I read these two back when they came out and enjoyed them, and still do after re-reading them, and even finding some new interesting bits to it.
The Wonder Woman book was very fun, and a great introduction to Yara as a character. She’s strong, passionate and willing to do whatever it takes to save one of her sisters, but she’s also sassy, a wiseass, and more than a little impetious. I was sold on her as soon as I saw her try to distract a cerberus by doing the ole’ “removable thumb” trick. Not to mention her pet pegasus Jerry. Jerry is a G.
I also liked how it blended the familiar Grecko-Roman mythologies we’re familiar with and the Brazilian/South American folklore that Yara’s presence calls out. It’s stuff we don’t see a lot, at least in the DC mythos. I will say that I wish that we saw more of this going forward, but considering the time they had up to Trial of the Amazons, I can forgive it…as long as we get more Yara going forward.
As for Justice League, this was pretty cool. Yara herself doesn’t play as big a role, but these issues do highlight some other awesome ladies in this team, including Aquawoman (reminds me I need to read that Future State mini with her) and especially Green Lantern Jo Mullein (one day I will be able to put her name down without looking it up on Google, but it’s not this day), who I love being the leader of this team.
I also love the blend of eras this story has. The Legion of Doom invokes a more classic 60s-70s era, and the Hyperclan is of course from the Grant Morrison JLA. Even the whole “none of us know each other outside the group” thing invokes some of the initial New 52 Justice League. There’s also some interesting worldbuilding – similar to Superman/Wonder Woman, there’s this hint of things the JL of old did to save the world and I want to know what it is.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this group in a miniseries or something, especially if they added to the roster as we saw at the end. (As an aside, does anyone know who the woman with the really poofy hair that takes up the most space is? I want to say Naomi, but I couldn’t tell for sure)
There is a bittersweet part to this story, and that’s the amazing art by Robson Rocha. Between this and his previous arc on Aquaman, he was setting up to be an incredible up-and-coming artist who could have been one of the greats of this generation. But sadly that isn’t to be, since he died last year at the super young age of 41 due to Covid-19.
…That was a bit of a bummer at the end. Sorry about that. Uh…yeah, good books.