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winterlelie's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe more of a 3,5/5. I did like the story, and the art was good too, overall just not as awesome as it could have been. I did love Wonder Woman wearing a pair of sunglasses to make a joke though.
justiceofkalr's review against another edition
3.0
I almost gave this book two stars. I really like Gail Simone's writing, but this was just a mess in some places. Like the last bit about the movie. It was just so weird that all of a sudden the Queen of Fables was there and everything was really trippy. I liked the "look what shit popular media likes to do to Wonder Woman" part, but it was just so out of nowhere. The main story was kind of random too. Seriously, Beowulf? Okay, so maybe Beowulf was actually a little fun. Which is probably why this got three stars.
nathaniel_1206's review against another edition
2.0
To be honest this rating is on me, and fully admit this rating is completely unfair. However, let me explain.
After seeing the Wonder Woman movie, and being reminded Gail Simone wrote the character, I was led astray by Amazon's bleh search engine, Goodreads hot garbage of a search engine when it comes to collected issues of comic books (trade paperbacks), the Comixology website, and improbably, a local library system search engine even more screwed than Goodreads, which led me to believe this was the first volume of Simone's run on the title. If you can't trust the world's largest bookseller, the largest social media site for readers, and the local library, to get the correct information, when you don't know what you're looking for, things will and inevitably did go wrong. Admittedly my mistake is not realizing three of the four of my references were owned by Amazon, but one of them had to know what the hell they were talking about it, right? Nope.
ETA: Hot Garbage search engine comment proof: If you look up Gail Simone on GR, and sort all her works alphabetically, this volume and previous or subsequent are not even listed in her works. If you sort by series her 2005 run on Birds of Prey isn't even listed. GR's basic issue here is that each series restart (a new #1 issue) in comic book parlance is a volume, plus each collection is a volume. I believe the answer to this is the rule that comic book titles be listed by Title and Year, and that rule be enforced uniformly like last name, first name is enforced. This rule is enforced on other titles X-Men, I believe.
So I was dumped into the middle of a story that was a mishmash of classic literature (Beowolf) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, that wasn't very good, compelling or frankly made much sense. Upon reading the volume, and knowing what I was looking for, I did subsequent searches and found the proceeding volume was also by Ms Simone, I reserve the right to revise this review.
I am a big fan of Ms. Simone's Twitter, where she is routinely hilarious, and her last run on Batgirl. There is an additional couple of issues that don't take place in an alternate dimension, rather something resembling this dimension, where Ms Simone showed off a little more of her comedy skills, while fun and amusing wasn't amusing or funny enough to save the book for me.
Anyway I press on, and start over.
After seeing the Wonder Woman movie, and being reminded Gail Simone wrote the character, I was led astray by Amazon's bleh search engine, Goodreads hot garbage of a search engine when it comes to collected issues of comic books (trade paperbacks), the Comixology website, and improbably, a local library system search engine even more screwed than Goodreads, which led me to believe this was the first volume of Simone's run on the title. If you can't trust the world's largest bookseller, the largest social media site for readers, and the local library, to get the correct information, when you don't know what you're looking for, things will and inevitably did go wrong. Admittedly my mistake is not realizing three of the four of my references were owned by Amazon, but one of them had to know what the hell they were talking about it, right? Nope.
ETA: Hot Garbage search engine comment proof: If you look up Gail Simone on GR, and sort all her works alphabetically, this volume and previous or subsequent are not even listed in her works. If you sort by series her 2005 run on Birds of Prey isn't even listed. GR's basic issue here is that each series restart (a new #1 issue) in comic book parlance is a volume, plus each collection is a volume. I believe the answer to this is the rule that comic book titles be listed by Title and Year, and that rule be enforced uniformly like last name, first name is enforced. This rule is enforced on other titles X-Men, I believe.
So I was dumped into the middle of a story that was a mishmash of classic literature (Beowolf) and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, that wasn't very good, compelling or frankly made much sense. Upon reading the volume, and knowing what I was looking for, I did subsequent searches and found the proceeding volume was also by Ms Simone, I reserve the right to revise this review.
I am a big fan of Ms. Simone's Twitter, where she is routinely hilarious, and her last run on Batgirl. There is an additional couple of issues that don't take place in an alternate dimension, rather something resembling this dimension, where Ms Simone showed off a little more of her comedy skills, while fun and amusing wasn't amusing or funny enough to save the book for me.
Anyway I press on, and start over.
cleheny's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't enjoy this volume as much as its predecessor, though there are interesting ideas. The first arc (The Ends of the Earth) is not as successful as it should be. Diana is inveigled into becoming part of a quest to kill a powerful demon (essentially, the devil) and joins a band of legendary warriors (Beowulf, Claw the Unconquered, and Stalker--all drawn from DC's 1970s fantasy series) who are prophesied to fight the final battle. I know Beowulf from the epic poem, not DC's comics, and I didn't know Claw or Stalker, at all. Simone obviously does, as she builds on Stalker's history, in particular, to create the basis of this story.
I think the reason the arc didn't work for me is because I didn't know anything about Stalker or Claw (and, obviously, I drew on a different source for my understanding of Beowulf). It's hard to get wrapped up in the plot and the ideas it advances when all of the other characters are strangers and won't be sticking around. Since re-reading this arc and doing research on Stalker, I have a better understanding of how carefully Simone constructed her story to connect with the 1970s tales. But the great majority of readers aren't going to have the context (I certainly didn't the first few times I read this), so it lessens the overall impact.
There are some great notes--particularly the opening scene of the arc, and how it resurfaces later. The artwork is fantastic.
The remaining 2-issue arc takes as its inspiration an arc from Justice League (the Queen of Fables storyline, which immediately followed Tower of Babel). These issues didn't work really well for me. There are basically three storylines--Tom Tresser meeting Hippolyta officially as her daughter's boyfriend, the fight set against the background of a cheesy Hollywood treatment of Diana's life, and Diana connecting with a hard-working, but bitter, Hollywood lawyer--and they don't really fit together. There is a lot of humor (oh, Rhanda and Tolifhar, how I wish you were my advisors and packed my briefcases), but, on the whole, these issues feel like filler.
I think the reason the arc didn't work for me is because I didn't know anything about Stalker or Claw (and, obviously, I drew on a different source for my understanding of Beowulf). It's hard to get wrapped up in the plot and the ideas it advances when all of the other characters are strangers and won't be sticking around. Since re-reading this arc and doing research on Stalker, I have a better understanding of how carefully Simone constructed her story to connect with the 1970s tales. But the great majority of readers aren't going to have the context (I certainly didn't the first few times I read this), so it lessens the overall impact.
There are some great notes--particularly the opening scene of the arc, and how it resurfaces later. The artwork is fantastic.
The remaining 2-issue arc takes as its inspiration an arc from Justice League (the Queen of Fables storyline, which immediately followed Tower of Babel). These issues didn't work really well for me. There are basically three storylines--Tom Tresser meeting Hippolyta officially as her daughter's boyfriend, the fight set against the background of a cheesy Hollywood treatment of Diana's life, and Diana connecting with a hard-working, but bitter, Hollywood lawyer--and they don't really fit together. There is a lot of humor (oh, Rhanda and Tolifhar, how I wish you were my advisors and packed my briefcases), but, on the whole, these issues feel like filler.
blacksentai's review against another edition
3.0
This is better than the last volume but it still isn't awesome.
nicolet2018's review against another edition
3.0
I read the Vol 1, 2, 3 and 5 then stopped for a number of years. Recently, I have been getting interested in graphic novels again and decided to fill in the missing pieces. I don't remember much about the Gail Simone's run other than Diana getting a love interest (Nemesis, her co worker) and Donna Troy is around.
But I felt that Ends of the Earth feels very separate from all the other volumes. It has two story lines: Ends of the Earth and A Star in the Heavens. These don't really gel well either. In the first story, Diana gets sucked into another world and must enlist the help of Beowulf and Claw to defeat the Devil and the second story is where Diana must contend with Hollywood wanting to make a movie out of her story but in true gossip fashion, in makes a mockery of her history. Then things get deadly when the Queen of Fables appears. The art was nice and okay. The stories did not make much sense. Though it feels strange to see Diana contemplating having children. She also has to face an angry mother. That felt like commentary on how single parents struggle and their kids cannot see that.
But I felt that Ends of the Earth feels very separate from all the other volumes. It has two story lines: Ends of the Earth and A Star in the Heavens. These don't really gel well either. In the first story, Diana gets sucked into another world and must enlist the help of Beowulf and Claw to defeat the Devil and the second story is where Diana must contend with Hollywood wanting to make a movie out of her story but in true gossip fashion, in makes a mockery of her history. Then things get deadly when the Queen of Fables appears. The art was nice and okay. The stories did not make much sense. Though it feels strange to see Diana contemplating having children. She also has to face an angry mother. That felt like commentary on how single parents struggle and their kids cannot see that.
dr_matthew_lloyd's review against another edition
4.0
I have an aversion to apocalypse stories. Watching the trailer to Thor: The Dark World I couldn't help but be left feeling that if Thor didn't save the world, that forthcoming Avengers sequel wouldn't have very much to do, would it? Of course, Age of Ultron is written by Joss Whedon, who made his name mocking the apocalypse trope on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where I probably learned my cynicism: "When I saw you save the world from, you know, ending, I just figured that was a big week for you. Now I find myself wondering what the plural of apocalypse is..."
Ends of the Earth promises apocalypse. The monster Stalker describes will destroy all universes unless Wonder Woman can gather together several heroes of legend to help him destroy it. Fortunately, if Gail Simone doesn't love Buffy, it can only be because she hasn't watched it, surely? The world destroying power takes second fiddle to Diana's internal conflict between her reticence and withdrawn personality when in her secret identity and the warrior willing and able to kill that she has become.
Gail Simone is a good writer capable of inserting fun into dramatic scenarios - my main worry about the apocalypse trope is when it is taken too much in earnest; the episode of Buffy "The Zeppo" is a fantastic undermining of this - and so one gets the lack-of-emotional turmoil of Diana without failing to enjoy what's going on. The palate-cleansing story which follows is another fine example of how one must have a sense of humour in comic books. It is a timely (I'm sure at the time, but also now) attempt to turn Wonder Woman into a film: "Waiting a while for a GOOD movie is better than having a TERRIBLE one TODAY" (please don't let funless misogynist Zach Synder make the first Wonder Woman film. Of course, one wonders how far this is an excuse - and if the makers of Batman and Robin were ever concerned by that quotation . Throughout, the gorillas are particularly fine examples of this sense of humour.
While this volume takes the dubious mantle of being the best Wonder Woman comic book I've ever read - the others being the generally good [b:Wonder Woman: Love and Murder|1142008|Wonder Woman Love and Murder|Jodi Picoult|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1292061034s/1142008.jpg|1129347] and the execrable [b:Amazons Attack|20408100|Amazons Attack (Wonder Woman)|Will Pfeifer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388548601s/20408100.jpg|29063145] - the quality of art was certainly high in these inter-crisis comic books. I've never really got on with Wonder Woman's costume in isolation, but in context it always looks so much better. Perhaps this isn't a great Wonder Woman book to read in isolation, but it was quite a good story and I think I could have got behind this as a continuing series.
Ends of the Earth promises apocalypse. The monster Stalker describes will destroy all universes unless Wonder Woman can gather together several heroes of legend to help him destroy it. Fortunately, if Gail Simone doesn't love Buffy, it can only be because she hasn't watched it, surely? The world destroying power takes second fiddle to Diana's internal conflict between her reticence and withdrawn personality when in her secret identity and the warrior willing and able to kill that she has become.
Gail Simone is a good writer capable of inserting fun into dramatic scenarios - my main worry about the apocalypse trope is when it is taken too much in earnest; the episode of Buffy "The Zeppo" is a fantastic undermining of this - and so one gets the lack-of-emotional turmoil of Diana without failing to enjoy what's going on. The palate-cleansing story which follows is another fine example of how one must have a sense of humour in comic books. It is a timely (I'm sure at the time, but also now) attempt to turn Wonder Woman into a film:
While this volume takes the dubious mantle of being the best Wonder Woman comic book I've ever read - the others being the generally good [b:Wonder Woman: Love and Murder|1142008|Wonder Woman Love and Murder|Jodi Picoult|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1292061034s/1142008.jpg|1129347] and the execrable [b:Amazons Attack|20408100|Amazons Attack (Wonder Woman)|Will Pfeifer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388548601s/20408100.jpg|29063145] - the quality of art was certainly high in these inter-crisis comic books. I've never really got on with Wonder Woman's costume in isolation, but in context it always looks so much better. Perhaps this isn't a great Wonder Woman book to read in isolation, but it was quite a good story and I think I could have got behind this as a continuing series.
captwinghead's review against another edition
4.0
This is yet another one of Gail Simone's series that I continue to read out of order. I know I've read a previous volume before because I recognize the characters but I was pretty lost on the portion taking place in the government. Besides that, I really enjoyed this. I know Rucka is everyone's go to Wondy writer but I actually like Simone's style better. Rather than go full tilt into the mythology and feature a lot of side characters talking about what a wonder Diana is, Simone shows more than tells. Bless her for that!
This features someone I either forgot or never paid attention to before: Tom Tesser. I think that's his name? He's enthralled with Diana and that affection leads him to a few interesting confrontations. One of which is one of Diana's greatest admirers and I loved that introduction!!
The main plot in this book is Diana taking on Grendel and while I hated Beowulf in school, this was interesting. I enjoyed it a little more than the evil queen storyline later on.
What made this such a great book to me was Diana. She is so amazing and fair in this book. I know, I know, she always is but it's still great to see. She doesn't take anyone shit and she's protective over her fellow sisters. This is the kind of Wonder Woman story I can get behind.
So, while I don't recommend you read this if you haven't read the other volumes, it's still a very enjoyable book. It's a tentative recommend, provide you've picked up the rest of Simone's run.
This features someone I either forgot or never paid attention to before: Tom Tesser. I think that's his name? He's enthralled with Diana and that affection leads him to a few interesting confrontations. One of which is one of Diana's greatest admirers and I loved that introduction!!
The main plot in this book is Diana taking on Grendel and while I hated Beowulf in school, this was interesting. I enjoyed it a little more than the evil queen storyline later on.
What made this such a great book to me was Diana. She is so amazing and fair in this book. I know, I know, she always is but it's still great to see. She doesn't take anyone shit and she's protective over her fellow sisters. This is the kind of Wonder Woman story I can get behind.
So, while I don't recommend you read this if you haven't read the other volumes, it's still a very enjoyable book. It's a tentative recommend, provide you've picked up the rest of Simone's run.