Wonder Woman by George Pérez—Volume 1

Comic Info

Wonder Woman (2) #1

Reprints Wonder Woman (2) #1-14 (February 1987-March 1988).  A crisis has struck the universe, and the Earth has been reborn.  Princess Diana of Themyscira finds her world turned upside down by the arrival of a man named Steve Trevor and is whisked into the world of mortals to confront one of the greatest dangers known to man or Amazon.  Christened “Wonder Woman” by the public, Diana is a new breed of heroes that is popping up all over the world…and Wonder Woman could bring the peace and balance the world needs!

Written by George Pérez, Len Wein, and Greg Potter, Wonder Woman by George Pérez—Volume 1 is a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Comics series.  Featuring art by Pérez, the issues in the collection were also include in Wonder Woman:  Gods and Mortals, Wonder Woman by George Pérez Omnibus—Volume 1, Wonder Woman:  Challenge of the Gods, and Wonder Woman:  The Cheetah among others.

Crisis on Infinite Earths really set a spark under DC.  It allowed them to reinvent the old characters and create a streamlined world while technically in continuity with the “old” DC Universe that collapsed.  Wonder Woman potentially benefited the most from this relaunch, and Pérez did it by diving deep into her origins.

Wonder Woman’s Greek mythos was always a high point of the character, but it also resulted in a ton of multiple origins and confusion.  Here, Wonder Woman learns her origin and for the most part it works (the Steve Trevor mother storyline wasn’t one of my favorites, but it fits in context of the story).  The issues seek to mold and create a persona and target for Wonder Woman’s goals on Earth…and it succeeds.

Wonder Woman (2) #11

By examining the Greek origins, it puts Diana in a strange quasi-realm of hero.  It is a reminder that she is just a step below goddess and that being a goddess on Earth makes her admirable, but it also makes her a target.  The collection reintroduces Cheetah by creating a new Cheetah in Barbara Minerva and her confrontation with Diana is a good set-up for future meetings.

The last part of the collection is a bit of a jumble.  It involves the Challenge of the Gods which is sandwiched into the DC Event series Millennium (which itself is really hard to follow).  This leads to a kind of jumbled narrative and it feels like the “challenge” storyline is a bit too long…plus, balancing the Earth and gods storyline proves to be difficult.

Wonder Woman by George Pérez—Volume 1 is a great introduction to the character if someone is just starting out even though it is now over thirty years old.  The ideals and character aspects of Wonder Woman that are in the collection are still a big part of the character.  There has been a change in Wonder Woman over the past years to create a more militant and less “peace happens” which is not a bad thing but this too develops over the course of the second volume of the Wonder Woman series so checking this foundation out is a must for fans.  Wonder Woman by George Pérez—Volume 1 is followed by Wonder Woman by George Pérez—Volume 2.