Wonder Woman #8-14
Originally released in 1987
Written by George Perez
Art by George Perez
Wonder Woman starts to get involved with the broader DC continuity in these issues, though it's only for a few fleeting moments. The first issue in this set is unusual - it's largely prose, as various characters write about Wonder Woman, with panels along the side showing the events that are described. Professor Julia Kapatelis, her daughter Vanessa, Etta Candy, and Wonder Woman's publicist Myndi Mayer all write about her, and of the four, I found Vanessa's story to be the most interesting.
In it, Wonder Woman is giving a presentation at Vanessa's school, and the day of the presentation, Vanessa's crush says that he's been admiring her for a while now and asks her out on a date. I spent this whole segment bracing myself for an emotional gut punch - that he had a crush on Wonder Woman and was using Vanessa as a way to meet her, and that her story would end with Vanessa's heart broken - but by the end, that moment never came, and I was doubting my original thoughts.
Wonder Woman also meets the Justice League, though it's not quite the Justice League International line-up. (As this happens shortly before the Millennium event that also took place in the JLI issues that I've read, it seems like that was the version of the team that would be the Justice League here) Due to Perez using Crisis as a way to reboot Wonder Woman and start fresh, she wasn't a founding member of the team in this continuity, but it's nice that we get her perspective on some of its members.
We also get our first look at post-Crisis Cheetah, who's somewhere between the "person in a costume" version and the "were-creature" version - she drinks a serum from a divine plant to get some cheetah-like properties (fangs, claws), but the spots are war paint and she mostly seems to be human. She's after the artifacts in Wonder Woman's possession, and Wonder Woman is so unfamiliar with the ways of the outside world at this point that she's in utter shock that a fellow woman would lie to her. (While holding the Lasso of Truth, she also reveals that Barbara Minerva isn't her real name, which I thought was interesting)
The Cheetah plot is quickly resolved, with her slipping away after being thrown into a lake. I'm not sure which comic originated the idea that Cheetah was Wonder Woman's former friend who became corrupted by power, like in the movie Wonder Woman 1984, but I think I prefer that dynamic between them.
Wonder Woman returns to Themyscira, where its inhabitants (including Diana) have fallen under the lustful eye of Zeus, who is encouraged by Pan, a satyr. When Diana rejects Zeus's advances, Zeus forces her to complete a series of trials in the underworld in order to prevent him from bringing his wrath down on Themyscira.
Given Pan's appearance in some of these issues, I figured the plot would end with him being cursed to become a mortal man, turning him into the post-Crisis version of Doctor Psycho. Instead, it turns out that he was replaced by one of the alien robots known as the Manhunters as a result of the Millennium crossover. It was fine in Justice League International, but here, it feels really forced, like every single writer was required to have the Manhunters replace a character regardless of how much sense it made within the plot. (Since it would require a Manhunter to kidnap a Greek god/demigod, replace them so well that even their fellow gods are fooled, get to the very depths of the Greek underworld without anyone noticing, and dispose of Pan's body down there)
As this is going on, Steve Trevor has returned home after his father's death, and these two plotlines intersect when it is revealed that Diana, a woman who crashed on Themyscira years ago and who serves as Wonder Woman's namesake and the inspiration for her outfit, is in the underworld, waiting to meet Wonder Woman, and her full name is Diana Trevor. This leads to some touching moments involving Steve and her late husband, though given that Steve Trevor is Wonder Woman's traditional love interest, it gets a little awkward when Diana Trevor refers to Wonder Woman as her daughter when telling her to look after Steve, her son.
It seems to become clear that the dynamic between Steve and Wonder Woman is quite a bit different post-Crisis. During the Ares conflict, Steve said that Wonder Woman reminded him of his mother, which at the time seemed downright Oedipal. However, combining that with this makes it seem like Perez is going for Steve and Wonder Woman being more like brother and sister. I wasn't sure if that would be the case at first, but then Steve gets a heartfelt confession from Etta Candy that seems to shake up his traditional status quo.
The scenes in the Greek underworld make me wish that we got more Greek mythology in the movies, as opposed to the Greek pantheon (aside from Ares) being killed off-screen. The scenes of Diana battling with the Hydra, a Cyclops, and the thousand-armed creature called the Hecatoncheire, among others, which help to showcase Diana's strength and tactical know-how.
The Greek pantheon comment on the events throughout the story, with some of them setting up challenges for Diana in accordance with Zeus's will. Others are just enjoying the show, or hoping for Diana's victory, though there's not a ton of visual variety between them so it can be hard to tell who's who at times. (Once Diana has completed the trials, Aphrodite makes a comment that threw me off - I'm not sure if "lovemaking" had a different meaning that I wasn't aware of)
Heracles even makes an appearance, having mellowed out considerably since the incident that caused the Amazons to flee humanity in the first place. (His actions there are chalked up to Hera driving him mad, as he was born from an affair between Zeus and a mortal woman and Hera sought to get revenge by tormenting Heracles) Heracles, much like Zeus, seems easily forgiven for his actions (Zeus made it very clear that he planned to turn Themyscira into something like his personal brothel), and it leads to Hippolyte and Heracles beginning a romance, which feels more than a little out of character given what he did to her, but it's a good display of Wonder Woman's compassion, and the compassion of the Amazons as a whole. (And, as an added bonus, it lifts the curse where a man setting foot on Themyscira would cause all of the Amazons to lose their agelessness and powers)
I have mixed feelings about how this storyline ends (I'm fine with Heracles being forgiven, but it kind of feels like it goes a step too far), but it does a good job with showing key aspects of Diana's character, along with her bond with her mother, who would go to hell and back (literally) and fight off her own people in order to make sure that Diana is safe. There were some unexpected twists in the romance department throughout these stories, with some being good (I'm interested to see what role Steve will play now that he's not just "Wonder Woman's boyfriend") and some that, as I already mentioned, I didn't really like.
I'm looking forward to seeing what other villains will be introduced in the future, since as I said earlier, I'm unfamiliar with most of Wonder Woman's rogues gallery. Thinking about it as I was typing this out, I'm surprised that Donna Troy (Wonder Girl) hasn't even been mentioned or referenced yet. George Perez did the art for New Teen Titans and handled both the writing and art here, so he's aware of the character. Then again, Donna's post-Crisis backstory is apparently super complicated as the creators tried to reconcile the ideas of Wonder Woman entering "man's world" for the first time with Donna being a long-standing member of the Teen Titans, so maybe that's a bit of confusion that I don't want to try sorting out.
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