‘Wonder Girl #2’ (review)

Written by Joelle Jones
Art by Joelle Jones, Adriana Melo
Published by DC Comics

The forces around Yara Flor begin to make themselves known in this second issue.

Sometimes a character shows up, and you get the feeling they’ll be a hit. Yara Flor has that for me, with a character design and costume look that are recognizably Wonder Woman but its own mixture of beauty and power.

If anyone can sells us on Yara Flor the new Wonder Girl, Joëlle Jones is that person. Yara is righteous and gorgeous, impassioned and brash, and decidedly non-white for a 21st century comic book story. She stepped onto DC’s pages during Future State and Infinite Frontier already feeling like the full package.

But how did Yara get there? Wonder Girl #2 builds more of Yara’s origin story.

The first issue set up the Olympians, Amazons and Bana-Mighdall each shook by Yara’s arrival to her native Brazil, sensing a disturbance in each group’s balance with man’s world.

Yara was pulled into the ocean by what appeared to be the bola weapon she used in Future State as Wonder Girl and is met by a mermaid creature.

Now, in this issue, we find out that this mermaid is no enemy, but the Brazilian goddess Iara. She herself is the myth of a warrior woman and family betrayal, two themes emerging among the nations hunting Yara down.

The goddess has pulled her namesake Yara into her realm and gifts her the golden bola. Upon taking it in her hands, Yara is imbued with immense power.

She’ll need that power, because the Olympians, Bana-Mighdall and Olympians are still on the way.

The story construction in this issue feels a little clunky at times, because Jones is juggling multiple locations and groups.

A climactic fight scene aboard a passenger jet is cut away from to a moment when Yara’s huntresses run into each other. And then the issue jumps back to the crashing plane and the emergence of the Olympian gods sent to capture her.

But things won’t go according to Hera’s plan, right? That’s not a fun story to tell.

By issue’s end, mischief, discord and trouble appear to rule the day. Let’s go!