Why is it Grant Morrison is generally regarded as one of comics great writers, but whenever I read anything by him, I'm always disappointed.

This is, by far, the worst of the 'Earth One' Original Graphic Novels. Utter drivel. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's New 52 showcased how great Wonder Woman and her mythos can be. This was just sexist trash.

3.2/5

God, we are just so fucking lucky to be alive at the same time Grant Morrison is doing their thing.

I'll preface this to say I've never been that impressed by Grant Morrison as a writer, regardless of which hero he's writing. And I'll follow that by saying this volume of Wonder Woman definitely did not change this fact.

There are definitely some good ideas in this book. There are some general changes that I would love to see in the main Wonder Woman comics. Steve Trevor, for instance, was done well; the change to make him a black man and the speech about subjugation was a nice touch. Etta/Beth Candy was an interesting update. One thing I definitely approved of was the addition of more blatantly queer aspects to Wonder Woman and the Amazons (and Beth/Etta as well).

On the other hand... while it was all well-intentioned, the efforts at 'feminism' came off poorly if not like a parody of actual feminist thought. We're talking a staging of radical feminism and gender essentialism. There was body shaming, too, and strangely the use of 'girls' as a derogatory term (ie saying the soldiers were more girls than men--from an Amazon?).

The interesting ideas mean that this wasn't a total waste of time, but had it been much longer then I'm not sure it would have been worth the time. I probably won't pick up volume two, but it was interesting to see what Morrison's take on Diana was.

I had high hopes for this, however it of falls flat with weird, and a tad sexist, undertones. The writing is okay, not s great epic but not a horrible misfire. The art is by fart that best part of the story, it's gorgeous and is very different in style. The art can sometimes make the story confusing but most of the time it just aides is masterly storytelling. However, if you want to get into Wonder Woman, this isn't the masterpiece you want. Go find some of Greg Ruck's of Brian Azzerrello's those are by far mor

Now, I'm a big Grant Morrison fanboy and I like Wonder Woman, but I didn't pick this up in my comic book store, partly because the Earth One DC volumes have been hit or miss for me and mainly because of the art. Specifically, that cover.

I've liked [a:Yanick Paquette|229802|Yanick Paquette|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] before, especially on the [b:Terra Obscura|1109208|Terra Obscura Volume 1|Alan Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410738685s/1109208.jpg|6564898] books. But he does focus quite a bit on (ahem!) healthy women. (I think of him as firmly in the [a:Frank Cho|18160|Frank Cho|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1335707041p2/18160.jpg] school.) And the cover emphasizes the bondage that was a hallmark of [a:William Moulton Marston|89375|William Moulton Marston|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s early work on Wonder Woman. So when I look at that cover, I get concerned about how far the work is moving towards the area of exploitation comics.

It doesn't get too far, thankfully, but Morrison and Paquette do go all in on the idea of Paradise Island as a lesbian culture with affection expressed through submission, authority, and bondage. (Well, as "all in" as you can go in a book presumably intended for all ages.) There is a lot of respect for the characters, and almost every woman is depicted as powerful instead of just an opportunity for cheesecake. But there's cheesecake too. (To be fair, the depiction of Steve Trevor is heavily beefcake.)

There's some interesting stuff here. Morrison does his best when he shows how Diana makes her way to man's world and discovers the mortality and poor treatment of women. Steve Trevor is African-American and makes an explicit connection between the historical exploitation of Amazons and slavery in America. And Etta Candy (named here as Beth Candy) shows up as a sorority girl who speaks up for Diana (and appears to be a Rebel Wilson clone.)

But all of the above doesn't mix well, and worse, everything happens either on Paradise Island or in flashbacks delivered to Hippolyta and the Fates on Paradise Island. And the dialogue here is tough going. Not only do we get a ton of stilted speech, but Morrison is hitting us over the head with Diana's wish to be free of her mother. We even get a plot point focused on Diana's real identity, as if the work is channeling a YA story through the bodies of adults.

In the end, nothing really hangs together, and the interesting concepts have trouble rising above the dialogue and the art.

Grant Morrison's grasp of subtext and meta-narrative greatly enriches Wonder Woman's origin story, and turning her original male love interest into a black man who recognizes the link between sexism, racism and classism is just perfect!