I thought this was awful. Did anybody else read it? Did anybody even know it existed? I just stumbled on it while scrolling through Rebirth titles.
Basically, it’s a story of Amazonians going on an adventure to recruit more Amazons from Man’s world which eventually leads to an intersection with Norse mythological figures.
The story does a horrible job establish the status quo. I don’t what it even means to recruit new Amazons or what these Amazons can do.
All the characters are poorly defined. There are tons of them and none have much development. Characters die constantly and I don’t care about any of them. I kind of wanted them to die, actually.
There’s narration not from some character in the story but just form some omniscient narrator. Rather than giving some useful insight, it either explains what’s clearly on the page or just interjects tons of exposition as a lazy way to explain what’s happening in the story.
Nobody’s power levels and abilities are established making battles lack any stakes.
The story seems to think it has a theme but it does a horrible job developing it.
I read this when it was originally published and I’m sad to say this one was not for me. It was a little too brutal for my tastes. I also had trouble connecting with the characters. But the overall idea of the story was new, I liked that aspect of it.
The concept that Amazons recruited women who were already immortal was interesting. Also was most of the women.it was a step up, but for some, like powerful rulers, they regretted it because they had to serve a queen
@Jay_Kay: Now I want to see Amazons vs. Valkyries jousting on flying horses. Preferably with a sufficiently awesome heavy metal riff in the background.
I’ll be The Rebel: I did like The Odyssey of the Amazons.
I’m also a fan of its writer, Kevin Grevioux (the voice of Black Beetle on Young Justice), so that admittedly may have added a rose colored tint to my glasses. Nevertheless, I liked it.
I suppose it was more violent than usual. I believe I saw a few eyes flying through the air. The thing is I didn’t care since I found all the characters boring and felt like the whole series was a bore, so I was glad to have people die.
@TurokSonofStone
I never really understood the concept of their quest of find Amazons anyway. I know Wonder Woman’s origin has been told many times, but I thought the Amazons were either an ancient group of warriors who retreated from man’s world after acts of brutality and were blessed by the gods or they were the reincarnations of women who had been oppressed by men and were given a second life away from man’s world on Paradise Island. I feel like these were both cannon at some points. I have no idea what it means to be an Amazon if they are scattered among the general population and have to be discovered. Are they super strong? Immortal? Do they smell funny? What marks an Amazon and why wasn’t it established? Heck, why was this even an element of the plot since it seems to have little to do with 80% of the plot other than that it was the original cause to get them out of Paradise Island.
Absolutely. Amazons vs. Pantheon X could be a long running series. It just didn’t amount to anything good.
BatJamags,
I don’t even remember any particularly cool artistic moments from this. Now that I look back at the art, I realize I don’t enjoy any of it, and I’m not sure why. It feels bland to me, but maybe that’s my dislike of the story coming through on my feelings for the art.
I like the idea of a few amazons leaving Themyscira every decade or so to check up on what Mankind was doing.
One might be a historian who read all the research of the ones before her if she hadn’t done it herself before. Since they only went out every decade, it would explain why they didn’t know about the War to End All Wars.
The second might be an expert
linguist with a knack for learning new languages. It would explain why the Amazons understand modern English.
A third might be an engineer/ scientist who jobs is to bring techology to Themyscira. It would explain the invisible plane.
A fourth might be a spy/soldier to protect the others, with a totally different attitude than the others.
They all would wear clothes that was bought a decade ago. And use gold or items of antiquity to finance themselves. They would buy a ton of books including how to learn a language, history, science, engineering and how to books. They might bring technology like a bulky typewriter with supplies of ink or paper.
And after Diana entered Mans World they would find her for her opinions on what is important and tell her about her mother and what is happening in Themyscira.
Diana would treasure these meetings. They might be together for a month to learn the customs of today, buy appropriate clothes, practice English and acquire currency for their research.
Diana would take the month off to help expedite these matters.
And if they got into trouble. The soldier/spy would escape and get to Diana to rescue the others.
@BatWatch, Kevin Grevioux voiced Black Beetle in season 2 of YJ. His voice is incredibly deep. When you hear him on the show, that’s his regular voice with no modulation at all. He also voiced Solomon Grundy on The Batman.
As @Jay_Kay pointed out, Kevin Grevioux was also involved in the Underworld franchise. Mainly as an actor (he played the character Raze), but also on the story side of things for the first movie and as a co-producer of the franchise. He has no directing credits for the Underworld franchise or anything else at this time.
Anyway, what I like about Odyssey of the Amazons:
The nature of the story. To me, it was interesting to see how the Amazons lived and journeyed throughout the story.
Did things on occassion get brutal and violent? Yes, they absolutely did, but the Amazons are a fierce people and in this book they do not **** around when they need to defend each other or themselves and/or accomplish a mission. They jump into a situation and deal with it directly and head-on.
Woe be to those who cross these badass warriors. Certain brutal situations sometimes require a brutal response and they absolutely deliver it and then some when need be.
The artwork, largely (if not entirely) by Ryan Benjamin. I like his style and am a fan of his.
The fantasy setting of the story. Sure, this is a DC book and they’re first and foremost known for superhero fiction (and for good reason) and yes, tangentially speaking, Odyssey of the Amazons is tied to Wonder Woman, but the actual story has nothing to do with super heroes, super villains or any of the usual trappings that are typically found in a comic published by DC Comics. It’s nothing but ass-kicking warriors, swords, monsters and other fun trappings of the fantasy genre.
