Wonder Woman #776 – Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jordie Bellaire, Writers; Jill Thompson, Becky Cloonan, Paulina Ganucheau, Artists; Jordie Bellaire, Kendall Goode, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Diana has taken a strange trip across the multiverse, but few issues have been more strange than this one—mostly thanks to the inimitable art of legendary cartoonist Jill Thompson. She jumps on board for one issue to tell a story of the realm of Faerie. Diana and Ratatosk arrive, and Diana quickly warns her squirrel companion about the rules of the realm—only for Ratatosk to ignore her and quickly gobble a pie, winding up bewitched and turned into a human boy. Things go from bad to worse as he’s captured and Diana winds up falsely accused of regicide by the new king of the realm and imprisoned. It moves fast, and sets up a chaotic conflict for the wayward amazon to find her way out of.
The prison break that ensues—also bringing back Diana’s love interest Sigurd—is fast-paced and exciting, and the trip they go on to uncover the truth leads to some stunning visuals of fantasy creatures. The story is very well-done, but it’s mostly going to be remembered for seeing Jill Thompson put on an absolute master class of art—especially for someone who rarely does art for any comics she doesn’t write. There is a lot of story in only twenty pages, almost enough for a whole arc, but by the end Diana is off to her new—and oddly familiar—environment as the adventure continues. This series changing its status quo so often is tricky, but once in a while you get something special.
The Young Diana story has been wrestling with some heavy topics from the start, addressing the complex history of Themyscira. But this issue, coming off the battle with Circe (who had possessed Diana’s teacher), it all comes to the fore. Diana is scared, but she’s also angry, and she’s unafraid to confront the recovering Clio. That leads to another Amazon entering and revealing the truth of who exactly has been hiding these stories—and it’s going to set up a major confrontation next issue. Another strong installment.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
