Comic Info
Comic Name: Wonder Woman (Volume 4)/Wonder Woman: Rebirth
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Meredith Finch
Artist: David Finch/Johnny Desjardins/Miguel Mendonca
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2016
Wonder Woman (4) #49
Reprints Wonder Woman (4) #48-52 (March 2016-August 2018). Something is wrong with Zeke. The future heir to the throne of Olympus hit with a mysterious disease, and Wonder Woman has vowed to cure him. Going to the goddess Gaia for help, she encounters a woman named Hecate that claims to know the source of the illness and the means to cure it. Wonder Woman finds herself in a race against time to follow Hecate’s orders in the hopes of saving the child before it is too late.
Written by Meredith Finch, Wonder Woman Volume 9: Resurrection is the final entry in the DC Comics New 52 run of Wonder Woman. Following Wonder Woman Volume 8: A Twist of Fate, the collection features art by David Finch, Johnny Desjardins, and Miguel Mendonca.
Wonder Woman in the New 52 was a wild ride. For much of the series, it felt rather untied to the rest of the New 52 (something that the New 52 was supposed to streamline), but the beginning of the series was some of the more creative storytelling of the relaunch…unfortunately, the story went on too long and this final collection “wrap-up” feels like an unnatural and rushed ending.
Wonder Woman (4) #52
Much of the series dealt with Wonder Woman’s ties to her “family” on Olympus and the protection of the infant Zeke and his mother Zola. This volume continues that and in all fairness wraps-up the storyline. Unfortunately, it isn’t very satisfying. The Hera character who actually seemed redeemed through much of the series turns into the “big baddy” at the end and it feels out of character for how she was portrayed within the story (but not necessarily out of character in the historical context of Greek myths). I was not surprised by Zeus’s rebirth because it felt like restoring the status quo was part of the goal of the story, but it felt put together haphazardly (especially considering Wonder Woman: Rebirth didn’t really upend a lot of this volume).
The other fault with this collection is Wonder Woman seems written wrong. While Wonder Woman has always put humanity first and believes in the best of people, she isn’t stupid and blindly following Hecate and not seeing through Hera (if Hera was truly bad the whole time) doesn’t seem to be in line with her characteristics. As of recently, Wonder Woman has been written as a warrior with compassion, but a warrior first…here, compassion takes over and blinds her, and I would have expected the character to be more wary.
Wonder Woman once again is faced with questions following this volume…something that seems to pop up every time DC needs to revamp the character. The collection includes the initial Rebirth title of her next series (because the collection is rather skimpy without it) and hopefully Wonder Woman will find a bit more consistency. Wonder Woman 9: Resurrection is followed by Wonder Woman 1: The Lies.
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