Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
"Wonder Woman: Love and Murder" is a graphic novel written by Jodi Picoult, originally published as issues 6-10 of the Wonder Woman series. This storyline continues from Allan Heinberg's earlier work and is set against the backdrop of significant changes in the DC Comics universe following the "Infinite Crisis" event. The plot centers on Diana Prince, also known as Wonder Woman, who grapples with her dual identity while navigating a mission involving her partner Tom Tresser, aka Nemesis. Tension arises when the sorceress Circe kidnaps Tom, leading Wonder Woman on a quest to rescue him while simultaneously confronting her mother, Hippolyta, who has been resurrected and manipulated by Circe.
Identity is a primary theme of the narrative, exploring Wonder Woman's struggles with her roles as an Amazon, a superhero, and a human, especially following her controversial decision to kill Maxwell Lord. The story culminates in a dramatic confrontation between Wonder Woman and her mother, raising questions about power, ethics, and the cost of heroism. The artistic style employs distinct color schemes and layouts to reflect the characters' emotional states and the story's evolving themes. Although "Love and Murder" did not receive extensive critical acclaim, it is notable for being authored by Picoult, the first female writer for Wonder Woman, and is recognized for its exploration of complex identity issues within the superhero genre.
Wonder Woman: Love and Murder
AUTHOR: Picoult, Jodi
ARTIST: Paco Diaz (illustrator); Terry Dodson (illustrator); Drew Johnson (illustrator); Rachel Dodson (inker); Rodney Ramon (inker); Ray Snyder (inker); Lee Loughridge (colorist); Dave McCaig (colorist); Alex Sinclair (colorist, cover artist); Travis Lanham (letterer); Rob Leigh (letterer)
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2007
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2007
Publication History
Originally published as Wonder Woman, issues 6-10, Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult, a novelist and newcomer to the comic world, begins where Allan Heinberg’s story, Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman, left off. Just prior to Heinberg’s run, DC Comics had used the story line of the seven-issue series Infinite Crisis (2005-2006) to reshape its superhero universe and seriously challenge the moral characters of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Picoult’s book was followed by Wonder Woman: The Circle, which was released the following year.
Plot
As Wonder Woman: Love and Murder opens, Diana Prince is staring at her reflection in the mirror. In the “real world,” she is dressed as a government agent, but her reflection is an image of Wonder Woman. Diana is wrestling with her identity, and she and partner Tom Tresser, a master of disguise code-named Nemesis, are on a seemingly benign mission at an amusement park. Suddenly, a roller coaster goes off the tracks, and Diana transforms into Wonder Woman to rescue those onboard. Her heroism is only a small part of the day, however; by the time the sun sets, she is once again Diana Prince, special agent of the Department of Metahuman Affairs.
While Diana is saving a woman from a mugging, Nemesis is tricked by Circe, who pretends to be Wonder Woman. Seducing him with her power, Circe ties up Nemesis and kidnaps him. Diana is alerted that her partner is missing and transforms into Wonder Woman, setting off to find Tom. As Tom begs Circe to let him go, Circe provokes Wonder Woman sadistically.
In the second chapter, Wonder Woman fights Circe. When Circe retreats, Wonder Woman finds Nemesis tied up, beaten, and bloody. Diana rescues him and takes him back to his apartment, where they discuss his mission to arrest Wonder Woman. The Department of Metahuman Affairs has issued a warrant for Wonder Woman, and Tom and Diana are charged with finding and arresting her. When Wonder Woman asks Tom, “Aren’t you supposed to be arresting me?” he replies, “I don’t always do what I’m told.”
Nemesis is revealed to be an ally of Wonder Woman, and they depart together to discover the whereabouts of Circe. Diana is captured by Sarge Steele and imprisoned. At the end of the chapter, Circe is shown on Themyscira, as an unnamed Amazon comes back from the dead.
Chapter 3 reveals that Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother, is the figure returned from the underworld. Circe has revived Hippolyta and manipulates her into attacking the United States to free her daughter. Circe visits Diana in prison, and they argue. Circe disappears and Nemesis uses his powers of disguise to free Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman knocks him out and carries him out of the compound to protect him from getting in trouble for rescuing her. Meanwhile, Hippolyta leads the Amazons in a charge against the army. Diana, racing to stop the Amazons, realizes that her mother is alive and leading the charge.
Chapter 4 includes the Justice League, as Superman and Batman race to minimize the damage done by the attacking Amazons. The Justice League works to contain the battle to prevent casualties, while Wonder Woman flies into the Amazon camp, desperate to stop her mother.
The tearful reunion of Wonder Woman and her mother is interrupted, and Diana begs her mother to stop the attack and is horrified to realize Hippolyta was resurrected by Circe. Hippolyta refuses to call off the attack and reminds Diana that the humans are not her people. While Tom disguises himself as Sarge Steele, Wonder Woman races to the front lines, where she finds Circe. After a long battle, Circe reveals her plan to destroy Themyscira forever, but she is severely injured when Hippolyta throws a spear through her chest.
In chapter 5, the battle rages, and, as Washington, D.C. is laid to waste, Wonder Woman is in the untenable situation of fighting her family, the Amazons, in order to save her friends, the humans. Fighting her way through the Amazon army, Wonder Woman disarms Hippolyta’s personal guard and demands that they talk. Hippolyta knocks Tom off the roof, and Wonder Woman saves him. After getting Tom to safety, Diana fights her way back to Hippolyta. In the midst of an epic battle, the story ends with Diana giving Hippolyta a knife, bringing it to her own throat and asking her mother, “Would you kill me to win?”
Characters
•Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, is the protagonist. Raised by her mother, Hippolyta, on Themyscira among the Amazons, she tricks her mother and wins the right to wear the Wonder Woman armor. She is good friends with both Superman and Batman, but her life has been thrown into turmoil following her public execution of former Justice League advisor Maxwell Lord.
•Circe is the villain. An ancient sorceress, she has died and been reborn many times. She uses her powers to trick men and women and seeks to amass as much power as possible and to destroy the Amazons.
•Tom Tresser, a.k.a. Nemesis, is Diana Prince’s partner at the Department of Metahuman Affairs. He is a master of disguise and a burgeoning love interest of Wonder Woman.
•Hippolyta is Diana’s mother and was killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Queen of the Amazons, she has never attacked the “world of man,” as the Amazons call human society. Resurrected and manipulated by Circe, she unwillingly plays a part in bringing about Final Crisis, in which evil triumphs.
•Sarge Steele is the director of Metahuman Affairs and wants nothing more than to arrest Wonder Woman for her crimes. He is manipulated by Circe.
•The Amazons are a race of warrior women who live on Themyscira. Though they are excellent fighters, they are generally peaceful and incredibly protective of their princess, Diana.
Artistic Style
Color and page layout play a significant role in narrating the five-issue Wonder Woman: Love and Murder. The first two chapters, drawn by Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder with Rodney Ramos, make use of black borders that allow for a powerful difference between Diana Prince and Wonder Woman. Diana is drawn in black suits, her figure unremarkable. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is dressed brightly and has flowing hair as she flies. The bold colors of the Wonder Woman costume contrast sharply with Circe’s purples and pinks, and filters across panels situate the reader inside the viewpoint of the main characters. When trapped in Circe’s control, everything is seen through a pink haze, while Wonder Woman’s panels are drawn with a blue filter that pushes against Circe’s coloring when they battle. This artistic choice supports the ongoing fight between the two characters.
The Dodsons took over the drawing for chapters 3 and 4, at which point the borders switch from black to white, supporting the move from the back alleys and grimy city to Themyscira and the burgeoning romance between Nemesis and Wonder Woman. Hippolyta also carries the pink of Circe, a visual cue that hints at Circe’s manipulation. Nemesis is drawn with sharp angles along his chin, cheeks, and nose. Wonder Woman’s facial features are distanced from Hippolyta’s, which helps to delineate between the Amazons, humans, and Wonder Woman, who is caught in between.
The background coloring is used to support the sense of movement across the page. For instance, in chapter 3, the strong use of reds and orange when the Amazons attack helps strengthen the sense of battle and destruction. The colors in chapter 4 are more muted, and the backgrounds are cream colored, which provides an otherworldly sense to the story. This color scheme marks this chapter as an interlude between the crumbling world of the first three chapters and the climactic battle of the last.
Chapter 5, illustrated by Paco Diaz, opens with a full-page shot of Wonder Woman, broken into nine panels. This visual technique heightens the sense of Wonder Woman’s identity crisis and demonstrates how she is metaphorically torn between her duties as an Amazon, a superhero, and a person. Diaz offers several full-page images, the most powerful of which features Wonder Woman and Nemesis on one side squaring off against a page full of Amazons in full armor with spears cocked and ready to be thrown. Diaz’s style maintains the white borders and the washed-out coloring of the previous chapter but also incorporates intense moments of color for the superheroes, which highlights the agency of the characters and the otherness of the superheroes.
Themes
Identity is the major theme of Wonder Woman: Love and Murder. Wonder Woman grapples with what it means to be human, to be an Amazon, and to be a superhero. Her decision to kill Maxwell Lord shocked the world and forced her to question how she was using her power. Throughout the story, Diana constantly asks herself, “Who is Wonder Woman?” This question is answered at the end, as she battles her mother. Blocking a spear thrust, she states, “I’ll tell you exactly who I am Mother; I’m who you raised me to be, but I’m more than just that. You should be able to look at me and see the girl I was, the woman I’ve become, just as I can look at what you’ve done here and accept you in spite of it.” Wonder Woman stands triumphant over her mother and declares that “even one life is too many.”
Picoult crafts a story that refuses to accept an ethos in which the end justifies the means. Wonder Woman renounces her decision to kill Lord and challenges her mother to seek peace by renouncing the war. The questions unanswered at the end of the story remain: Did Wonder Woman abuse her power in killing Lord? If so, can she still be a superhero?
Impact
Published in 2007, Wonder Woman: Love and Murder received little critical attention beyond its role in the build up to Final Crisis, a DC crossover in which the forces of evil triumph. Picoult was lauded for deftly handling the themes of identity. However, some felt Picout’s run on Wonder Woman was merely a build up to Amazon’s Attack (2007), a short-run series that more fully details the Amazon attack on the United States. Picoult was the first female author to work on Wonder Woman. Following her five-issue run, Gail Simone was hired to write the comic from 2007 to 2010. While Picoult has had no lasting impact on the Wonder Woman mythos, she can be seen as a pioneer for female authors in superhero comics.
Further Reading
Johns, Geoff, Phil Jimenez, and George Pérez. Infinite Crisis (2005-2006).
Moeller, Christopher. JLA: A League of One (2000).
Rucka, Greg. Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia (2002).
‗‗‗‗‗‗. Wonder Woman: Mission’s End (2005).
Bibliography
Lee, Min Jin. “Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult.” The Times, January 18, 2008. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts‗and‗entertainment/books/fiction/article3210539.ece.
Picoult, Jodi. Introduction to Wonder Woman: Love and Murder. New York: DC Comics, 2007.
Wheeler, Andrew. “Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult and Others.” Review of Wonder Woman: Love and Murder, by Jodi Picoult. August 25, 2008. http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/08/25/review-wonder-woman-love-and-murder-by-jodi-picoult-and-others.