Wonder Woman: Year One

Tonight, many fans will get to see Wonder Woman in theaters, but before I go experience the newest DCEU film I thought it would be best to get more acquainted with WW's mythology since, I confess, I'm not a long-time reader of Diana Prince.  The only Wonder Woman story line I've truly ever enjoyed was Brian Azzarello's New 52 take on the Amazon Princess.  It was deep in Greek mythology and, I felt, added another layer to Diana's personal story.  

I tracked down the newest interpretation of Wonder Woman's origin story; Wonder Woman: Year One.  This way, I can gripe about all the stuff the filmmakers got wrong in the big screen adaptation.  The new take is set in modern times and is written by current WW writer Greg Rucka as part of DC Comic's Rebirth marketing campaign.

In Year One, a mysterious plane lands on the island of the immortal Amazons.  The only survivor is Colonel Steven Trevor, who is to be returned to where he came from.  But it is a task no Amazon will volunteer for because it means never being able to return to Themyscira and losing their immortality. A tournament is held to decide who will fly Colonel Trevor back(using an invisible jet) and naturally, Diana is the winner.  So, she takes Steve back home where she is quickly met by skepticism from the US government.  While imprisoned, Diana is visited by animal manifestations of the Greek Gods who grant her "gifts"  for taking on this crusade such as strength, flight, etc.  Diana and Steve soon begin working together to uncover the terrorist organization know as SEAR, which has a close tie to one of the Amazon's old enemies.

Again, I sought out this book to be a littler more prepared when entering the theater tomorrow night.  While at the library, I also found another recent Wonder Woman origin story, The Legend of Wonder Woman: Volume I: Origins.  This puts Diana in World War II fighting a disciple of Ares and Hades, and goes much more in depth to Diana's childhood, training, and her journey to becoming the hero known to the world as Wonder Woman.  The art is beautiful and it's got a lot of depth to it, but I also felt like it had a little too much "filler" characters and subplots that bogged down the real story. Year One on the other hand had almost the opposite problem where I don't think it explored the characters enough.  I guess that's the difference between telling a 6-part story and a 12-part story.  Although, Rucka does give Steve more background to make us(and Diana) want to care about him more.  

I also kind of admired Rucka's decision to make the Amazons be lovers.  In ancient times, the warriors would "comfort" each other, and their leaders allowed this because it made them fight harder to protect the soldier next to them.  So, it would only seem natural that on an island with only women,  Love Is Love.

Year One doesn't go into the circumstances of Diana's birth so I'm curious if the film will go into the the original origin of Wonder Woman, with Zeus making her out of clay, or the New 52 version where her powers come from the idea that she is a true demi-god.  Then again, maybe Rucka is just saving that for Year Two.