Hell to Pay, Part One

Future State: Wonder Woman (Volume 1) is a limited series published by DC Comics. DC Future State is a two-month event. It’s considered a direct sequel to Dark Nights: Death Metal, Future State is a future where younger heroes take the mantle from DC’s famous heroes. The event will have 24 titles published in January and February. Yara Flor is the new Wonder Woman. Unlike Diana, Yara originates from the Amazon Rainforest in South America. Like the original Wonder Woman, Yara is an Amazon. Future State: Wonder Woman opens with Yara hunting for the Hydra. She quickly decapitates it. However, the mythological creature’s ability to regenerate its head proves difficult. As Yara struggles with the Hydra, she calls for her pegasus, Jerry.

After she finally kills the beast, Yara takes its horn. She tells her “friend,” Caipora, that she intends to take the horn to the Underworld to “demand Hades return her sister warrior.” Caipora tells her she will not allow her to take the horn. Yara is defiant. Telling Caipora to “watch her.” Caipora offers a deal. If Yara leaves the horn, she will take her to the Underworld personally. In the New 52 Multiverse, we find the Underworld in the “metaphysical reality known as the Sphere of the Gods.” It includes all “lands of the dead”, and “prison dimensions.” In Future State: Wonder Woman, the Underworld resembles an airport, guarded by Cerberus. Once past the turnstile, they arrive at the river Styx. True to the myth, Charon, the ferryman demands a coin for payment or Charon’s obol.

Make way for Yara Flor, the new Wonder Woman

Yara has no such coin and steals one from the soul in front of her. When the soul realizes that they have robbed him, he attacks Yara. Preferring combat, Yara causes a ruckus, waking the Cerberus. Future State: Wonder Woman is a captivating comic. Wonder Woman is visually striking. I quickly fixated on the color pallet by Jordie Bellaire. The greens, yellows, and blue-greens contrast well with the red. On one page, Yara appears to exist in a 3D world. She’s centered, with the decapitated Hydra head in the foreground and a wall of plants in the background. The panels are dynamically placed, breathing life into the action. The storytelling is excellent. You get a sense of Yara’s and Caipora’s personalities quickly. They both have humor to them that plays off each other well.

The silhouette of Beyonce

Joelle Jones designed Yara well. According to Polygon, Jones based the hero on Beyonce. “Her performance costumes, to me, have such power behind the silhouettes,” Jones says of Beyonce. She arms Yara with a sword based on a shape of a spear tip found in Brazil. Yara uses boleadoras, a bola with three weights at the end of a rope. Used to entangle the legs of cattle, Jones claims that “Her bola acts more than a weapon of control.

She could control somebody to speak the truth, or control them in the way they think, or control their actions. It takes the Lasso of Truth and amps it up more.” Yara Flor is already resonating with audiences. A CW series is in the works and Yara will get an ongoing comic, Wonder Girl. Yara is an interesting character, that has an impressive design and Joelle Jones is an amazing artist that can craft a great story. Future State: Wonder Woman is just the beginning. I want to see what comes next.