Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 is published by DC Comics, written by AJ Mendez, Nadia Shammas, John Arcudi, Amy Reeder, and Becky Clooney, art by Ming Doyle, Morgan Beem, Ryan Sook, Amy Reeder, and Becky Cloonan, with letters by Becca Carey, Ariana Maher, Michael Heisler, Gabriella Downie, and Pat Brosseau. Taking from the concepts of Batman: Black and White and Harley Quinn: Black, White, and Red, we see an anthology of a DC icon delivered in a striking black and gold.
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As the first issue in this new anthology series, this book’s collection of short stories each takes a look at an aspect of Diana herself. Whether it’s her relationship with her mom, or how she carries the weight of the things she’s done over her long lifetime, every one of the stories in Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 gives a unique exploration of Diana’s world. And while each story here has its place and strengths, one story stood out for me.
Titled I’m Ageless, this story written by John Arcudi, art by Ryan Sook, and letters by Michael Hesler takes a look at how Diana views humanity when our short lives must seem so brief to one who lives so much longer than we do. With such dissections about immortality being a favorite hypothetical to discuss for me, this story strikes perfectly. And the fact that it’s presented as Batman doing the doubting on Diana’s commitment to the much shorter-lived humanity is the perfect way to introduce the topic.
The visual side of Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 does a great job of delivering several different unique visual styles to the book that stand out against each other well. despite the limited color palette involved. And each of the art styles works well for the story it accompanies.
Rounding out the book’s presentation is the letter work. The various letterers on the book not only keep the story’s delivery clean and easy to follow but also do a good job in a couple of particular cases of making some minor tweaks to the font and style used to help the letters mesh with the art’s style used.
With Diana’s importance in the DCU increasing lately since her pivotal role in Dark Knights: Death Metal, and her increased brand importance with the success of her recent movies, I’m glad that DC decided to launch this series. If it follows the same program as the other “Black and” series we can expect to see many more sides and creative insights into the character that is Wonder Woman.
When taken all together, Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 starts this series off with a strong series of stories that both inform the reader of some of the more subtle aspects of Diana’s character, while looking good doing it. If this is the standard of work readers can expect going forward then there is plenty to look forward to from here.
Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 is available now wherever comics are sold.
‘Wonder Woman: Black and Gold,’ Issue #1
TL;DR
When taken all together, Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #1 starts this series off with a strong series of stories that both inform the reader of some of the more subtle aspects of Diana’s character, while looking good doing it. If this is the standard of work readers can expect going forward then there is plenty to look forward to from here.
