'Amazons Attack (2024)' is one of the best canon-run 'Wonder Woman' comics I have read in ages, and it doesn't even feature Wonder Woman herself, not once. It is about the Amazons as they are currently, as a community, and as a now-marginalised and ostracised group of people in man's world. It is about Queen Nubia, the new queen of the Amazons, as she desperately tries to take care of one disaster, one terrorist event, after another, through peaceful, diplomatic means, in a world that is determined to hate and blame her and her people.
It is an overwhelmingly violent, aggressive, deadly, hopeless situation. But Nubia will have her fellow Amazonian sisters to back her up, and help her out, even the estranged ones. The Amazons are in this nightmare together - and together, they will slowly, surely, break out of it. Out of this stigma and ostracism. The patriarchy is a powerful influencer, but so are they.Nubia - and all Amazons, and therefore all women - will never give up their rights.
For the threat to the Amazons represents and means a threat to women, period.
Minority groups, different groups of people from the social "norm", and especially women, and anyone who threatens the status quo and, specifically, "traditional family values", "traditional gender roles" and "traditional American values" (and I thought it was the land of the free, hmm?), being targeted, ostracised, victimised, terrorised, and scapegoated through lies, hatemongering and fearmongering - resulting in the rise of hate crimes and violence and death fuelled by bigotry, not to mention systematic abuse, against people who are feared and are "banned" just for existing, which the instigators, the bigoted authorities, people in positions of power and influence, will not acknowledge, or will downplay, it in order to further their own narcissistic, closeminded self-interests and agendas - all leading to governments making inhumane, regressive and fascistic laws and mandates, to the point where the minorities - the victims of the white supremacist, misogynistic, abusive and hypocritical fundamentalist patriarchy - will have to seek sanctuary to survive... no I can't see how this could be reflecting real life right now, and how 'Amazons Attack' could be viewed as a cautionary tale for our own looming chaotic and dystopic political landscapes, what could possibly make you think that?
'Amazons Attack' also stars Queen Faruka of the Bana-Mighdall, an Amazonian tribe, Yara Flor of the Esquecida Amazonian tribe, Mary Marvel, aka Mary Bromfield, an Amazon ally and therefore a target and enforced public enemy number one, and her talking teleporting rabbit Hoppy, and later, Cassandra Sandsmark, aka one of the Wonder Girls. Nubia's lover Io is also there sometimes.
It is all about these brilliant superheroines, of different ethnicities, backgrounds, beliefs, religions or lack thereof, and sexual orientations, trying to do what is right and good in the face of the patriarchy and the corrupt American government. They are fighting for their right to exist, and in doing so they are saving their people, and the world, and I am here for it!
In spite of the infuriating and devasting real world-adjacent politics going on, 'Amazons Attack' is very fun, action-packed, good-natured at heart, brisk, breezy, and lighthearted and hilarious in places (like Cassie's character, and Mary to a degree, and it has a talking teleporting rabbit, come on!). Levity, chances to breath, these are needed in a dark, anxiety-inducing, world-saving plot like this one. These lively, upbeat moments are what I remember, alongside the moments that genuinely shocked me to my core, as a balance. The comic knows when to have fun as it's telling a story about superheroes and badass warrior women. And a talking teleporting bunny rabbit.
This is what I read comics books for. 'Amazons Attack' doesn't get too bogged down in politics and talking heads to the point where I wonder where the plot is going - even where the plot is - and the superheroes are inactive, even passive, making a tense, near hopeless situation even worse, and I want to say, "You are superheroes! With decades of experience! What are you doing?"
Looking at you, 'Wonder Woman: Outlaw'.
With 'Amazons Attack', I have not had so much fun, and I have not been so emotionally invested, in reading a modern day 'Wonder Woman' comic run. I have not cared so much. It's a gigantic relief.
At best the 'Trial of the Amazons' stuff was meh, and at worst it was confusing and convoluted AF. I didn't like 'Wonder Woman: Outlaw', nor the 'Future State' event. The only other modern 'Amazons' comic storyline I came to remotely liking is 'Nubia & the Amazons'.
I get what DC is trying to do with Wonder Woman and the Amazons; what they are trying to say, and trying to build up to. But writing-wise it does not always succeed. Too much politics, too much dialogue and exposition, can ruin a comic. Remember, writers, that you are writing about superheroes, too! Younger audiences are reading your comics, as well as older generations longing for the good old, good-vs-evil action days - remember to have fun, too! Remember to enjoy yourselves, so the readers will also enjoy themselves. Don't overwhelm your readers, and give them reasons to care about what's going on, without inundating them with everything being so dark and bleak and hopeless.
But regardless, in this comic and the rest, I love Nubia, the queer POC feminist icon, a literal queen who slays, who is strong in many ways. I adore her arc as Queen of the Amazons, despite being dumped in the worst possible time to be the queen, and left to clean up the mess... the mess she made, but it wasn't entirely her fault. She had the best intentions.
I think this is the only comic where I feel Yara Flor is given the justice she deserves. (Read my review of 'Nubia & the Amazons' (link above) for more info). I really like Mary Marvel, too, and this is coming from someone who didn't like 'The New Champion of Shazam!', of which 'Amazons Attack' works as a sequel to (don't worry, this is in fact relevant to the main story and is not convoluted), and was also written by Josie Campbell. Great job, Josie! Cassie Sandsmark is a blast - literally!
'Amazons Attack' is a huge breath of fresh air, for the 'Wonder Woman/Amazons' storylines, and for current DC Comics. Hope, fun, cleverness, thought, and cultural relevance are back!
It is not perfect - there is an Amazonian/Esquecidian oracle character, Anahi, who is important at the beginning, but then goes missing halfway through, without explanation, and she is never seen or mentioned again. And the revelation of the twist villain, and their motivation, don't make a lot of sense, and this leaves a few holes... and highly questionable retcons.
But the climax, ultimately, is awesome, empowering and feminist.
It contains - no, it shouts out - one particular message, one important angle in feminism, that needs to be considered by everyone:
Do not join - do not associate with - a cause, a group, a community, a religion, etc, that requires you to be lesser than you are in order for it to function.
Do not join anything that makes you feel small and not good enough.
Do not join anything that deliberately keeps you from the light in its darkness
Join a community, a cause, that makes you you, that encourages and loves the whole of you.
Because you are enough. You deserve better.
You deserve to be free. To live freely and safely.
You represent you. All of you.
You belong in the world.
You are the world. Let that world know you are not going anywhere.
It is absolutely uplifting and hopeful that DC seems to still have its shit together, when the rest of the world seems to be turning upside-down, and causing its own destruction in throwing away basic human rights, decency, morals, ethics, and sense of justice and goodwill, in keeping with the (still being avoided) consequences of late-stage capitalism, and adhering to a desperate and dying, regressive, archaic patriarchy.
That 'ARE YOU HARBORING AMAZONS IN YOUR HOME? ' propaganda flyer at the beginning of issue 4 really made my blood boil. It is sick and twisted what the patriarchy's - and by extension, fundamentalist Christianity's - idea of a "good girl" is. Good girls should be silent, unless it is to tattle on those big, scary, aggressive, too independent, too smart, and rebellious Amazons and Amazon sympathisers, or any female human who dares to express those human qualities. Good girls - the ideal female - should only exist to serve men. To obey men. There really are men - and women! - who still think like that.
Another quick mention: 'Amazons Attack' is, thank goodness, nothing like the infamous, bloody terrible 'Amazons Attack!' comic from the mid 2000s.
Terrific and horrific. Light and dark. Hopeful and hopeless. 'Amazons Attack' is a harrowing, intense story, and a demand for justice for all women, for all people. An exhale of relief - and a battle cry. And a damn good superheroine comic.
Diana isn't in it, as she's off doing her own thing relating to the global persecution of "foreign" and "immigrant" Amazons in Tom King's comic run, but good writing has managed it so this doesn't hinder the comic one bit. It is a gem.
I have called myself a feminist, an independent woman, a witch, a sorceress, a magical girl, a superheroine, an ally, an openminded philanthropist - anything that the patriarchy would hate and fear, and has hated and feared irrationally for forever now - and now I am proud to call myself an Amazon, to add to my identity.
Phew!
How exhausting. But the fight is far from over...
Final Score: 4/5
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