Cover Image: Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Just War

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Just War

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This graphic novel was both well written and skillfully illustrated. It's both sophisticated by superhero standards and accessible to fans regardless of how "literary" they like a graphic novel to be.

Was this review helpful?

I'm a huge Wonder Woman (and DC Comics) fan and I loved the story in this one. I've been keeping up with the Wonder Woman issues, so some of this wasn't brand new to me, but if you love Wonder Woman this is a great place for new or old fans to jump into her story.

Was this review helpful?

A fantastic edition to the Wonder Woman legacy. A great read that I didn't put down until it was finished!

Was this review helpful?

Excellent Wonder Woman story, showing how she tries to keep the peace even amid war. Fabulous artwork.

Was this review helpful?

I absolutely adore G. Willow Wilson's writing, and this is no different. She lends a strength and power to Wonder Woman. I highly recommend this title.

Was this review helpful?

I love Wonder Woman and this was very good. I really loved all the extra gods and their stories. I really loved the art style. I’m definitely going to be following this series!

Was this review helpful?

The story line for the first run of Wonder Woman by Wilson is a little slow and actually uninteresting, other than the background story about the loss of Olympus. I am hoping that the series will be much better than the beginning.

Was this review helpful?

Although she will forever be known as the co-creator of Marvel’s first Muslim superhero, Ms. Marvel AKA Kamala Khan, G. Willow Wilson has written for other publishers, whether it be the excellent Invisible Kingdom for Dark Horse or creator-owned work for DC’s soon-to-be defunct imprint Vertigo. Speaking of DC, Wilson returns to Marvel’s biggest rival to be the latest writer on the main Wonder Woman title, which seems to be the ideal fit.

Was this review helpful?

Wonder Woman dashes in to save Steve Trevor only to meet up with Ares and then Aphrodite. Somehow, Ares managed to escape his prison by being killed which seems to have triggered a paradox that banished the Amazons and Mount Olympus, stranding some of the gods and creatures on Earth. Now all Wonder Woman needs to do is manage to figure out what is going on, avoid Nemesis, and find a way to reverse the paradox. Tough job, but she is trying to do it all herself

Was this review helpful?

A fun read with decent art, although maybe not outstanding. The main story (about an oppressive government fighting against terrorist insurgents / the impossibility of any war, with the inevitability of civilian casualties, being truly "just") felt a little too compressed, like maybe it needed an extra issue or two? I feel that way about most adult comics that are trying to say something serious, honestly. The "extra" issue, about creatures from Greek mythology trying to deal with immigrating to the United States, was probably a little facile but still really charming.

Was this review helpful?

Today, Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Just War was released. This collection features Wonder Woman #58-65 and it is a trip. There’s quite a bit to go over, but long story short, this is the start of some interesting stories. Also, there are mythical creatures trying to enter human society and it’s hilarious.

“A new era of Wonder Woman begins as best-selling, Hugo Award-winning and Ms Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson makes her return to DC!

A NEW BATTLE BEGINS!

War. For humankind, it is the oldest and deadliest enemy there is. And for Diana of Themyscira, the same is true...almost.

Because to the Amazon Princess, war is not just an impersonal force of destruction. War is a god—a god named Ares.

And Ares is back.

Resurrected after years of oblivion, this young god has emerged once more to shake the world to its very foundations. But Ares is still impressionable, still able to be molded into something less cruel and more just...if he has the right mentor.

He has chosen Wonder Woman. And now Wonder Woman must make a choice of her own.

Can Diana reform Ares’s wicked ways? Or will she and everyone she cares about learn the hard way that there’s no such thing as a just war?”
The Just War is written by G. Willow Wilson with art by Cary Nord and guest art from Xermanico, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Jesus Merino. If you don’t want any spoilers, please stop reading this article and go read the book.

Now, before we go any further, I do want to note that this is the first DC comic I have ever read. There, I said it. For a first read, this was pretty cool. There are some minor pieces that I think I may have missed because of my lack of familiarity with all the characters, but I did not feel like that was a big problem. As this is a first volume, it’s pretty self-contained and easy to pick up for people new to the world like me.

We start off over in Themyscira where Ares is a prisoner alongside someone who we later learn is related to Darkseid (this is one of those areas where my lack of DC knowledge failed me). She ends up killing Ares who thinks he has learned his lesson in that war is not what makes one immortal, but rather justice. The death of Ares causes something crazy to happen and then it cuts to Diana and Steve without showing us the results.

Cut over to a war zone where a kid is guiding a satyr, a Pegasus, and a minotaur to safety. That sounds like the start to a bad joke, but I assure you that happens. We don’t see much about them until much later, so I’ll get back to Wonder Woman.

Eventually, we see Diana confront Ares who has ended up in the mortal realm and this time, he wants to be a good guy. He wants to fight tyranny and injustice. The problem is that he overcorrects too much and uses a missile fired by the corrupt leaders to decimate a small village that was said to support the ruler. Diana understandably is not happy about this and yells at him. They actually have some interesting back and forth that gets you thinking about who is guilty and such in bad times, so I’d recommend you go back and read that if you haven’t yet. The arguments that Ares pose are actually decent enough to have Diana questioning a few things about herself. In the end though, Aphrodite joins Diana and Steve and they’re able to get Ares to calm down and the warring factions are able to sign a peace treaty. Aphrodite at one point whispers something in Ares’ ear and I hate that we’re not privy to it.

I’m going to do a lot of skipping now. Eventually, we learn that something has caused the gods to basically be thrown into the mortal realm, and it looks like Veronica Cale may have some understanding of what resulted from it such as the destruction of Themyscira and the whole plane of existence for the gods. Of course, Diana’s able to figure out that Ares’ death was probably the catalyst, but she’s holding out hope that not everyone died. There’s also some fighting with Nemesis that’s pretty cool. Although, in one shot she has like a spider body and the next panel she has humanoid legs. Did Diana pull her out of the spider legs? That was a little confusing. Veronica is being used by Nemesis to attack Diana, but Diana is able to convince Veronica to hold off on suing her so that Diana can look for Veronica’s daughter and the rest of the Amazons. At the very end, Aphrodite and Diana head out to adventure together.

Let’s go back to the kid and mythical creatures. These guys do not play a big role, but eventually the kid (I have no idea who this kid is) leads these creatures to a few other creatures and Steve Trevor. They are all then taken to Aphrodite! This ties Aphrodite into the story, but then I want to go to “The New World” which is an issue all about these three trying to join the human world. Apparently, the United States has set up a special system to handle mythical creatures, but these three don’t like the red tape going on and bust out. After being scolded by Diana, they then go to get food and some patrons at the restaurant are not pleased because they’re stuffed up snobs. However, we then meet Maggie who is very nice to them and wants to be their server. She becomes their first friend and is a lot of fun. I am not going to lie I’d love a little miniseries with these guys. It’s fun, but it’s also not necessary. It does tie into the main story since these creatures were misplaced by whatever happened to bring gods to Earth, but it does nothing to move Diana’s story along, so I guess you could skip it and maybe it’s best if you do and then go back and read it later.

I really enjoyed The Just War and am excited to see the story continue and get some questions answered. I thought it was very interesting to have Ares go through such a strong overcorrection. I think this is a solid collection of comics to pick up if you enjoy Wonder Woman or maybe just want to give her comics a try.

Was this review helpful?

Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: The Just War
Written by G. Willow Wilson, Cover art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. Art by Cary Nord, Xermanico, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Jesus Merino

I haven’t read Wonder Woman comics for a number of years, so when this came up on Netgalley, I decided to check it out. Especially since it was written by G. Willow Wilson, the writer of Ms. Marvel in Marvel comics. This Ms. Marvel is not Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers, but a Muslim Pakistani American teenager, Kamala Khan.

This book collects Wonder Woman issues #58-64, Vol. 1 The Just War. The individual issues were published Nov 2018-Feb 2019. Wonder Woman discovers that Ares is no longer imprisoned in Themyscira when she goes to (yet again) rescue Steve Trevor. Other Gods such as Aphrodite and mythical creatures from Olympus also show up on Earth but they do not remember how they got there or what happened to Olympus. Wonder Woman questions what happened to Themyscira and of her mother, Hippolyta? Of course, Ares causes mayhem, even when he thinks he is doing good. There is a bit of comic relief when the mythical creatures end up in Washington DC.

I thought the story was good but not great. It didn’t feel fresh or new. I may had been expecting more from Willow Wilson. Overall, I thought the art was excellent, especially Terry and Rachel Dodson’s cover art. The one exception was Cary Nord’s art, which I felt was uneven and at times simplistic. It varied so much that I wondered if they changed artists mid-issue.

Was this review helpful?

This new run of Wonder Woman is especially well written and enjoyable. I appreciate G. Willow Wilson’s new take on the characters. This book is easily accessible to readers new to the character, especially if they have seen the Wonder Woman Film and are familiar with Greek mythology. It offers interesting thoughts and criticisms of war while considering what a just war really is. I highly enjoyed these issues and am excited to continue reading.

Was this review helpful?

My thanks to NetGalley and DC Entertainment/DC Comics for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

I really love Wonder Woman, but I find that the comics that star her are hit and miss for me. This particular one was a miss. The artwork wasn't consistent from panel to panel. In one panel, everything would be drawn in a realistic and beautiful way, the next, the same objects would be rendered almost crudely and gritty. It was rather jarring to me.

Also, the storylines jumped around a lot. Characters were dropped, re-introduced having an issue and then dropped again when a bigger issue popped it's head up. I liked the character of the waitress, but what was her purpose? Will she pop up again or was she just there to move the plot along, never to be seen again?

And Ares was rather all over the place. He was ok with killing those he perceived as bad, even though there were innocent people present, then when confronted with a baby that he probably orphaned, he was repentant, THEN flip flopped again AND despite being the god of war, he didn't know how to use a particular weapon when he obtained it from Wonder Woman.

The whole story didn't flow well. It jumped all over the place and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe I read it wrong, but it didn't work for me.

Not horrible, but I didn't like it much. 2, it was ok but should have been better it's Wonder Woman for crying out loud I expected more, stars.

Was this review helpful?

I was given this graphic novel for free in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed the story so much! So much girl Power. The action was awesome. The artwork was beautiful.

Was this review helpful?

This fast-paced graphic novel sets Wonder Woman's world on it's ear. Ares is loose, gods are dropping to Earth, and no one knows why. There is rumor that Olympus and the other god-realms are gone for good. As Diana sets out to discover the truth, some of the gods get in her way be being...well, themselves. This first installment is cleverly contrived, with plenty of action and dramatic situation. Great artwork as well. Recommended.

Was this review helpful?

That was a huge comic book. The stories were very entertaining. The characters are very well rounded. The artwork was a good as I expected. I really wanted to keep reading.

Was this review helpful?

G. Willow Wilson is doing Wonder Woman. Score!! (My first thought about this book).

It was mostly your typical Wonder Woman fare, but, in a good way, it didn't go quite as into the weeds as some of the more recent Wonder Woman stories have which was nice. There was some Diana/Trevor love stuff, which wasn't really my thing. But, there was also more drama with Themyscira too (which was cooler). It has disappeared, taking Olympus with it, and putting some of the Greek gods onto Earth. Ares and Aphrodite being the ones who have the most contact with Wonder Woman.

There's also more with Victoria Cale as well as a fallen Nemesis.

And, I also hope that this time the search by Wonder Woman for Themyscira is a really real one (in other TPBs there's been talk about it, but, as far as I can tell it's never really happened). We'll see I guess.

It was a fun read. I liked the Aphrodite character, but, I'm not sure about the Ares one. Another we'll see I think.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to DC Entertainment.

Was this review helpful?

Thanks to NetGalley and DC Comics for the eARC of the comic. However, it really didn’t do it for me. I honestly don’t read too many comics and maybe that’s why this didn’t really end up appealing to me, but I just didn’t find the story very engaging or the art very exceptional.

Was this review helpful?

For lovers of Wonder Woman stories or mythology in general, these volumes move the story into a different direction. It appears as though Olympus and Themyscira may have been destroyed and gods, goddesses and other mythical creatures have been thrust into present day Earth. Much mayhem ensues.

Was this review helpful?