Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed: 08/06/20

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed by Laurie Halse Anderson looks at the events that led to Diana leaving Themyscira and her life as a refugee. We see how a young woman raised on a secretive and insular island ends up being a superhero, swearing to protect the very people her Amazon sisters refuse to acknowledge.

In the opening chapter Diana is celebrating her Born Day, feeling a confused mixture of joy and fear. She's been told she'll be free of her clumsiness on her 16th birthday and will once again be as strong and coordinated as the other Amazons. She's also feeling worried at being too different. She is the only islander to have had a childhood.

The second act is set in a refugee camp. Here Diana learns about human suffering, war, and illness. It's here too that we learn Diana's other inherent power: being able to speak, understand, and read all human languages. It's through this skill that she makes herself useful in the camp and earns her way out.

The majority of the plot, though, is in New York. It centers on gentrification, human trafficking, and how poverty affects children during summer when school's out. After all the adventure, the graphic novel settles into being a mystery, one that Diana and her new friend can solve together.

All of Diana's story, though, fits into the road narrative spectrum. While she's not technically an orphan — she is removed from her family by a storm and the invisibility of her home island. Thus she qualifies as an orphan traveler (FF). Her destination is New York City, or more broadly, the city (00). Her route across the ocean, on an airplane, and later across rooftops is an offroad one (66). Thus Diana's origin story can be summarized as an orphan traveling to the city via an offroad route.

Four stars

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