DC Comics’ new Wonder Woman epic has gods hidden in the pages
This page is it from? Wonder Woman: The AmazonsIs it possible to depict two trees at once? Or a goddess’ face? Whatever your answer, it’s exactly what Gene Ha wanted you to see.
Ha was the second artist who collaborated with Kelly Sue DeConnick, a writer. Historia’s three issues — a retelling the origin of DC’s Amazons — following legendary Wonder Woman artist Phil Jimenez, who filled every inch of the 62-page book with with hugely detailed renderings of heavily researched character designs. It was an act that seemed impossible to follow, until Ha’s issue dropped this week, unveiling his technique for depicting the Amazons’ patron goddesses on the mortal plane.
The issue features Hippolyta, a mortal woman who meets Artemis as she hunts for Amazons. “I wanted Artemis to clearly be there, and to clearly Not be there,” Ha wrote in the issue’s back matter. “Both a small figure, and greater than human, both fully true at the same time.”
Ha turned to the subcategory of optical illusions known as “ambiguous images.” You almost certainly know some of the more famous examples: Is it a vase, or two faces? Are you a duck? Or a rabbit, Is it an elderly woman or one of her children? It’s a trick of our brains’ ability to make sense of patterns that’s been used in fine art, cartooning and Highlights magazine, but Ha’s point of inspiration was Ari Aster’s MidsommarIt uses leaves and trees as shapes to produce unsettling subliminal characters.
“It works okay in moving pictures,” Ha wrote, “but I knew it would work far better in Non-moving pictures.” He doesn’t use it as a one moment trick, either, but a constant shifting of ambiguous reality.
“Is Artemis on this page?” Ha wrote. “Is the horse returning to its godly mistress, or simply chewing on some berries? Hippolyta has been reborn by the divine or is she a mad horse? Yes.”
And it’s not just Artemis. In addition to using the technique to give Hippolyta’s god-touched moment a true unearthliness, Ha also employs it to communicate story events. Find the Amazons unseen goddesses Hera, Artemis and see if they can be found.
Honestly, I’ve got to say a mea culpa. I didn’t think anyone would be able to follow Phil Jimenez’s opening act, but judging by these goddesses, I should have had a bit more faith.
Do you think that is a poor pun? Yes.
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