By Greg Rucka (writer), Nicola Scott (artist), Prentis Rollins, Jonathan Glapion, Walden Wong & Drew Geraci (inks)
The Story: Wonder Woman is on the trail of black lantern Maxwell Lord, the she killed
What’s Good: Nicola Scott has never looked better than when Rollins, Glapion, Wong and Geraci are inking her. Granted, it sounds like an army of inkers, but there is a naturalness and fluidity to the poses and faces and a command of perspective and proportion that I never saw when Hazelwood was inking her in Secret Six. I don’t know what kind of game of twister Schlagman and Berganza have to get so many inkers to play to get them to work on one book, but it works. Check out the double splash-page on pages 2 and 3: lots of space, beautiful perspective, clean body lines, flags and hair curling in the wind. Evocative. Ruffino’s colors here, especially the bright glows around the lasso and the battle axe, really give a sense of power. The bottom left panel of page 6 also really caught my eye as something I had never expected out of Scott’s hand. Diana in this one looks young, caring and wise, and even has a bit of a Jessica Alba thing going on. It’s a new take on drawing Wonder Woman and I liked it a lot. DC should keep this company (yes, I’m using the military term) of inkers with Nicola Scott.
On the writing, Greg Rucka is becoming one of my three favourite writers (the other impressive pens in the field are Geoff Johns and Gail Simone). The standard narrative style in comics has become first person monologue in the text boxes. The voice, the flavour, and cadences of each character’s monologue have become pretty predictable too: lot of terse, noir-ish tones and feels. But this issue is different in tone and content. Diana not only has an elevated, aristocratic style of speaking, but the content is surprising and fresh. No other character would be able to pull off something like “He promises more sacrilege to come. He wants me angry. He never did understand me.” This is pure Diana, the kind of Wonder Woman who has been surprising me for the last dozen issues of her main series. DC really makes her look like one of the big three of the DCU because they make her wiser, better than other characters. Her insight into the Blackest Night is also revealing (on both the plot and her character) with lines like: “Life is much more than seven simple colors,” and when Lord is trying to get her emoting to charge the black lantern battery, “Love can’t be taken, only given…” Rucka’s skill as a writer is such that I’m assuming that that wasn’t a throw-away line. He’s hinting at another weapon the heroes are finding to use against the black lanterns.
What’s Not So Good: The only complaint I want to mention is that, as far as villains go, Maxwell Lord has never really had me shaking in my boots. He’s no Joker, Sinestro, Darkseid or Brainiac. I never felt a true sense of menace. To elevate Wonder Woman and make her the A-list character they want, Rucka, Schlagman and Berganza are going to have to pull out the A-list villains for her.
Conclusion: Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1 opens with a bang and promises a lot. Rucka, Scott and team put out a fine issue and I will definitely be back for issue #2.
Grade: B+
-DS Arsenault
Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Adam Schlagman, Blackest Night, Blackest Night Wonder Woman #1, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1 review, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, comic reviews, DC Comics, Doug Hazelwood, Drew Geraci, DS Arsenault, Eddie Berganza, Greg Rucka, Jonathan Glapion, Maxwell Lord, Nicola Scott, Prentis Rollins, review, Secret Six, Walden Wong, Weekly Comic Book Review, Wonder Woman
That’s a huge compliment you gave me that you picked up the issue based on my review! Thank you.
You’re right. Rucka is right up there. Have you checked out his work in Detective Comics on Batwoman? Last issue of Detective was *probably* better that this issue of BN:WW, if you like strong female characters. Also, Gail Simone does a brilliant WW, very much in the same vein as Rucka – check out the Genocide arc in WW back issues (I reviewed some of them on this site).
PS: The oath line got me too…
I picked this one up this week on the strength of this review, and was NOT disappointed. What a brilliant, brilliant issue. Rucka is officially my favorite comic writer working today (okay along with Geoff Johns) between this and Detective Comics. The fact the the writing is not only stellar, but he’s giving the comic world strong, believable female leads just means a ton to me. Its one of those things I never even knew was missing until I pick up an issue like this and think, “THANK YOU GREG RUCKA.”
I think my favorite part of this whole issue, and the moment that (for me) really defined Wonder Woman’s character, was when she tells the two Old Guard soldiers to get to safety, and they say, “no can do ma’am–we took a sacred oath.” Now, faced with this, Batman, Captain America, even Superman, would probably have forced these guys to safety one way or another. Not Wonder Woman. She merely says (something along the lines of) “I cannot argue with that. Dig in, gentlemen, and prepare to face a superior force.”
That completely and totally made my day, both in the characterization of her, and of the soldiers. And then, of course…the moment at the end… “honored dead…”
*Tear*
What an incredible issue. I know #2 will be good, but I don’t think anything could top the emotion or horror I felt at seeing Arlington desecrated like that, or watching Wonder Woman deal with those emotions too. Wow.