The DC reboot is upon us, comic book sniffers! Welcome to the new DC universe! In an effort to help bring new readers into the world of comics, the Fanboy Comics staff has decided to review at least five new #1 issues each week of September, DC’s reboot launch month.

Wonder Woman.  Yes, I have a hopeless, helpless crush on this fictional character.  I also, after reading 100 Bullets, have a man crush on Brian Azzarello.  So, put those two together and I’m completely at maximum crushable capacity.  What could go wrong?!  (He says as he picks up Wonder Woman Issue #1 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang…)  

Well, the big guys over at DC did just that, and what they got was a book that was… eh, pretty good.  I’m talking B or maybe even a B+, if I have a half pot of coffee, a bagel with cream cheese, onion and tomato, and two hours to kill.   

I hate to say it.  I really hate to say this, but the art from Cliff Chiang, the art that I was so eagerly anticipating, the art that looked simple, stylized, and right out of a 1930s Brylcreem ad, just completely fell down.  Certain sequences worked, but the look of Wonder Woman herself just didn’t thrill me.  The art lacked a certain verve and the overall feeling I got was, this must be what the Adrianne Palicki version of the Amazonian princess would be like, all clumsiness and tough-girl faces, poses without gravity, light without heat.  It just didn’t do it for me.  

I didn’t set out to condemn Chiang, furthest thing from it, but I’m afraid that’s where I am.  I found the writing to be stellar.  I love what Azzarello is doing for us, fixing our warrior princess to her mythological roots.  Zeus has impregnated a mortal woman named Zola, and disappeared.  Assassins, presumably sent by Hera, are trying to kill her and her divine, unborn baby.  Hermes is helping Wonder Woman protect Zola out, and Apollo, Zeus’ bastard son, is doing his own disturbing thing with the Moirae or the Muses, I’m not quite sure yet.  Regardless, we clearly are in for a big ol’ helping of modernized Greek mythology and I couldn’t be happier (unlesswehadanartistwhodidthestorymorejustice) *ahem* Excuse me.  

Here’s what I hope for and why I am definitely going to buy issue #2:  Chiang isn’t great, but he’s got a style that, at its core, is pretty damn awesome.  Artists tend to grow into their projects, and maybe Chiang will learn from his mistakes and draw a truly unique comic.  The writing is fantastic!  Maybe this isn’t going to be the best Wonder Woman series I’ve read, but if it is Azzarello and Diana together, then Sam wants to be a part of it, too.  No matter what.