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Wonder Woman by John Byrne Omnibus
- GenresComics
1016 pages, Hardcover
Published September 2, 2025
5 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,956 books363 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 7, 2025
I know, I get it. 2 stars is too harsh, unfair even for such an esteemed high profile run on Wonder Woman. But sheesh, there's so much untapped potential locked and hidden in the farthest closet. A book so clearly behind its time, I'm fuming.
John Byrne does both the writing and the artwork here. To get this out of the way first: The artwork is good, and typical for John Byrne. Great in the 80s, but only passable in the second half of the 90s. The writing on the other hand is even worse, as I know that John Byrne can write great stories. This run ain't it.
Let's take the opening story arc as an example: Darkseid invades the island of the Amazons. War between the forces of Apokolips and Themyscira. This should be a banger, there should be battles between iconic characters from both sides, Darkseid should have a cunning plan for why he invades and there should be lasting consequences. Instead, there's a battle between nameless forces of nobodies on both sides, Darkseid just leaves without explanation and there's zero lasting effects on the story. How was this fumbled so badly?
I have more examples: A new Wonder Girl who barely appears, new supporting characters, who are exact copies of existing ones (Prof. Kapetil & Prof. Sandsmark), Diana being sidelined in her own book, a full retcon of Donna Troy, an awful attempt of romance between Diana and 'Champion' and the list goes on. Again, this will sound harsh, but I didn't have a single moment that made me chuckle or be invested with the story.
Another big problem is the dialogue. Characters ramble and the panels are full of text, to the point that the artwork is clearly obstructed by it. Many issues start with text boxes spanning the entire spread page. Most of it is rambling and dated dialogue. It truly feels like a (mediocre) book published in the 80s. If I compare this to two collections that include comics from the same period as this, JLA by Grant Morrison Omnibus or Batman: Road to No Man's Land Omnibus, the difference is night and day.
Yet another problem I have, is that the preceding run by Messner-Loebs, published in TBP only Wonder Woman Book 1: The Last True Hero, is so much better and introduced many great concepts, yet allowed Wonder Woman to be a lightweighted, yet enjoyable superhero comicbook. The shift in tone in this run is baffling.
As you can tell, I'm very disappointed by this run and I would actually recommend to just skip it, as the overall status quo barely affected.
John Byrne does both the writing and the artwork here. To get this out of the way first: The artwork is good, and typical for John Byrne. Great in the 80s, but only passable in the second half of the 90s. The writing on the other hand is even worse, as I know that John Byrne can write great stories. This run ain't it.
Let's take the opening story arc as an example: Darkseid invades the island of the Amazons. War between the forces of Apokolips and Themyscira. This should be a banger, there should be battles between iconic characters from both sides, Darkseid should have a cunning plan for why he invades and there should be lasting consequences. Instead, there's a battle between nameless forces of nobodies on both sides, Darkseid just leaves without explanation and there's zero lasting effects on the story. How was this fumbled so badly?
I have more examples: A new Wonder Girl who barely appears, new supporting characters, who are exact copies of existing ones (Prof. Kapetil & Prof. Sandsmark), Diana being sidelined in her own book, a full retcon of Donna Troy, an awful attempt of romance between Diana and 'Champion' and the list goes on. Again, this will sound harsh, but I didn't have a single moment that made me chuckle or be invested with the story.
Another big problem is the dialogue. Characters ramble and the panels are full of text, to the point that the artwork is clearly obstructed by it. Many issues start with text boxes spanning the entire spread page. Most of it is rambling and dated dialogue. It truly feels like a (mediocre) book published in the 80s. If I compare this to two collections that include comics from the same period as this, JLA by Grant Morrison Omnibus or Batman: Road to No Man's Land Omnibus, the difference is night and day.
Yet another problem I have, is that the preceding run by Messner-Loebs, published in TBP only Wonder Woman Book 1: The Last True Hero, is so much better and introduced many great concepts, yet allowed Wonder Woman to be a lightweighted, yet enjoyable superhero comicbook. The shift in tone in this run is baffling.
As you can tell, I'm very disappointed by this run and I would actually recommend to just skip it, as the overall status quo barely affected.
February 6, 2026
(Zero spoiler review) 2.25/5
Man, good Wonder Woman runs are thin on the ground. She really is part of the DC holy trinity in name only.
I thought for sure Byrne Would be able to bring something of note to the character. And whilst there is nothing wrong with this whatsoever, it is just so competently inoffensive that its sheer acceptability started to get under my skin after a rather short amount of time. Byrne is a great artist, although the changes to his style, along with the shift towards digital colour really wasn't working for me throughout most of this, or the bits I read before losing all interest, anyway. The mixture between down to earth Dianna and all the 'Gods' stuff never worked, and she doesn't have a rogue's gallery worth the name.
I have immense respect for John Byrne and his earlier work and really hoped and expected this to be another WW run to rival Perez's, though this falls well short of that high water mark for the character. Blandly competent really is the order of the day here, I'm afraid.
Man, good Wonder Woman runs are thin on the ground. She really is part of the DC holy trinity in name only.
I thought for sure Byrne Would be able to bring something of note to the character. And whilst there is nothing wrong with this whatsoever, it is just so competently inoffensive that its sheer acceptability started to get under my skin after a rather short amount of time. Byrne is a great artist, although the changes to his style, along with the shift towards digital colour really wasn't working for me throughout most of this, or the bits I read before losing all interest, anyway. The mixture between down to earth Dianna and all the 'Gods' stuff never worked, and she doesn't have a rogue's gallery worth the name.
I have immense respect for John Byrne and his earlier work and really hoped and expected this to be another WW run to rival Perez's, though this falls well short of that high water mark for the character. Blandly competent really is the order of the day here, I'm afraid.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews