Monday, February 2, 2009

Wonder Woman No. 28 Is Full Of Win


I’ve been waiting to fall in love with the current Wonder Woman comic ever since Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti combined their considerable talents a few issues ago. It’s not that the storylines weren’t solid, but they weren’t moving me as much as Simone’s previous work on “Birds of Prey” and “Secret Six.”

However, issue No. 28 hit all the right notes. It was hard to take the the villain Genocide seriously at first, because it looks like a deranged aerobics instructor. I had a hard time believing that Wonder Woman could be beaten to a pulp by something with such a ridiculous costume. But then Genocide got its hands on WW’s lasso of truth, and began using it to cripple members of the Justice League. Green Lantern John Stewart got taken down in short order, and when the GLs go down, well ... it’s bad.

This issue did a particularly good job of making Wonder Woman seem like a well-rounded character, not just the perfect warrior princess. She’s courting fellow secret agent Tom Tresser (Nemesis), and in one of the best panels, she literally dips and smooches him while dressed in full battle armor. Is he strong enough to be her man? Let’s just say that he’s stoked about the possibilities. Donna Troy and Wonder Girl show up to help their wounded Amazon sister kick Genocide’s ass, which really shows off Lopresti's gorgeous artwork. Meanwhile, Zeus has assembled an all-male army of Olympians to take the place of the female Amazons on Earth, presumably because their peace mission failed. Bring it!

After the mind-bending slog of "Final Crisis," this was a pleasure to read. I'm eager to see where all these threads are leading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice review!

E. Peterman said...

Hey, thanks! I really appreciate the kind feedback.