Wonder Woman #23.1: Cheetah – Review

By: John Ostrander (story), Victor Ibáñez (artist), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Eat your heart out, fellas; this lady’s on the prowl.

The Review: If you ever want proof positive of Wonder Woman’s maligned status in the DCU, look no further than the Cheetah.  Superman gets evil geniuses, Batman sadistic madmen, and Wonder Woman a crazed lady in jungle-cat body-paint (which admittedly beats out a debutante in an actual cheetah outfit, but the point stands).  It’s not as if efforts haven’t been made to bolster Cheetah’s rep, but like her nemesis, she’s often the victim of writers who don’t get her.

There have been decent, even very fine stories featuring the Cheetah, but none that have had the lasting power and influence of Lex Luthor in All-Star Superman or the Joker in The Killing Joke.  Ostrander’s Villains Month offering falls within the general gamut of Cheetah tales: interesting, respectable, but strangely tame in comparison to the complicated portraits of her male peers.  It feels as though Ostrander brushes up against some potentially compelling material for the feline villain, but he ultimately fails to drag them into the light.

Justice League #14 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Matt Banning & Sandu Florea (inkers), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Wonder Woman loses a friend and gains a beau—a pretty good exchange, honestly.

The Review: The persistent mediocrity of certain, often major titles sometimes makes you wonder if DC is truly out to deliver the best, most ambitious stories possible, the way Marvel NOW! seems to be doing, or just settling for entertaining enough.  Justice League certainly falls into the latter category, and this issue shows why.  Instead of being the grand, epic, anchor title it should be, it mostly comes across as a readable and diverting series, and little more.

In terms of pure teamwork, the League is efficient and effective.  Every member gets a part to play, but they rarely break out of predefined roles.  The most interesting part of the whole mission is the Flash acting tank while his other teammates are occupied elsewhere (i.e. trying to get the feline out of Superman).  Unfortunately, Johns doesn’t explore the possibilities of Barry taking point, and things eventually revert to a very neat, but predictable battle sequence.