'It takes a village to raise a warrior - and the Amazons have their hands full with Diana.'
A surprisingly charming little children's DC comic about Wonder Woman as a child on Themyscira, especially after reading a similar comic from 2024, 'Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana', which is so bizarre, confusing and all over the place (a shame considering Paulina Gaunucheau's great artwork).
'Diana and the Hero's Journey' is a simple tale with no high stakes. There isn't any real danger or threat. It is about little Princess Diana of the Amazons getting up to shenanigans, and interacting with one Amazon after another, each with their own unique personality and skills, and who each tell their own version of a famous Amazon story and legend, 'Hero's Journey', about Hero, the first hero.
Diana becomes desperate to know how the legendary Hero's story ends - really ends - as she's handed off (or she leaves of her own volition) from one job to another, one Amazon to another, in preparation for a festival celebrating Hero, which she initially, inadvertently destroys, via scaring her pet goat Phyllis, at the beginning of the comic (yes, that happens).
'Diana and the Hero's Journey' is a story about stories, and how they can shape people in their childhood. Maybe this hero's journey will help shape Diana into becoming the beloved, iconic superheroine we all know and love today...
'Diana and the Hero's Journey' is similar to 'Wonder Woman: The True Amazon', only far less tragic. Even the artwork is identical, if more cartoony. Diana is such a brat here, too, though she is a lot younger than she is in 'The True Amazon', so it's easier to understand and let it slide.
Diana is a regular child. A spoiled, boisterous, hyperactive, curious princess raised among warrior women, who is absolutely obsessed with punching things. She thinks violence and punching your problems away are the only solutions to everything in life, and the adult Amazons around her, individually and together, will she show her that no, there is more to being an Amazon than fighting. The Amazonian sisters will achieve this through storytelling.
As vastly different as the rascally, arrogant, aggressive young Diana is from the warm, kind, loving Wonder Woman we generally know, she is not all bad. She's funny, playful, inquisitive, apologetic when she needs to be, and tries to obey her elders some of the time. One of her goals throughout the comic is finding a gift to give to her mother, Queen Hippolyta.
Like I said, she is just a kid. A kid living in a small, secluded environment where she can do anything and go explore anywhere within those limits. She is surrounded by cool warrior women who are often too busy for her, including her mother to an extent, and who are more her teachers than companions... and she's the only child on her entire island. Her only real friend is her goat Phyllis, who she projects her true emotions onto to hide her own hurt feelings - I've known children who have done this with their pets and toys!
Looking at these factors, of course Diana is an attention seeker and troublemaker, looking for anything to be exciting about, to boost her ego, and sense of validation and importance. The child who doesn't know any better will subtly grow and develop by the end of the comic.
She will learn that there is more to being an Amazon than punching.
'Diana and the Hero's Journey' is, ultimately, about how the Amazons - the sisterhood, the culture, the functioning society - are all about community, support, and being there for each other, and working together. And taking responsibility for your actions. And when it comes to stories and legends, sometimes the truest version of events - the truth, period - is hard to find, hard to pin down, hard to interpret and agree on. But as long as you can find your truth in it, and learn from it, that's what matters overall.
It's a sweet and hilarious children's comic, and the OTT art grew on me. I love the 'Hero's Journey' storytelling segments with their own different art styles, moods and tones, and the ones featuring the traditional Wondy (as Hero) are fantastic, and nostalgic. It's not a saving-Themyscira-and-the-world crisis Wonder Woman story, and it barely counts as an adventure, nor is it an actual hero's journey (though it could be for Diana, as an understated metaphor). But it is a nice bottle episode from Diana's youth. Her energetic, blooming, not-so-humble youth.
Plus, the legendary heroine from 'Hero's Journey' being literally named Hero - a stand-in and inspiration for Wonder Woman - and the comic being about women telling empowering stories to one another, reminds me of my favourite graphic novel of all time, 'The One Hundred Nights of Hero', so there's that for a personal recommendation!
True, I recommend 'Diana and the Hero's Journey', by Grace Ellis and Penelope Rivera Gaylord, if you like 'Wonder Woman: The True Amazon', 'Diana: Princess of the Amazons', and 'Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons'. They are awesome, young pre-Wonder Woman Diana books (avoid the rubbish 'Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana', though, and I dislike 'Wonder Woman: Warbringer' and 'Diana and the Island of No Return', too. Still, they are better than Brian Azzarello's New 52 run on Wonder Woman.)
Final Score: 3.5/5
P.S. As obsessed with punching as Diana is in this, it is nothing compared to the Amazon Tal's obsession with horses.
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