4 out of 5

I remember… when comics were simple.  And it wasn’t all that long ago, obviously; a little over a decade as of this review.  The shift was seemingly simple but certainly happened on a massive scale: growing acceptance of comic book movies; consumer buy-in of weekly series like 52.  But for a time in the late 90s, early 2000s, we emerged from “the dark age” of comics to have a lot of fresh writers working, in all places, at the big leagues – some carryovers from the UK like Morrison and Ennis, who’d worked their way up through Vertigo, but then also indie comic dudes like Bendis and Brubaker, or novelists, like Greg Rucka.  And comics were simple.  And fun.  And often pretty good, when not constantly tied into universe-shattering crossovers or revamped to look like a cinematic counterpart.  I am aware that such hills and valleys occurred throughout comics’ lifetime in the 70s and 80s and 90s as well; I’m just saying that for lil’ ol’ young twenties me, the early ‘oughts were a fortunate time to sample comics via the spinner rack with all mainstream titles at the deli.  I read Wonder Woman, and Wolverine, and I thought: man, these do not read like the comics I remember… and they actually read a lot more maturely than I would’ve expected!

Such was my introduction to Greg Rucka.

Whose writing would later get sucked into the Big Two machine before he escaped to work on some awesome indie books again, which, for better or worse, caused me to wrinkle my nose at all his past Marvel / DC efforts and my Wonder Woman issues went the way of giveaways.  Here I am reading the trade of the first issues he worked on for WW again, and thoroughly enjoying it.

On the one hand, this is just another “radical revamp,” with Greg recasting Diana squarely in a political role as ambassador for Themyscira (tossing in a churning subplot involving her rogues gallery and a jealous human adversary, Veronica Cale, just to keep things comicy), but the 6 issues covered here are pretty damn slowburn and un-tradelike in a way that I doubt writers could get away with nowadays.  Greg lets the action sift to the background, focusing moreso on the day-to-day madness of Diana balancing her life and the pursuit (politically) of her values.  The writing is a bit humbled at points by the more authorly voice of early Rucka stuff, but this also was probably what influenced the title’s unique pacing, so it’s a fine tradeoff.  And it’s interesting to see how Greg was doing world-building even at this point (when it’s become such an integral part of his modern books).  Part of what also made an impact on me at the time – at what still pleases the eye – was Drew Johnson’s stately, clean art style.  Drew understands the comic page enough to vary angles and framing, but his characters types inhabit a very real world, despite all the fantastic elements, very much like Buckingham’s work on Fables.  Ray Snyder’s inks help to keep this style flowing, not stiff, and colorist Richard & Tanya Horie and Trish Mulvihill manage a wide range of “natural” colors without the pages ever feeling blind, or like mish-mashes.  And letterer pro Todd Klein keeps Rucka’s scripting beats on point.

The trade has a few extras via sketches and “news” articles about WW (which I can’t remember whether or not were part of the original issues); so for 14.99, it’s a pretty snazzy deal.  It’ll also probably make a sweet purchase around the time of the 2016 / 2017 WW movie, when I imagine DC will be reissuing this stuff.  It’s good to know that there are quality examples of this character – good, lasting stories – that can safely stock shelves next to whatever the random trade-of-the-moment will be.