Kathryn's Inbox

  When I learned that Laurie Halse Anderson had author a graphic novel staring a teenage Wonder Woman, I just knew that I had to buy it. Add to that the fact that it is beautifully illustrated by Leila Del Duca, and the whole thing is a winner. Like other graphic novels in DC's latest series for young adult readers, this one is a origin story, about the days before Diana Prince took on the alias of Wonder Woman to carry out her work. Diana is living peacefully on Thermyscira, under the watchful eye of her mother, when her intervention with some refugees who are caught in a storm lead her to being lost and placed in an immigration detention camp a long way from home. Fortunately, her knowledge of languages and compassion for others soon leads her to catching the eye of an official, and she finds herself in the USA on a student visa. But there, when trying to help some poverty stricken families, she discovers that something terribly sinister is going on. And she must put a stop to it...

In January 2016 DC Comics decided to relaunch many of their titles, under the rebirth branding. For the popular Wonder Woman comic, this was excellent news, erasing the shitty and sexist (at least in my opinion,) story from her previous New 52 incarnation. The Lies is a collection of some of the early comics following on from Rebirth, which gives the character a new and darker history. In this version, the character is darker, slightly jaded and is making some pretty shocking discoveries from her past. Intelligently drawn and told, it tells the story of a superhero who is struggling to come to terms with her past ... and what may or may not be real. I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed this one and reading about a character who is so conflicted. It's best read in conjunction with Volume 2 Year One, which tells the origin story of the character. (Apparently when the comics were originally published, odd numbered comics told the present day story, while even numbered on...

Wonder Woman: Warbringer is the first volume in the DC Icons series. Released in 2017, the series puts an interesting spin on some of the most popular characters from the DC universe, making them the stars of YA novels penned by popular YA authors. Even more interesting is the fact that these are not yet another rehashing of the same (great but already told,) origin stories. Instead, this series imagines the characters as teens, ones who don't quite yet know the full extent of their capabilities or who they will become. And who better to open the novel with that Wonder Woman, aka Diana, an adolescent desperate to prove herself to her Amazon sisters. Only this time around, her adventures have nothing to do with a pilot named Steve. Diana, as she is known in the book, finds herself in trouble after she saves a young woman from drowning and brings her back to the island of Themycira. Alia, it soon turns out, is a Warbringer, a descendent of Helen of Troy, who has the pote...

Well ...

Well this certainly made me giggle. (Sorry, Wonder Woman!)