Wonder Woman: Heartless - Audio Novel (Spoilers)

[I'm a Fish]

A new Audio Drama on Serial Box started a couple weeks ago. It only has 2 chapters out right now, and new chapter comes out every Thursday.

https://www.serialbox.com/shows/wonder-woman

This is going to be a spoiler thread. I'm just going to go over a little of what I read so far (with some of my own feelings mixed in) so you can check it out if you are interested. (I didn't listen to the audio part, I just read it myself because I like reading myself, so I cannot speak on the quality of the voice acting )

Short Summary:

The main characters so far are Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (naturally) and Barbara Minerva.

The main plot is basically a supernatural murder mystery. Two sisters are murdering well known and despised public figures and so far they're all men (one was a Senator named Mitch, HA!). They die through the supernatural means of having their hearts ripped out (cuz they're heartless, get it?).

The sub plot is the slow-burn of Barbara turning into Cheetah.

I should mention the book draws clear inspersion from WW84, Rucka's Rebirth run and a liiiitle of New 52 (only in one aspect though, which I will get too).

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I want to go over the characters because Diana and Barbara have a unique relationship in this book, which is the main draw so far (again there are only 2 chapters out right now).

Ironically, Diana has less screen time than Barbara in the first 2 chapters, since the 1st chapter divides the PoV between the murderers and Diana, while the 2nd chapter is devoted entirely to Barbara. Because of this, I can't quite tell how well written Diana is yet, she defiantly not out of character and seems to be basically Gadot's Diana. Diana has a secret identity and has to change location every few years, because of this she has no close friends, except Barbara who has known her true identity for the better part of a decade. Barbara (because of her money) often helps Diana relocate every few years, so the two stay in touch. I have no idea if Diana is an immoral or how long she has been operating as Wonder Woman. The first 2 chapters don't have any Wonder Woman action either.

Barbara is mostly Rebirth Barbara, with some of WW84 mixed in. She's in her late 20's and is a reendowed archeologist, who also buys (and maybe sells) artifacts on the black market. Which is how she comes across a certain knife (New 52) that she willingly cuts herself with because the knife has writing on it that it will give power in exchange for blood (ew Barbara, that's how you get infections). So being Diana's friend for a decade hasn't stopped her from being a crooked archeologist. (She is also very clearly jealous of Diana, no idea how Diana doesn't notice but she's pure like that.) Interestingly enough though, you can tell their friendship is real.

How Barbara and Diana met is really weird in this book. She has known Diana since she was 13 years old and was already assisting in archeological digs by then due to her being a natural polyglot. Her father was a huge jerk and belittled Barbara's archeological pursuits until Barbara was able to locate a magical key that can drain a persons life energy to increase the users own lifespan. Barbara's dad started draining Barbara's life energy (wow) nearly killing his own daughter in the process, but Wonder Woman show's up and stops him, that was how the two met. (My own thoughts on this is that's it's kind of weird. Usually Barbara is older than Diana, at least physically older anyway. But if they are going with how old Diana was in Perez's run, Diana could have been 18 when they met, but I don't know yet.)

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That aside, I'm not sure if I can recommend it yet. I found Diana herself to be a little stale and her character shines the most when she interacts with Barbara. Barbara's slow-burn transformation into Cheetah is the most interesting part of the story so far. I don't know if the other villains are well written yet because they are hardly in the first 2 chapters.

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I'll write updates when knew chapters come out. But if you read it, what do you think?

[Gaius]

Yeah, bit of a weird hodgepodge where it feels like Gadot’s WW interacting with the Rebirth version of Barbara.

I don’t listen to much “audio fiction” but I listened to the first episode, or “chapter”, since it was free and found it to interesting enough. The free sample of the second part focusing on Barbara seemed good.

[Largo161]

Thanks, OP, for,the summary. It prompted me to give chapter one a listen. I’m intrigued. The writing and narration are compelling. I’m surprised Diana doesn’t have an accent, though. Gadot has got me expecting her to have one.

Diana’s characterization, so far, seems somber. Quietly Tragic Diana isn’t my favorite version. Also, I still don’t understand why Diana is this wandering figure. She keeps moving so people won’t discover she’s Diana Prince? Other heroes with secret IDs aren’t forced to do that.

[Gaius]

Thanks, OP, for,the summary. It prompted me to give chapter one a listen. I’m intrigued. The writing and narration are compelling. I’m surprised Diana doesn’t have an accent, though. Gadot has got me expecting her to have one.

Diana’s characterization, so far, seems somber. Quietly Tragic Diana isn’t my favorite version. Also, I still don’t understand why Diana is this wandering figure. She keeps moving so people won’t discover she’s Diana Prince? Other heroes with secret IDs aren’t forced to do that.

I think it’s probably because she’s also immortal in this like in the DCEU films.

[Largo161]

I think it’s probably because she’s also immortal in this like in the DCEU films.

Oh, yeah... That does make some sense. Although I don’t think that’s an angle worth emphasizing. I don’t want lonely, nomadic Diana to be a WW trope. Just ignore the fact that she doesn’t age —unless you’re telling a story set in the distant past or future—the same way we ignore the fact that characters aren’t aging in real time in other books.

[I'm a Fish]

I'll definitely update this thread when the audio book is done. I had to buy the whole thing anyway to read chapter 2 .

[Gaius]

Oh, yeah... That does make some sense. Although I don’t think that’s an angle worth emphasizing. I don’t want lonely, nomadic Diana to be a WW trope. Just ignore the fact that she doesn’t age —unless you’re telling a story set in the distant past or future—the same way we ignore the fact that characters aren’t aging in real time in other books.

It's not my preferred take either since it kind of comes off as DC cribbing Captain America's gimmick.

[I'm a Fish]

Chapter 3 came out (even though the site says the come out of Thursday).

I'd just though I'd update that I felt this was the best chapter yet. They introduced a character named Jill Carlyle (who I never heard of till now) and she is a PoV character as well, so if this is a character you like I recommend this book, I though she was fun.

There is also an interesting character dynamic between Diana, Barbara and Jill. Since Jill his highly suspicious of Barbara (for obvious reasons) and Barbara is clearly acting off, it creates a bit of tension in the group that Diana has to middle-man. I also like their character interactions and the dialogue is also well written.

I also think the plot is interesting, it avoids being too predictable. There isn't much Wonder Woman-ing, like she's not using her powers too much, but it's a book so there isn't going to be whole lot of action (maybe it will get more action heavy). It seems to be more of a character driven story.

There are some gods in this book that Diana rarely interacts with (if ever) in the comics.

Also interesting to point out, it appears the overarching theme of this book is curses. Jill is cursed to be a spirit of vengeance, Barbara is cursed to become Cheetah, and Diana is cursed with immortality (she has the DCEU situation of wandering around for 100 years and has few connections, but she's not quite as somber as she is in the DCEU). I just thought that was interesting.



Also Diana had a car and was driving, lol. It just feels weird to read that.

[Psy-lock]

I hope it gets a graphic novel adaptation or even animated movie. Superheroes in a book format just don't appeal to me.

[Gaius]

Listening the second part since I bought this today, have to say it's bit weird after Gadot to hear Diana not having an accent since it feels a bit so far like an alternate WW84 and Barbara is still British here.

I hope it gets a graphic novel adaptation or even animated movie. Superheroes in a book format just don't appeal to me.

I could see a graphic novel adaptation but at the moment I don't see this being made an animated film since it's pretty light on the action stuff that's expected of those films (though that could obviously change in the later entries).

[Zahina]

Thanks, OP, for,the summary. It prompted me to give chapter one a listen. I’m intrigued. The writing and narration are compelling. I’m surprised Diana doesn’t have an accent, though. Gadot has got me expecting her to have one.

Diana’s characterization, so far, seems somber. Quietly Tragic Diana isn’t my favorite version. Also, I still don’t understand why Diana is this wandering figure. She keeps moving so people won’t discover she’s Diana Prince? Other heroes with secret IDs aren’t forced to do that.

So Diana being immortal is her struggle and character flaw?

[Largo161]

So Diana being immortal is her struggle and character flaw?

That appears to be the angle.

[I'm a Fish]

So Diana being immortal is her struggle and character flaw?

It's more so the reason why she is lonely, it's not really portrayed as a flaw. She has other character flaws that have nothing to do with her being immoral.

One example being her inability to see how shifty Barbara is because she's her friend.