Both are incredible beginnings to a new era of Wonder Woman comics and both are written exceptionally well. Perez's and Azzarello's Wonder Woman are two of he best Wonder Woman comics ever written and I am curious how you folks think they measure up against one another. Which issue did you enjoy more?
Wonder Woman
Character » Wonder Woman appears in 8718 issues.
The Amazon princess, blessed with god-like super abilities, Wonder Woman is one of Earth's most powerful defenders of peace, justice, and equality and a member of the Justice League. She is considered an archetype for many heroines outside of comic book. Her initial origin depicted her as a clay baby brought to life by patron goddess Aphrodite, but in recent years she has been depicted as the daughter of Zeus and Amazon queen Hippolyta.
Issue 1 vs Issue 1
Both are incredible beginnings to a new era of Wonder Woman comics and both are written exceptionally well. Perez's and Azzarello's Wonder Woman are two of he best Wonder Woman comics ever written and I am curious how you folks think they measure up against one another. Which issue did you enjoy more?
I'd love to see a remake of the Perez era with some modernization ... the story is amazing, but it's almost like reading GA stories after all these years ... dialogue is dated these days so sometimes it feels silly. That aside, IMO Perez version of Diana is forever the basis to which all other WW writers will need to measure their work. He created a rich world and history for Diana, the Amazons and the various Olympians. I have to wonder what fans would have said if there had been internet forums back then ... he made some pretty huge changes to WW, hell COIE was at least as massive a change as the N52 reboot!
Azzarello's story is darker and more grinding than anything in WW's history ... it took me several issues to embrace what he was doing, but as it's winding down I find it to be an epic tale. His changes to Diana are good with me ... he's made her more fierce and more of an independent thinker than Perez did. The N52 Diana bows to no queens or gods like the Perez Diana. IMO she's a her own woman first, a daughter, sister and god later ... a significant and not always great change. I like her, but I think she has a lot of room to grow and I hope to see her grow in areas that the Perez version was magnificent in ... she was the heart and soul of the DC universe to me, her compassion was as great as any of her powers and that made her a leader and a symbol, especially to the other women of DC. N52 Diana is simply the most powerful female at this point.
If I had to pick a which issue I prefered it's Perez #1
I agree with a good bit of what you said. My only complaint about Perez' first issue is that there isn't as much Diana as I would have liked. I also loved his depiction of Steve Trevor
I agree with a good bit of what you said. My only complaint about Perez' first issue is that there isn't as much Diana as I would have liked. I also loved his depiction of Steve Trevor
I liked that Steve and Etta had their own path in the Perez/Post COIE years ... I didn't love all of Diana's supporting cast during this time (Vanessa still makes me cringe), but Steve and Etta were given a lovely homage by Perez. Azzarello seems to have gone down a very vertical path with no deviation from the story he wants to tell, which I do think has hurt the character in some ways ... it's left her history in the dark in the solo series. He dropped a bomb with the daughter of Zeus and the clay baby cover up, but never really followed up on it ... it's too bad because that's got EPIC written all over it!
Well issue to issue there's no real comparison. There's just so much more the happened in the Perez comic. To be fair I think the comparison would have to be the first issue of the Pereze run vs the whole first trade for Azzarello's. Out of the two I'd pick Perez, but I still need to pick up a copy of the Marston origin. I think my ideal reboot would have been taking the Golden Age origin and mixing it with the feel of Perez's run. Maybe with a touch of modernization.
I agree with a good bit of what you said. My only complaint about Perez' first issue is that there isn't as much Diana as I would have liked. I also loved his depiction of Steve Trevor
I liked that Steve and Etta had their own path in the Perez/Post COIE years ... I didn't love all of Diana's supporting cast during this time (Vanessa still makes me cringe), but Steve and Etta were given a lovely homage by Perez. Azzarello seems to have gone down a very vertical path with no deviation from the story he wants to tell, which I do think has hurt the character in some ways ... it's left her history in the dark in the solo series. He dropped a bomb with the daughter of Zeus and the clay baby cover up, but never really followed up on it ... it's too bad because that's got EPIC written all over it!
I think that's what bothers about the way the whole cover up thing was done. I don't like her being the daughter of Zeus in general but I'm not going to get into that right now. To me the cover up thing didn't feel like Azzarello was trying to pay homage to the old origin but rather just referencing it to the minimum extent that he felt obligated to. There was no attempt to cover up the massive plot holes it created, and almost to mention of it again after it was revealed. Everyone seemed to just blindly accept it as absolute fact.
@pperspectiveandreality: Well the clay origin works when it's just presented as something that definitely happened, but as a cover story it seems pretty flimsy. I find it pretty hard to believe that they would have been able to hide the pregnancy of the queen of the Amazons from their patron goddess who also happens to be the goddess of child birth. I don't think Hera would have ever bought it, and they would have been much better off on just trying to convince everyone that someone else was the father.
I see what you mean. But, and I'm just guessing here, maybe Azzarello intended for it to be something. Hera wouldn't have paid attention to. In Perez's issue 1 Hera was more concerned with remaining loyal to Zeus than she was with what the other Olympians were doing. And since amazons are immortal it's, IMO, entirely plausible that the queen could have done something to be away from the rest of the amazons for her pregnancy. Also we don't know how Amazonian pregnancies work. Who's to say it would even take 9 months....idk I'm grasping at straws for likely explanations.
@pperspectiveandreality: Well in the Perez run Athene was the patron goddess on the Amazons along with the other Goddesses, and Hera has almost nothing to do with them. In that scenario it might work, but in Azzarello's run it seemed pretty clear that Hera was their primary goddess. There probably are ways around the plot hole, but with how little effort Azzarello put into trying to cover them up it just tells he that he doesn't care at all about Wonder Woman's history, or her fans.
Well I'm enjoying his run while I can. Last I heard we have David Finch's writing to look forward to
@pperspectiveandreality: Well in the Perez run Athene was the patron goddess on the Amazons along with the other Goddesses, and Hera has almost nothing to do with them. In that scenario it might work, but in Azzarello's run it seemed pretty clear that Hera was their primary goddess. There probably are ways around the plot hole, but with how little effort Azzarello put into trying to cover them up it just tells he that he doesn't care at all about Wonder Woman's history, or her fans.
I don't get the impression the Amazons really have "patron goddesses" in the Azzarello creation. At least not in the same way as Perez. These Amazons have openly defied the will of the gods a few times already so it's not really a stretch to me that at least a handful (probably Hessia) were involved in hiding the Queens pregnancy. Hera has been narcissistic beyond imagining throughout the run, so I don't find it particularly difficult to believe that she wouldn't have noticed what was up with the Amazons. It's also possible that Athena or another goddess was helping Hypolita pull it off... I just want someone to write the story for us, because to your point it's got holes and I'd like to see how they fill them in.
It's difficult to compare them, because they work on different levels.
- Perez gives us all the back-story we need to know to understand where Diana came from.
- Azzarello gives us all the intrigue we need to have to get interested in his story.
Perez wrote an origins that everyone could follow, Azzarello wrote a setup for his story. Azzarello's book needs to be read as the first thing to the run, Perez's could be slotted in just about anywhere there was a space, 50th issue, 25th, 73rd and so on.
I am going with Azzarello because it is a more focused effort, specifically meant to draw people in and read this one story that begins in that issue.
@agent41: Can you write in something other than in the brick-format or are you not interested in a decent reply?
@outside_85: seriously, don't poke the bear ... All you'll get is a cut and paste reply stating poorly thought out opinions positioned as fact. Azzarello has expressed his admiration for Perez work on a number of occasions, even going so far as to say he was only giving WW a soft reboot ... It's pointless to argue with the rabid Azzarello haters. All they want is a time machine back to the 1980s.
@csg_cl: This bear deserves poking :) Especially because it's doing my work for me :D
@csg_cl: This bear deserves poking :) Especially because it's doing my work for me :D
LOL
my ill information?,Perez gave the character development and a story full of dynamism,but of course you will deny everything because azz is the only good WW run,hypocrisy.
never once said that ... I respect Perez, but I'm not afraid of change ... try using vocabulary you actually understand.
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