Artemis: Wanted #1 Preview

[Gaius]

Well they are going with the take on Donna who was raised by Hippolyta and knows Artemis to have murdered her adopted mom so its pretty justified

Not saying she wasn't justified, just echoing bardkeep it's odd Diana wasn't here also but I assume that's probably because they wanted to avoid using the "just use the lasso" question.

[RedBird]

You know, with how Artemis had been depicted in Wonder Woman Earth 1 and even in that Orlando story in Wonder Womans 80th, I was kind of hoping for a more inclusive step towards making Artemis like half Themyscrian on her mothers side and half Egyptian or something.

Considering that within the lore, the Bana-Mighdall for centuries have lived and existed in a North African (Arab), Middle eastern region, I mean, did no one at DC think it was going to come off as a little questionable to turn the champion of the Bana-Mighdall into an American army brat?

[Shimbo]

You know, with how Artemis had been depicted in Wonder Woman Earth 1 and even in that Orlando story in Wonder Womans 80th, I was kind of hoping for a more inclusive step towards making Artemis like half Themyscrian on her mothers side and half Egyptian or something.

Considering that within the lore, the Bana-Mighdall for centuries have lived and existed in a North African (Arab), Middle eastern region, I mean, did no one at DC think it was going to come off as a little questionable to turn the champion of the Bana-Mighdall into an American army brat?

I have to agree that it seems...odd that so many of the most prominent Amazons are all white American women. It's almost GL levels of...coincidental. On the one hand, I like that any woman can be an Amazon. But did we really need this Artemis origin? If anything it was better when it was vague...

I still liked the issue, though.

[Primal Slayer]

I read it and it was ok.

The fact that they took Artemis and turned her into a generic white American whose parents were patriots is so disappointing. Of all the interesting origins to go with... they go with that one? It seems like a step backwards.

So she joins the Bana at a young age, leaves her former life behind and becomes one of the greatest Amazons alive...in a mere 20ish years? I assume she's late 20s/early 30s. I guess they went for the opposite of Diana in that way. Di leaves her people for Mans World and is open to adopting some of their ways while Artemis leaves Mans World for the Amazons and adopt their ways.

Donna.....the Donna of it all. Srry but i think they've done a great disservice to Donna this entire time. They really should've made her more involved in WW from the relaunch. She's overtly mad, out for blood, doesn't sound like herself, personality is different from Titans title or other guest appearances. We're shown her old origin is back in and her rebirth/new52 is out? She was saved from a fire as a baby by Di, joins TT, dies by robot Superman, resurrected in her black cosmic suit....and for some reason she denounces the Themiscryians and now claims the Bana as her people? Still don't understand why. She doesn't even seem to view Hippolyta as her mother.

Cassie...she's the most consistent lol. Still the empathic Detective that is treated like she's 14/15. Her being a demi-goddess is largely ignored yet again. The closest ties to the God's and its nilly whilly.

We wrap up this "hunt" for Artemis by her almost being slain by Donna only for Hippolyta to intervene and be like "its all a lie!!"....ok. Love her goddess look. What she said was interesting but...how do the Amazons no longer have a patron on their side in Olympus? Artemis gone? Aphrodite gone? Athena gone? Maybe we'll find out in her one shot but...a lot of things feel rushed and not set up the best they could be.

Artemis has a new power and deemed 'Keeper of Magic' for the Amazons.

Donna is 'Keeper of Soul' for the Amazons.

Cassie is 'Keeper of Empathy' for the Amazons.

What's interesting is now Diana is the only main character who was born and raised amongst the Amazons.

Donna/Cassie/Artemis are kind of outsiders brought in.

Yara has an Amazon mother but hidden from them.

Nubia was birthed from the well of souls centuries after the Amazons were on the island and her past life seems to be a bigger part of her overall character.

Even if im not enjoying all of this Amazon stories we got going on right now (it all seems rushed) i do enjoy that they are getting more attention, multiple titles, and are able to interact more (though Diana is srsly lacking that w/all of them). Hopefully this continues to get better and better.

[Psy-lock]

"A white American girl joins a Egyptian tribe and becomes the bestest of them all" sounds like something from the last century.

[bardkeep]

I have to agree that it seems...odd that so many of the most prominent Amazons are all white American women. It's almost GL levels of...coincidental. On the one hand, I like that any woman can be an Amazon. But did we really need this Artemis origin? If anything it was better when it was vague...

I still liked the issue, though.

I think they pretty clearly established that any woman can become an Amazon in one of the first scenes in Trial of the Amazons. It really is difficult to justify and beyond disappointing, especially when we've already been burned with Yara the "Brazilian" Wonder Girl being a woman of indigenous Brazilian descent from Idaho. Still better than what we just got with Artemis but still...

It's especially jarring now that the Themyscirans and the Bana are depicted as so diverse and there's an entire indigenous South American tribe. It feels like they're basically shoving all of the prominent nonwhite Amazons into Nubia's book and calling it a day. An easy fix could be putting one of them on Diana's team in her book, which they kinda need to do anyway - she feels way too disconnected from the Amazons right now and doesn't have enough prominent female friendships.

I do feel like they have a lot of flexibility with Donna though. It looks like they're going with the "rescued from a burning building" origin where she has no blood relation to Diana or Hippolyta, but the details of that are ambiguous so she could really come from anywhere. Plus making her from Latin America or western Asia and giving her darker skin and eyes would make it easier to visually distinguish her from Diana without requiring any major changes to her design. I doubt DC would do it but just a thought...

[SonOfBaldwin]

So, it turns out that I was correct:

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...81#post6055581

This was what I imagined would happen all along. It seemed pretty clear from the Bana-Mighdall backups in the main Wonder Woman book that the Amazons had a long term strategy that involved Hippolyta transcending (via Artemis’s actions); Atalanta and Antiope handling Doom’s Doorway; Nubia’s modern/evolved queendom; and the Amazon tribes uniting. These are chessboard moves. It seems like they are covering all of their basis in preparation for something big and dangerous.

And we have confirmation that Donna's origin is the original origin, where she's saved from the fire by Diana and brought to Themyscira to be raised as her adopted sister. Though, her attitude seems to be much more in line with the Donna that was created from Hippolyta's remains to destroy Diana. Maybe they kept that attitude to differentiate her, personality wise, from Diana, Cassie, Nubia, and Artemis?

"A white American girl joins a Egyptian tribe and becomes the bestest of them all" sounds like something from the last century.

OMG, so much this. Comic book creators really have to be careful about the "exceptional white person" and "white savior" tropes that are so pervasive in American media.

[Perseus]

Yeah, felt it was just ok too.

Firstly, the art was spectacular, I love the way each character was drawn and designed. I do miss Artemis with her full armored arms look that we got a shot of in Skylar's dream. Although I do find it odd that she doesn't wear bracelets like all the other amazons... what's with that?

Cassie while consistent is largely ignored imo. She really is only there to stop an OOC Donna from killing Artemis. I don't really have much to say on her except with her divine lineage also being ignored. With all these origin changes I'm wondering what Cassie's will be.

Donna, oh gods Donna, someone please just end her, she's gone through enough character assassination by this team already. I'm so sick of this character, she offers nothing but headaches right now. Who is Donna Troy? I don't care anymore, just make her go away.

Artemis being from America is a bummer, what is with the fascination of having the side characters all be from the outside world (America) and joining the amazons? Yara, Cassie, Donna, now Artemis. Nubia was at least on the island as long as Diana. What did this really add or accomplish anyway? Does Artemis coming from good old America make her past interactions with Diana any more rivalry? I don't think it does. Before we had Artemis more or less consider herself a serious amazon and that Diana was something else being, Diana was sculpted from clay, she was the new one, Artemis viewed herself as an elder, someone that was with the tribe from the beginning. I get that we are going through a character transformation, but what happens after the team leaves the book? Is this going to be a new status quo for the red rebel?

Hippolyta, I still have my own head cannon for her, glad she's moving up in the world, but "our allies on Olympus are few" line threw me off.

I really do not like how Ignored Diana is as well, if it was any other story beat whatever, but this is her mother.... why is Diana only mentioned in title as daughter? It's not like writers are bothering with the whole death of the justice league thing in their books.

all in all, I'd give this one-shot a 7.5/10. Was ok.

[Gaius]

Yeah, felt it was just ok too.

Firstly, the art was spectacular, I love the way each character was drawn and designed. I do miss Artemis with her full armored arms look that we got a shot of in Skylar's dream. Although I do find it odd that she doesn't wear bracelets like all the other amazons... what's with that?
.

Bana Amazons don't wear traditional bracelets like the Themysciran ones.

[Nyssane]

I liked it but I completely agree about the Artemis criticism.

[Sebastianne]

Okay, I agree with you that the North American origin is the worst thing that could have happened to her, I doubt that later we can say that that flag she is holding is from Australia or another place.
Apart from that and taking into account that it drags with the failed history of TotA, the positive thing is that it gives closure to that, we could make it that it did not exist and everything is settled for new adventures, with a new status quo in this era for Artemis, Donna and Hippolyta.
So I see it as a positive, and a starting point for something fresh and great for these beloved heroines.

[MarquisAsh]

I thought it was as ok as well. I wish Artemis would’ve been born an Amazon and maybe be a descendant from an Amazon from the past. I don’t see her being born human. Looks like Donna’s origin has been restored, but I do not like her being an Amazon of the bana tribe.

[AnakinFlair]

In an age where comic book companies routinely drag out events for more issues than they usually need, I have to say the most jarring thing about this issue is that it wrapped up the hunt for Artemis in one issue. I finished it and was like, 'Okay, well that happened..."

I thought it was a pretty good story, though it did have some issues. I agree it's a bad thing that they fell into the white savior trope with Artemis's origin. She should have just been born into the tribe. And Donna really got on my nerves. She wasn't acting like Donna; she was acting like a Dalek.

I'm loving the fact that Cassie has become the detective Amazon. It actually makes me want to read a team up book with Cassie and Tim as costumed teen detectives.

All in all a pretty good book, but I'm finding it hard to get invested in DC at the moment. Because who knows what will be reset when the latest Crisis is over. Probably half of these characters wont exist anymore or something.

[Stanlos]

Thank effing Gaea Donna's Pre-Stupid @$$ 52 origin is restored. That alone made it worth the nearly six American dollars. I am far less excited about the bland as my attemptd at cooking rice revision to Artemis origin. But hey. We have some cool foreshadowing of an upcoming event that promises to actually be epic (and please let it actually deliver).

So all in all I am more happy than sad
There were certainly problems (here's hoping Donna's loving and dutiful personality follows the return of her proper origin) but for me there's more to love than hate.

[Agent Z]

Confusion about the origin aside, I don't exactly see the issue with Donna being angry at Artemis for killing Hippolyta when she didn't know the reason why. Especially when you take into account her defending the Bana.