Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Wonder Woman Rebirth #1

By Hervé St-Louis
June 10, 2016 - 17:11

Wonder Woman is certain that she has been deceived about her origin and her past. She can no longer trust who she is and in a philosophically daring move, uses her own lasso of truth on herself to reveal who she really is. What will Wonder Woman find out about herself?

It’s been years since I’ve read a Wonder Woman comic book. I have to stop prefacing all of my reviews with this line as it will quickly get old. But this is how comic book collecting has been for many of you reading this today. The fun that we had in comics has gone and been replaced with corporate media convergence plans at the large publishers. Even the second tier publishers such as Image, Dark Horse and IDW seem to be forgetting what it meant to read comics in an earlier age. Comics are now a mature product meant for an elite group of collectors and readers.

Well, Wonder Woman may follow much of the ethos of current comics, such as limited page counts, overbearing colouring that tries to make everything look as real, instead of inspiring mood, and verbose writers but I was entertained. There was little room for Greg Rucka to craft a mystery with action and suspense but he did so by treating the visuals as an avenue to tell his story differently while his words told us something else. In effect, while being a bit verbose, he still used the medium’s strength to tell a mature story about Wonder Woman.

If you do not know what Wonder Woman’s character is, you will not find out much. Yet Rucka did give readers a complete view of all the perceptions of Wonder Woman thus far. Philosophically, seeking truth from oneself is an intriguing idea. The lasso compels people to tell the truth. Yet philosophically, the nature of truth, and knowledge about truth are both ontological and epistemological questions that I’m not sure Rucka meant to expose and challenge through Wonder Woman.

And that’s mostly why I enjoyed this comic book. Unsure about who she is, about what she knows about herself, Wonder Woman uses her own lasso to challenge the knowledge that she has about herself (epistemology) to understand the nature of who she really is (ontology). Wonder Woman knows a series of things about herself, the Amazon, the Greek Gods she serves, and why she was sent to Man’s world. But she is uncertain that this knowledge is true. So she expects her lasso to reveal who she really is. But at this point, she is no longer seeking knowledge but the truth about her being.

The lasso does its epistemological job and confirms much of her knowledge. But while visiting the Olympus, home of the Gods, she clearly understands that the nature of reality that she has known in the past is no longer real. This is an ontological challenge. Now the next logical question is that if Olympus and the source of her powers and being are all ontologically unsound, how can Wonder Woman trust the truth that her lasso forces her to reveal about herself?

Rucka does not attempt to answer this larger question. Instead, he ends his story with a cliffhanger. This is where I fear that philosophically, Rucka will not answer the earlier questions he raised and will simply slide into a reboot of Wonder Woman along the existing plan dictated by DC Comics. I don’t recall Greek philosophy ever being a feature of Wonder Woman. Rucka did not really use Greek philosophical methods of inquiries either. But technically, this is part of Wonder Woman’s heritage. What can I say, I am not Wonder Woman’s writer. I yield!

Visually, this issue featured another medley of artists just like Rebirth #1. I dislike these because it means that no real identity has been figured about the comic. It means that the story continue to dictate the meaning of the visuals when reading the comic. The artists are good enough that one doesn’t notice their flaws. Yet they are forgettable. I don’t recall the name of any of them or any strong page or composition. Again, I should ask, like Rucka, who is this Wonder Woman whose comic is drawn by three artists?

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12