Wonder Woman issue 2 review Year One Part 1
Learn the real origin of Wonder Woman in Year One
Hard to imagine Wonder Woman fans could possibly want more than what DC is offering these days. Greg Rucka’s unique approach to Wonder Woman’s bi-weekly schedule is giving fans two perspectives of the amazing Amazon. Year One kicks off in the second issue of the ongoing title.
Rucka is alternating between The Lies storyline drawn by Liam Sharp on the odd numbered issues and a Year One arc drawn by Nicola Scott on the even issues. Issue 2 features a Year One tale. There’s not a lot in the Diana sequence that feels especially revelatory. The exception is Rucka strongly implying that Diana had more than a few flings with her fellow Amazonians.
Grant Morrison was more out front with that with his Earth-1 Wonder Woman so it’ll be interesting to see how Rucka proceeds. Splitting off from her mother is one thing, but leaving behind a relationship could potentially be more difficult. Additionally, a spurned lover could easily become a future adversary.
Oddly the highlight of the book was the glimpses back at Steve Trevor’s early military career. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but Rucka approached Trevor’s sequences from a unique angle. In those segments, we see Trevor and his best friend/fellow soldier Nick coming up through the ranks together.
For readers more accustomed to the story continuation of the other bi-weekly titles, this plan could be a bit annoying as it’s more of a traditional monthly schedule. While impatient readers might be frustrated the stories will continue every 30 days in essence we’re getting two monthly Wonder Woman titles. At this point there doesn’t seem like there will be any interaction between the Year One and present storylines. That may be something that eventually changes during Rucka’s run, but there seems to be more than enough material to keep the format going for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, Rucka has one of DC Rebirth’s best two art teams on the title. Scott’s artwork is as gorgeous as ever. Rucka taps into Scott’s strengths so there’s a lot of dialogue focusing on character responses and interactions. While the story may seem familiar at every page of Year One was sumptuous eye candy.
The biggest challenge for Wonder Woman Year One’s tales is overcoming reader expectation who assume they know how the story plays out. This first issue didn’t deviate greatly from established cannon. Still, with Rucka and Scott working on the title seeing how it unfolds promises to be interesting and unmissable journey.