By J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester (writers), Eduardo Pansica (pencils), Wayne Faucher and Eber Ferreira (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors), Travis Lanham (letters)
The Story: Wonder Woman begins to live up to her name as she (finally!) discovers the source of the temporal disturbance affecting her future, and finds a way to begin to fight back.
What’s Good: First of all, minor point, but I LOVE the addition of the “star spangled cape” to Diana’s costume. It’s a small detail, but I really think it works. On a more important note, I’m almost completely on-board with the explanation given for the sudden shift in Wonder Woman’s status quo. I still think it was unnecessary to burden the main book with what is essentially a 12-part Elseworld maxi-series, but the damage is done on that front. The important matter is that this story is FINALLY starting to work itself out of the corner it was written into. We get some very good insight into Diana’s character in this issue, and also–glory hallelujah!–an inkling of where it might be headed. It has taken ten issues, but I finally feel like I have some point of reference when it comes to this story, and I no longer have to feel completely lost and like I simply have to accept events as they occur “just because.”
While you’d still have to go quite a long way to convince me that this storyline is going to do some good for the already much-abused Amazon Princess, but if the last two issues are this strong plot and character wise, I think it will at least avoid doing irreversible damage to her in the long term. (Not counting the bad will that this ill-fated experiment has already engendered, that is.) I’m not sure how this will end, but this issue has at least given me confidence that there is a definite end in sight, and that it won’t utterly destroy one of my all time favorite comic book characters.
What’s Not So Good: As has been noted in the comments of several recent Wonder Woman reviews on this site, this book has GOT to get a consistent art team. It just has to. I buy the book because I’m emotionally invested in the character come hell or high water, but dear lord…if I was simply flipping through the book deciding whether to buy it in a shop, I’d put it back on the shelf with a wince and disappointed head shake before page four. The art, while serviceable in that it depicts the events required by the script, is a visual mess. That’s not to say there’s nothing visually worthwhile in the book, but when you can’t even keep the facial look of your main character consistent, it makes it much harder for readers to notice what you do right.
Conclusion: I closed this issue with a sigh of relief. Even if it isn’t the most visually breathtaking book you’ll read this month, at least it’s pulling Wonder Woman back from the brink of absolute disaster–and Hester is even managing to dig a decent story out of the steaming pile of catastrophe he was handed. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do of his own accord once this slog reaches its conclusion.
Grade: B
-SoldierHawk
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Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Eber Ferreira, Eduardo Pansica, J. Michael Straczynski, Pete Pantazis, Phil Hester, Travis Lanham, Wayne Faucher, weekly comics book review, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman #610 review
Agreed on the art team point. Having just posted the interview with Aaron Lopresti, I realize how much I miss and appreciated the work he did on this title when Gail Simone was on it.