u/Only_MTaha

I have been trying to catch up with characters I haven't read enough of lately and that included Wonder Woman. I rarely read any of her stories, and after reading Absolute Wonder Woman it made me want to dive more into her mythos and comics. So I looked up some highly regarded Wonder Woman comic books and saw that Historia was considered by a lot of people as the best you can get. So I bought the book and here I am now.

I will start off with the positive. The art is wonderful, especially Book One. I love how they managed to really show this sense of grandeur from the olympians. I like the character design for all the Goddesses and the Gods. I like the emotional beats of the story. Some of these moments really slap you across the face like a truck and that's amazing. The way the book opens with vases depicting opression from women and women being censored to express how that suffering has been silenced is really clever. And I do think the story works very well. I also love how Ares in this comic book is much more reasoned and calm than he usually is. In other portrayals of the character he is used to be an embodiment of the patriarchy and the violence of men. But the choice to give that role to Zeus instead was in my opinion way better considering that Zeus is a patriarch and that he embodies perfectly that sustematic aspect of patriarchy due to his position as King of the Gods.

(PS: I am going to ignore most historical inaccuracies because this is fiction and it doesn't have to be on point but I will bring ut up if it's 100% necessary)

As for the things I don't like... First of all I kind of don't like the reactionship between the Goddesses and the Amazons as a whole. Mainly because their relationship is hierarchical in a way that fully benefits the Goddesses while completely destroys the amazons. It's essentially a Matriarchy in every way that it's bad. The Goddesses present minimal risk due to their actions while the amazons are the ones paying for the vast majority of the consequences for said actions. Especially by the end when Hippolyta has an audience with the Gods and instead of having the Goddesses stand by her side they instead stand with the Gods and talk and arrange the punishment of the amazons in a very cold and cruel way. Making it almost feel like the Goddesses mainly see them tools rather than individuals.

The Amazons are bloody. Kill on sight type of bloody. And it kind gets to the point where it starts becoming too much to actually be just in any way. Like, dismembering Herules, then putting him and a bag and sending him to Zeus is quite frankly a bit much? I do understand they tried to make it honorful and that in the mythos Hercules is an asshole, especially in the George Perez run where he betrayed them. But thz feeling I got out of it was that the whole thing was a bit unnecessary. One of my favorite quotes from Wonder Woman is "We have a saying, my people. 'Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand until you've first extended it." And that's nowhere to be found here aside from one single moment, that boy who was spared after they killed the slave caravan owners. But even then he still god killed nonetheless afterwards. Mainly because the book is very black and white on its stance and it just doesn't work with what I have seen so far from runs like Ruka's run or any other one I read about Wonder Woman.

Another exemple of how black and white the story can get is when you look at the main activity of the amazons in the comic which is to apprehend and stop sex caravans to free the women being trafficked. This is one of those things that aren't just weird but also historically completely inaccurate. There are absolutely no men to be found amongst the slaves. It sounds nitpicky but a whole caravane of slaves being trafficked in ancient Grece being constituted of a 100% women isn't just weird, it's just straight up nit a thing. And I feel like it would've brought up a lot of nuance and strenght to the story if it was included. Wonder Woman is always shown standing up for the oppressed no matter who they are and as far as intersectionality goes male slaves would also be seen as a type of victim of the patriarchy since it also includes themes of how manhood is supposed to be about dominance over the other both man and woman. It would have been extremely Impactful and interesting too but it's just not there.

And some aspects like these can pile up over time to the point that it can get edgy sometimes and not necessarily in a good way which is a shame because a big part of the comic is extremely well crafted and interesting.

This is my experience with the book so far. I know I talked a lot of bad about it but I really do enjoy it and I do think it is an amazing story with incredible art and an amazing experience and I do not regret it one bit. I just thought it would be interesting to see people's opinions about this.

(Sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes and spelling issues. English isn't my first language.)

I have been trying to learn the language for some time now. I can read and write pretty well now, and using the help of friends around me from various tribes and areas I caught a few words here and there but I really want to push this further.

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on where I can look for vocabulary and grammar resources as those have been a challenge to find.