‘Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #1’ (review)

Written and Illustrated by
Daniel Warren Johnson
Published by DC Comics

I haven’t been following Wonder Woman as of late. When I dropped off from it, the book was just average at best.

I had recently heard that the Black Label line over at DC was planning a book. When I learned that Daniel Warren Johnson was going to be writing and drawing it, I jumped with excitement. I loved his previous works with Extremity and Murder Falcon. I knew that I was sure to like this book as well.

I wasn’t disappointed in this least.

The book starts off in a dreamlike sequence that is ominous and relates to the rest of the book. A young Diana is with her mother. Things are weird. Her mother makes her dip her hands in clay. The clay then encapsulates her.

The dream sequence fades and then we end up in a horrifying new place.

Basically, we go over to a post apocalyptic setting. A bunch of civilians are in trouble from a weird, apocalyptic enemy. Wonder Woman wakes up from some sort of deep freeze sleep. She then fights off this monster and saves this group of civilians. The fight between Diana and this creature is brutal. Warren really knows how to draw an action scene and proves it yet again right away.

Diana beats this creature and then regroups with the civilians. She gets a chance and takes a look around. She sees all of the hopelessness in front of her. She sees things like Batman’s costume and that he is now dead. The world is a vastly different place than she remembers. Now it is time to take it all in and see what comes next for Diana.

Diana gets to know the survivors. She starts to form a game plan. Diana is a god in this empty world. We see that she is going to defend the last city left on this hellish earth. While all this is going on, we start to get clues that she might actually be the one responsible for the world going to hell in a hand basket.

Johnson is a genius. This book moves along like none other. It also looks like no other book out there. This is a book that could have been cheesy and silly. Instead, it has amazing writing and artwork and it is just brilliant. Kudos to Daniel Warren Johnson for his work on this amazing book.

RATING: A+