I know it’s blasphemous, as a comic book nerd, to ever admit that you like a character’s costume redesign. But I wholeheartedly endorse Wonder Woman’s new look in Odyssey. Gone are the unflattering, high-waisted hot pants, the heeled boots, that super-in-your-face-patriotism that makes you think she just might fart out eagles. (Which I never really understood… She’s an Amazon. So, if we have to put a nationality to her, wouldn’t it be Greek? I don’t know. I probably just caused at least two people to suffer rage strokes before they could get to the comment section to tell me how WRONG I am because I don’t know all my WW lore.)
This is not the New 52 Wonder Woman, though. So it doesn’t matter if I like it or not, it’s already null and void. But still, she’s got her little tactical jacket, in case it gets cold. She has practical pants and flats. I just love it.
Odyssey is a quasi-origins story. Judging by some flashbacks/dreams Diana has in the first volume, this is probably going to be a parallel universe. In this universe, the Amazons’ island was attacked when Diana was young. Her mother died trying to defeat the invaders. Toddler Diana and a few Amazons manage to make it to our world and go into hiding. Diana is now coming into her own; she’s got fancy powers (including flying), a cool little outfit (I don’t think I’ve mentioned that yet) and someone wants her dead, which is so much more than I had going for me when I was 24.
Now, some have complained that this Diana is not good, not “heroic” enough. Because Diana only gets to be the stuffy moral compass in the normal DC-verse, I guess. In one scene in Odyssey, Diana is trying to pawn an Amazon artifact and when the gold buyer won’t give her enough for it, she goes into aggressive negotiations, smashing his cash register, breaking the baseball bat he pulls on her. For some people, this is prime pearl clutching territory. Diana would never! Heroes would never! To which I say, have you read Batman and Robin under Frank Miller’s run? He was the goddamn Batman and it was a disappointing day if only twenty police officers died as collateral damage during some bat-antics. Now that was some un-heroic hero shit.
My major quibble is the over-reliance of certain poses in several frames. Facing head on, Wonder Woman’s left leg bent to indicate running, boobs leading the charge, some slightly off facial features. I quit counting after about the tenth panel. It gets repetitive and slightly boring. And in comic books, where each panel counts, it’s kind of lazy story telling too.
