Wonder Woman Battles Max Lord & A.R.E.S. in Earth One Return

As Grant Morrison wraps up his sprawling multiversal epic in The Green Lantern (presumably with issue #12 in February, if the schedules line up), the architect of the modern DC Metaverse will also be finishing his foray into Earth One. Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3, the finale of Morrison and Yanick Paquette’s multi-year graphic reimagining will be arriving in stores this march.

Volume three picks up right where the last story left off. After successfully beating back Uberfraulein, the leader of an invading Nazi force who the Amazons attempted to rehabilitate after her capture, Wonder Woman has become queen of the Amazons. Diana is preparing her sisters for an attack from man’s world; specifically, government weapons dealer Max Lord and his A.R.E.S. armors. She’s determined to fight back against what she perceives as the god of war and try and bring Themiscyran values to the world of man.

Lord’s presence feels like slick timing, with the character featuring as the main villain in Wonder Woman 1984, hopefully already released by then. However, while Lord wasn’t the featured villain in volume two, he was a significant part of the story, and his role as main villain of this volume was pretty heavily foreshadowed at the end of the book. With that said, volume 1 of Wonder Woman: Earth One is one of the Wonder Woman books receiving a marketing push as part of WW84‘s pre-release hype, with ads in the back of every DC book that feature the first part of this story.

The Earth One books seem to have been extremely successful, both commercially and critically. The line gives creators a chance to reimagine DC’s stable of characters from the ground up. It’s included several volumes of Superman by J. Michael Stracynski and Shane Davis; Batman from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank; some excellent Teen Titans from Jeff Lemire and Terry and Rachel Dodson; and Corrina Betchko and Gabriel Hardman’s superlative Green Lantern books.

Morrison and Paquette’s take on Diana has been somewhat unique in modern times, leaning just as heavily into the bondage and submission themes as the mythology. Paquette’s art is incredibly intricate, with utterly mind blowing layouts and panel borders, and a level of detail and grace to the art that makes the wait between books worthwhile. The first two books are utterly gorgeous.

Wonder Woman: Earth One volume 3 is in stores on March 9, 2021, and available for preorder right now. For more on Wonder Woman: Earth One, the Wonder Woman from the movies, or Wonder Women from any corner of the metaverse, stick with Den of Geek!