By J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Don Kramer and Eduardo Pansica (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors), Travis Lanham (letters)
The Story: Diana faces off against the mysterious warrior bent on destroying the last of the Amazons. As the battle rages, the warrior reveals some of his past, and Diana begins to fully understand–and tap into–the divine power that is her birthright.
What’s Good: Well, it took five issues, but I think it’s safe to say that this storyline is finally starting to come into its own. The action and fight scenes are crisp and well paced without becoming tiresome and overbearing. Diana is also starting to feel and act like herself again, which is a huge relief. The last few pages that depict her discovering her new power marks the first time I’ve cracked a genuine grin while reading Wonder Woman in a very, very long time. THIS is the Wonder Woman I’ve been waiting for, and the one that makes me look forward to opening the next issue.
Also, I have to add: I usually avoid variant covers (and their markups) like the plague, but the variant for this issue–with Diana as the Vitruvian Man–had me pulling out my wallet on the spot. Awesome stuff.
What’s Not So Good: Here’s the thing about the art on this book: taken on their own individual merits, most of the panels are very, very good. (The splash pages in particular are quite nice.) But when viewed as a whole product, they don’t work together to form a cohesive visual story. The panels look pretty, but they seem more like a series of photographs than they do a logical series of flowing, kinetic action. Focusing less on purely aesthetic angles and “wow” factor (and less on–yes, I’m gonna go there–working in gratuitous cleavage shots) would go a long way towards curing the rather disjointed feeling of the panel progression.
Conclusion: I’m not sure I’d call this an ideal jumping on place (although really, there are no important events from the past four books that you couldn’t intuit from the dialogue in this one), but it’s certainly the end of the beginning for this story arc. The pieces are fully in place, there’s a (fairly) clear goal for Diana now, and she has some nice new weapons and powers to help her meet the challenges that lay ahead. This is a big step forward, and I’m eager to see where Diana and her people go from here.
Grade: B+
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion