Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses

Wonder Woman

by John Byrne

Diana Prince, heroine of countless good deeds as Wonder Woman, is accused of bringing evil to Man's world. Her relationship with her closest friend, Helena Sandsmark, is turned into a powerful weapon against them both. The most potent ammunition comes from Helena's own daughter, Cassandra, who idolizes Wonder Woman but spreads unspeakable rumors against her. A zealous televangelist leads the movement to destroy Diana, focusing the burning anger of her many followers on the pagan gods to whom Wonder Woman ascribes her very existence.
Amid all this disorder, a gentle priest journeys with Wonder Woman to Olympus to discover the reality of religion. But cataclysmic turmoil is evident even in the realm of the gods and Themyscira, Diana's birthplace and the home of the Amazons, lies in ruins from a tumultuous battle.Back in the world of mortals, angry crowds are massed. From Chicago to Metropolis to Gateway City, their demand is the Wonder Woman must confess to her dark schemes and never again interfere in the affairs of the human race. Wonder Gods and Goddesses casts grave doubts on accepted truths and pits Diana Prince against her greatest challenge yet. About the Author
John Byrne ,the writer and artist for DC Comics' Wonder Woman , is one of the most celebrated and influential figures in modern comic books. Among his many achievements, he brought Superman into the 1990s after helping to make The X-Men the most popular comic in history. He has written two other novels.

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

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 1997

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was a good Wonder Woman novel when I first read it, and after leafing through it now I won't change my opinion. Byrne was a terrific comics writer, with memorable stints with the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Superman, and... Wonder Woman. Remember that Gal Godot was only twelve years old when Gods and Goddesses appeared, and I'd assert that Byrne was ahead of his time with the themes of acceptance and equality and tolerance he put into this one. His prose style wasn't always superlative, but he had a terrific grasp of plot and the characters.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

#1245 in our old book database. Rated: Indifferent.

A boring story of Wonder Woman fighting a PR war against a demagogic televangelist.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoop. I'm really behind on reviewing books, aren't I?

This book was entertaining. I think a fair amount of the characters were distinct, visceral, and mostly well-rounded. I kept thinking the whole-way through that the televangelist's fear of Wonder Woman was really a stand-in for homophobia, but maybe that's my projection talking.

Things I did not like: this book suffers from the symptoms of 90's era male-writer syndrome. I swear to Zeus John Byrne can't describe a heroic woman without calling her "lithe." I think he even described Cassie that way at one point--you know, Wonder Woman's underage sidekick. Ew. Honestly, the only female characters that escape these weird superficial and sort-of-creepy descriptions are the ones we're not supposed to like. Also, every female character aside from Diana is super catty and competitive. Does Byrne actually know any women? Does he know any woman well? I'm not convinced. I was also not impressed with the ending. I can't really go into detail here without spoiling things, however.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books you read and wonder if it really needed to be written as you are reading it and realize, at the end, no it didn't. It could have been so much more than it was, but for the author going in the direction he chose to go. The character development was choppy [a priest and the daughter of a friend of Wonder Woman's had the best character development; Wonder Woman had zero development]. Even though it is "advertised" as a "Wonder Woman" story, it is probably more about Cassandra Sandsmark as she seems to take more of a prominent place in it than Wonder Woman.

Superman's cameos were probably the best part of the story.

The last line of the book ["He said, 'Forgive them.'"] does not redeem the prior waste of three hundred pages.

I think the book shows how difficult it is to write any kind of science-fiction story with a monotheistic religion involved [take your pick - Judaism. Christianity, or Islam]. In this book, the villains are conservative Christians. Naturally, they are going to oppose Princess Diana's claims that the Greek gods are alive and well and that she has actually dined with Zeus, Athena, Apollo, and the rest. To say the Norse, Greek, Aztec, and other pantheons of gods exist flies in the face of monotheistic religions and what monotheistic religions believe. In addition, these kinds of books are nothing more than the authors opinions, and authors tend to create exaggerated caricatures to justify their straw arguments that represent the religion of choice they are vilifying in their story. Let us be honest - the appearance of any kind of alien coming to Earth is going to cause catastrophic changes in a monotheistic religion, as none of them postulate life on other planets. A universal police force of 3600 "space cops" [a la the Green Lantern Corps] is also going to force changes to occur, and a monotheistic religion would not survive.

It is sad that there are probably people who call themselves Christians and yet are filled with the vitriol portrayed in the novel. Yet, the author goes totally overboard making any Christian seem whacky and crazy and obnoxious and filled with hate [the exact opposite of how they are commanded to be - to show love to everybody]. Perhaps the author has experienced hate mail from people who claim to be Christians; if so, that is a shame and would explain some of the nonsense he pulls in this novel. He makes his chosen antagonists so exceptionally stupid it beggars the imagination. It was quite offensive.

Also, the ending just stunk. Well, I should clarify. The ending stunk because Cassandra is never held responsible for her actions. Cassandra agrees to "infiltrate the enemy's camp" by making up all sorts of lies about Diana and her mother. Because of these lies, she is removed from her mother by Child Protective Services. Even though all of the lies she told are not revealed to the reader, they are clearly bad enough to have her removed from her home post-haste. In addition, the author describes how her lies continue to grow more and more bizarre as she continues to deceive those around her. Yet, there are no consequences for her actions. She does not suffer in the least bit for lying to government officials, for destroying her mother's character, for casting doubts and aspersions upon her mother and Wonder Woman. She is not punished; she is not held accountable; she is not held responsible for what she did. Her heinous actions and blatant lies are all justified as "infiltrating the enemy's camp to ultimately help Diana in the end." So, the ends justifies the means. It is "wrong" for Rebecca [the head of the Christian organization that opposes Wonder Woman's existence] to twist and distort 'the truth' to suit her "warped" views and opinions because she is clearly religious, conservative, and wonky, whereas it is "okay" for Cassandra to lie because her motives are "pure" and of the "best intentions." She lied; she trashed her mom's character and integrity and reputation; she also trashed Wonder Woman's good name and reputation by her words. She was just as 'bad' as Rebecca but is portrayed otherwise. It was ridiculous. The only time two negatives makes a positive is in mathematics.

I am glad the author did not go the route I thought he was going to go in regard to Athena and Zeus having lunch with JHVH [Jehovah]. Diana takes a priest having a "crisis-of-faith" to Olympus to have his questions answered by Athena. She fails to answer his questions like he wants about the existence of God. It is kind of humorous, because he reveals his fears about the "lunch date" between JHVH, Zeus, and Athena and she confirms it never happened. But then, she goes on to say she has never heard of JHVH or ever met "Him." However, she concedes there is a greater "Source" of "Power" that is beyond the various pantheons in terms of mystery and understanding, so perhaps that "unknowable Entity" is the God that Father Morris worships. What ends up helping Father Morris in his crisis of faith is to learn that the Greek gods do not "create" life; each person born has their own soul that the Greek gods do not themselves create. The souls come from "somewhere else" outside of their realm. Morris sees souls as being evidence that God [JHVH] truly exists and his faith in God is thus restored.

Part of why Father Morris has a crisis of faith and abandons his faith for a time is because of the suffering borne by innocent children. These are children born of parents who did drugs, had some kind of disease such as AIDS, or are born with cancer. The unnecessary suffering these children have to experience erodes his faith as he struggles to understand the purpose behind innocent children suffering like these dying children do. That, and why does God not intervene more in the lives of His creation than He does [which seems practically non-existent in the United States of America]. The author raises hard questions for any believer to answer, and there is a sense of underlying anger in these parts of the book. It does seem unjust, for this suffering to occur without any kind of answer as to why it occurs.

One of the weakest, most stupid parts of the book involved a comparison between Zeus raping women and Mary's pregnancy with Jesus. The author has the priest have the gall to equate Zeus' raping of women and getting them pregnant with the Immaculate Conception. Zeus violated women against their will, in various forms, and impregnating them. That is different than what happened with Mary, and it was a gross distortion of the Biblical story. It was incredibly offensive and vile and repugnant.

Another thing that "bugged me" was that Officer Mike Schorr was said to have numerous broken bones after being badly beaten while trying to stop a mob from burning down a medical facility.
Yet, he was able to escape from a hospital by hobbling his way through it without security ever catching him. It was just stupid, to me. The guy was practically worthless right up until the point he put a gun to Ares' head a la Trinity from the Matrix and pulled the trigger.

I did find it pathetic that the cops of Gateway City were described as all being essentially corrupt, implying all cops were corrupt [since it is "well established" that Gotham City's police department is also corrupt and most officers cannot be trusted]. Ironically, the initials for Gateway City's police department are GCPD, the same as Gotham City Police Department. Not all police officers are corrupt, despite the number of times authors portray this to be the case.

Interestingly enough, there is a comment made by either the President of the United States or a member of his staff or the cabinet that indicates this story takes place after the events of The Death and Life of Superman story arc. The comment is made that Superman had died and recently returned to the land of the living not too long ago, so this story takes place "shortly" thereafter. Kinda kewl.

It was a weak story; I almost wish I had not finished it, it was so poorly written. It was just . . . stupid. So unnecessary and so disappointing. It functions "best" as a cautionary tale about mixing a monotheistic religion with a science fiction story involving aliens or supernatural beings or life on other planets or whatnot. On the one hand, I am glad that I finally read it, as I have been thinking about reading it for some time. On the other hand, I wish I had not wasted the time I did spend to read it now that I am finished, it was so substandard and bad.

[Punkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars
As much as I loved John Byrne's run of Wonder Woman, I can't seem to be able to recommend this novel. Sad to say, but it is largely unnecessary, a "bottle" story if you will. The plot is too easily tied up at the end, and not much character development. 😞

[Joel Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn't for a casual fan, but is instead intended for people who are familiar with the Wonder Woman comic book and its cast in the late 1990's, when this was written. There's the suggestion of an interesting story here, where Wonder Woman finds herself at odds with a Christian evangelist in a battle of competing faiths, but it ends up just being another story of Wonder Woman against one of her gods who is plotting against her.

It's not a bad book, but probably not for everyone. If I wasn't a comic fan I wouldn't have read it.

[Leon Acord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I'm one of the few who loved Bryne's run on Wonder Woman. If you did too,you will LOVE this book!

[Larry Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I had Byrne sign my copy he said it was the 1st one that he had ever signed !

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, it was ok. Needs to work on 'show, don't tell'