wonder woman: dead earth by Daniel Warren Johnson

The Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war and something generations ago called The Great Fire. The remnants of human society have banded together to form Camp New Hope, and the survivors fight against radioactive creatures they refer to as Haedra. During one of these skirmishes, Diana is awoken from a machine where she has slumbered for centuries. She finds no familiar faces, just familiar skeletons of her fallen comrades. As she pieces together the nature of the disaster, she decides humanity’s best hope may be in venturing to Themyscira, which surely survived the nuclear war. 

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This is a gritty, violent title as many dystopian stories tend to be. Johnson also pushes Diana to her breaking point and explores the limits of heroism and sacrifice by exploring the warring relationship she has in her need to protect both humanity and the people of Themyscira at the same time. Johnson's illustrations are raw and include much viscera on page -- he holds no punches when drawing action sequences by detailing blood and entrails being spilled on panel. This heightens the gravity and the anxiety of the entire situation and imparts on the reader how difficult the survivability of this new world really is. There are many dystopian titles exploring different "what if"s out there, but Johnson's angle in this story provides something a little bit unique from other super hero dystopian stories.

DC Comics rates this for Teen, which is unusual for the Black Label that is usually reserved for more mature, adult titles. While the violence in this title is pretty gory, it isn't the only thing in the book, and there are deeper themes worth exploring that older teen readers will appreciate.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12, Adult

Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
ISBN: 9781779502612 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Suitability: Adult, Comicbooks, Dystopian, Action Adventure, Superheroes, Horror, Survival, DC Comics