[SPOILERS] [Discussion] Wonder Woman: Historia The Amazons. After many years, one of the first Black Lebel books announced is finally here. What are your thoughts on it? Did it live up to the hype? Was it worth the wait?

Honestly, this issue was kinda losing me in the first half. Yes, Jimenez’s art was extraordinary, but it was very overwhelming at times, to the point where I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on from one panel to another, if there was even another panel or not. Jimenez has always had really intricate panel layouts with small details like George Perez, but Perez was always able to do that without sacrificing storytelling for it, and I think for the creation of the Amazons it was sacrificed a lot.

Speaking of Perez and the creation of the Amazons, another thing that was grating at me was just me thinking, “This is literally what we got in the first issue of Perez’s Wonder Woman, but with crazy art design.” There was absolutely nothing new or novel in any of the actual plot and written word of what was going on. I was reminded a bit of criticism of Ultimate Spider-Man when it came out about how Bendis took a 10 page story and bloated it out into six full issues, and I was worried that was going to happen here.

Then we got to the second half, with Hippolyta as a midwife being forced to make a horrific decision and how she meets the Amazons. Now THAT was interesting. That was new, seeing Hippolyta not as the badass warrior queen as she’s typically depicted. I can see this being Hippolyta’s origin story and her rise from a trembling midwife to a confident queen. Even the panel layouts worked so much better there, like the spread of Hippolyta running away.

So yeah, more Hippolyta and less Gods please.

Worth the wait depends on each one’s sensibility. I can’t quantify an absolute time and quality comparison.

Though for sure every page I saw clearly shows why it took long. Each single page is obviously hours and hours of work.

I think that the art alone makes this book absolutely worth reading. Phil Jimenez has never shined brighter as an artist and HiFi on colors makes everything pop, elevating it even higher. I really hope that after all is said and done that this is the first Absolute Edition in Black Lebel format.

Story wise I’m not too sure on yet, the first few pages I found a bit corny, but after the tribes are formed I started enjoying the story more with Hippolyta’s story/origin.

I’m not sure if it was worth the wait necessarily, as we don’t know, or at least I don’t know, why it took so long. If it is because Phil took a very long time to get this to look as good as it does, then I would say yes. If it’s because Kelly Sue had other things going on, that would be disappointing.