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Wonder Woman (1987) (Single Issues) #101-104
Wonder Woman: Second Genesis
From the artist and wirter of SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN/CAPTAIN AMERICA! DC's foremost super heroine comes up against the dread Darkseid, lord of the hellish planet Apokolips. This action packed collection showcases a truly epic battle between Darkseid's warriors and Wonder Woman's Amazon sisters. A companion volume to WONDER WOMAN: THE CHALLENGE OF ARTEMIS. Graphic novel format.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
About the author
John Byrne
2,974 books366 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 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 31, 2014
Bullet Review:
This started out REALLY good. I loved John Byrne's introduction, where he talks about the Perez reboot of Wonder Woman, Speculators, and the atmosphere of comics in the 90's. Wonder Woman was great in Byrne's hands as she fought off crime...
And then the story walks in, musses up your hair, and walks off, to be replaced by a silly story of an ancient Greek mechanoid being activated by a 14 year-old whiny punk.
Wonder Woman is great. I even like some of the art. But the Darkseid plot (what is it with my stumbling upon this character) goes nowhere. I get it's probably part of a longer storyline, but I had expected at least a LITTLE closure and not the wide-open doors that I get at the end of this.
And the last issue, Lifelines, is complete goofball. Wonder Woman doesn't even save the day! It's the stupid punk kid who activated the damn thing that fixes it.
Obviously, I'm obsessed with Wonder Woman, so it won't make or break my love for her, but geez, talk about a disappointment!
This started out REALLY good. I loved John Byrne's introduction, where he talks about the Perez reboot of Wonder Woman, Speculators, and the atmosphere of comics in the 90's. Wonder Woman was great in Byrne's hands as she fought off crime...
And then the story walks in, musses up your hair, and walks off, to be replaced by a silly story of an ancient Greek mechanoid being activated by a 14 year-old whiny punk.
Wonder Woman is great. I even like some of the art. But the Darkseid plot (what is it with my stumbling upon this character) goes nowhere. I get it's probably part of a longer storyline, but I had expected at least a LITTLE closure and not the wide-open doors that I get at the end of this.
And the last issue, Lifelines, is complete goofball. Wonder Woman doesn't even save the day! It's the stupid punk kid who activated the damn thing that fixes it.
Obviously, I'm obsessed with Wonder Woman, so it won't make or break my love for her, but geez, talk about a disappointment!
September 26, 2012
I don't really have anything to say about this one. It wasn't horrible, or bordline offensive, like The Contest had been. But I also can't think of a single thing that I liked about it. Two stars, because it at least didn't make me angry.
October 2, 2009
John Byrne's run on Wonder Woman to me represents the negative connotation the general public has about Wonder Woman. To give this a long review would be wasting valuable time I could be using to review Greg Rucka or Gail Simone's superior run. Bottom line is this: In both Second Genesis and Lifelines, Diana comes off as always needing the help of someone else to get the job done. Yes, she has the brute strength, but rarely the brains to complete a task. Skip it.
February 2, 2012
Despite many misgivings about the author's assumption of this book series, this addition is well worth the reader's time.
February 1, 2014
This is a very odd collection to read now.
=Some Spoilers=
George Perez had successfully run Wonder Woman from the reboot in 1987 to the 50th Anniversary War of the Gods event. William Messner-Loebs did an okay job afterwards but soon resorted to 90s tropes, firstly sending the character to space, then to have her replaced by a "gritty" (AKA violent and lacking anatomical accuracy) version.
Now Byrne taking over wanted to treat her as a new character, removing a lot of continuity from the last 100 or so issues. This is all well and good if that's what was being done but the actual result is rather different. The supporting cast of Steve, Julia and Vanessa are replaced by the very similar Mike, Helena and Cassie, whilst the villains are very old DC stalwarts of Darkseid and Morgan Le Fay. In fact a large part of one issue is devoted to rehashing the history of the New Gods and referencing John Byrne's prior Wonder Woman story in Action Comics.
This size of the trade is strange too, since it only really contains the start of an arc with Morgan Le Fay, with the conclusion being contained in "Lifelines". Flashing further forward Byrne almost exclusively uses existing villains (e.g. Doomsday, Sinestro, Cheetah) until he decides to completely rehash a Messner-Loebs plot from a few years before.
Back to the actual issue, the stories themselves are not terrible but incredibly generic. You could replace Diana with almost any other character around at the time and you wouldn't notice the difference.
The artwork is better than many other comics from the period (where Liefield's influence was being felt) but neiter is it anything worth preserving.
Overall, for completists only.
=Some Spoilers=
George Perez had successfully run Wonder Woman from the reboot in 1987 to the 50th Anniversary War of the Gods event. William Messner-Loebs did an okay job afterwards but soon resorted to 90s tropes, firstly sending the character to space, then to have her replaced by a "gritty" (AKA violent and lacking anatomical accuracy) version.
Now Byrne taking over wanted to treat her as a new character, removing a lot of continuity from the last 100 or so issues. This is all well and good if that's what was being done but the actual result is rather different. The supporting cast of Steve, Julia and Vanessa are replaced by the very similar Mike, Helena and Cassie, whilst the villains are very old DC stalwarts of Darkseid and Morgan Le Fay. In fact a large part of one issue is devoted to rehashing the history of the New Gods and referencing John Byrne's prior Wonder Woman story in Action Comics.
This size of the trade is strange too, since it only really contains the start of an arc with Morgan Le Fay, with the conclusion being contained in "Lifelines". Flashing further forward Byrne almost exclusively uses existing villains (e.g. Doomsday, Sinestro, Cheetah) until he decides to completely rehash a Messner-Loebs plot from a few years before.
Back to the actual issue, the stories themselves are not terrible but incredibly generic. You could replace Diana with almost any other character around at the time and you wouldn't notice the difference.
The artwork is better than many other comics from the period (where Liefield's influence was being felt) but neiter is it anything worth preserving.
Overall, for completists only.
June 23, 2011
Me lo compré en una época en la que leía pocos comics yanquis salvo cuando me encontraba jugosas ofertas. Este tomo creo que estaba 7$, así que le di una chance porque siempre me gustaron mucho el autor y bastante el personaje. No me decepcionó justamente por lo poco que salió, pero tampoco fue una sorpresa muy agradable que digamos. Argumentos tontos y dibujo bastante feúcho (a años luz del buen Byrne de Man of Steel). Si en algún momento consigo los otros tomos de la colección a un precio razonable seguro les dé una chance, pero no creo que eso pase en el corto plazo, y tampoco es que me muera por que así sea.
April 26, 2018
This was a fantastic start to John Byrne's run! After Loebs's run, I was hoping for a fresh take on Wonder Woman and Byrne did not disappoint! Diana's new adventure at Gateway City started off with a bang. I loved how this arc connected the Greek Gods to the wider DC mythology including the New Gods. Her encounter with Darkseid was amazing. I loved the battle between the Amazons and Darkseid's forces. We also found out Hippolyta's fate after that everything that has happened between her, Artemis and Diana.
April 11, 2024
3.5 Stars
This is John Byrne's take on Wonder Woman. I liked it, but in a way it does seem like not much happened. My main problem was we never got to see a direct battle between Wonder Woman and Darkseid, which is what I thought was the point here. And also, I don't remember Darkseid smiling and laughing so much. (Granted, it was an evil laugh and smile, but still, just seemed a little odd.)
Overall it was a good read, but there didn't seem to be much story advancement when it was all done.
This is John Byrne's take on Wonder Woman. I liked it, but in a way it does seem like not much happened. My main problem was we never got to see a direct battle between Wonder Woman and Darkseid, which is what I thought was the point here. And also, I don't remember Darkseid smiling and laughing so much. (Granted, it was an evil laugh and smile, but still, just seemed a little odd.)
Overall it was a good read, but there didn't seem to be much story advancement when it was all done.
July 18, 2024
This is competent stuff by John Byrne. His artwork took a turn for the worse here, but the storytelling and layouts are still solid. The writing is also good, and I unfortunately read the Lifeline TPB first, and have since forgotten how The Demon storyline gets resolved. I guess I could A) dig out the book and re-read it or B) look it up on the Internet.
January 24, 2019
Byrne reboots Wonder Woman. This collects the first story arc in Byrne's run. Issues #101-106. Not bad. Their are some good plot points, but the scripting is weird and Byrne draws Wonder Woman weird.
June 15, 2019
Look the bookshelf in which I placed this crap, that's all you need to know.
August 4, 2017
I'll give this one two stars, mostly for the artwork. The story has it's high points but overall the writing is rather confusing to follow. The story line gets broken up several times, often in ways that really don't add much to the story. The idea of Wonder Woman fighting Darkseid really intrigued me, but sadly this was not the battle I was hoping for. There are some good points to the story though, and Diana's anger at emotion really come out strong in this. However, Wonder Woman being basically in bondage and tortured for several pages wasn't really my thing and seemed a bit unnecessary (that's an understatement). The most redeemable thing about this arc is by far the artwork which I actually really liked. The art came out very crisp and the colour looks really good. If you're one of those readers that has to read everything in a character's lexicon then this certainly is not the worst WW. It's far from the best but it's got a lot of potential.
December 31, 2011
As a story of Wonder Woman's history goes, Second Genesis does a good job. This is the warrior princess everyone knows, except she is an exile from her people. When a great evil threatens her home, however, we discover that no matter her history or desire to find herself away from her past, she will always be there for those she loves.
This is also the first appearance of the girl who will become the latest Wonder Girl, so seeing how her story starts gives me a greater appreciation for how far she has come. This trade is John Byrne at his finest. Only complaint I'll really give the story is that it's too short.
This is also the first appearance of the girl who will become the latest Wonder Girl, so seeing how her story starts gives me a greater appreciation for how far she has come. This trade is John Byrne at his finest. Only complaint I'll really give the story is that it's too short.
December 21, 2012
The most "what the heck?" Wonder Woman trade I've read yet. A fairly pedestrian story with some truly tragic artwork and...yeah, this was not good at all. At all.
April 4, 2013
Pretty weak as whole. I never like Darkseid and Wonder Woman's new pal, Mike, didn't do anything for me. I suppose it's worth reading for the introduction of Cassie Sandmark.
April 12, 2018
Cuarto libro de cinco de la edición en tomos de Wonder Woman a cargo de Editorial Zinco.
Incluye menos páginas que el recopilatorio del mismo nombre en inglés.
Incluye menos páginas que el recopilatorio del mismo nombre en inglés.
April 30, 2017
Byrne ya estaba en plan jubílate, muchacho. Historias un pelín insulsas y no demasiado inspiradas.
Read
August 29, 2017That was okay, I guess. There wasn't anything I actively disliked about it -- which I appreciated, coming off the two Messner-Loeb trades -- but I also felt like, "What's the point of this story?"
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews