With the Wonder Woman franchise being expanded on since the beginning of Infinite Frontier Joelle Jones has taken her time building up Yara Flor as Wonder Girl. While Yara was first introduced to us in Future State, those comics already had an experienced Yara as Wonder Woman firmly established. With Wonder Girl we are seeing where Yara’s journey begins as she has returned to Brazil to rediscover her roots. This journey of discovery has led Yara to already meet several mythological figures with the latest being Hera. How will a meeting with Hera go for Yara? Let’s find out with Wonder Girl #4.
Writer: Joelle Jones
Artists: Joelle Jones and Adriana Melo
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In a forest area Yara Flor attempts to tame a Pegasus but is unsuccessful.
Later at Chiron’s home on the Shadow of Mount Olympus Yara is receiving sword fighting training from Chiron the Centaur. Yara ends up losing her sparring match with Chiron.
Elsewhere, while in her room, Hera reflects on how Yara has actually spent a long time on Olympus being trained thanks to Mount Olympus special quality. This time has allowed Yara the chance to receive training from Chiron, a personal weapon made by Hephaestus, and getting a wide variety of education thanks to Hera. While Yara had all these resources Hera knows something is holding Yara back from fulfilling her full potential.
Back in the forest Yara attempts to tame a Pegasus again but gets her arm bitten.
Chiron continues to train Yara. During the training Chiron tells Yara for all her training she will continue to fail the trials she faces until she is able to cool her heart and clear her mind to have the strong resolve and calm nature of a true warrior.
Eventually Yara stands alone quietly thinking to herself while it rains. Suddenly the Pegasus she has been trying to tame approaches her and friendly nudges its head on Yara. Yara asks the Pegasus if she can call him Jerry.
Later Yara, while flying Jerry the Pegasus, shows up at Chiron’s home. With a new focus Yara continued her training and education, rapidly progressing at a rate faster than before.
After more time passes, in Hera’s Gardens, Eros gives Yara the news that Hera believes Yara is ready to become her champion. Yara thinks that’s great though she is unsure what being Hera’s champion truly means. Eros reveals that this will give Yara the opportunity to drink the Ambrosia Elixir of the Gods and allow her to live on Olympus for the rest of time. Eros goes on to say Yara does need to think of this carefully as with all she gains from being Hera’s champion will mean she loses some things from her previous life.
Taking all this Yara asks Eros if she could have a chance to return to Brazil one last time to properly say goodbye to João as she promised him. Eros agrees to Yara’s request but reminds her after she says her goodbyes to João that she will return and take all the responsibilities of being Hera’s champion.
Back in Brazil, Yara reunites with João and spends time going all around Rio De Janeiro with him. Eventually while looking at the stars together Yara asks João what he thinks is more important: being happy being an ordinary person or to do something big with your life even if it means being under someone else’s thumb?
Yara turns and notices that João has fallen asleep.
Potira suddenly appears out of a green pool of water. Potira is aware that Yara doesn’t recognize her but request she take her hand so she can show Yara something.
When Yara enters the green pool of water Potira shows Yara images from years ago on Themyscira. Potira goes over the history of the Amazons and how when there were only two tribes of Amazons that Yara’s mother, Aella, decided to follow her own path. During her adventures Aella would fall in love with a God and have a daughter born during this time, though the God (Yara’s father) would leave. Eventually Aella would meet the Amazon tribe of Brazil who took her and Yara in. As time passed the Amazons of Brazil were attacked and just about wiped out by Ares and his army.
Potira tells Yara that now is the time for her to return to be part of the Amazons of Brazil.
Before Yara can give Potira an answer Cassandra Sandsmark and Artemis appear. Artemis immediately confronts Yara about how aligning with Hera will lead them all to a path of destruction. Cassandra tries to calm things down. Artemis accepts that Yara must make her decision first before doing anything.
Cassandra tells Yara that she has a lot of eyes on her. Cassandra goes on to advice Yara to not be so eager for adventure and a sense of belonging that she becomes blind to he dangers that come with her decision.
Later in Hera’s throne room on Mount Olympus Yara appears in her ceremonial attire (which is the Wonder Girl costume she appears in all the covers for this series). Hera gives Yara the Ambrosia Elixir of the Gods to drink and officially become her champion. Yara takes the Ambrosia Elixir of the Gods and prepares to drink it. End of issue.
The Good: After spending three issues establishing Yara Flor’s character before becoming who we saw in Future State Joelle Jones fast tracks her training in Wonder Girl #4. And that is not a bad thing at all because Jones still makes sure to take her time making sure Yara’s character arc is not abandoned to rush the story along. Rather, everything that happens is done with a great sense of purpose that builds on the previous three issues of Wonder Girl.
Jumping right into the training that Yara goes through Hera gives her all the tools needed to become her champion was well paced. Jones spends enough time with all the training sequences to give us a good sense of how Yara does spend a long, unknown period of time training. Credit to Jones and Adriana Melo artwork to further enhancing the passage of time. Both the writing and artwork work as a cohesive unit to get you to understand how much work Yara put in during all her training and education on Mount Olympus.
Using the fact that Mount Olympus exists in its own plane of existence to explain the passage of time Yara goes through was well done. This was a simple explanation to cram in all the training Yara needs to be seen on the same level as characters like Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Artemis without making it seem like they are used to put her over. And it all made sense with the context of how we have seen Gods like Hera manipulating things to best suit their needs, as we see with her attitude towards Hera’s training simply with how she is drawn.
It’s also credit to the writing and artwork by Jones and Melo that they capture how much effort Yara puts in. Even though we do see pick up various skills those aren’t attained without great amount of trials she has to overcome. Specifically, seeing her go from feeling the weight of spending so much time training to being excited when she finally gets the Pegasus she spent so much time trying tame great. It added a greater meaning to what Jerry the Pegasus represents for Yara’s growth.
Chiron the Centaur was also well established as Yara’s main mentor. He was the calming presence that Yara needed to be able to progress in the way she did during her time on Mount Olympus. Chiron’s explanation to what it will take for Yara to become a true warrior set up how Yara still has a ways to go to become the Wonder Woman we saw in Future State. That is all part of the development still to come for Yara’s character that Jones can continue to explore as this series progresses.
It was also refreshing to see that Hera and Eros did not just force the title of Hera’s champion on Yara. Even though they are both certainly pushing Yara to become Hera’s champion Jones shows us how they want that to be Yara’s choice. It cannot work if Yara is forced to drink the Ambrosia Elixir of the Gods and become Hera’s champion. It has to be Yara’s choice for the full power of being a Olympic God’s champion to be access.
That leads to the scenes with João to be even more meaningful. Because while Yara did build a strong bond with João in quick fashion it was more about what he represented to her. It was her goodbye to the world she knew as she entered a whole new role and world. Her talk about the choices she is making further pushes the narrative of Yara as a young adult who is searching for what she should do and be in the future. It is part of what makes her character relatable as all young adults in their early 20s goes through the same thing.
Which made the appearances of Potira, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Artemis before Yara goes to become Hera’s champion appropriately timed. Each of these characters along with Hera represent the various paths that Yara can follow. So far she only really knows the path of being Hera’s champion. She wasn’t aware of how many more paths exists that she could possibly follow.
That is best shown with how Potira explains to Yara the history of her mother, Aella, and the Amazons of Brazil. It was a good history lesson to further explore a part of the DC Universe’s Amazon mythology as Yara’s mother had a journey in her life that was similar to Diana Prince. The similarities to Diana created more questions into Aella’s backstory, especially the relationship she had with a mysterious God that is Yara’s father. Those questions create greater intrigue into the game changer that Jones has established Yara to be since she, like Diana before her, is also a Demi-God.
With all these developments once we get to the final page of Wonder Girl #4 you are genuinely invested in what Yara’s future will be. While it does seem that she has embraced becoming Hera’s champion the final look in her eyes puts that into question. How her decision ends up shaping how things will go for the entire Wonder Woman franchise will be interested to see play out.
The Bad: Though I liked what the scene with João represented for Yara’s character it was a disappointing interaction. There isn’t much to the actual relationship other than it being a summer fling. Which doesn’t help how the final day with João is supposed to a big goodbye to Yara’s life as she knew it. Because of how it was shown I would’ve much rather had preferred it if we saw Yara have a reunion with her family in the United States to represent her goodbye to her old life. That would’ve worked to establish a greater supporting cast for Yara and still stuck to the message this scene was going for.
The appearance of Cassandra Sandsmark and Artemis did not work as well as Potira’s scene prior to their appearance. The entire scene was rushed to fit in one page. Cassandra and Artemis appearance honestly read more like it was forgotten that they were part of this story. It just did not work as Jones intended it to.
Overall: Wonder Girl #4 is the strongest issue to date for this young series. Joelle Jones did a lot of great work building on the foundation laid down by the previous three issues to maximize Yara Flor’s character development. The stunning artwork by Jones and Adriana Melo does a phenomenal job elevating every plot beat to the next level.
To comment on this article and other Comic Book Revolution content visit our Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram. You can catch up with all of Kevin’s thoughts about comics, anime, TV shows, movies and more over on Twitter. You can also watch the fun and silly videos Kevin is making over on his TikTok.