But on the other hand, Johnson’s script fails to mine the themes it introduces, opting instead for spectacle and mythological ideas. There are kernels of something deeply profound here—of what it means to be a victim, a perpetrator, of the consequences we carry with us and our inability to absolve ourselves of them—but the surface of them is merely scratched. The world of “Dead Earth” is a more extreme, mystically-infused take on a global apocalypse, with the world destroyed through war and something called “The Great Fire.” And while humanity’s violence is the cause of Earth’s sudden destruction, Johnson also has human-created environmental catastrophe play a role in our doom. The earth is fragile and humankind’s destructive nature, on both a short-term and long-term scale, has consequences. The world that limps on in the aftermath is a sort of feudal nightmare, with few holding power and the rest in service to the whims of brutal men. In the wake of nuclear annihilation, Wonder Woman wakes up from a centuries-long sleep in a contrivance pod, I mean a sleep pod, to find the world has changed quite a bit while she’s been napping! Dangers are everywhere as she leads the surviving humans to her old home, Themyscira for... Reasons - but is Paradise Island the refuge she believes it to be? Johnson’s art isn’t terrible, the grimy style just isn’t very appealing to me. This is also the homeliest-looking Wonder Woman I’ve ever seen - she’s Wonder Cavewoman and I don’t know why. Not that she has to look like a supermodel but she does have an established look that’s consistent across her numerous appearances and this is nothing like that. Now it’s not only humanity that Diana must question her trust in, but herself – who has become the cause of her own worst nightmare.

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth - BGCP Comic Con Review - Wonder Woman: Dead Earth - BGCP Comic Con

Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Diana vomits after finding Superman's corpse, plus learning that she killed him, although Shadow Discretion Shot is also in play. Dirty, gritty, raw artworks made me esitant to read this one, but in the end they turned out as perfect ones painting a dying earth and a battered unpowered Diana, so different from the usual over-sexualized pin-up one, sadly characters faces seemed too much childish to me sometimes. If we will inevitably lose everything, what will we do with the time we have? Will you reach out to others? Will you fight for what’s good in the world? Diana is woken from suspended animation to find a destroyed world. No spoilers, but part of her journey is discovering what caused the destruction and the agents behind the even more death and destruction in a devastated world. It seems as though most people thought this was an incredible story. I just thought it was a Mad Max story with superheroes. And to be very honest, I've never really liked Mad Max.The Great Fire: The apocalypse that destroyed the world is referred to as "The Great Fire", which was the result of Diana — sent into the most furious she's ever been following Themyscira getting completely nuked— delivering the mother of all beatdowns on Superman ( as he was indirectly responsible for its fate), which was so superhumanly fast and brutal that not only did it successfully kill him, it ignited the atmosphere, exploding the world. Because Diana is made from the earth, she is forever linked to the world, even when it’s rejected by Hippolyta. And in being given incredible power, she is strong enough to make that world fragile.

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth by Daniel Warren Johnson | Goodreads Wonder Woman: Dead Earth by Daniel Warren Johnson | Goodreads

Part of the reason this setting works so soundly is because Daniel Warren Johnson, who plays double duty as both author and artist, uses the harsh world to contrast and highlight Diana’s character brilliantly. The princess of Themyscira is both compassionate and brutally ruthless in combat. Relatively early in the story, she deposes the aforementioned dictator of this society of survivors, but she chooses not to kill him, instead jailing him and even offering him a chance to help her lead. In one particularly memorable scene while Diana is imprisoned by the people she thought would be her new allies, one of her captors incredulously questions a statement she makes about loving all of humanity, even when they betray her. Still, Wonder Woman doesn't let Batman die in vain. While Batman may very well have insured her survival by placing her in the chamber in the Batcave, Wonder Woman honors her friend's memory by taking one of his signature yellow utility belts and adopting it as part of her post-apocalyptic costume. There are lots of great moments making this one allmost a five stars read, but I'm afraid I had to be far more familiar with Wonder Woman character to give that score. The Great Fire was an enraged and unrestrained Wonder Woman fighting Superman at high speeds, leading to other places on Earth getting destroyed in the process. Diana's strength greatly weakened due to her burnout from the fight. https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/12/20/jim-lee-and-daniel-warren-johnson-talk-wonder-woman-dead-earth

There’s a kind of innate trust created by a mother and her child at birth. The lifegiver and the fragile life that depends on her. And there’s a trust that an innocent child places in the world before they know how deeply they can be hurt by it. Wonder Woman like you've never seen her before--fighting monsters in a postapocalyptic Earth, as brought to life in a daring sci-fi epic by visionary writer and artist Daniel Warren Johnson! If nothing else, it’s perfectly clear that Johnson understands Wonder Woman as a concept. She occupies a similar space to Superman (who does make an appearance, of a sort), in that she represents the best of us. An ideal to be striven towards. Unlike most incarnations of the man of steel, however, Diana is also deeply human and flawed, and the balance between these two sides is portrayed masterfully as the story plays out.

WONDER WOMAN: DEAD EARTH | DC

Sequel Hook: In the final issue, Diana regains her full power and finds one of her gauntlets to keep her powers under control again. However, she needs to find the other one to activate the limiter, and she also vows to find her mother and make peace with her.

The seemingly inevitable destruction of the Earth is contrasted with Diana’s immortality, and Wonder Woman’s love of Earth and its fragile, self-destructive nature are in play with one another through “Dead Earth.” Really, this is a story of learning to love the world again when everything you love has been stripped away and how we choose to treat one another when nothing is left. DeadEarthis what happens when you plop Diana of Themiscyra’s mythos into apocalyptian high fantasy.”—Den of Geek