Amazon: Steel of a Soldier's Heart

Posted: Saturday, June 17
By: Ray Tate

Writer: Bill Williams Artist: Rob Phipps, Bill Williams(i), Sam de la Rosa(i)

Publisher: Lone Star Press

Plot: Amazon introduces herself to the world.

The first reaction people will have is that this is just Wonder Woman in a new uniform. Wonder Woman was not the first archetype of the strong women. Not counting the actual warrior women of history--no, I don't mean Xena, Pat Savage from Doc Savage deserves that honor. His cousin was strong and tough. She often carried a pair of brass knuckles when her strength alone wasn't enough to defeat her and her cousin's foes.

A few years later came Nellie Gray, the Avenger's devastating female aid. You can argue Wonder Woman was the first super-powered female hero, but she did have precursors. The story of this latest Savage follower begins on a nameless alien world where an exotic woman enters a protected chamber. The shadow-work on the city at night is strong, and the alien beauty though bearing conventional casaba-like attributes is never the less proportionate and muscular.

The first page in any book is a hook. For this one, I'm biting. An oath sets off the sequential artwork and gives the character more depth. The prayer continues as the beauty enters her chamber and crosses to an ultramodern terrace. At this point, the artist's camera closes in on her face and realistic expression. Something is clearly affecting her, and the mystery combined with the dimension in her narration draws the reader further into the story. Page three and four offer the reader a purposeful scene in which the protagonist changes clothing. She throws her crown; she reveals her muscle. She stands in battle gear. Amazon is impressive, and the scene is in the book for more than the exploitation of flesh.

The scene depicts contempt as well as reluctance. The panels do not linger on her skin nor do they offer a trite band-by-band focus on the change. An alarm rings on page five. Amazon in a slow stride approaches the bleeping device and explodes furiously. The flow of action exhibits continuity. No words are needed within the panels, and none are given. This visual fluidity continues throughout the story. The reader still only has an inkling of what occurs. This is not because of any lack in the artwork or writing. Both are tugging you forward, impelling you to find out. The story takes its time to develop the characters. The artwork slightly nudges out the writing when an officer first mistakes Amazon for a "cadet."

Here Amazon puts on a look of genuine innocence as she allows the officer to jump to his own conclusions, but the soldier does not stay dumb for long. He recognizes her as "the little princess," and the reader marvels to second show of the hero's power. Her purpose we discover is to take a ship. Of her ultimate goals, we can only guess. Okay. In summary this is what we think we know. Amazon is an alien princess who seeks a modicum of freedom in her ship. She's super-strong--when compared to a human, but she's ridiculed by her own people for reasons yet to be understood. The book hasn't even begun, yet we have learned much without needless exposition. Rather, Amazon represents an old-school style of comic book storytelling. It's more visual. The words are there to compliment not overwhelm. The POV cuts to that of another warrior woman. In her body language, you can easily identify her as the leader. Her dialogue full of arrogance confirms the representation. At this point the comparison to Wonder Woman becomes more honest, yet Mr. Williams rather than plagiarize employs the reduction of that more familiar tale. He molds the very basics. Essentially this is the story about a daughter defying the wishes of her mother, but these are the only similarities the two heroic origins share.

Amazon has no ties to the Greek myths. The consequences for her actions are more deadly; Diana can return to Paradise Island, and the Steve Trevor aspect has been entirely and thankfully dropped. The scene itself is far more motivated by emotions. From Amazon's reaction we see a communication problem between she and her mother, but through Robb Phipps' moving panels we also see a mother who cares about her daughter, though not enough to forsake her culture. We still can only make inferences as to the nature of that culture, but this does not matter. The definitions are unnecessary since the culture serves only for future issues and to give Amazon an anchored background. We of course know where the ship will land, or in this case, crash, and you're little cliché alarms should be going off when there just happens to be a slab of beef in the vicinity of the wreck. Mr. Williams is however aware of the underlying triteness of this start on earth. He thus adds novelty with a few common sensibilities. Amazon wears a clumsy space suit. She doesn't remove it until she sees the Terran walking and breathing. She does not speak English. She knows what clothes are, and Mr. Phipps should be commended since Amazon is pure bodybuilder beautiful which goes against the nauseating tradition of depicting women--strong women included--as waspwaisted stick figures possessing horsey legs.

Amazon struts with a quality of muscle few male heroes can flex. A body such as Amazon's would indeed prove too much for somebody else's mis-sized clothing, but again, there's no cheesecake. It's more like a rational understanding of what such proportions mean. I'm sure Rachel McLeish--female bodybuilder extraordinaire'--has with her powerful legs split at least one pair of pants. She-Hulk only gained a fashion sense when she had the access to unstable molecules and Janet Van Dyne's imagination. If we didn't get the back story of Amazon, it would be easily to pass her off as the big dumb strong girl, but it definitely reads more like a stranger in a strange land. Her confusion for instance at being the object of a lecherous party in the mind shared by a half a dozen rednecks rings true because such crass behavior is their norm. Amazon's show of strength against them indeed displays remarkable restraint and marks her, more than her costume, as one of the good guys. Even so, her actions allow another an opening to slake his thirst, and Amazon becomes the suspect in "multiple homicides." The suspicions create a rift between Amazon and her "beau." Again, you side with Amazon who is rightly peeved. How dare he think such things about her. When originally reading the scene, I misidentified it as politically correct sensitive new age guy hogwash. Instead, this sets up a twist we do not discover until the near end.

The schism between she and her friend also allows the reader to see Amazon back in her own element and making reasonable deductive leaps. She knows she did not murder the oglers, but something did. She does not focus on her friend's foolish misguided beliefs. She ignores it all and gets down to business in tracking down the creature before it kills again. That's hero material. The trick creation of the villain of the piece though fairly novel comes out of nowhere. I would have preferred some foreshadowing, but when the creature explodes, the artwork takes on the look of a big-budget movie. These are well thought out forms of battle. The villain's dialogue draws the reader's pity as well as fits the character. The battle between hero and villain is exciting, and it's more than a slugfest since high emotions as well as veiled strategies come into play. "Steel of a Soldier's Heart" takes a traditional archetype and successfully recreates it into a strong character in her own right. The backdrop of the more sophisticated twentieth century is used to the fullest advantage to provide unique twists, and the faith the team has in its product can be seen in the price.

At ten dollars cheaper than the average trade paperback, the book is tagged to move. However, when buying the book you are not cheated out of artwork or a strength in storytelling.