REVIEW: The best Wonder Woman story is WONDER WOMAN: TEMPEST TOSSED
By Keigen Rea — In my heart, a drum beats: tempest tossed, TEMPEST TOSSED, TEMPEST-TOSSED.
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed — a recent release from DC Comics growing line of books for YA and middle grade readers — is easily one of my favorite comics this year, which was a delightful surprise, because I’m not a huge fan of Wonder Woman…and I am so, so, so, so tired of origins. In fact, most of my enthusiasm for this title deflated when I learned that it was an origin story. It was still an instant buy, however, with Leila Del Duca on line art, but it definitely slipped down the read pile. Of course, I was extremely wrong, and I am delighted to be.
Tempest Tossed is a new stand alone origin for Wonder Woman, wherein she’s a 16 year-old still learning to be a person. Early on it hits the typical beats for a Wonder Woman story, but it quickly diverts from what I expected into a story that’s more of a coming of age story than Year One. The changes range from small to large, but they all help to create more holistic themes that are easy to track. For example, changing Steve Trevor into Steve and Trevor, a gay couple who work for the UN, enriches this story in an interesting way and emphasizes important themes. All of the changes help to make the story work better and to create a Wonder Woman story that uses all of her unique features to their highest degree. The largest change, and one that I think is brilliant, is Diana’s age.
Making Diana a teenager doesn’t just make it marketable to a younger audience, it allows the story to break formulaic structures that origin stories tend to have. It doesn’t feel like Iron Man 37, or a retelling of a retelling, it feels like something new, that took inspiration from places other than other Wonder Woman stories. It makes Princess Diana of Themyscira into a young person, not unlike Peter Parker or Kamala Khan in some ways, and helps her to feel more relatable. Who hasn’t felt a million miles from home and helpless?
One scene has Diana spending time in a park with Steve and it’s a great example of why a teenaged Diana works incredibly well. Her questions are childlike in their sincerity, and coupled with her age, make her seem only slightly out of touch, versus a loon if she were an adult. The scene works incredibly well, which is largely due to the decision to make Diana a young person.
Beyond that, Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed shows how effective a creative team can build a relevant story around these 80 year-old characters, especially when continuity can be set aside. Tempest Tossed feels similar to Superman Smashes the Klan in this way, especially with the social relevance they both embody. They are very different works, but I think they belong as part of the same discussion as far as fully utilizing these historic characters.
One final notable story point I found important is the clear anger that writer Laurie Halse is able to show throughout the story, but how deftly it’s handled at the same time. ((SPOILERS)) The conflict of the story centers on child trafficking and Diana learning about it and to some degree fighting it. ((END SPOILERS)) I think it’s handled extremely well as a topic throughout, and the anger that Diana shows toward it is moving and relatable. Her anger drives her to action, even when everyone around her doesn’t understand, as it’s a part of their world. How can they change it?
Artwork by Leila Del Duca with colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick.
What I love, though, is that the anger isn’t seen as weakness or foolishness. It easily could have been seen as a temper tantrum by a teenaged girl, but instead it’s given legitimacy and agency, and it’s used for powerful, positive effect. Diana is able to accomplish what she does because of her anger, not despite it, and it’s a poignant idea, especially now.
Now, for the Del Duca of it all.
Leila Del Duca is easily one of my favorite creators working today, so I’m extremely partial here, but this is some of my favorite Diana art I’ve seen. Del Duca is a great character designer and is great at making people look like individuals, but her Diana is next level. Her height, nose, and hair are spectacular, perfect decisions for Wonder Woman, but there’s an awkwardness about her that shines through the character acting. Del Duca mines the awkwardness of puberty for drama and comedy and does so beautifully.
A page early on displays Del Duca’s skill with character acting, and how funny and relatable her art can be is fantastic. There’s a gag involving a carton of eggs that delivered amazingly and efficiently in a way that I never would have thought of, and it’s only one small example of the artistic genius of Leola Del Duca.
Of course, the reason I was initially interested in Tempest Tossed was Leila Del Duca, and she didn’t disappoint. In fact, she easily exceeded my expectations, and delivered one of my favorite superhero stories in the process.
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed is about losing your way of life and finding a new one. It’s about using your abilities to help others for their betterment. I love this comic, and it’s themes will stick with me for some time.
Final verdict: I recommend this comic to everyone. Read it yourself, AND gift it. 9.5/10
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed
Writer: Laurie Halse
Artist: Leila Del Duca
Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Publisher: DC
Princess Diana of Themyscira believes that her 16th birthday will be one of new beginnings-namely, acceptance into the warrior tribe of the Amazons. But her birthday celebrations are cut short when rafts carrying refugees break through the barrier that separates her island home from the outside world. When Diana defies the Amazons to try to bring the outsiders to safety, she finds herself swept away by the stormy sea. Cut off from everything she's ever known, Diana herself becomes a refugee in an unfamiliar land. Now Diana must survive in the world beyond Themyscira for the first time-a world that is filled with danger and injustice unlike anything she's ever experienced. With new battles to be fought and new friends to be made, she must redefine what it means to belong, to be an Amazon, and to make a difference.
Release Date: June 2, 2020
Price: $16.99 (print), $12.99 (digital)
Buy It Now: Wonder Woman - Tempest Tossed
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Keigen Rea is working in a restaurant while waiting to see when school (both work and college) resume. You can find his tweets @prince_organa, where the absolute banger, ‘“This is how you lose the time war,” sang to the tune of, “this is why we can’t have nice things”’ is his pinned tweet.