Wonder Woman: Mythos

Justice League of America #5

by Carol Lay

While investigating the bizarre disappearance of a man sailing into the Bermuda Triangle, Wonder Woman encounters an island of primitive men under the control of sinister forces and joins forces with the heroes of the Justice League of America to protect the country from a deadly invasion. Original.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes, Comics, Audiobook, Dc Comics, Science Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 31, 2003

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry in the informal Justice League prose series features Wonder Woman. It's a pretty good story, though there's a little too much of the sense of trying to highlight the differences of the male and female perspectives of the characters. The ending resolution is a little more spiritual than I thought was practical (or, rather, than I thought the J.L.A. would have accepted as a practical option), but overall I thought the characters were portrayed pretty well. It's a good option for Amazon fans of the non-Bezos variety.

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was with this book for the first few chapters. The setup of the story is well developed, the author does not fall into the trap that overcomes most super hero novels by wasting pages on the background of the characters, and so she shows good focus. Unfortunately, the good dissipated into the turgid as the book went along.

The first problem is the plot. There hardly is one. A group of heroes head to an island to stop a god from doing mischief. There are many, many scenes once on the island, but the book virtually ends there. Lay does not develop a plot, simply gives us a series of incidents in this setting. I was not thrilled.

Worse, I am offended by two things in this book. Lay buys into the cliché that woman are nurturing and men solve problems by hitting them. I am happy to admit that, whatever the cause, this is a general tendency found amongst men in my country, however, I know women who try to solve problems by hitting them and I know sensitive mean who nurture. I hope that Ms. Lay will meet some of both and have her fantasy changed to reality.

The other offense is an incident in the novel: the heroes actually solve one of the problems with prayer. Yep. Nurturing Wonder Women gets the male super heroes to pray away a menace, AND IT WORKS! Give me a break. I am not fond of books that insult my intelligence.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting the JLA to be in this. Didn't notice it in the title. Wonder Woman does get good focus, though. We get a good amount of what her people are like. Much of the action is concentrated on an island, but the heroes are used well for the most part. Especially Kyle Rayner. I loved the mentions of how his work as an illustrator is actually tough work.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one.
I felt it had a good blend of the JLA, but still was a Wonder Woman story.

The performance was really well done.

The plot was enjoyable.

Sadly my review sucks because I didn't write my review right away and too much time has passed now.

But yes, I really enjoy this series.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

My expectations were low based on the reviews, but this is really crap.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am used to licensed books having one of the following problems. 1. A slow, almost dragging, pace. 2. a certain 'here's the book my audiences and my editor wants me to write' and 'here is the book I want to write', let's compromise quality. 3. characters from the source material clearly thrown in, not because the writer wants them in the story, but because marketing, or the brand manager, or somebody along the chain of the IP rights holders saying a certain number of their actual characters have to be in it. 4. Having several chapters easily removed from them as they are goes nowhere, does nothing. 5. being very poorly written. 6. characters behaving so out of character, when there are plenty of other characters who could have filled that role perfectly but the character they used is just more popular so who gives a shit. 7. having plots bend over backwards to be both having an interesting twist while having zero impact on the characters whatsoever. And no good story can be expected to do both of those things.

I am not used to having all seven of these flaws at the exact same time. Maybe I was just spoiled by the other DC Universe novels I've read because at least early on they got writers who had worked at DC to write them. (Alan Grant, Dennis O'Neil, etc.) This was clearly written by someone who was a bit of an outsider. And I don't mean the good kind... that team that sometimes hangs out with Batman.

[Zac · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/10 - Leading lady gets sidelined in her own book.
I really wanted to like this. Wonder Woman has gotten so little time in the other books in this series. And during the first 25%, I was really hooked. Another mysterious island similar to Themyscera, except run by war mongering men, and WW has to save the world? I'm in.
Except it quickly turns into a literal boy's club during a WONDER WOMAN book. She reads a prophecy that says if she saves one specific man, the world will be in danger. Keep in mind this is a woman born in the Greek Mythos, she knows the Fates are real beings and that they literally determine the fates. What did you expect would happen.
Anyways she does exactly what she isn't supposed to do, endangers the world, loses her powers and gets tied up by her own rope, and then the next 75% of the book is the men of the JLA dealing with a bunch or war happy island boys. And somehow, there's still no action in this book. Nothing happened. At the end, the catalyst just disappears and nothing is solved. What a waste of good characters and an interesting premise.

[literaryaura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I followed this after Batman - The Stone King. Happy that the background music wasn't annoying as the previous book.

This started out quite well, but unfortunately wasn't as great throughout. In fact, it ended up quite similar to Batman with the heroes being incapacitated with some form of mind control.

I was of two minds with the character Anna. A lot of times I loved her (more than Wonder Woman at times) and then at times, I was extremely annoyed with her.

This book did have a few good moments, but overall a lot if things made me roll my eyes, or even get a little bit mad at the butchering of the characters. Especially a part of the ending where they pray to help Green Lantern. Really? And Batman would never have been a part if that!

A nice enough book for a quick time pass. Not brilliant, and I definitely won't be listening to it again.

[Jerry Yoakum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. As usual the Batman is awesome! It was a little stereotypical with the woman vs men subplot. It seems that most of the Wonder Woman stories are Greek myth themed as is this one. I'd like to read one where Wonder Woman is the star without any Gods or magic.

[Leeann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh? It was okay. I was hoping it would be more Wonder Women then anything. Didn't know that the JLA was going to be in it, not a big ado but I thought it would be more WW and her adventures. Great writing as well. A little disappointed in this story.

[Robert Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars are for the audio book version by Graphic Audio. Good production and voices as always from them. The material itself was not all that great.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh, if it wasn't Graphic Audio, I probably wouldn't have finished it. Not much of a story.

[Reed Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this better than the Green Lantern one, but it still dragged.

[whataslacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really enjoying these audio adaptations of graphic novels. This one is okay, there have been better ones. I actually blame the original story on this.

[Suraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very interesting story.. Loved the premise and how the story progressed. Listening to the story unfold in your mind was fascinating. All in all, i really enjoyed it.

[Tricia Culp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a great book, but fun for Brett and I to listen to over a couple vacations. The full cast recording is fun.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 1 out of 5]

This wasn't that good. Another mundane entry into this JLA series that has overall been a disappointment to me.

[Halie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, since hubby and I started car-pooling to and from work these days, I let him pick out an audio book this time. This was OK, but nothing spectacular. Super cheesy dialogue too. Also, it's supposed to be a "movie in your mind," so there are different voice actors for each character, along with sound effects and such. Overall, it was fine, but not exactly my cup of tea I guess...

[Wing Kee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...

So yeah I don't normally read books based on comic books but hey it was Diana so I fell into the trap...

World: The world building is fine, there is effort to the that aspect. The JL is present and time is spent on giving a context and world for Diana and for the most part it is good. If you are a DC fan it makes you smile that the writer took the time, but there is a lot of info dumping if you don't really care about Kyle Rayner's origin or the Martian Manhunter and Atom name drop.

Story: It's okay, it's not a terrible story but it's also fairly standard and uninspired. This is a comic book that people would forget about in a long run and now it's a 300+ page novel. The pacing is fine, the writing is fine, it's just that at it's core this is not a really interesting story because the villain and the tension was not there. The premise of an opposite island could have been so much more and the idea of using Aeres is of course expect in a WW book but yeah they were not used well. So it's meh.

Characters: The characters are fine also, for the most part they respond and behave the way you expect them to. Kudos for the time spent on the JL, the same could not be said for the villain. A book like this lives and dies by the villain and the danger the heroes face and it's just not that good. Aeres is meh and not up to his normal vulture awesomeness self so the book suffers.

It's not bad, it's just not memorable so yeah, read if you want a novel form WW story but don't expect much and you may enjoy it.

Onward to the next book!

[Vanessa Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Breaks my heart, Wonder Woman is one of my favorite heroes (whether a clay creation or a princess by birth, either origin is fine with me), but "Mythos" shortchanges this hero.

I grew up reading a LOT of old Greek and Roman tales, so what I call The Cheese Factor didn't bother me as much. In terms of the logic of WW universe it makes sense. However I stopped when WW got to a cave, realized she shouldn't do something, then she goes and does it. It was such lazy writing that I could not believe some editor didn't go "HEY, rewrite this!" because an entire book based on "Oh man, I should totally not have fulfilled that prophecy," is someone maybe a kid would enjoy. A very young kid that has never, I dunno, read a book before.

The production values weren't bad, but I felt Graphic Audio invested a lot more in Flash and Batman's stories than they did for WW. Another thing that annoys me about Graphic Audio's production, they seriously need to re-engineer their track breaks. Some tracks can go 12 mins., others 7, and some story breaks occur in the middle of a track. This makes it very awkward to stop the story and resume later. Fortunately, in this case, I didn't want to resume.

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite the full cast reading, the story was mysogonistic when it wasn't playing into every possible stereotype about men. The sound effects were annoying and made it impossible to concentrate on the story, though that might be in its favor. Wonder Woman must prevent the island of her birth from being overrun by hulking males who hate women and want to destroy everything and enslave whatever's left. Wonder Woman comes off weak, though another woman, a mundane human, keeps her head better than pretty much everyone else. Though she still falls in with her husband who wants to devote his time to saving the formerly hulking men who have been reduced to placid men who can't read, write or otherwise exist.

[Scott Vandrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

 When you write a novel of this sort, you’re already behind the 8-ball. Carol Lay, and other writers of this series, are against a wall of pop culture, trying to capture the essence of a character that has become part of our collective conscience. Despite that, "Wonder Woman: Mythos" has some good things going for it – sensory writing, attention to detail, an engaging plot – but the novel makes one too many missteps to be recommended. I uttered the dreaded phrase “Diana would never say that…” more than once during my read, enough times to dampen my full enjoyment of this Justice League of America series.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book or not. Really enjoy the mythos of Wonder Women but the author had a tendency to reverse discriminate against men. Wonder Women was a little naive and lacked wisdom and insight and did not respect the family of Amazons as the Marvel Universe had for above all she would protect her Island. I think the author I not really a fan of the Marvel Universe as one would expect for one writing about a member of the JLA. I had a hard time finishing it but did complete it.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure why I ever wanted to read this book in the first place. Oh yeah, I had just read Flash: Stop Motion, which is part of this pseudo-series, and really liked it. This book is not in the same realm. The writing is terrible and the story in uninteresting overall. Wonder Woman doesn't even fight! I only finished it because I was bored and it was a quick read. Hoping Batman: The Stone King will be a little better.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, first of all I love a strong female character. I love me some Wonder Woman too! The writer here did neither for me. I believed I was getting into a book that would really be all about one of my favorite and one of the most powerful heroes in the DCU.
This book fell flat and the power and majesty of Wonder Woman is just not here. I cannot recommend this book. It really did nothing to generate wonder for the character or for the reader. So much potential, and did not deliver.

Danny

[Ross Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens in the Bermuda Triangle doesn't always STAY in the Bermuda Triangle...

Ok, maybe it does - thanks to the heroic efforts of Wonder Woman and her JLA teammates. What seems like a simple missing person case turns into struggle against the Greek God of War himself, Ares.

Can Wonder Woman and the team stop the possible invasion of an army of possessed warriors into our world, or will things be bad for the Amazons?

[David Dougall · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty misogynistic piece of garbage. Honestly. The only super-famous woman in the justice league and she has to be the damsel in distress in a novel that's supposed to revolve around her? Pretty shady. The writer is even trickier by trying to hide their own misogynistic writing by having some sort of lesson about misogyny in there. It was pretty poorly hidden.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an impulse purchase and has been sitting on the shelf unread for a couple of years now. When I finally got around to reading it, it just wasn't very good. The plot, the characters...they were all thinner than I'd expect from something based on such a long-historied comic series. I finished it only because I'd started it. Not really worth recommending.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably closer to a 3.5 stars. Good story, featuring Wonder Woman, but the rest of the JL was present as well. The story got a little 'soft' in the middle, relying on love and prayer to get through some tough parts. Overall a good read