The Fire Within
Summary:
As Diana and her Amazon sisters dig through a pile of skeletons, Diana laments over Phillipus’s sacrifice to protect her, claiming she died because Diana was too stupid to take care of herself. Her sister, Orithia, counters that Diana’s claim diminishes Phillipus’s memory because the bond of sisterhood between the Amazons runs deeper than blood and loyalty. As they discuss this, they find a secret tunnel.
Meanwhile, Giganta, Artemis and Cheetah raid the Amazon safehouse.
Back in the tunnel Diana finds cave-like mosaic drawings of the legendary woman the strange dolls were made in honor of. She also finds Harry, the little boy that was kidnapped by the Minotaur for the Morrigan.
The Nitty Gritty:
So, I know that a lot of people aren’t into this version of Wonder Woman, but I have a little confession to make: this is one of the titles I look most forward to every month. There! I said it! I’m totally into this run, and I don’t care who knows! I can’t say that I haven’t thought about dropping the title a couple times though. #604 bored me to tears, the only good part was the flying at the end. In #605, we get “Diana the Teenage Witch,” listening to that darn rock ‘n’ roll music (or whatever it was) while mouthing off to her cat. And that was officially my cue to say, “THIS is Wonder Woman???” And then there was that incident in Superman #708. I was so close to being done after that! I mean, why should I care about Diana’s journey if the people in charge of it don’t even care enough to make her big moments about her. I mean, really?! Her big “I wanna be a superhero” moment wasn’t even in her own book! It came out of almost nowhere and was trivialized and used as plot device to push Superman forward. That’s just crap! I was seriously considering dropping the title for good after that.
Then, I started to remember what made me fall in love with “Odyssey” in the first place. I love the idea that Diana’s this ultra-powerful being, she’s Amazon royalty, her sisters adore her and would do anything for her, but this time she wasn’t raised in absolute paradise on an island of peace on prosperity. That place was destroyed shortly after she was born. She doesn’t have the luxury of her loving mother’s guidance. She has to figure a lot of things out on her own. And she has to do it fast, so she can save her people. What I love about this is that its got a lot of the elements of a classic Greek tale, where the heroine has to go on this epic journey and learn all about herself and her destiny and what it takes to be the heroine she need to be. And then on top of that, its got this whole “Nature Vs. Nurture” vibe to it. How much of the old Wonder Woman is in the new Wonder Woman? Was the old Wonder Woman the way she was because of the way she was raised? Or was she born that way? Or was it a little bit of both? What will happen when all of this is over? How much of the old Diana will surface from the new Diana? How much of the new Diana will remain in the old Diana? I love the mystery of it all! It’s just so exciting to me! Its one of those books that I curl up in bed with and dream about when I fall asleep.
So, in the end, I couldn’t not pick it up. I had to know what happened next. And I have to say, this is probably the first issue that I absolutely loved since #602.
It starts out with internal monologues wherein Diana describes a certain “fire” within her that is impossible to quench. Knowing this version of Diana and her past actions, and seeing what she’s doing while she’s describing this, you figure she’s talking about her rage, but as the issue goes on, you realize that’s only part of it. While rescuing a little boy named Harry, Diana witnesses, for the first time, the power of her golden lasso when she uses it on the Minotaur and the Minotaur impulsively decides to kill himself. She has the decision to destroy his soul for what he did to Harry and for working with the Morrigan, and that’s exactly what her sisters advise her to do. However, after hearing the Minotaur plead his case and thinking about what her mother would do and being the only one able to see the Minotaur’s human soul trying to escape her lasso and pass on from his dead body, she generously shows him mercy and compassion and lets his spirit pass. Then in another set of internal monologues she explains that this “fire” burning within her is something that can be controlled and bring warmth to those she loves. That’s when you realize this “fire” she talks about isn’t just her rage, its her burning, flaming passion and it embodies every emotion. She can harness it and direct it toward love instead of hatred, toward mercy instead of punishment, toward warmth and compassion instead of anger. This little chapter of her journey was brilliantly executed and I loved it.
The only thing I didn’t like was that all of her sisters at the safehouse had to die because she stayed to rescue Harry. That made me really sad, especially since at the beginning of the issue she was torturing herself at the thought of Phillipus’s sacrifice for her, and now a much, MUCH bigger sacrifice was made on account of her actions. That disheartens me, she was only trying to rescue a little boy and now she has to pay for it in a major way.
Questions:
How much of Wonder Woman’s legacy was erased by the gods? How can there be dolls and tunnel mosaic drawings of her if she never existed? Why does she seem familiar to Superman? What about Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark? Shouldn’t they have completely different lives if Wonder Woman never existed?
The Verdict:
The script is nice and clear.
The storytelling is very well-executed. There’s an awesome balance of plot development and character development and I do feel like that is something that has been consistent throughout this run. A lot of times its one or the other, but here its usually a pretty equal balance of both and that helps a lot with the cohesion of each issue. The use of internal monologues is brilliant! Its poetic and artsy, but its not hard to understand, by the end of the issue you understand the message perfectly! Though, it’s still really sad to me that Diana wasn’t able to rescue Harry and all her sisters and she still has no idea what happened back at the safehouse. I’ll probably have to take off a point for that. Its just so discouraging.
I’m loving Don Kramer’s art in this run! He’s amazing with facial expressions! The extreme ones as well as the subtle ones. It’s like you know exactly what Diana is thinking and feeling without her telling you because of all the different looks on her face. Also, even though she makes such a wide range of facial expressions, they still all look like they’re coming off of the same face. I’ve noticed in some books that when artists experiment with different facial expressions the faces change completely to the point where they don’t even look like the same person. Kramer doesn’t have that problem.
I like the cover. It makes you go “Whoa! She’s using the lasso! Can’t wait to see what brings this on!”
All in all, it was a great issue! Exciting, revealing, emotional, mysterious as ever. 4/5
If you’ve embraced this “All-New Wonder Woman” idea, you’ll love this. If you’re a purist and you just want the old one back, you actually might not hate this issue. There are definitely some hints of the old Wondy in the new Wondy here, and we’ll see if more of that develops later on, I’m sure.
Really?!? Moment:
Diana: [overwhelmed and distraught] Gaea preserve us.
Amazon Sister #2: [casually whips a cell phone out of her ancient Greek armor] I can’t get a signal down here.
