Wonder Woman/Conan review #1

Sword and Sorcery meet social consciousness in a team-up for the ages in Wonder Woman/Conan #1.

Wonder Woman/Conan #1

Writer: Gail Simone

Pencilled by: Aaron Lopresti

Color Artist: Wendy Broome

Inked by: Matt Ryan

Letterer: Saida Temofonte

Cover: Darick Robertson with Tony Aviña

Crossovers have never been more prominent or popular than right now. In the worst of them, a character with a disparate style and unique history is poured on top of another like water onto a grease fire, hoping that amid the sputtering mess some greater commercial heat might be generated, if even for a moment.

In the good ones, the crossover serves as a vehicle to explore both characters through the unexpected contrast of seeing them share ink with someone wholly unexpected yet undeniably relevant. In the best crossovers, the very act of the two characters existing side-by-side sheds some surprisingly light on the qualities of each, playing off their similarities and reaffirming them through their differences, leading them somewhere they both inherently need to go.

Wonder Woman/Conan is this last type of crossover.

On the surface, this pairing couldn’t make more sense. Fans of the world’s most famous barbarian will note that he has an extensive history of fighting alongside warrior women–from the pirate Valeria to his most famous female companion, Red Sonja–and an Amazon princess seems to fit this bill remarkably well, even if the series seems caught somewhere between the regal stylings of a typical Wonder Woman story and the dark, gritty underpinnings of Hyborian lore. Just seeing the two together visually, it seems like a good match. Aaron Lopresti does a remarkable job balancing the styles of the ancient heroes, even if his clean, neat lines made me a little wistful for the muddy, textured coloring of Dark Horse Comics original take on the legendary land.

"In the good ones, the crossover serves as a vehicle to explore both characters through the unexpected contrast of seeing them share ink with someone wholly unexpected yet undeniably relevant. In the best crossovers, the very act of the two characters existing side-by-side sheds some surprisingly light on the qualities of each, playing off their similarities and reaffirming them through their differences, leading them somewhere they both inherently need to go."

Wonder Woman herself is altered in her backstory to fit a more malevolent and careless world than the one she is used to in the proper DCU, but her personality, and, more, importantly, her hopeful feminism remains intact. It is in stark contrast not only to the overpoweringly masculine aura of the Cimmerian, but to his nearly century long career masquerading as an angry James Bond in a loin cloth, during which he has pragmatically stopped the bad guys and bedded the babe of the week.

It’s in this dichotomy that the series really shines, and it’s the fulcrum on which the crossover turns. Conan, a male warrior whose exploits have made him a mythos unto himself (though it should be noted that the Conan presented in this series is a relatively young one, new to his life of adventure), is clearly outmatched physically by the woman we have come to know as Diana of Themyscira, something that places the barbarian in unfamiliar territory. He reacts in the only way he is capable: he becomes smitten with her. But Wonder Woman is no simple love interest; she is fully-formed, backed by a personal mythology equal to, if not exceeding, his, and she is fully capable of turning a hundred years of not-so-subtle misogyny on its head inside the first issue. It’s clear early on that both heroes must work together and adapt if they are to survive, as their fates become literally chained together inside a gladiatorial arena.

The action is great, and even if the story seems relatively small stakes compared to the world-altering exploits typical of Wonder Woman, the play between the two heroes, and Lopresti detail work and writer Gail Simone’s dialogue during the subdued, intimate moments, makes every page feel important and poignant. One feels there will be a growth issue-by-issue, in regards to the creative team, and the characters themselves–an opportunity to learn, to change. It’s exciting on many fronts.

In reading Wonder Woman/Conan, one can’t help but be curious what this series might have read like fifty years ago, and how it might change if redone fifty years from now. It’s easy, and painful, to imagine Wonder Woman as merely a sexualized sidekick in the hyper-masculine world of Robert E. Howard, or to question if the Hyborian hero will still be roaming the landscape five decades from now when comics seem poised to abandon the bloody, sensual climate he’s accustomed to. But for now, we have both of these great heroes, at a time when each stands at a creative crossroads, choosing, at least for now, to walk the road of discovery together. Thanks to this fine collaboration, we get to walk it with them.

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

I can think of no better reason to have a crossover…by Crom.