Ricky Church reviews Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus: Vol. 2…
Following the events of INVASION, Wonder Woman and Captain Atom must locate the missing Steve Trevor, while the citizens of Themyscira witness the arrival of a new man on their island. This volume also includes the origins of both Cheetah and Silver Swan, the appearance of a lost tribe of Egyptian Amazons and more! Collects WONDER WOMAN #25-45 and ANNUAL #2.
With Wonder Woman being released in just a short couple of days, now is the perfect time to dive into some classic stories featuring the Amazonian Princess. Thankfully, DC has released the second volume in writer/artist George Perez’s famous run of the title with Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus: Vol. 2.
This massive book continues from the end of the first volume and comes in at 552 pages, collecting Wonder Woman #25 – 45 and Wonder Woman Annual #2. There is a wealth of material here for fans to enjoy from the older stories. Perez reshaped Wonder Woman’s image for the modern era in the wake of the reboot Crisis on Infinite Earths and his run has had a huge influence on Wonder Woman ever since.
Fans will definitely enjoy what is in here, from seeing Wonder Woman battle enemies like Cheetah and Silver Swan to grappling with what it means to be an Amazon in a strange world as she discovers a long lost tribe of Amazonian warriors. Each story builds off the other really well, making Diana’s struggle and character development very easy to follow. Along the way there are some cameos by other DC heroes, like Superman, Guy Gardner, Martian Manhunter and various members of the Justice League, but the book remains focused on the journey of Diana and her supporting cast.
While Perez wrote and illustrated several issues of Wonder Woman himself, others helped him in writing the actual scripts or drawing them while following his overall story. Joining Perez is a host of other writers and artists, like Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Jill Thompson, Tom Grummett and several more to assist. Each one managed to capture Perez’s vision and the voice of Diana very clearly. It’s an impressive feat since maintaining another writer’s vision, both written and visual, is no easy task to accomplish. It makes this second omnibus that much more great to read and look at.
Now, many of these stories were written in the late 80s and early 90s so it’s very different from the comics of today. Many of the stories presented are very wordy and have a lot of the typical tropes of the comics of the times, such as thought bubbles, third person narration and some heavy exposition to explain actions and motivations to the readers. However, Wonder Woman isn’t nearly as guilty committing these trops as most comics of the time are with Perez at the helm. He makes the dialogue flow very well and elevates the writing to quite a literary level. Everything reads almost more as a novel, greatly enhancing the quality of the work.
The art throughout the book remains strong, as well. With so many different artists, it can again be difficult to remain consistent, but none of the artists in the omnibus really diverge in a negative way. In fact, it is refreshing to see a change in style every few chapters to see how a whole new artist can interpret Diana and her world. Yet each artist still retains an overall consistency with the other on pencils, colours, inks etc.
The whole presentation of the book is quite nice as well. The quality of the reprints look great with a bit of a heavier stock than what they were originally printed on, making the pages strong yet still easy to flip through. There’s very little gutter loss throughout the book, making it even better to take in the art (of course, there aren’t nearly as many splash pages as there would be today). The binding is also very sturdy. With a book this big, its always a bit of a worry how strong the book can hold together when opening it up, but it really isn’t that much of a concern. As a bonus, included in the book are all of Perez’s covers and bios on the cast with some sketches by Perez.
Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus Vol. 2 is an essential piece in anyone’s Wonder Woman collection. This gathering of stories that has long been out of print is greatly produced and easy to read with a very good examination of Wonder Woman. The stories are well written and illustrated with nice amounts of character development and thought-provoking themes. Fans will definitely want to pick this up.
Rating: 9/10
Ricky Church
Originally published May 30, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
