Wonder Woman #20 Review OR Wonder Woman Wins With Her Brain (For A Change)

I generally liked Wonder Woman #20.  If you read these reviews with any regularity, you’ll know that the series has been in a bit of a rut for me lately and I’ve been frustrated with various elements of the book.  Some of those elements still remain, and I’ll talk about them in a bit, but some improved with this issue, which was very nice to see.  Plus, they improved by means of a kick ass fight scene, which is extra fun.  But before we discuss:

SPOILER ALERT!!

There was a VERY cool fight scene that I am about to RUIN for you if you haven’t read the book yet.

This is your last chance to leave before SPOILERS!!

Carrying on, the fight scene between Wonder Woman and Artemis was great.  On a purely entertainment level, it was well choreographed and exciting.  The night sky over London is a very cool place for a fight, and Chiang broke the panels down into cool angles and perspectives to make the battle dynamic.  I particularly liked this overhead panel of Artemis throwing Wonder Woman into Trafalgar Square:

All told, it was a well-set, well-designed fight that made for some excellent comic book fun.

The fight also addressed a number of concerns I’ve had with the book lately, and with Wonder Woman in particular.  It’s been a while since Wonder Woman’s won a fight on her own; lately, she’ll get into a battle of some kind, it’ll start to go bad, and some boys will show up and sort it all out for her.  Here, Wonder Woman won on her own, hands down, without anyone else’s help.  She, a demigod, defeated a full god, and in impressive fashion.

Wonder Woman was outmatched in brawn, so she won the fight with brains.  For the vast majority of this New 52 run, Wonder Woman’s not been the brightest.  She’s been duped at almost every turn, shown a lot of poor judgment and naïveté, and just generally she’s not come off as much of a smart, capable superhero after the first few issues of the book.  Here, though, she beats Artemis with physics!  Wonder Woman’s strategy is all about momentum, using Artemis’ strength and speed against her with some clever lassoing.  That first Trafalgar Square was cool, but this one is even better, with Wonder Woman whipping Artemis down into the ground:

Wonder Woman turned a disadvantage into an advantage, and fought like a proper superhero for the first time in a long while.

A key part of this battle was restraint.  Instead of flying off the handle and going full tilt against Artemis, Wonder Woman fought carefully and calmly.  First, she kept her bracelets on.  Artemis taunted her, trying to get Wonder Woman to release her divine power and make it a real fight, but Wonder Woman knew that a) that kind of power in the middle of a city would be dangerous, and b) that this wasn’t a fight that would be won by brawn.  Second, when Artemis blew up the hotel room where Zola, Lennox, and the rest were staying and Wonder Woman didn’t know if her friends were dead or alive, she didn’t lash out.  She kept her cool, continued to fight smart, and didn’t let her emotions get the better of her.  Artemis is all angry, unchecked brawn, and Wonder Woman beat her by being the opposite.

So this was a really good issue for Wonder Woman.  She’s still one of the least interesting characters in her own book, but at least she’s behaving like a superhero now.  This smart, reined in but powerful Wonder Woman much more fits my idea of the character than what we’ve been seeing for the last year or so.  It was nice to see her start and finish something well, without anyone’s help.  I hope this continues in future issues.

However, as great as the fight was, yet again Wonder Woman only appeared in 9 of the book’s 20 pages.  It wouldn’t be so bad if this didn’t happen every month OR the rest was jam packed with cool stuff, but that just hasn’t been the case.  Structurally, I have some big problems with how the series is progressing.  It feels like half a book’s worth of story each month, spread out over 20 pages.  In particular, the five pages set on Olympus that we’re getting every issue now are driving me crazy.  They seem to exist only to rehash what we already know, and in an extremely drawn out manner.  This issue took four pages to get to where we were at the very end of the LAST issue.  Even months into this bizarre, spread too thin routine, I still find myself shocked to be disappointed in the storytelling choices of Brian Azzarello.  Of all the writers in comics, I never expected to have problems with how he structured his work.  But Wonder Woman’s become rather formulaic and slow as of late.

The inconsistency of the art is frustrating as well.  Chiang did the breakdowns for this issue, and you can see the flair he brings to the page layouts in Goran Sudzuka’s finished art.  However, Chiang only drew 5 of the pages himself, and they were the most boring ones.  Sudzuka finished the rest, and while they weren’t bad, they weren’t Chiang.  Chiang’s done only two full issues since the zero issue way back in September, and I really miss him on the book.

Finally, while Wonder Woman awesomely won the fight with Artemis, Ares did return Artemis to Apollo, so we’ll have to watch how that plays out.  If Artemis is down for the count and is a non-factor now, then it’s not a big deal, but if she shows up again, spoiling for another fight because Ares let her go, that’s another fast one that’s been pulled on Wonder Woman.

Nonetheless, this is one of the better issues of Wonder Woman in some time.  The fight was great, Wonder Woman got some of her oomph back, and now the tables are set for a big fight with the First Born next month.  Why can’t these kids just get along?  They’re family!

Wonder Woman #23 Cover And Solicit

It’s solicits day!  Let’s take a look at what’s in store for Wonder Woman #23 this August:

WONDER WOMAN #23
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
1:25 B&W Variant cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale AUGUST 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Wonder Woman had no choice but to abandon London to the bloodthirsty First Born—but now it’s time to take the city back! If Diana is truly War’s greatest student, then now is the time to prove it!

So a year after the First Born debuted in Wonder Woman #12, it looks like we’re finally going to get a climactic battle with Wonder Woman.  Mapping out the future issues ahead of us now, we’ve got the first half of the battle in June, a jaunt to New Genesis in July, and then back home to finish the fight in August.  That could be fun.  Maybe she’ll come back with some sweet New Gods weaponry.

Look for Wonder Woman #23 this August!  The last August issue ended with some huge reveals and a big turn for the series, so I’m curious to see if this issue does the same.

Wonder Woman #20 Preview

It feels a little early to be getting an issue of Wonder Woman already this month, but May is a five-week month and that just throws everything out of whack.  The Nerdist has a look at Wonder Woman #20, as well as an interview with Brian Azzarello where he, in classic Azzarello fashion, doesn’t really give anything away, so you can read the interview at your leisure and we’ll take a look at the pages:

Maybe it’s just me, because I’m tired and perhaps a bit grumpy from being sick all weekend, but it feels like this preview took four pages to get to exactly where we were at the end of last issue without adding any new information other than that Apollo isn’t into barbecue.  Now, the fifth page is fun!  Wonder Woman tackling Artemis through a window is great.  But it’s some slow rehashing until then.

Also, it’s another issue with a serious lack of Cliff Chiang.  He did “breakdowns” for the issue, which is like a step lower than pencils; sort of loose sketches for each page.  He finished five of the pages, but Goran Sudzuka is doing the rest.  It feels like a while since we’ve had a full Chiang issue, and I’m really missing him.  These few pages here and there lately only leave me wanting more.

Wonder Woman #20 is out this Wednesday in comic shops everywhere.  I assume more things will happen than simply rehashing last issue.  This Wonder Woman/Artemis fight looks promising!

Wonder Woman #19 Review OR Orion’s Much Deserved Comeuppance

My fellow Wonder Woman readers, our long national nightmare is over.  The ass slap heard around the world has been avenged, and Orion has been thoroughly shut down.  Wonder Woman #19 wasn’t a particularly eventful issue, and I had some definite issues with it, but at least Orion got a well deserved and long overdue response from Wonder Woman.  We’ll get to it all momentarily, but first:

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Everything that happened in this issue will soon be revealed!!

If you haven’t read it yet, run away!!

Okay, so Orion got a beat down after digging himself into an even deeper hole with Wonder Woman.  After making what was essentially an incestuous dig about Wonder Woman and Lennox, Orion suggested that he’d much rather be alone with Wonder Woman.  Under the guise of a kiss, Wonder Woman got close to Orion and threatened to tear his balls off:

When RIGHT AFTER Orion said “You really are cute when you get mad” and this happened:

Then Orion’s face turned all weird and he got angry and boom tubed out of there.

So it’s fun that Wonder Woman finally did something about Orion’s actions.  The guy’s been a sexist jerk since he arrived, calling Wonder Woman “Legs”, slapping her ass, and just generally harassing her.  Many readers were disappointed when his slap went unanswered two issues ago, so a menacing threat and a mighty punch are good to see now.

However, the kiss was lame and generally unnecessary.  I suppose we can blame editorial and their mandated “WTF” theme for that, but a) it took up two pages of kissing and whatnot to set up the threat when she could’ve just reached over and grabbed his man parts from the get-go, and b) Azzarello could have taken this “WTF” theme is any number of directions.  This prolonged, tacky kiss prelude was a poorly executed and poorly thought out choice.  She didn’t need to kiss that jackass, as much as I enjoyed the comeuppance that followed.

So I’m a little lukewarm on the Orion stuff.  It finished well, but started off in a silly, unnecessary way.  All in all, though, I’m more glad he got decked than annoyed he got kissed.  However, the rest of the Wonder Woman section of the book bothered me.  First, it accounted for only 9 of the book’s 20 pages.  It’s called Wonder Woman, so you’d think she’d be in at least half of the pages, but no.  Second, Wonder Woman is again shown to be bad at what she does.

It all starts off well enough, with Ares complimenting Wonder Woman for a change, which was very nice to see after his shoddy treatment of her in past issues:

Ares commends Wonder Woman for being a strong leader by keeping this bizarre, combative group all together and peaceful.  It’s the first compliment he’s paid her since he showed up a few issues ago, and really the first time someone’s said something good about Wonder Woman in a while.

Guess what happens next?  Later in that same page, Lennox announces he’s leaving.  Then Wonder Woman and Orion get into a fight and Orion announces he’s leaving too.  Essentially, the team falls apart and loses its two biggest heavy hitters outside of Wonder Woman.  Everything Ares just praised Wonder Woman for is undone, which thus undermines the compliment and makes Wonder Woman look bad yet again.  I don’t know why Azzarello feels the need to do this in almost every issue.  Wonder Woman’s rarely allowed any kind of victory or positive accomplishment.  Everything is constantly unraveling, often making Wonder Woman look foolish or ineffective in the process.

The rest, ie. the majority, of Wonder Woman #19 involved the gods.  The First Born was trapped inside Poseidon in a very Jonah and the whale situation.  And, much like Jonah, the First Born must be contrite and listen to a deity in order to escape his aquatic dungeon.  In this case, it meant the First Born agreeing to not attack the seas or hell, the realms of Poseidon and Hades.  In return, Poseidon gave the First Born his sword and Hades promised to give the First Born’s army back to him.  He can only attack the heavens now.

The crafty Poseidon and Hades also steer the First Born into some big fights in hopes of others ridding them of this menace.  The First Born was gunning for Apollo already, but they send him after Zola’s baby as well, ensuring that he’ll fight Wonder Woman as well.  Poseidon and Hades are hoping that one of them defeats the First Born before he inevitably betrays his new allies and comes after them.

Speaking of Apollo, he’s hanging out on Mount Olympus with Artemis and Dionysus, blathering on about nothing and taking up 5 pages of the book for no good reason in particular.  Ultimately, the book ends with Artemis going to steal Zola’s baby, but the conversation leading up to that isn’t particularly illuminating or visually interesting.  It felt like a considerable waste of space to me.

On the plus side, it looks like Zola is naming her baby Zeke, which is a really fun name.  I certainly like it better than Nigel or Steve.  Plus, it starts with a Z just like Zeus, which feeds my rather unsubstantiated theory that Zola’s baby is actually Zeus himself through some sort of weird god magic.  I mean, the dude’s got to be somewhere, right?  He can’t have just disappeared entirely.  And this seems like a rather coincidentally timed pregnancy.  It’s probably totally wrong and Zeus is on New Genesis or something, but you never know.

Overall, Wonder Woman got to actually act like Wonder Woman for a few panels in this issue, which was a nice change.  But still, her leadership skills couldn’t save her team AND she again appeared in less than half of her own book.  We’ve got to take what we can get with this version of Wonder Woman, I suppose, and Orion getting socked in the jaw was a pretty good time.  Plus, Zeke!  It’s just fun to say.

Wonder Woman #19 Preview OR Someone Needs To Buy A Book Of Baby Names

Wonder Woman #19 is out this week and we’ve got a five-page preview of the issue with art from regular fill-in artist Tony Akins and former Y: The Last Man fill-in artist Goran Sudzuka.  Let’s take a look:

Starting a book with a three page conversation where absolutely nothing happens seems like an odd choice to me, but so it goes.  Other than a very vague recap, that seemed to serve little to no purpose.

The baby naming was sort of amusing though.  I like Lennox’s super British name choices, Ares’ very in character suggestion, and Hera warming up to the baby is cute.  Not surprisingly, Wonder Woman gets to look like a complete doofus with her suggestion of “What about Steve?”  Zola’s “Come on, girl… you’re better than that” glare in response is perfect though.  I so don’t understand what Azzarello is doing with Wonder Woman, and I’m not entirely sure he does either.  Everyone else is such an interesting, cool character, but Wonder Woman’s just sort of there, being lame and getting duped.  Anyway, the banter from everyone else is enjoyable at least.

Look for Wonder Woman #19 at fine comic shops everywhere this Wednesday!  It’s got a SHOCKING fold out cover and a MAD variant too, so keep an eye out for that.

Wonder Woman #22 Cover And Solicit OR We’re Going To New Genesis!

All of the DC solicits came out on Friday except for the “Justice League” line of books, but it looks like the wait was worth it. Wonder Woman is going to New Genesis!!

WONDER WOMAN #22
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and cover by CLIFF CHIANG
On sale JULY 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Welcome to New Genesis! Wonder Woman makes her first visit to Orion’s homeworld and comes face to face with the Highfather…and sees the strange hold he has over his uncontrollable son!

Well now I’m excited.  I like the new Old Gods that Azzarello and Chiang have created, but seeing them tackle more of the New Gods should be really cool.  Chiang did a great job redesigning Orion, and from this cover it seems that Highfather’s gotten a new look too.

Highfather’s got a very militaristic appearance, and the cover reminds me of some sort of Soviet propaganda poster.  I’m no expert on the New Gods, but from what I’ve seen of Highfather he’s a kind of laid back, nicer counterpart to Darkseid’s iron fisted cruelty, and New Genesis is a sort of hippie utopia, the opposite of Apokalips’ hellscape.  This cover really has a militaristic vibe for me, though.  It’s not what I’d expect from Highfather or New Genesis.  Colour me intrigued!

Wonder Woman #22 is out on July 17, and it looks like a big change for the series!  I’m excited to see Wonder Woman in a new setting, plus how can you not by a comic with a great cover like that?

Orion Takes Center Stage In A New Arc In Superman

Last August, Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang brought Orion into the New 52 at the end of Wonder Woman #12, and since then he’s been a key part of the series and has now joined Wonder Woman’s weird little family.  The book has been very self-contained since the relaunch, with little to no spillover into other DC books.  Wonder Woman’s off having her own adventures with her own supporting cast, and while she shows up in other books like Justice League there’s no real connection to her main series and no one else has made the leap to other series.  It looks like that’s all about to change.

In Superman #18, out today, Orion shows up in Metropolis, and it seems that he’s playing a big role in a new storyline called “Metropolis Burning”:

Then next month, in the recently revealed full WTF cover for Superman #19 (it’s such a dumb promotional idea, and the impact is destroyed pretty much entirely by having Orion show up the issue before), Orion is the “shocking” other half to the foldout cover that has Wonder Woman and Superman all flummoxed:

Finally, in May it looks like Superman and Orion are going to have some strong disagreements if the cover to Superman #20 is any indication:

Other New Gods have been popping up in the New 52 books here and there lately, but Orion was exclusive to Wonder Woman before now.  Obviously the Wonder Woman/Superman romance means she’s going to be around a bit more elsewhere, and we did see Eros in that Young Romance special a little while back, but a sustained appearance by a Wonder Woman-based character in another series is something new.  It was bound to happen with this dumb romance they’ve set up, and I’m more than certain it’ll play out that Superman is all jealous and thinking Orion has designs on Wonder Woman and they’ll fight over that and it’ll be stupid.

Now, the real question is will we start to see some spillover from the New 52 into Wonder Woman?  With the character’s branching out a bit, I’m curious to see if we get any reciprocation.  I hope not, because I enjoy that Wonder Woman has carved out its own little corner of the universe.  You can just read Wonder Woman and forget that she’s dating Superman or involved in some random war with Atlantis and whatever other (often lame) stuff is going on elsewhere.  We’ll have to see whether this Orion story in Superman is a herald of change for Wonder Woman, or just a case of someone borrowing a cool and awesomely redesigned character.  I’m hoping it’s the latter.