Wonder Woman By Greg Rucka Vol. 1

The first volume of Greg Rucka's tremendous run on Wonder Woman including the amazing story Hiketeia. This solo story arc sees a young woman on the run from the law asking Wonder Woman to take her in and protect her, invoking the ancient Grecian tradition of Hiketeia to do so. Diana gladly offers the young woman shelter and kindness only to learn too late that the girl is being relentlessly pursued by Batman. The story is a terrific character study of both Diana and Bruce and how both approach the world and justice. Batman believes the girl is a criminal who must be brought to justice, no matter her reasons for her crimes. Diana believes the woman should be protected, even if it means coming to blows with her close friend. The rest of the volume collects Rucka's story arcs "Down to Earth" and "Bitter Rivals" in which Diana is serving as the ambassador of the Amazons to Man's World.The story focuses in on the staff and friends employed by Diana at the Amazonian embassy including Jonah (a new hire who acts as the readers' eyes into the embassy) and Ferdinand (a literal Minotaur who is the embassy chef). The embassy staff is attempting to roll out Wonder Woman's new memoirs only to meet resistance from members of the religious right and conservative groups who decry Diana's lifestyle and religious "paganism." Meanwhile, Diana has gained a new nemesis in industrialist Veronica Cale, who believes Wonder Woman is a false idol and must be torn down. Enter her new secret weapon: Diana's foe Dr. Psycho.All in all this is a tremendous read that captures the spirit of Wonder Woman perfectly. It is a treat to have Rucka's run combined into one volume, especially with the added bonus of the Hiketeia. I can only hope the rest of Rucka's run is re-released soon in a second volume as this one ends on a relative cliffhanger: the witch Circe reviving the ancient Gorgon Medusa.

I dove into this item looking forward to a healthy size of Greg Rucka's interpretation of the Amazonian princess, and in some ways I wasn't disappointed... But in others I was.The HIGH points: Rucka's writing is very good. I had no problem engaging with his prose, his characterization, his storytelling, his sense of intrigue, his take on the Wonder Woman mythos, his touches of wit and humor. Rucka does a good job of taking very seriously the concept of a child of the gods residing among humanity on an endless good will mission. He's great at exploring the real-world dynamics of Diana's existence among our world as well as demonstrating in mindful detail how Diana spends an average day. (Certainly not sitting at the monitor of the JLA satellite all day staring into space, or doing calisthenics for days at a time on Paradise Island.) I was immediately drawn into the writing and eager to turn the page and see what happened next.The stories: I appreciated the chance to read THE HIKETEIA. This is a very difficult graphic novel to track down at an affordable cost, so having it reprinted here was certainly a treat. Then we have the Veronica Cale storyline: a highly capable and highly educated business woman on a mission to take Wonder Woman down. I remember thinking this was going to be beyond page-turning. And IT WAS... But then--The LOW Points: Very little action in the story, which is not a sin in itself. I don't mind a slow-burn story as long as the payoff is worth the wait. In this case, the payoff never comes. We are left hanging with none of the collection's plotlines concluding, and a cliffhanger last page on top of everything else. This is one of those cases where I blame the compilation editor. For the cost of this trade, would it hurt to have squeezed in one or two more issues so that some of these plots and subplots could have been resolved? We have the Veronica Cale storyline, the Gorgon resurrection, Dr. Psycho on the loose, the disruption/partial destruction of Themyscira, and all of these stories remained in limbo by the end of this trade. There was no final conflict, no action at the end. It felt like the entire compilation—with the exception of THE HIKETEIA—seem like a build-up with no peak or ending conflict. In fact, it may have been better to have sacrificed The Hiketeia in exchange for two or three more monthly issues of the core title, allowing the resolution of one or more of the plotlines.So I'm torn: I want to give this 3 stars for the good storytelling, but I feel like most of the book was a collection of set-ups with no payoff, and there was too little actual action for my tastes, so I'm going with two stars.

After watching the Wonder Woman movie, and hearing such good things about Rucka's work on the character I decided to check this volume out. I have not read much Wonder Woman before, but this volume gave me a new love for the character. This is not only a great story for Wonder Woman, but an incredible comic book saga in general. It honestly turned out to be one of my personal favorite comic book runs. I was a little hesitant in reading it because I have not enjoyed Rucka's Wonder Woman Rebirth stuff that much, but this book was great. The story was built really well, and I really like all the supporting cast. I was a little concerned the story would get too political, but I think in the end it struck a very nice chord. The politics were necessary to the plot here, and it did not feel preachy. The motivations for the villains were very intriguing. I loved how Dr. Psycho and Silver Swan are used in this story, and how their involvement served to raise the stakes. This is a comic book run I think every comic book fan should read. I look forward to reading the next volume.

Rucka's stories are some of the best WW stories b/c they develop some of the things that make her different from other superheroes. Rucka works really well with the frame of the Themyscira mission and does a good job of characterizing Circe. I only wish Vol. 2 were available.

What an awesome collection. I have heard great things about Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman, but I never expected it to be this good. The Hiketeia story is simply amazing, no review could do justice, just know you won't be disappointed. The rest of the stories are fantastic, the art is very good, a bit cartoony but good nonetheless. If you've never read any WW stories, do not worry, this book is very accessible to new readers. Great book, great collection and great price. Go and order this book, you owe it to yourselves to do so.

Some stories are very well written. Others take a long time to develop and are unresolved in this collection.

Great read! Art is fantastic!

good condition

While Greg Rucka may be currently reinventing Diana as the writer of Wonder Woman Rebirth, he previously had a long run on the Amazon Princess back in the pre-New 52 DC Universe. This series of trade paper backs brings those tales back into print with the first collection covering the original graphic novel The Hiketeia and #195-205 of the Wonder Woman series.While I am a massive fan of Rucka's Wonder Woman series, The Hiketeia graphic novel I have always found a bit overrated. While the art by JG Jones is great, the story of Diana having to battle Batman when a young Woman invokes an ancient ritual to have Diana protect her presents a very one sided view of Diana. It doesn't help that the main character in this book is neither Wonder Woman or Batman, but the girl who invokes The Hiketeia, Danielle Wells. She's a character who should draw sympathy, but I spent most of the story hoping Diana or Batman would chuck her in to jail. It doesn't help that you can see her backstory coming a mile off. Rucka does some interesting work with Diana and Bruce here, but it's nowhere near as good as his later work. I would be half tempted to tell you to skip the first 96 pages of this collection and go straight to #195 but at least JG Jones art is a treat to look at.After the Hiketeia the real meat of the collection begins with the first 10 issues of Ruckas run on the ongoing title. Rucka re-positions Wonder Woman's role in the DC Universe, using her job as Ambassador of Themyscira to give a new take on the character. While there are the usual superhero and mythological aspects present, Diana's roll as Ambassador is an interesting spin on the character, and allows her to experience new stories with a political bent. There are also new supporting cast members with her embassy staff and new villains such as big bad Veronica Cale. The artwork is by a variety of artists, and while it may not be of the same standard as JG Jones it still does a good job. Rucka adds a lot of depth to Diana and really expands on her mythology, this is a great collection for Wonder Woman or Rucka fans, and with the movie coming out next year hopefully we'll get some more classic Wonder Woman runs back in print soon!

I had heard so many positives about Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman run but never really got a chance to dig into it until this collection came out. It is fantastic, with lovely art and some wonderful stories. I wasn't sure what I wanted from a Wonder Woman comic (I had read Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's run on the New 52) but without getting into specifics it somehow felt like everything clicked as I read the stories and i got why people loved the character.My only negative is the way the collection ends as it feels so much like a cliffhanger, but I suppose that's the perils of reading in trade paperback format compared to reading monthly where everything feels like a taster.

Awesome product. Arrived a few days late, but it was worth the wait

Sendo uma das fases mais aclamadas da história recente da Mulher Maravilha, todo as histórias escritas pelo Greg Rucka compiladas nesse encadernado fazem jus ao seu prestígio. Merece especial destaque a Graphic Novel "Riketeia", extremamente tocante e que coloca Diana contra um de seus principais aliados: o Batman. Se é adrenalina, diversão e entretenimento promovidos por boas histórias, esse é o material certo pra você.Detalhes da publicação: apesar de ser um paperback, o material de capa é de muito boa qualidade, com uma lombada e contracapa muito bem trabalhados (vai ficar um charme na estante). Além disso, o papel é um pouco superior ao LWC utilizado pela Panini em suas publicações de capa cartonada, podendo quase ser considerado um papel de luxo para esse formato.

Ha algum tempo buscava um quadrinho com a famosa história "Hiketeia", onde a Mulher Maravilha e Batman se enfrentam.Depois de muito procurar, encontrei esse encadernado, que contém essa é outras histórias da Diana.Sim, Hiketeia é incrível, mas todas as outras histórias desse encadernado também são, além do Batman, também temos histórias com a aparição do Superman e Flash.Vale a pena e ja estou de olho para comprar o volume 2.Quanto ao inglês, é tranquilo de acompanhar e boa dica para quem deseja começar a ler em outro idioma.