Writer / Penciller: Daniel Warren Johnson / Colour Artist: Mike Spicer / Letterer: Rus Wooton / DC Comics (Black Label)
Buy Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #1-#4 here.
Buy DC Comics here. Every purchase supports The Comic Crush.
Check out our review of Daniel Warren Johnson’s Beta-Ray Bill: Argent Star. Buy it here.
18th December 2019
The Pitch: The celebrated creator of Murder Falcon, Extremity and artist of The Ghost Fleet, Daniel Warren Johnson brings bold sci-fi chops to his DC debut with a harrowing vision of Wonder Woman, unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Princess Diana of Themyscira left paradise to save Man’s World from itself. When Wonder Woman awakens from a centuries-long sleep to discover the Earth reduced to a nuclear wasteland, she knows she failed. Trapped alone in a grim future, Diana must protect the last human city from titanic monsters while uncovering the secret of this dead Earth-and how she may be responsible for it.
Upfront, a confession: I’m predisposed to like this one. It’s DC, still my favourite publisher. Both covers are gorgeous - although I went with the Mike Spicer variant, with its burning centre of life in a black-blue techno-coffin. That art (we’ll get into that). Another confession: Daniel Warren Johnson initially passed me by. Mea culpa. I felt at the time Murder Falcon wasn’t going to be for me. This was different. Marquee character, huge format meaning a great showcase for the art… For those that have just dropped in, all but one of the titles originally designated for DC’s Black Label imprint have been closer to the French style. And at 48 pages to boot, that’s a lot of real estate.
DURING THE FIGHT SCENES, YOU CAN’T help BUT think of CAVE PAINTINGS
Sticking on the art tip for a moment, it’s beautiful. For the initial Black Label books, DC has gone with some of the strongest visualists you could name. Bermejo, Miller, Sejic… the list goes on. But what does it do to your reading experience? For a start, every page becomes a rich tapestry of action. Even in the quieter moments, like the opening scene, the art becomes epic yet disturbing, like ruins you’d stand dwarfed by in Greece. There’s a deeper history at play in this future too. During the actual action scenes, you can’t help but think of hunts, depicted in cave paintings. Comic books as the modern mythology. Johnson depicts Diana like never before. Somewhat cowed and scuffed in a horrific version of the Earth she knew. Special mention has to be made here for colourist Mike Spicer, whose flair recalls the bright design of the bonkers DC Silver Age whilst selling you on the cold ruined earth. It’s Mad Max: Fury Road for superheroes. And Rus Wooton’s lettering adds a survivalist urgency to the script.
The story speaks to the history of women in interesting new ways. Diana starts by being bound and held prisoner by the survivors. Soon she’s in gladiatorial combat, more than holding her own. It’s brilliantly done. Johnson nails the loneliness of Diana, older than time, waking to a world where the Justice League are no more with hints that she may have been the missing piece in the puzzle of ‘why?’. He also nails one of the key parts of the Wonder Woman mythos: Sure, she’s a warrior. But her true power is the inspiration she gifts us. Just check out the moment in the book where Diana talks about love to one of the people that have imprisoned her. Then check out the inspiration that moment brings later. It’s genuinely moving. In fact, just check out the book. It’s going to be something really inspiring.
Buy Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #1-#4 here. Buy DC Comics here. Every purchase supports The Comic Crush. Check out our review of Daniel Warren Johnson’s Beta-Ray Bill: Argent Star. Buy it here.