I like superheroes. Which some find funny as I am a villain girl. How I love me a good, ol’ baddie! However, when you have an interesting or relatable hero, I tend to find them more to my tastes (but it does not hurt that Adam West was funny and I would not mind saluting Captain American).
Okay, I mixed my DC and Marvel there, but this book, Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed, is a new DC adaptation due in June of this year. Laurie Halse Anderson (of Speak fame) takes us to the world of Wonder Woman during her “changeling years.” This is a teenage Diana in today’s world. Forget what you know from before: she did not fight Nazi’s or know what the fashions of 1978. This Wonder Woman is getting her feet wet in refugee camps, learning about human trafficking and about Men. Diana meets two men (Steve and Trevor) who take her back to the states to live with a friend of theirs and her granddaughter. As a naive girl of another world, she learns the delights of this new world (playing with children) and horrors (women sleeping on the streets). We see “Girl Power” at its finest. We see a teen we know, probably was, navigating the confusions, hurts and joys of the world.
In the multiple story lines (feeding the homeless, the refuges, urban development and human trafficking) the modern ideals and people come to life in this reimagined graphic novel. Sometimes that makes things crowded and a tad confusing. Yet, the injustices are what will make Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman. There is humor (when Diana learns two men were rude to her and a new friend, her strength helps her “get even” in a most Wonder Woman fashion), sadness (refugees) and hope. And Lelia del Duca’s illustrations compliment everything with their busy, detailed and in their way, vocal art. (Ages 13 up due to content and context.)
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