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.

Demon Knights #19 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: It’s a pretty bad economy when even the devil fears losing his job.*

The Review: I don’t think I’m unique in liking creators who can surprise me, particularly if they can do it without resorting to cheap tricks or totally groundless gimmicks.  If you expose yourself enough to any medium of fiction, you eventually catch on to most of its patterns, formulas, clichés, and tropes, rendering many stories too predictable to enjoy.  A writer who manages to spring some genuinely unexpected moments through all that deserves some credit.

Venditti manages to surprise you in precisely this manner several times in this issue, starting with one that quite impressed me from the opening: Vandal Savage revealing that his recent animosity towards Jason Blood is due to Etrigan nearly cutting Savage’s immortal life short in the title’s last arc.  “I’m immortal, but the demon dragged me into the afterlife anyway,” he states coldly.  The moment he says it, it’s like a switch flips on in your head: of course—makes total sense.  Yet you probably didn’t think of it until Venditti wrote it.

Ame-Comi Girls #1 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Amanda Conner (art), Tony Akins (pencils), Walden Wong (inks), Paul Mounts (colors)

The Story: Diplomacy in a metal bikini—what can be wrong with that?

The Review: I know I’m playing into stereotype here, but I actually preferred anime and manga for many years before getting back into American comics.  Like most fans, I was drawn partially by the exotic air of the material, but mostly by its extremes of imagination and emotion.  Later, I’d realize anime and manga have their gradations of low-brow and formulaic versus intelligent and inspired as any other medium, but at the time, it all seemed utterly original to me.

Originality would not be the predominant quality of this series, and in most respects, you don’t see anything in particular which really ties Ame-Comi Girls with a Japanese aesthetic, either in substance or design.  If there are certain tropes manga usually fall into (and there are plenty), this title doesn’t really use them.  Nothing in the way the story proceeds or the way characters behave really remind you of anything you ever read in a tankōbon.

Wonder Woman #4 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Someone pop on some AC/DC and turn it up—Wonder Woman’s mourning.

The Review: As a young buff of Greek mythology, I always found the gods and goddesses baffling in their arbitrariness.  Even the most reasoned and benevolent ones would have their petty streaks from time to time, and few of them had any moral compunction about using their power with impunity and without regard for the consequences to mortals.  For that reason, I’ve never felt inclined to feel sympathetic to any of them.  They are gods, after all.

For the most part, Azzarello stays true to the conniving, scheming world of the Greek pantheon.  Ever since Apollo’s oracles revealed Zeus “doesn’t exist,” a truly astonishing pronouncement if you ever heard one, you’d think there’d be some kind of uproar among the divinities, or at least some kind of inquiry as to how this could possibly happen.  But we’re talking about the ultimate mafia family here, so when the head of the household disappears, power plays abound.

To that end, Apollo goes to Ares to secure an alliance of sorts, or at least support for when he makes his bid for leadership.  To your surprise, Ares agrees to stay out of the bidding with little resistance.  In fact, he seems quite lethargic, even melancholy in this portrayal.  While Apollo states that Ares is “vital—now, more than ever,” Ares responds with only a weary smile, as if millennia of spinning the world’s conflict has finally gotten to him.

Hera doesn’t even seem aware, much less affected, by her husband’s disappearance; she only wants to get her revenge on the dalliances he left behind.  Now, her oft-extreme retaliations against those she feels has wronged her may sway you into thinking her mean-spirited or horribly spiteful, but here, she reminds us she has every reason to be: “I am the queen of the gods…the goddess of women…ultimately yet, a woman.”  And any woman would be enraged by such constant infidelity from her husband.

Wonder Woman #3 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Diana joins the ranks of women (and men) who have major daddy issues.

The Review: Even back in ancient days the concept of the Amazons captured people’s fancies.  Granted, society at that point was such that a race of women who lived and acted on the same footing as men had the same novelty as, say, hydras and sheep with golden wool.  Anyway, DC’s fictional Amazons for a while followed their traditional forbears in a strict ban on interaction with men, but Wonder Woman’s relationship to Man’s world weakened that prejudice over time.

In this new DCU, the Amazons are back to man-hating with passion; even male gods aren’t spared from their wrath and scorn, judging by their threats to the injured Hermes last issue.  Actually, the Amazons don’t tiptoe around any god at all, not even the literally shadowing presence of Strife.  Even as they bury the casualties of the demi-goddess’ power, that doesn’t prevent them from back-talking her with seeming impunity: “…you trick us into murdering our own…and now you mock us.”  “A god’s appetite truly has no shame.”

This brings up a question I bring from the original myths: if the gods are so inclined  and capable of interfering in mortals’ lives, why don’t they go all out in exercising that power?  The most likely answer, of course, is the gods simply enjoy themselves more going the hard way about it.  They indisputably have the upper hand in raw power, so the only amusement they can get out of us is to bring themselves down to our level and see if we can match them that way.  Little wonder why Hippolyta and Zeus hooked up; she saw a man who could actually match her skill in battle, and he saw a mortal woman who could give the king of gods a challenge.

Ultimately, the truth about Diana’s parentage indeed creates discord on the island (one woman darkly speculates on Hippolyta’s death), but it also brings to light tensions that have afflicted Diana since childhood.  Paradise, it seems, offers little protection from the usual mean-spirited taunts most people receive as kids (“…not since I was a little girl have I been called [Clay].”).

Wonder Woman #2 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colorist)

The Story: Can’t you gods work out your issues on Maury or something?

The Review: Actually, it may have been in Wonder Woman that I read this, but I distinctly remember a character musing on the idea that gods, as idealizations of humans, represent not only the brightest, greatest, finest parts of humanity, but also humanity at its very worst.  Only the gods are ever so much better at it.  They not only scheme, nurse grudges, and arbitrarily act with the best of them, they have the power to carry out even their least thought-out agendas.

If you didn’t realize that before, this issue will ring the idea home, big time.  You have Wonder Woman carrying a wounded god in her arms.  She brings with her a young, pregnant woman to a secret island populated by outrageously tall, semi-barbarian women.  Her mother, a figure even more impressive than Diana, who carries a large double-headed axe in one hand, expresses fear of the future.  All this because of one goddess’ jealousy.  These immortals don’t mess around.

Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies #1 – Review

By: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Scott Clark (penciller), Dave Beaty (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: Now, you guys are absolutely positive this isn’t a shotgun wedding?

The Review: Of course, one of the most impacting changes in the Flashpoint world is Wonder Woman and Aquaman’s fierce enmity, which has led to countless deaths and the devastation of an entire continent.  Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #1 danced around the origins of this intense hatred, noting the near-marriage between the two young royals and the enraging deaths of Queens Hippolyta and Mera, but we’ve still yet to see the nitty-gritty of these past events.

In Flashpoint: Knight of Vengeance #1, I mentioned how the real point of change came more from a subtle alteration in Thomas Wayne’s behavior, which led to drastic changes to the night of his family’s mugging.  In the same way, Diana’s more pronounced impulsiveness leads to her setting sail from Themyscira (prior to the tourney that traditionally marks her departure for the outside world), thus setting the stage for her fateful encounter with Arthur.

DnA deliver the goods with fine form, making the plot so accessible this issue could effectively work as a new series debut.  You don’t actually need much familiarity with the characters or their original conceptions to get engaged with this story. It wastes no time taking us through the major scenes: the first meeting of the Amazonians and Atlanteans, the unexpected announcement to both peoples of their rulers’ coming union, and the eventful day of the union itself.

Wonder Woman #601 – Review

by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Don Kramer (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors), and Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story: Diana learns about the fall of Paradise Island and sets off in pursuit of her people’s mysterious tormenters.

What’s Good: If there’s one thing JMS’ first full issue of Wonder Woman has going for it, it’s tone, and that’s a very big thing that I fully expect will carry his run.  This story feels big, it feels epic, it feels important, and it feels grand.  I’ve at times referred to comic artwork that has a “high-budget feel,” but in this case, I think that’s just as appropriately applied to JMS’ storytelling.  This doesn’t come across like just another day in the office for Wonder Woman.  Rather, this issue presents sweeping storytelling and high stakes that, if anything, feel fresh and vital.  I was excited reading this issue, and that’s not something I’ve felt about the character in some time.

A lot of this is thanks to JMS’ decision to spend the first half of the issue recounting the fall of Themyscira.  The narration does a good job depicting the scale and the heroism of Hippolyta and the Amazons.  The wholesale slaughter and the mysterious bad guy all seem credible, visceral, and emotional; this doesn’t read like just another typical scene of hackneyed mass destruction.  I was surprised by how much I was invested in this flashback, especially the downfall of Hippolyta.  The extended scene very effectively propelled Diana on a quest where she has to balance her hunger for vengeance and her obligation to save the surviving Amazons.

Incredible Hercules #123 – Review

By Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente (writers), Clayton Henry and Salva Espin (artists), Raul Trevino (colorist)

Is it just me, or has 2008 been the year that Marvel Comics finally did right by their B-list characters?  Incredible Hercules has by far been one of the most entertaining titles I’ve read this year, and I never thought I would say that about about a comic starring a man wearing a skirt and leather stockings.

This issue is part three of the “Love and War” storyline, which so far hasn’t been the strongest arc in the series.  Having just rescued his uncle Poseidon from a gun-toting Amazon with the help of Namor and Namora, Hercules learns the nature of Hippolyta’s plans against the world of man.  Meanwhile, Amadeus is still imprisoned on board Hippolyta’s submarine as she and her Amazons race towards the artifact that will grant them control over the axis of the world. However, that doesn’t stop him from finding the time to score with a youthful Gorgon.

Something about this storyline seems underwhelming, especially since Hercules just got done beating on a Skrull god in the earlier Secret Invasion tie-in issues. But I have a feeling that’s going to change soon when the cast finally reaches the Axis Mundi.  Even if the action is a bit more subdued, Pak and Van Lente still know how to pen a really entertaining story, and that’s where Incredible Hercules succeeds.

This is a title that delights in huge action and fantastic villains, where Hercules and Amadeus seek adventure with a wink and a smile.  Artists Henry and Espin perfectly convey that lighthearted tone with clean art that looks like animation and does a great job of expressing emotion.  What can I say?  Incredible Hercules is a pleasure to read!

Grade: B+

-Tony Rakittke

The Incredible Hercules #122 – Review

By Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (Writers), Clayton Henry & Salva Espin (Artists), and Raul Travino (Colorist)

The Story: Namor and Hercules are at it toe-to-toe up until Namora informs the two men that they are on the same side for the time being. The three go off to investigate the disappearance of Poseidon and start the search by heading straight for the Amazonian queen, Hippolyta. Meanwhile, Amadeus Cho remains a willing captive of the Amazons as he tries to decipher an Atlantean tablet for Hippolyta.

What’s Good: The second chapter of the Love and War arc is notable for how well it brings together all the elements that make The Incredible Hercules so enjoyable as a series. The cartoonish visuals prove to be a perfect fit for scenarios that put the series’ trademark humor to good use. Simply put, the book is an entertaining package.

What’s Not So Good: For as fun as the storyline is, there is no denying that it lacks some of the weight found in other arcs. It proves to be quite disappointing in that respect simply because I have come to expect a bit more from the series. Also, it is worth noting that some people are probably going to be turned off by the visuals, especially when the darker elements of the storyline are introduced.

Conclusion: If you just want to be entertained, you really can’t go wrong with this one. That said, be sure to keep your expectations in check. This arc is not exactly a high point for the series.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny