Wonder Woman #35 – James Robinson, Writer; Emanuela Lupacchino, Penciller; Ray McCarthy, Inker; Romulo Fajardo Jr., Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 4/10
Corrina: Diana’s Gone From Her Own Book
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!
Ray: The best thing about this issue is the lush Lupacchino art, which does a great job showing off the hidden world of the Amazons. Unfortunately, it’s all in service of a script that’s probably the weakest of the entire series. It’s clear that Robinson is trying to evoke the same style that Rucka did, alternating between present-day stories and side/flashback stories. Unfortunately, while Rucka developed Diana’s character in two timelines, this run tends to sideline Diana for extended periods. But if those stories were compelling, that would be forgivable. This is not compelling. In the aftermath of Jason’s betrayal last issue, this issue flashes back to show us his secret origin. But the origin neither explains his betrayal, nor gives us anything we haven’t seen a million times before.
This is a coming-of-age story that we’ve seen countless times. The mysterious young man with a great destiny is raised in seclusion by a loving adoptive parent who teaches them important lessons while also trying to protect them from the outside world. However, this issue’s origin story – focusing on Jason’s tutelage under Glaucus and Hercules – doesn’t jibe at all with what we saw last issue. His “secret origin” continues to portray him as a nice, lonely young man without any real hints of malice. Is he being possessed? Is he going to pull a face turn in future issues? This issue’s origin makes it clear we’re still supposed to sympathize with him, but the reasons are the most basic and unsubtle. He’s just not an interesting character, and making him essentially co-lead seems like a disastrous choice for this book.
Corrina: Seconding the lush Lupacchino art, which made this issue readable. It’s lovely, especially with the glimpses of the Amazons. Too bad it’s in service to an essentially bad story.
“Poor Jason, abandoned and alone. No wonder he grew bitter!” Seems to be the gist of the issue, though Jason is still possessed of powers, looks, charm, and, well, all the companions he could ever want. I get that he is adopted and he misses his foster father but that is not nearly enough for him to become evil or so jaded. The motivation falls flat and instead, Jason it makes me view him as a whiny adolescent, instead of the grown-up that he should be.
So, it’s basically been two issues of all-Jason, very little Diana. Which, as Ray said, might be forgivable if this character offered us anything interesting but, so far, it doesn’t. Where’s the writer who gave us Leave It To Chance?
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
