Wonder Woman #2

Title: Wonder Woman
Issue: 2
Date: December 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Cliff Chiang
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Chris Conroy, Matt Idelson
Cover: Cliff Chiang

We open (presumably) on Mount Olympus with Hera and her daughter Strife, who have been watching the events of the first issue from on high. Strife is, as one might imagine from the name, rather an ungrateful child, but she's happy to go and do some mayhem in her mom's name.

Which brings us to Paradise Island.

Is it just me, or does every story that takes place on Paradise Island absolutely have to include...

1) An amazon challenging Diana to some sort of sparring match, and...

2) A bunch of Amazon's getting killed by whichever villain is invading Paradise Island this week.

The Amazons are seriously the redshirts of the DC Universe (but better looking and wearing less).

To the credit of the team of Azzarello and Chiang, both of these somewhat unsurprising developments are at least handled well. Diana's fight with amazon challenger Aleka is visually fun, and Strife's trouncing of the Amazon guards does a perfect job of building her up as the god-level threat that she is.

Zola has the best line of the issue when Hermes asks her what form Zeus took to seduce her, and we get the beginning of what looks like a major continuity change in regards to Wonder Woman's origin.

This was a case where the details were strong enough to overcome a plot that felt phoned-in.

Rating: 7/10