Years before the birth of Princess Diana, a group of Amazons set out on a globe-spanning quest to find others of their kind, encountering legendary creatures and beings along the way. But their journey soon turns into a rescue mission as two of their own are captured by the legendary Storm Giants of Norse mythology. It’s up to their leader, the stalwart Hessia, to keep them together through the many trials that lie ahead.

Writer/actor Kevin Grevioux dives into the world of Wonder Woman and the Amazons with Odyssey of the Amazons #1 as they explore the world for their sisters in a first issue that’s rather frustrating.

The issue kicks off with this Amazonian party battling what feels like Egyptian-ish (there’s pyramids) forces in Africa, though the enemy fights like Spartans which is stated by a samurai and then there’s Norse involved too… So when does this take place? That scattered mashing of time and cultures is what drove me nuts as each reference is stuck in for unknown reasons. Strangely the comic’s first issue would be all the stronger by leaving things as generic or with made up lands. The specificity kept taking me out of the story as history didn’t quite feel like it fits together here, and fitting the world of Wonder Woman into real world history is something the series feels like it excels in.

The issue, and what feels like the series as a whole, has a bit of a hook in that it’s supposed to be like an epic story relying a lot of captions to set scenes, but things would would be stronger by just embracing what it attempts to mimic and go all in with a more of a classic style in its telling. Go all epic poem if you’re going to try to tell that sort of tale.

The end result is a bland story that I feel like we’ve seen before and doesn’t add enough new that’s interesting in both plot and also the world of the Amazons.

The art by Ryan Benjamin is interesting. There’s some of it I liked. There’s some I didn’t. Scenes feel like a brutal battle and you can feel each swing of the swords and other scenes felt like I was looking at Aspen’s Fathom. The outfits just aren’t consistent enough, and like the references to certain periods of time, they took me out of the story.

Odyssey of the Amazons‘ first issue is a lot of small details that add up to make a stumbling first issue. Death by thousand details. A different “voice” in how the story is presented and going all in with a fantastical world would have benefited greatly. I looked forward to the first issue, now I’m a bit nervous about the second.

Story: Kevin Grevioux Art: Ryan Benjamin
Story: 6 Art: 6 Overall: 6 Recommendation: Pass

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review