Artemis: Requiem #1

Art

-pencils - excellent

-colour - excellent

-ink - excellent.

Character analysis/teamwork: interesting, well done.

plot: meh,

layout/lettering : baaaaaaad!

My collection is full of D.C. titles, about 90% of it is. And almost all of those are 90s titles. And often, I would see advertisements of this cover on my Superboys or my JLEs, "coming in July". In fact, the adverts are one of my favourite things about 90s comics. You see things like this --> (Van Damme poster) back when this movie was new.

Always been interested in this Goddess, eventually learned a lot about her (some from my WW Ultimate Guide), that she was the second, more hardcore Wonder Woman (technically 3rd, following the Golden age adventures of Hyppolita as WW) mentor to Cassie Sandsmark, and the tall leader of the renegade Egyptian Amazon tribe. And I finally got around to actually reading it, and it was epic.

The art is definitely my favourite part of the comic. Beautiful faces, streamlined costumes with a lot of detail. Glossy, pretty colours. Pencils, colouring, inking, all aspects, cater to MY tastes, and are pretty damn perfect either way. Rob Liefield style sneers on Jim Lee characters. You can definitely see a lot of WildC.A.T.s in the costumes (in Artemis's hair, and the Hellenders who come in later in the mini-series, are as Wildtorm or as Marvel as DC gets) There's a little bit of Savage Dragon feel I got too.

And of course, the incredible girl art. I'm not sure if it's good girl art, or bad girl art, since we start with Diana, but spend a lot of time on the more tougher, bitchy Artemis. But all costumes are skimpy, savage, and non existent, at least in this first issue. The entire issue takes place in HELL, (+/- 2 pages toward beginning and end, when people go in and out). It's not just the women, and it's not necessarily sexist as I will explain later, but even the men have rippling muscles, thighs, butts, ponytails (essential in the 90s), beards/stubble, sunglasses, slick costumes etc., The demons in the first issue even reminds me of Goro and Sheeva from Mortal Kombat.

And even the female nudity doesn't bother me in a misogynistic or sexist way, not too much. Yes, there is some humiliation and degrading of women, in hell, and of Artemis, but hey Wonder Woman is well known for it's bondage references from early on, included by creator Moulton Marsten and his wife and student lover. But it's actually very feminine and artistic at times as much as it gets sexual. Like in this scene. She's relaxed, comfortable, and getting along with her sister. She's free. (at least on the left of the page, it's like that. On the right, someone's getting whipped by a barbaric demon) The imagery in the top panel on the right may have something else to it, crawling, naked woman with a certain look on her face.

This scene gave me a homely feel. It's a reunion of sisters, they're talking about how they are doing in life. Except it takes place in hell, and obviously demons are involved, it's not a normal reunion, but these aren't ordinary sisters. These are TWO Wonder women. And that's why there's some femininity, not just in the art, but in the words. I've been present in situations like this.

But hey, I'm not complaining about that much female nudity/sexuality in each page. It's a summer issue. It's hot outside, it's bikini weather, the artist is Brazillian, he loves butts, there's a lot of skulls everywhere which I believe is part of Brazillian culture.

The plot sucks though. And there are many problems with the lettering and layout of panels. When I say the plot sucked, it's because a) they stretch it out too much and I felt like they used up/wasted a lot of space. But hey, they had 6 issues. And because b) I don't see hell, demons and holy water as substantial themes. Hey, who cares as long as there's action right? and hot naked chicks? That's exactly the stuff that gives comic book potential a bad name. For example, the last fan review I posted about a Superman comic was talking politics, real life and gun violence/drugs. That's showing and educating readers about things that actually go down. They're not fighting crime though, and given the circumstances of her being dead, and being a warrior, Demon Hunting works. But in later issues of the mini-series, you often see word bubbles that are flipped or combined, that makes no sense. If you look past that detail, you can enjoy the other components to it, which I did. But it lacks professionalism in that.

Character analysis is VERY interesting. Who is Aretmis? What does this mini-series seek to flesh out/achieve? Is it successful? I think yes, yes, and yes. Who is the stronger, more badass Wonder Woman? Artemis is better than Diana. Initially, a sacrifice in the place of Hipolita's daughter, dying almost as soon as she was introduced, (unfairly), girl deserved some justice. Artemis was (although older) comparable in the line of Superboy, Tim, Kyle Raynor and other "clones" of the real thing. (Tim was different from Dick and Jason in that he wasn't just a sidekick, he was a Batman juniour. He was a young version of exactly what Bruce was) and #1 on my list of favourite female characters. Except they take this badass heroine,

and make her into this whore!

Maybe she's just faking to kiss ass, feeding his ego, letting him think he's in charge while getting what she wants right? Right now, she's trying to save her sister's ass, and be political about it, like Amazons are trained to do. But not really.

But why does she act like this? Why does she willingly degrade herself? Because the authors are like that, they get a kick out of this. Because this is Wonder Woman and it's carrying on the tradition of bondage and discipline. Nope. There's a very realistic psychology in explaining why she acts this way. Because she'll put up with the shit, because she likes the good stuff it comes with. Personally, I think Diana should have questioned her more, and they should have had more conflict in asking why she would make herself a whore to this husband, that she could have easily killed (which she later does. Still a plot hole, because he appears in the first issue, is missing till the last issue, appearing only to die in matter of panels)

But they're sisters, and Diana respects her and supports her in whatever they do. No questions. And so Artemis ends up sacrificing all that she loved, to save her foolhardy sister who fucked up the hierarchy in hell. So there you go, Diana actually is a catalytic protagonist, and Requiem's story would not have been possible without her intervening. Diana did come to hell trying to save Artie, who she thought was in dire pain. I mean what would you do. Still, in this very first issue itself, we see Artemis as the raw, beautiful, powerful Amazon she is. Tough, determined, and self-sacrificing. Why don't we see her anymore? Why isn't she more popular? Why isn't she THE Wonder Woman with Diana at her side?