Wonder Woman, Volume 2

Guts
written by Brian Azzarello
art by Cliff Chang and Tony Akins
(additional art and inks by Kano and Dan Green)

Azzarello's DCified take on Greek mythology continues to impress.  If his first Wonder Woman arc—Blood—distanced itself narratively and tonally, his second—Guts—finally leaves it behind.  It's not that he won't be able to integrate other DC superheroes later on, but that right now it's working so well without them.  He has immersed Diana in her mythological roots, taking her quite literally to Hell and back, and it's exceptional to behold.

Wonder Woman's gods simultaneously meet and defy expectation, both their characterization and their visual representation.  Eros may be blond, beautiful, and fit in a pair of skinny red jeans with his golden guns, and Artemis's steely allure may intimidate, but it's Hephaestus who steals the show here.  Tucked behind a charming jewelry shop in Firenze, the craftsman of the gods, Hephaestus mans his forge.  He is both impressive and vulnerable, broad and strong and wearing leg braces from his fall from Olympus.  He is also disarmingly generous and noble, disappointed by his Olympian family and disposed to help Diana for her principles rather than debt, loyalty or deceit.

Azzarello is also keen to humble his heroine a little, to provoke a little ambiguity in her principles, which are so characteristically steadfast and certain, and Hephaestus is a particularly appropriate tool to accomplish this.  Wonder Woman spends an entire issue attempting to rescue her brothers, the unwanted male offspring of Amazons bought by Hephaestus, from slavery only to discover that they were never slaves, more like adopted children of the mild-mannered smith.  Her embarrassment and shame at her actions is palpable, especially considering her increasingly knowledge regarding the occasional brutality and hypocrisy of her Amazon upbringing, which in part inspired her mission to emancipate the workers.  Hephaestus is also capable of calling her out on her tactics.  Having caught him asleep in his bedroom and bound him in her lasso, she quips, "You said my lasso isn't a weapon, but when one is entwined in it, they speak the truth.  And that—the truth—is my weapon."  But he, rightly is quick to point out her own hypocrisy:  "No...your weapon is intimidation.  You blame the rope.  That's the truth."

The collection's final showdown on Olympus, Apollo's ascendancy to the throne given the continued absence of Zeus, is quietly unsuspected.  From Wonder Woman #1, the god's ambitions of kingship seemed rash and presumptuous.  That he succeeds, to Hera's surprise more than my own, is cleverly straightforward.  No last minute intervention.  No disruption by Diana, who, to my continued pleasure, doesn't find it all that important and whose priority remains, as it always was, Zola and the child.  After it all, the cover to Wonder Woman #12 (pictured right) is still a mystery.


Once again, Cliff Chang's portions of the series--and his gorgeous cover art—outstrip the other artistic contributors, though Akins and (briefly) Kano do an admirable job bringing Hades to life, particularly given its highly abstract description offered by the story.  How, exactly, do you draw a world constructed out of souls?  Although it is, no doubt, scripted, they also execute a few good visual jokes.  Most obviously, Aphrodite.  That the god of love, beautiful and irresistible, cannot be illustrated in the more family-friendly DC universe, doesn't stop her from making an appearance.  Artists use panel edges to clip and overlay the offending body parts, but the result is both teasing in what it doesn't show and funny in how it does it.  It also deftly recognizes that the most beautiful goddess ever can't actually be shown.  No figure can be infinitely beautiful to everybody.  Not showing her, therefore, keeps her unfathomable beauty in tact.

Collects Wonder Woman #7-12

ISBN:  978-1401238094