Wonder Woman #33 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Among other things, Diana is queen of rejection.

The Review: Just a word of warning that there’ll be delays in reviews this week. It’s Bar Exam times in California, so at least you’ll know that I’m not shirking my semi-duties for the fun of it. Believe me when I tell you that I would much rather be spending my day discussing Wonder Woman with you guys. But since that can’t be, we’ll just have to content ourselves with this passing, though potentially enlightening, review.

I don’t much like monsters for villains, except in cartoons. They’re easy to hate and kill, but that’s not a very interesting use of a character. Needless to say, I’ve had my issues with the First Born as the main antagonist for this series. When his ultimate goal is simply to destroy everything—not for any particular reason other than just to make sure everything’s destroyed—there’s not much more you can do with him except hope his defeat comes sooner rather than later.

Wonder Woman #31 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Goran Sudžuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana ruins things for her re-election in the next Amazon election cycle.

The Review: Diana’s call for the Amazons to accept Zeke as one of their own may have been a radically progressive shake-up to a culture that’s stuck to its no-boys-allowed policy for so long, but it really is (almost literally) a baby step. Even though infancy has never stopped the Amazons from their zero tolerance, they owe some degree of respect to their gods, especially now that their entire spiritual underpinnings are coming apart.

Things are looking bad indeed for the Olympians, as two others fall to the First Born, although the consequences are unclear. Even the—spoiler alert—defeat and torture of Hades, allowing the dead to walk among the living, doesn’t seem to register on the world at all, as not a single mortal notices the mischievous, faceless souls around them. The fall of Hermes* has even less impact, except as an emotional blow to our cast. You’d think the deaths of gods would have some profound effect on the DCU at large, but so far, they’re disappointingly contained to this title.

Wonder Woman #27 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Diana’s not the first person to leave a home visit in tears.

The Review: About a month ago, I had a friendly debate with some buddies about the relative merits of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  At first, I couldn’t help being a little stunned that they preferred the comically adventurous Hobbit over the epic saga of LOTR.  As we talked on, however, I realized it’s those very same qualities that makes Hobbit easier to take in and enjoy, while LOTR turns people off with its obsession of building its mythology.

I was reminded of all this reading the latest chapter of Wonder Woman because Azzarello has gotten the title into the same kind of trouble as LOTR.  There’s no doubt he’s succeeded in making the series different from any Wonder Woman series before it, especially in his vision for the Olympians and how their mythological traditions intersect with her superhero roots.  This is not unlike how J.R.R. Tolkien took Arthurian legend and updated it within the contemporary fantasy genre.  The big difference is Tolkien laid out clear paths for his characters to tread, and to date, our starring heroine has mostly stumbled from plot to plot like signposts in the dark.

Wonder Woman #25 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story) Goran Sudžuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Sibling rivalries take on new meaning when gods are involved.

The Review: One of the frequent criticisms of this title, and one that I often levy myself, is that Wonder Woman feels strangely out of place in a series where she’s supposedly the star.  Perhaps this is evidence that Azzarello is not so much interested in his heroine herself as the possibilities of her world.  There’s no denying that he’s taken her mythological background and mined it extravagantly, turning the Olympians into the best part of the series.

So he can hardly be blamed for spending so much of each issue featuring their various schemes at the cost of crowding out Diana.  And I use “crowding out” very purposely; with us barely noticing it, Azzarello has given Wonder Woman one of the biggest ongoing casts of all the new 52 titles.  Give any two or three Olympians a scene of their own, tack on some panels for Diana’s core crew, and naturally she’ll wind up with little page-time for herself.

Wonder Woman #19 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Goran Sudźuka (art), Tony Akins (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: A god can do with worse names than Zeke.

The Review: As we begin the title’s fourth arc, it seems only fair that longtime investors in this series get a chance to consider what we want from the story.  While I do appreciate that Azzarello has a very specific direction for his heroine, I feel it’s well past time for him to up the pace a bit.  He’s spent a lot of time establishing the principal characters, mythologies, and interacting forces for his plot; now’s the time to lose the reins and let them go wild on each other.

It seems Azzarello’s about to do just that by the end of this issue, though we have to sit through quite a bit of set-up first, not all of which seems entirely necessary or even useful.  The intro with Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus basically reiterates most of the info we already know, and does little to round out their personalities or goals.  It doesn’t get simpler than gods wanting to retain their positions of power and wanting to shut down any threat to them, right?

Wonder Woman #16 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: And here Zola and Hera live the city high life while Diana ambles the sewers.

The Review: When the DC relaunch first started, Wonder Woman took nearly everyone by surprise with the particular direction Azzarello chose to run with.  You can associate a lot of different qualities with comics’ leading lady, but “horror” wasn’t really one of them.  In his first arc, Azzarello made you realize that Greek myth was full of monsters and horror, not all of it centered on actual monsters.

As Wonder Woman’s feats grew bolder and more adventurous, the visceral feeling of fear, established when we first saw a bloodied arm stretching from the fleshy torso of a decapitated horse, has slowly ebbed away.  This issue doesn’t quite restore that element of terror, but it does start building suspense once more; it distinctly feels that events are closing in on the plot, that traps are being laid around our heroes even as they still move freely.

Hack/Slash #24 – Review

By Tim Seeley (Writer), Bryan Baugh (Artist), and Mark Englert (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: How fucking cool is the Matt Merhoff cover for the Hack/Slash #24?!

The Story: The pumpkin-headed Samhain approaches Cassie and Vlad about a possible alliance. They both want to take down the Black Lamp Society, which is finally explained in detail, so, as the saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

What’s Good: I wasn’t a big fan of the Netherworld plot, since it tended to get in the way of the Casssie vs. Slasher storylines that make Hack/Slash the fun series that it usually is. The Black Lamp Society stuff that’s been brewing for the last few issues is something that I can get behind. The Black Lamp Society origin story that’s told in Hack/Slash #24 delivers a nice mix of mythology (True Blood fans take notice) religion, and the supernatural (an explanation for the slashers!?) that, while not super original, fits surprisingly well into the larger Hack/Slash storyline.

Another good thing about Hack/Slash #24 is the artwork by new series artist Bryan Baugh. It’s very stylized (like a cross between tattoo art and sexy pin-up art), but loaded with an impressive amount of detail. Baugh’s work fits the series well and definitely makes the Hack/Slash interiors look quite unique.

As you probably expected, the dialogue in the latest Hack/Slash also scores a spot in the “What’s Good” section. Tim Seeley clearly has a strong handle on the story he is telling and uses smart dialogue and character interaction to drive it forward. While, again, the plot isn’t completely original, it is still fun and compelling. I look forward to reading more of it.

What’s Not So Good: I’m not entirely sure if it’s an issue with the artwork or the colors, but a few panels in Hack/Slash #24 look a bit sloppy. Either lines look extra rough or the colors lack definition. While it’s far from a crippling problem (an extra layer of polish would have helped immensely), it’s noticeable enough to warrant a mention.

Conclusion: Hack/Slash #24 is one of the best issue of the series in a while. The dialogue is sharp, the artwork is well worth checking out, and the storyline shows lots of promise. I can’t wait for the double-sized Hack/Slash #25!

Grade: B+

-Kyle Posluszny