If there’s one globally known superhero that has, more than all others (I’m thinking of the big three in Superman, Batman, Spider-Man), been short-changed over the decades in terms of further fleshing out a backstory, origin, and their societal place, it’s Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman, Champion of the Amazons!
Look, I know, I know. Wonder Woman comics have been in print, uninterrupted, for decades. Everyone on this planet recognizes her: from Main Street U.S.A. to the shining skyscrapers of Metropolis; from the war-torn deserts of Kanhdaq to the ghettos of Santa Prisca; from the far reaches of Oolong Island down to the hidden hollow earth confines of prehistoric Scartaris. Everyone knows Wonder Woman, who she is and how she came to be.
But in many ways, while a plethora of authors and illustrators have dug deep into the back stories, histories, and societal ruminations of Krypton, Gotham City, the Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis, and the spectrum of colours that influence the expanding world of Oa, Wonder Woman and her Amazonian sisterhood have been left in the dark. Their deserved history unwritten, unshared, untold.
Until now.
Today sees the long, long-awaited release of the first issue of Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons!
Written and illustrated by two of the finest creators in all of comicdom, the award-winning Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel, Bitch Planet, Aquaman) and Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, Infinite Crisis, The Invisibles), Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, is a new 3-issue oversized “prestige-plus” series under the DC Comics more mature Black Label banner, that aims to correct this decades-long oversight.
Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #1 begins a millennia ago, when Queen Hera and the other goddesses of Olympus grew dissatisfied with their male counterparts and decided to secretly create a new civilization capable of the most wonderous…and atrocious things.
The Amazons were born!
But all of this is mere prelude – they are the beginnings yarns that make up the tapestry of not only Amazonian civilization: it’s belief system, it’s history and it’s culture, but Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons also sews together the important threads that will one day make up the superhero known globally as Wonder Woman.
Nearly four years in the making, the first issue is told from the perspective of a mysterious narrator, relaying Amazonian origins as if to one of its own wide-eyed and unknowing children. DeConnick’s narrative is dense, fulsome and entirely compelling, gleefully echoed by the lavish and amazingly detailed art by Jimenez, which proudly belongs in the Smithsonian for all to see and marvel at, for all time.
Truly, this is some of the greatest art in any medium that you will ever feast your eyes upon, with the promise that great visuals will continue in subsequent chapters as DeConnick is joined by comic book luminaries in Gene Ha and Nicola Scott in the final two installments of the series.
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up the wonderous Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #1 today – and fill in the gaps of culture you may not have realized you always needed to know more about!
Whet your appetite! You can catch a short interview about Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons with Kelley Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez right here:
