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So artist Cliff Chiang definitely did his job well, hooking me on the cover, and reeling me in with the interiors. That left Brian Azzarello to deliver on the story.
I tend to judge writers, partly at least, by how well they can convey what happened previously in a story. I even hold up the comics I purchase each month to the same scrutiny, asking myself, “If this were my first issue, would I know what the hell was going on?” The answer with “Wonder Woman #8” is no. And yes. While I'm not entirely sure of what's going on right from page one, the back story – or, at least, enough of it – unfolds naturally throughout the course of the issue that, by the end, I don't feel as though I've missed too much by jumping in midway through.
Now let's backtrack a bit to that cover I mentioned. “Wonder Woman #8” depicts Wonder Woman in the midst of what could only be interpreted as a firefight, shooting two golden guns, and the guns creating little heart-shaped explosions as they're fired. Two things from this image really stood out for me:
1) While I may know very little about Wonder Woman – the extent of my knowledge revolves around the fact that she is (or at least WAS, prior to the DCnU) an Amazonian princess – I DO know she doesn't use guns. (And, spoiler alert, she doesn't actually USE them throughout the course of the issue, so the cover is a bit of a lie...)
2) The heart-shaped explosions. Were these intentional? Or were they just a stylistic happy coincidence? (The answer turned out to be intentional, as very early on we learn the guns belong to Eros, aka Cupid).
The story opens in Hephaestus' armoury, with Wonder Woman outfitting herself with weapons. I have enough knowledge of Greek mythology to know that Hephaestus is the weapon-maker of the Greek gods, and while I'm not a fan of his character design (he reminds me of an orc), I appreciated how his armoury had been brought into the 21st century, with guns (as well as swords) hanging from the walls. She's preparing for a rescue mission, and she and Hermes, the messenger god, are quickly transported to Hades to retrieve the soul of Zola and bring her back to the realm of the living.
The story is nothing new – it's a combination of the Orpheus tale (an attempted rescue of a loved one from the underworld) and the Persephone myth (in which Hades whisked Persephone down to Hades to be his queen) – but I didn't really mind. When dealing with a character like Wonder Woman, who's so steeped in Greek mythology, the series NEEDS to embrace the Greek myths. Otherwise it's not Wonder Woman. So instead of me thinking, “This has been done before”, I was left thinking, “Oh, Hades, up to your old tricks again.” And by the final page, I quickly realized that, while ---- may have drawn inspiration from Greek myths for this current arc, it's definitely going to play itself out much differently.
All in all, it was a good first foray into “Wonder Woman”, and Azzarello and Chiang have intrigued me enough that I will probably return for issue 9.
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