Wonder Woman: Bones Ends The New 52 Wonder Woman Story Well . . . Enough.

The Good: Renewed focus on Diana, Moments of theme
The Bad: Very basic plot, Artwork
The Basics: Wonder Woman: Bones resolves the story began when Wonder Woman was rebooted for The New 52.


As The New 52 concept ran its course, storylines that were planned and developed reached their natural conclusions and arguably the most ambitious single-character title in The New 52 was Wonder Woman. The series reached its peak with Wonder Woman: Bones, which picked up right where Flesh (reviewed here!) concluded.

Wonder Woman: Bones refocuses the long-running story of Princess Diana of Themyscira on the heroine, who was largely neglected in the prior volume. Whenever Diana has been promoted to a god, the writers seem to have trouble figuring out how to maintain the story. In Wonder Woman: Flesh, Diana's long arc was basically to accept the change that had come out of the prior volume. Having finally taken up the mantle of God Of War, Diana advances in Wonder Woman: Bones as she retasks the Amazons as warriors intent on usurping the First Born.

As the conflict for Olympus heats up, the First Born enlists Cassandra and her minotaur to defend his perverse recreation of the home of the gods. Diana decides to use the Amazons to wage war on the First Born and she begins the philosophical argument with her people to accept her decision. To try to heal her people and to get them to accept Zola ansd Zeke's presence on the island, Diana has the male Amazons return to Themyscira. Charging Aleka with defending Zeke and Zola, Diana defends Themyscira against the animalistic forces of the First Born before she is captured by the enemy.

The First Born rejects Cassandra and tries to convince Diana to become his consort. Diana rejects the new king of the gods and holds out until Zeke's true nature is finally revealed!

Wonder Woman: Bones is better on the character front than on on either the plot or artwork fronts. The plot is very basic in the way it progresses and it neglects some significant aspects. For example, the males are returned to Paradise Island, yet Diana never actually interacts with any of them. There are no major male Amazon characters, which makes Diana's somewhat forced sociological progress much less personal or compelling.

The artwork is mediocre throughout and for a book filled with battles, Wonder Woman: Bones lacks a strong sense of movement. As well, some of the key moments are terribly misrepresented. For example, in a scene where the Amazons are talking about Diana behind her back - manipulated by Cassandra - there is a character who looks virtually identically to Diana!

Fortunately, though, Wonder Woman: Bones is moved forward enough by Diana and her character to make for a satisfying conclusion to the story begun when The New 52 reimagined the character.

For the rest of the New 52 Wonder Woman, please check out my reviews of:
Volume 1 – Blood
Volume 2 – Guts
Volume 3 – Iron
Volume 4 - War

5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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