titans, Gods of Gotham, and other Phil Jimenez stories with slow-motion action in extreme, painstaking detail. For me personally, this chapter contained so many characters that even I- a huge DC fan for about a decade- had no idea who a lot of them were, and as a result it didn't hold my interest too well. The final chapter is the personal "final battle" with Circe, containing major payoff for those who have been following her development throughout the Wonder Woman series. Unfortunately, most of that development hasn't been collected, so I'm sure a lot of this was lost on readers, too.

The final issue and the epilogue chapter after it conclude the threads introduced in Paradise Lost and undo some of the damage done since then. A solid end to the story, and while I haven't yet read the other 11 (uncollected) issues of Jimenez's run on this title, this works as a very satisfying conclusion.

Overall, if you enjoyed Paradise Lost, I'd recommend this book as well. Even with all the unevenness here, it's still entertaining and worth it to see the variety of storytelling tactics on display and the conclusion of the threads introduced in that first book.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supposed to be a follow up to Wonder Woman: Paradise Lost. It starts out that way, at least. And then the middle section of the book is entirely taken over by what I presume to have been part of a big crossover event I'm not familiar with. Poor Jimenez did an admirable job of trying to get the reader up to speed, but honestly, I was lost. The death of Hippolyta was so narratively necessary (she'd been written into an unpleasant corner) that it hardly comes by a surprise, and I give Jimenez credit for writing it as well as he did. The actual Paradise Found story is somewhat less than compelling, since it's so... expected. The best part of the entire collection is probably the scene where Diana tells Julia what's become of her daughter. Unresolved, of course, but a very effective scene, told well and without undue melodrama.

[Ann DVine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The majority of this volume is a lot of rather bewildering pages of dozens upon dozens of unrelated heroes and villains battling it out - the typical structure of an early-2000s DC event issue, not unlike Infinite Crisis, in which panels are just filled with characters, leaving little room for either storytelling, or even the basics of positioning the reader properly in 3D space. Which, to be fair, can be spellbinding - it's not exactly a small feat, to create these vast, packed images of immaculate detail and fan-pleasing cameos - but it is nonetheless dizzying, and betrays any sort of commitment to actually telling a comprehensive story.

The content before and after these large-scale hero battles - and there are two arcs that feature such, one a cosmic-scale battle featuring Brainiac, Darkseid, and Imperiex, the other a more "grounded" arc set in New York with Circe having transformed a slew of male DC heroes into animals, leaving the women to battle it out to save them and the city - is actually really good. Phil Jimenez gives Wonder Woman a really neat voice, and the way she interacts with friends and enemies alike implies a degree of angry passion that I feel suits her somewhat contradictory status as a warrior of peace. But she's confident despite her inner turmoil, and lends that confidence to her allies with aplomb, so it's a rather respectful take on Wonder Woman, I feel. Jimenez also pencils these issues, and while I can't say that it avoids the male gaze that a lot of Wonder Woman artists fall into pandering to, it's a hell of a lot better than it could have been. And the final issue of the volume features a surprisingly heartfelt and touching reunion that, while not the best comic writing ever, was still bittersweet enough to yank at my heartstrings all the same.

So, yeah, my recommendation here is really just for Wonder Woman completionists. I, myself, was interested in that it's the first appearance of the "rampaging giant woman" take on Giganta in the comics (modeled after her appearances in the Super Friends cartoon, bizarrely), so there's definitely a bit of value here outside of the first and last issues of the volume. If you aren't a fan of clusters of barely related characters throwing lasers and punches at each other in vaguely connected pages of hero-on-villain brawls, though, then it's not really that great, albeit still a bit of shallow fun.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This was one of those comics that I kept going back and forth in regards to my enjoyment of it. In the end I liked more than I disliked from this.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paradise Found is marred by the intrusion of Our Worlds at War crossover event, which is a bit strange to say, as what happens to Diana and her fellow Amazons is at the heart of this story. But the impact of those developments is a bit diluted because Jimenez has to continually recap what happened in other books so that the reader can place the events of WW’s book in context.

Outside of that event, Jimenez sets up a conflict between Diana, Circe, the new Cheetah (Sebastian Bellasteros), and the new Silver Swan, Vanessa Kapatelis, who was Diana’s young friend from Boston. Vanessa appears to have been captured, tortured, and psychically manipulated by Ballesteros, with help from Dr. Psycho. Jimenez picks up on volume 1 of John Byrne’s run, in which Vanessa is tortured by Dr. Psycho but frees herself from his manipulation without Diana’s assistance. She has obviously been abducted while at college. It’s a bit sad that Julia has no idea what’s been happening with her.

Jimenez explores what it must be like for Vanessa to watch from afar as Diana takes another young girl, Cassie, under her wing and shape her into a superhero. It is understandable that Vanessa would feel left out and that she was never important to Diana to begin with. Adding Dr. Psycho’s manipulation, Vanessa probably didn’t stand a chance of resisting.

Later in the TPB, Diana leads the DC female heroes in a fight against Circe, the Cheetah, the Silver Swan, and the DC female villains. Circe has taken over NYC, transformed men (including the male DC heroes) into animals, and set the villains hunting them. The story is okay (Circe is wearing a truly hideous outfit, which, in itself, constitutes a crime against humanity) but very confusing. So many obscure heroines and villainesses were involved that I couldn’t tell the difference between them, and many of the fight scenes were unintelligible.

The heart of the story is the consequences of Our Worlds at War. In the issue before the crossover starts, Diana and Hippolyta argue about the latter’s decision to remain in Patriarch’s World as Wonder Woman. My sympathies lay with Hippolyta in this scene; Diana didn’t listen to her and made it clear that she didn’t consider her mother a legitimate hero. During OWaW, Hippolyta sacrifices herself to save the world. Diana, in an attempt to save her mother, who does not have Diana’s gifts, tells Hippolyta to stop, as she is not Wonder Woman. These words, which are almost the last that Diana speaks to her mother, are particularly painful and will haunt her. Diana’s grief and guilt are later exploited by Circe.

Finally, in order to stop Brainiac 13 from destroying the Earth, and, thus the universe, the Amazons, so recently divided, unite to defend the planet, almost destroying Paradise Island in the process. And when that is not enough, they agree to redirect their faith to Darkseid, in order to give him the strength to help Superman defeat Imperiex. This decision should carry a lot of weight, but it wasn’t as poignant as it could have been because Byrne’s story of Darkseid’s invasion of Themiscyra was “meh.”

This volume ends by healing many of the injuries suffered by Diana and her fellow Amazons. The goddesses restore Themiscyra, and Diana and the Amazons choose to make it a place of welcome for all races and species (alien and not). Diana is given an opportunity for closure with her mother’s spirit, as she is visited by Hippolyta, Diana Trevor, and Antiope (Hippolyta’s long-deceased sister). And Trevor Barnes, who failed to reciprocate Diana’s interest in the last volume, reconsiders and wants to have dinner with her. The ending feels a bit facile, but it’s nice that Diana got a break from the misery.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the cover is complete crap, the book itself is not that bad. Is it on par with 'Paradise Lost'? No. The first story is rather silly--but its great stuff if you're a Wonder Woman fan...Circe appears again, with a male Cheetah. The concept of a male Cheetah is pretty hot [hat tip to Jimenez, and even though I tire of seeing Circe as a villain in WW comics--she really is the only one who could possibly get away with making a 'male Cheetah'!

The main bulk of the book is the 'Her Mother's Daughter' storyline; about Earth being dragged into a dimensional war with an alien race. ***SPOILERS***

Quite frankly, I was happy to see Hippolyte go. As a queen without a country, she came off as a bitter woman with little to do except 'be bitter'. Donning the suit and helping with the final battle, was a very noble way to take her out--despite the very uncool way she gave up her crown. I love the way the Amazons under Phillipus and Artemis were so battle ready and prepped for the fight--and of course, the whole connection between Diana and Darkseid [I only wish it played out without the inclusion of the Teen Titans].

We're then treated to another Circe story, which I hated. It was the typical tripe that makes me hate Circe stories--the only good point about the story was watching how the Amazons dealt with their island being destroyed again--after the last story 'Her Mother's Daughter', and seeing all the Earth female heroes and villains team up, to take out the male/animals and Circe. Not only that, we get to see male Cheetah again, and Superman cry like a toddler.

The last story is Paradise Found--and it's quite cool in a weird 'all is fixed' Hollywood sort of way. Themyscira is in the Bermuda Triangle, Phillipus and Artemis are in control of the two main city-states, the ghost of Hippolyte is happy, and Wonder Woman might have another shot at getting into Trevor Barnes pants. All is well in the world.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here is the exact example of why DC Comics fell far behind Marvel in the late 90s-early 2000s. The previous collection was a great starting point into Wonder Woman’s world. We were seeing new takes on old villains. We saw a great supporting cast with some superb family issues. This collection started that way and then suddenly you are thrown in the middle of DC wide event involving Imperiex. The whole story goes off the rails. We see an obvious death, random fights, bizarre guest appearances, and connections to other stories that don’t make any sense. At one point there are dozens of female heroes and villains without a plausible reason. Almost like an executive at DC said, “Wouldn’t it cool if someone drew this….?” Its terrible. The worst part of all is that Phil Jimenez’s art is phenomenal but wasted on this. His scripting skills are definitely lacking but as penciler he shines. The covers by Adam Hughes are amazing as well. Overall, this is not worth the time.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much less interesting than the previous volume.

[Elizabeth]

So, this volume follows after "Paradise Lost" but feels a lot more scattered (as opposed to "Paradise Lost" was the "Gods of Gotham" arc and then a Themyscira arc).

#171 "Bird of Prey" -- we get a Silver Swan reincarnation, which I was interested in -- and which never gets fully resolved in this collection :/

#172 "Her Mother's Daughter" -- we're thrust into some giant crossover event, which apparently is the "Our Worlds At War" arc, I gleaned from skimming GR reviews.

I remain not really that interested in the conflict between Diana and Hippolyta.

#173 "Amazons Attack" -- OWAW continues, and there's some cool teamwork stuff. I do like the way they finally defeat Imperiex and Brainiac 13 (I assume some other issue of a DC comic explains why this villain has a 1990s AOL username for a villain identity?).

#174 "The Witch and the Warrior, Part One" -- After everyone everyone everyone worked together to save the universe from destruction, there are lots of alien refugees on Earth, and competition for scarce resources, which is a nice way to pivot us back from a universe-wide crossover event back to a Wonder Woman story.

"As the Earth, like a thousand other worlds, struggles to recover from its war with Imperiex and Brainiac 13 ... the city begins its own repairs while it fights to regain some semblance of normalcy, of the humdrum, of the mundane of daily living. It is an illusion not easily maintained, as thousands of homeless alien refugees fill the streets ... their ships docked in the city's harbors ... and vie for the scraps of food and clothing demanded and claimed by the human inhabitants of the overwhelmed city ... The resentments build, the anger swells ... and the hatred explodes." (p. 77)

And on the next page, Kyle says to Jade, "We all came together -- millions of us, from all these different worlds, we came together and we saved the universe. But now we're turning on each other like animals. Like always. We're supposed to be better than this, more evolved than this, aren't we?"

And then he turns into a bestiamorph and we're in a Circe story. It's a cute wordplay transition, and we get some interesting stuff with Circe and her new(?) daughter as the issue progresses.

#175 "The Witch and the Warrior, Part Two: Girl Frenzy" -- but then it becomes just sort of a kitchen sink of most of the DC roster battling -- and I don't know DC well enough to even recognize whether most of them were superheroes or villains ... and it didn't even seem to matter that much who were rooting for out in the streetfight, because Circe was the important part.

And while it's basically women superheroes fighting Circe (and Circe has mostly put transformed superhero men and female supervillains into this street fight), it doesn't delve much into the gender dynamics of the choices Circe makes, even though I feel like that should be an important part of her characterization given the Greek myth from which she originates.

#176 "Hateful Hate" -- we sort of conclude the Circe plot, in a way that I found not entirely satisfying. I know Diana doesn't kill people, even godlike enemies, unless she absolutely has to, but I felt like we needed more to actually resolve this plotline -- especially since so much of this arc had been about Circe having it in for Diana specifically.

#177 "Paradise Found" -- the explanation for why the Greek gods had been absent is a bit hand-wavey (and partly I keep thinking, "But the last time we saw the gods, they had purposely left -- when did they come back? why didn't those issues get collected into trades?"), but plausible.

I kinda like the transformation of Themyscira. Resolving the conflict about whether to remain separate or not felt a little bit too easy, but the new Themyscira does seem really in line with the intentions of the gods who first created the Amazons.

[Will · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to give such a low rating to this book, which the writers and artists obviously put a lot of work into. The problem is this story just doesn't work well in the visual medium of comic books.

This book is extremely wordy. It seems like half the book is dialogue, characters talking endlessly to each other where the emotion and plot should have been expressed through pictures. And speaking of pictures, there were way, way too many panels per page in this book, which made the story drag. When you have a character as visually striking as Wonder Woman and her compatriots from the DC Universe, we want to actually see them, big pictures, splash pages of them, and not these little panels stuffed with tiny pictures and word balloons.

Anyway, I wish I would have liked it more.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cast of thousands.

Good color artwork, the war scenes were extravagant, like jack Kirby . I think almost every DC hero or villain can be found in these pages. The ending is schmaltz, but thats to be expected.

[Adrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually don't think I read this in totality until this year, although maybe I have and I'm cheating so feel free to not count this towards my yearly reading total if you're keeping score at home. This was so gut wrenching though. Really well done!

[Rabiaah Abdalreda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Witch and the Warrior story had so many characters that I could not follow everything that happened. But I did like the fight between Diana and Superman.

[machado · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

[Ektor1714 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muy inconsistente. El número #173 no me gustó para nada. No entiendo mucho la cantidad de elogios de este run.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another masterpiece by writer/artist Phil Jimenez, “Paradise Found” contains two great tissues (#172 and 173) of Wonder Woman.

Vanessa Kapatelis, a child who adored Diana, has been transformed into the latest incarnation of the Silver Swan by the witch Circe (yes, the same one from Homer’s Odyssey). Diana, meanwhile, frets that her mother, Hippolyta, is spending too much time away from Themyscira and appears to be taking over her mantle as Wonder Woman. Readers will remember that Golden Age Wonder Woman was Hippolyta, as she travelled back in time to World War II. Then, a final threat appears in the form of an alien intergalactic war brought on by Imperiex, and Earth is the place where the last stand will be taken.

Sustaining serious injuries while battling alongside the Justice league, Diana is replaced by Hippolyta but is tragically killed while protecting Greece from an Imperiex attack. Both the art and the dialogue show Hippolyta’s noble sacrifice; the queen of the Amazons deserves no less. The only other character treated with such deference and majesty in death is Supergirl in “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

Diana now must convince the Amazons to form an unholy alliance with Darkseid in order to prevail against Imperiex. Does the end of the war mean peace? No, for then Circe unleashes an all-out attack on the herpes by transforming all the male superheroes into animals and then loosing some villainesses. The remainder of the story charts Diana’s recovery from her wounds and her journey to redemption. Highly recommended for the amazing artwork by Jimenez and the stirring storytelling.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel feels a little less fluid then previous ones. I feel like it's the jumps in story and not every part is as well presented or written as the others in this book are. I also feel like there is the loose end of exactly what ends up happening with the Silver Swan. But I still enjoyed it, especially the Paradise Found and the Witch and the Warrior.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ultimately have little good to say about this collection, after what was a Paradise Lost with some okay stuff happening. Instead, this is mostly disjointed action with little coherence or anything to enjoy. The final issue/chapter, the rebuilding of Themyscria, was actually pretty good, but combined with the rest of the book? A rather massive miss for me on a whole.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty awesome.

Basically this story takes the events that happened with Our Worlds At War and in particular the loss of Themiscyra. As the city is lost and events lead up to the eventual reformation of the Amazons.

All things considered this had some flaws as well as some pretty good things too. That ending was pretty great, I just wish the rest of the story could have been better.

B

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story, Wonder Woman at her finest!

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few good Wonder Woman books to come out in the last few years.

[Jena · Rating 2 out of 5]

bumped up a star for a few nice scenes but overall I did not enjoy this

[Samantha]

Interesting read but I think I will look for more modern Wonder Woman comics.

[Trinity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsatisying and difficult to complete.