Absolute Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang, Vol. 2

Wonder Woman (2011) #4-6

by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang

Writer Brian Azzarello (BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT: MASTER RACE) and artist Cliff Chiang (PAPER GIRLS) conclude their series in this special collector's edition, ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN BY BRIAN AZZARELLO AND CLIFF CHIANG VOLUME TWO, with more than 40 pages of character designs, sketch material and more!

Wonder Woman's world was rocked to its core when her eldest brother, the First Born, was freed from his slumber. Now, with her family in ruins and her friends scattered, she must turn to Orion and the New Gods of New Genesis to save herself, her newborn brother Zeke and his mother Zola from the First Born's wrath.

To stop the First Born's crusade to reclaim Zeus' throne, all of Olympus will go to war. And Diana must make a great sacrifice, one that will change the very nature of who she is...

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN BY BRIAN AZZARELLO AND CLIFF CHIANG VOLUME TWO stunningly presents issues #19-35 of the duo's acclaimed series and their story from SECRET ORIGINS #6, plus bonus material!

Genres: Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy

456 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2018

About the author

Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".

Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).

In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.

As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.

information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...

Reviews

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful character epic, I mean this story is almost on a Batman level, it really narrows down on Wonder Woman's qualities and brings her into her own. I love what they did with the God's and all the characters. Truly intelligent and thoughtful writing.

Why isn't there a series like this for Superman dammit!!?

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure this content demanded Absolute treatment but it is nice to see DC continue to expand their oversize content offerings.

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If not quite as good as Volume 1, Volume 2 of this reimagining of Wonder Women and the Olympic gods is still gorgeous and very well done.

[Yuiko · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one sucked the first one was much better

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this compilation. On the one hand, it was utterly crazy and nothing like I expected it to be (which was crazy enough based on the first volume). On the other hand, I do not remember the last time I read a series like this that made me feel so sick to my stomach that I thought I might vomit. It has powerfully disturbing images in it, that is for certain such as Dionysus eating the First Born's skin and organs, or Cassandra eating the flesh of her partners as well as what other slabs of flesh the First Born feeds her. Or her chasing after Zola to eat Zola's baby? That was messed up. Or how Cassandra was feeding Hades to Hades's father? Blech! . Reading this felt like watching an accident about to happen before my eyes - I wanted it to stop but couldn't force myself to turn away and quit reading the book. Curse this weakness of mine, of having to finish something once I start it, hahahah!

I think if the author was going for showing how wicked and evil the Greek gods were, he did an excellent job in doing so. Intellectually, I have realized how evil they were as I have grown and matured, but the author really went a lot further than I thought was necessary to show how depraved they truly were. Like Zeus impregnating his own daughter with himself so that he could be "reborn" as a new infant and hopefully not make the same mistakes he had made previously? And what about Hera? How is she going to handle this when she learns Zeus committed incest so that he could be "born again"? Is she going to kill her baby-husband as he sits on the throne of Olympus and "grows up" "again"?

And what was up with Apollo and Artemis? The author implies the two might have been lovers, but I don't recall ever hearing that about these two siblings. I only recall them being close siblings and having a tight bond; nothing more and nothing less. And nothing erotic about it.

Soooo . . . . what happens with Hades being dead? Are all of the spirits and shades of the dead now left to walk around the Earth forever? Wandering for eternity with no home to call their own, as it were? Who has become their lord and master? By the logic of the story, if the First Born truly killed Hades, then that should make him Lord of the Underworld. Could he truly remain at the bottom of that Abyss if he is now Lord of the Underworld? I am not sure if Hades is truly dead; the comment is made that Hades can be heard screaming as his body is devoured but never digested by his father, so perhaps Hades is not truly dead. Ugh! That was so disturbing.

I assume that is how War (Ares) was able to return and have that last chat with Diana? Because he was no longer bound in Hades due to his being killed by Diana? That was a weird moment, and too much of a Deus ex Machina in the story for me.

Are all of the Greek gods still dead now that Zeus is back on his throne in Olympus? Are all of the respective gods "killed" in this series "permanently" dead? Or will they be brought back to life by Zeus? I assume they do not "stay" dead because this is the comic book world, of course, and no good death remains unspoilt by retcons, retellings, and future authors who just don't care about what has gone before. I assume they are "alive and well" in the current iteration of the DC Universe, but how long did they remain dead before being brought back to life?

I don't know how I feel about Diana and her journey, however. Goodness, gracious, but this book was DARK! I half-expected Batman to show up from time to time! I didn't feel like she was truly "heroic", if that makes sense (probably not); at the same time, I guess it means she had feet of clay and was imperfect as opposed to never making mistakes and being perfect all the time. But she only remained imperfect long enough to supposedly experience some loss or learn some important lesson, but I don't feel like she truly learned any lessons that would be remembered by the end of the book. And it doesn't matter anyway, 'cuz all of this retconning the author did about Diana's history and backstory was undone in future series by other authors. I don't know - it felt like a run of . . . Daredevil, I think it was, where he kept having bad thing after bad thing happening to him before things "ever got better" (I assume it did; I quit reading that run well before it ended partly because of how depressing it was which is why I think it was Daredevil). But the author said he loved Daredevil so much that he had to keep coming up with these increasingly horrible obstacles for Daredevil to overcome in order for Daredevil to . . . what? Transcend those moments, to prove he was better than all the bad and evil that could come his way? It felt like the author was deliberately running Diana into the muck and mire and depravity of the Greek myths to show, to "prove", just how much better she was and is than all of the Greek gods combined (including her own mother, who lied to Diana about her origin even if it was to protect her; better she not have copulated with Zeus in the first place). I don't know that he succeeded. I did not enjoy being dragged through the muck just to find out how the story ended.

How would the abandoned sons of the Amazons really feel about "returning home" to those who had abandoned them and traded them for weapons instead of killing them? It did not seem like the Amazons wanted their male offspring to be on the island, regardless of what their "new queen" wanted or the changes Diana wanted to make. I don't know how I felt about that. I am sure it was supposed to be some kind of emotionally charged moment in the book, but I felt like it fell flat, myself. I don't know - it was just so meh to me.

Also, it was weird, but there were times part of me wondered if the baby boy was Zeus reborn. I would push those thoughts away as being ridiculous. Perhaps not as ridiculous as I had thought, as that turned out to be the case!

Diana's interactions with Orion were a mixed bag for me, although it was funny that she kept thinking his yelling "Baby" was at her when he was telling his friend A4 to protect Zeke. She kept going from being supremely confident in herself to being uncertain and back again; it was an odd mix for me. Granted, it felt like the author must not have liked Orion because of how much he kept getting the crap kicked out of him by other beings. It got kinda annoying, to be honest, but at least they were using Orion instead of, say, Superman, in the story since Superman ... well, he used to have a weakness to magical and mystical objects/things, but I don't know if that has changed or not. In any case, considering all of the damage that was done, I am somewhat surprised more superheroes, demigods, or even gods (or strong aliens) were not involved in this storyline.

Hera did have an interesting character arc. Apollo died that her power might be restored. And she did seem to learn something from her time as a mortal since she saved the lives of Zeke and Zola from Cassandra and First Born's "children". Granted, her comment about having failed in her mission to kill Zola and her baby was funny in the context in which she made it, but I did enjoy the interactions between Hera and Zola throughout this series (although Hera slamming Orion around was a bit much, in my opinion).

I did like that the Minotaur spared Diana's life after she spared its life in the Labyrinth. That was a pretty cool moment in the story, I cannot deny that.

This compilation was a fast read for me - much faster than the first volume. I don't know if it is because the images were so disturbing to me that I tended to skip over them. It was (is) a book that felt "drenched" in evil and sadism and unspeakable horrors and cruelty (well, maybe not quite "unspeakable", but close enough). I thumbed through it to make sure I got some of my comments right in my review, and it still made me sick to my stomach to look at some of the imagery. I read comics for fun, for escapism, and not to feel like I got dragged through a sewer system filled with that which is putrid and evil and nothing I want to be a part of. It is funny - I used to love reading about the Greek gods as a child, but that is probably because the myths I read were highly sanitized to be "read" and "enjoyed" by children. After reading this series, I don't think I ever want to go back and read another Greek myth ever again, hahahah! On the one hand, I guess that means the author wrote "a powerful story" because of the strong impact it had one me, but in good conscience I can't give it a high rating just because of that, and I really didn't like the story as as whole (this second half). I thought the first half had a semi-solid start but it had my interest after the first volume. I guess if the author wanted to make evil truly look "evil" and unappealing, then he succeeded in spades. In any case, this volume has made me never want to read this series again. 1 star it is.

[Zachary Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A satisfying ending with some twists I didn't see coming to a different take on Wonder Women. Volume two did not disappoint and I'm happy to have this entire run in the absolute format. The slipcase that this comes in is a bit tight so you have to fight a bit to get the book out the first time. The art is still amazing with great lettering and colors. This is a run worth reading for any open minded fan of Wonder Woman or anyone who loves greek mythology. A definite standout run of the New 52 era.

[Casey Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Azzarello and Chiang are well teamed in this continuation of their redirection of Wonder Woman. I kept feeling echoes of Y the Last Man. Strong characterizations and solid storytelling.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takes of running after the set up of the various characters and relationship dynamics in Vol. 1. And of course, there’s Wonder Woman #23. Nuff said.