By Mike Badilla

Last we left off, WW just did some adventuring in a cave saving some kids from being sacrificed to some weird ol' ancient God, all the while being accompanied by some cheetah woman that was once a regular ol' woman. Not that women are regular, they're all amazing and beautiful creatures and deserve respect. This issue starts in a mansion, with a man angrily explaining to his child's teacher that she is not to be teaching his daughter about Greek mythology, as it is imaginary and imaginations are not good for children's growth or whatever. The woman tries to explain that his daughter is super smart and cool, but that dad doesn't even care. No way, mythology. We are then flashbacked* to a time many years ago when Mrs. Cavendish, the teacher, is just a wee little girl, or maybe a teen, doing as all teen girls do; running around with a cardboard sword and shield and doing some hardcore LARPing action, when she is suddenly called away to have some time with his lordship, who has beckoned her.

*Upon further review, a poorly placed "many years ago" made me think it was a flashback, but it's not. It's telling you that this whole story is a flashback. The little girl is Barbara Ann, the daughter of the angry man, student of the woman. Barbara is called in to speak to her father. He explains that he and the teacher, Mrs. Cavendish, have decided that although she is a good student there will be no time for horseplay and being a cool LARPing kid anymore, and he throws her cardboard weapons in the roaring fireplace. My thought here: they live inside a giant mansion, shouldn't there be a real sword and shield around?

We jump now to Scythian/Sarmation Dig, which is apparently around Ukraine somewhere. A group of men are discussing their recently discovered underground tomb that included only women remains, and discuss the implications of such a place belonging to the ancient amazons. The only woman of the group interjects and joins the conversation while taking a shot of liquor. She then complains about the rain, and decides to call it a night. Later that evening the woman, Dr. Minerva, is awoken by something and leaves her tent and heads into the tomb, as she is sure one of the men headed in to explore without her. She stumbles upon a different area that was sealed up the day before, only to find the resting place of the 12th queen of the amazons. SUDDENLY there is a rumbling and the cave collapses, with the doctor barely escaping. The men are all outside and agree that the excavation is over, but the doctor will not have it as she has just discovered that cool amazon tomb. The head man doesn't care and calls the end of the operation.

We move ahead to man finding the doctor getting wasted in a bar. He has been looking for her for a while. The doctor discusses the findings of the tomb and shows him the pictures she had taken of it on her phone before the cave in, and she falls out her bar stool and onto the floor. The man is gone, and so is her phone. She tries to contact the man, who she knows as a local contractor, to try to retrieve her phone when she discovers that one of the details she remembers from the tomb is actually constellations, thus leading her to one of the other 11 tombs. Then some weird supernatural stuff happens.

I don't know what's going on, who these people are or where the story is going. Wonder Woman wasn't in this book, and she is my main drive for why I picked this book. I understand that clearly they're building some backstory and what not, which is cool, I get that. Even the doctor was cool in the sense that she kind of had that whole Tomb Raider thing going for her. The art was good, but inconsistent. Even from the first page, for example, the teacher's face looked gross and somehow unnatural, while everyone else looked fine. The colors were good, things like the doctor's boots and her motorcycle looked visually good. The story and dialogue were your typical Indiana Jones type story just with amazons included, so we'll just have to see where they're headed. I wasn't really pumped with the last issue. I'm more hopeful with this issue, but I need it to get better for me to hang on.

Score: 3/5

Wonder Woman #8
Writers: Greg Rucka
Artists: Bilquis Evely
Publisher: DC Comics