Wonder Woman Volume 5: Heart of the Amazon. Rebirth

by Shea Fontana and Mirka Andolfo

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars

I received a copy of Wonder Woman Vol. 5 from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’ve been pretty excited to get my hands on the latest volume of Wonder Woman. While the series has its ups and downs, on the whole I’ve been really enjoying the latest reboot of this fantastic character. I’m also excited because I managed to finally get caught up with the single issues, so now I can read ahead of the volumes.
Wonder Woman volume five consists of a collection of different issues. If you’re reading them as single issues, you’re going to want to read them in this order: Wonder Woman 26-30, Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor 1, and Wonder Woman Annual 1.



Heart of the Amazon read more like a collection of stories than anything else to me. The first five issues of this volume are all one story, but it splits into segments and could easily read as multiple stories if you were feeling determined. Then there’s the two single issues at the end, the Steve Trevor one and the Annual. While some annuals fit in with the main story, this one opted not to.
So it stands to reason that the volume is named after the major plot point here, which makes this one an easier one to title than normal. Seriously, the first five issues of this volume are all Heart of the Amazon parts one through five. I like longer running stories, so I was really open to this idea. However, while I found the plot interesting I didn’t love it. And I certainly didn’t love it enough to want to see it stretch out for five issues.
There were parts I really enjoyed, for the record. I like the way it started out, and I also enjoyed parts of the second issue. It was when it started becoming more involved and convoluted that I found myself losing a bit of interest in it. Which is a shame, because it actually had a decent core concept, it was the follow through that was flawed.
The Steve Trevor issue was…interesting. I’m never sure how to feel when the Wonder Woman series switches perspective. On the one hand, it’s a refreshing change. On the other hand, I feel like since the series is about Wonder Woman, maybe we should stick with her perspective? (though there have been times where the perspective shift has been fun, so I’m not going to complain too much here). I actually had a little bit of trouble following this one at first, though it does become more clear as you read it.
The Wonder Woman annual is a collection of stories, and I think that’s the main reason this volume felt like it had so many short stories in it. In this issue there’s In Defense of Truth and Justice, The Curse and the Honor, and finally, The Last Kaiju. Out of the three The Curse and the Honor was undoubtedly my favorite. The plot was interesting and surprisingly heart wrenching, and the artwork was absolutely striking. I actually kind of want to find a print or two from that story, that’s how much I enjoyed it. I did like parts of In Defense of Truth and Justice and it really did feel like a Wonder Woman story. Meanwhile I really couldn’t get into The Last Kaiju – I didn’t really like the story or the artwork.
I’m disappointed I didn’t love this volume as much as previous ones, but on the whole I’m happy I read it. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any long term ramifications for the Heart of the Amazon plot, or if everything has been neatly wrapped up. I’d love to see more short stories like the Curse and the Honor, and in general I’m usually pretty happy with a short story here and there anyway, so I hope they continue to experiment like that.


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