Wonder Woman #1

The amazon warrior gets a new #1 courtesy of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang.  I must confess that when the announcement was first made I told myself "there is no way I am getting that title"; the cover art for the solicitation completely alienated me, but now I admit: "I was wrong"

Cover Art by Cliff Chiang

This new take on Wonder Woman has a darker and more depressing tone, and although it is too soon to jump to conclusions, it seems like this version of Diana lives in the U.K. rather than America (a residue from Flashpoint?), there is no magical spinning transformation, and powers such as flight are not being displayed by the amazon.

This launch also offers a new take on the gods.  These are not the toga-wearing divinities we are more familiar with; these new versions look more like creatures, which is not bad, is just different.  I wish  the first arc had not involved the gods, though; this has been done over and over again in Wonder Woman, so Azzarello will really have to show us what is better about his vision vs. all the previous ones.

Going back to my opening statement, I owe Cliff Chiang an apolgy; his art goes so well with the tone of the book, and his pencils are so dynamic and fluid -rarely artists are able to get away with a fight sequence like the one with the centaur- without looking cartoonish.

One more thing I liked about this book was the coloring by Matthew Wilson.  It's like blue has been banned from the book and replaced with a dark indigo that goes just perfect with the art.  There's something I must clarify though:  I bought this book in its digital version and that's where the colors look their best;  I looked at the paper copy in my local comic book store and they were not even close to be as vivid as they do on a screen; that's not always the case.

"The Visitation" was a surprise as I did not expect it to have the great art or the dark theme it had.  My personal recommendation is to buy it digital as the art is more enjoyable.  I am not still 100% bought on the story, but it has called my attention enough to give issue #2 a shot.