Storm + Wonder Woman = Amazon

Amazon #1
“Family History”
Writer/penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Colorist: Patricia Mulvihill
Letterer: John Costanza
Cover: Byrne and Austin
Assistant Editor: Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt
Editor: Paul Kupperberg
Published by: DC
Released: Feb. 29, 1996

Marvel Comics' roster of female heroes is undeniably impressive, but it's also safe to say they've never had one on the level of Wonder Woman in terms of popularity and impact. The X-Men's Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm, might be the closest to the Amazonian warrior princess, making her a logical choice to amalgamatize with Wonder Woman. And having the issue written and drawn by John Byrne, who's been a part of iconic moments for both characters, is another logical and inspired choice.

The title, though? I feel confident second-guessing that.

After all, we're introduced on the title page to this Ororo as the Amazon warrior Wonder Woman. I'm assuming part of the agreement on producing these comics was that there would be no title in its original Marvel or DC form, so that's why somebody settled on “Amazon.”

That intro comes as WonderStorm – which is not her name but... maybe? – is flying over the ocean in a massive meteorological event. The forces she usually commands force her into the water, where we quickly learn a fear drowning is to this combined character what claustrophobia is to her Marvel predecessor.

A flashback reveals why this typhoon is giving her so much trouble: It was created by Poseidon himself. Wonder Woman was facing off against the sea god for reasons that aren't very clear, and he had her cast below the waves. By her reckoning, Poseidon also caused her to wash up in his treasure-filled throne room but whether that's true is not particularly clear either.

The scene shifts to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where this Wonder Woman apparently hangs her tiara, and a couple of women who I'm going to guess are based on DC characters with whom I am unfamiliar. I didn't recognize any Marvel likenesses in them either. Angelica and her mother are looking for Ororo, but find another familiar figure instead – Diana Prince, Ororo's adopted sister and co-star of “Bullets and Bracelets.” She's looking pretty beat up compared to when we last saw her, making out with suddenly un-estranged husband Trevor Castle, aka the Punisher. It's not clear which issue was supposed to come first though, so for all I know, this could have been part of her quest to find her son, leading up to the aforementioned issue. It's a nice setup and suggestion of Amalgam comics beyond these one-shots but that's all we get here.

Back in Poseidon's grotto, Wonder Woman picks up a statue which causes her to flash back to her childhood before the ship on which she was traveling sank and she nearly drowned, spawning her phobia. Poseidon appears and blasts her with his trident, calling her a thief, a scavenger and a liar for saying she doesn't know what his problem is.

This leads to another flashback, expanding on the shared childhood of Diana and Ororo we glimpsed in “Bullets and Bracelets.” It emphasizes their rivalry and Diana's mocking of Ororo as an outsider, prompting another flashback as their mother Hippolyta explains how she was the one who rescued the child from the water after the sinking of the ship.

It was Poseidon who sank the ship because an archaeologist aboard it took a statue like the one Ororo saw in the grotto, ticking the sea god off. He cursed the man, who booked passage on the ship to throw the artifact back into the depths from whence it came. Ororo and her parents were among the many other passengers aboard, and she was the sole survivor.

Not surprisingly, Wonder Woman is none too happy about this revelation. Not surprisingly, Poseidon doesn't take kindly to a mere mortal calling him out and attempts to kill her with what appears to be seaweed. Choking out her words, Wonder Woman points out that the Greek gods are hardly worshiped or even remembered by anyone these days, save her Amazonian sisters. When a modern man tried to acknowledge their history with the statue he found, Poseidon killed him and a thousand other people who just happened to be sharing a ride with him.

Poseidon sees the error of his ways and lets Wonder Woman go. She feels like there should be bigger consequences than him saying, “My bad,” but we're running out of comic.

One thing Wonder Woman and Storm have in common is the fact that their considerable power is only part of what makes them formidable forces, respected by friends and many foes as well. They are confident women, committed to their causes and unwilling to back down, whether they have their powers or not. Despite getting a good shot in on Poseidon early, this Wonder Woman is clearly outmatched from a raw power perspective but uses her wisdom and passion to resolve the situation. That feels true to both characters.

While the story is an interesting mix of both heroes, it's also very talky. Power isn't all there is to Wonder Woman and Storm by a long shot, but it would have been nice to see some more of that power and skill demonstrated. There's a challenge in these one-shots to get everything in, and while I can't completely fault Byrne for opting for story over spectacle, I would have appreciated more of the latter.

Even with what we got, I still had some unanswered questions, like why was Wonder Woman even confronting Poseidon in the first place, since she seemed completely shocked by the revelation he was responsible for the sinking of the ship? It certainly carries some emotional heft, but in an issue that's light on action and high on dialogue and exposition, it's even more noticeable when blanks are left unfilled.

The letters page does even more world-building than the comic pages, dropping information about Amalgam history like how Diana and Ororo shared a long-running title called “Tales of the Amazons” before splitting into “Amazon” and “Bullets and Bracelets.”

That still means there was never an Amalgam title called “Wonder Woman,” which makes sense from the outside looking in, but in the supposed world of Amalgam Comics, it just seems weird.*

Best Amalgam: Wonder Woman, for the various reasons stated above.

Most Confusing Amalgam: Were there any others? I mean, sure, Diana Prince, whose Marvel ingredients confused me in Bullets and Bracelets as well. What about Ororo's friends in Baton Rouge? I couldn't find references to their composite parts. Maybe it's also Ororo, since the Amalgam Fandom wiki lists her as a mix of Storm and Artemis, a replacement Wonder Woman in the '90s, and the DC Fandom wiki adds in the Amazon Nubia.

* - Yes, I am overthinking this. But I'm also right, right?