Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #6 – Marguerite Sauvage, Liam Sharp, Michael W. Conrad, Christos Gage, Dr. Sheena Howard, Writers; Marguerite Sauvage, Liam Sharp, Noah Bailey, Kevin Maguire, Jamal Campbell, Artists; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This issue brings an end to the current era of color anthologies, but there are five more Wonder Woman stories before we wrap up. How do they compare to the rest?
First up, Marguerite Sauvage goes solo on “Role Model,” which focuses on Diana’s friendship with a woman in the near future. We don’t know her name or how they first met, but the woman grew from being a child activist to a world leader, and Diana has been behind the scenes making sure she gets there and powerful people can’t get her out of the way. It has a powerful message of how Diana is always making sure Man’s World is allowed to progress.
Next up is Liam Sharp, going solo with his usual hyper-detailed art in “The Prophet,” and this is fascinating and phenomenal. It’s the story of a man who keeps on dreaming of the Amazons—and in particular of this one lost Amazon, a mad warrior named Berchta who was exiled for her crimes. He has visions of horrible violence she’ll visit on the world, and of Diana eventually coming to face her. The visions destroy his life and drive him to the brink of madness—until a shocking last act twist that makes me wonder if this is just the start of something bigger from Sharp.
Michael W. Conrad and Noah Bailey deliver an emotional tale in “A Lesson in Truth” as Diana intervenes in a hostage situation. The culprit is a man who was saved by Diana as a child, but was haunted by something he heard his father say under the influence of her lasso. Obsessed with finding the truth, he’s blackmailed Diana into showing up again—but the truth of his father’s words are revealed in a very unexpected way. A strong message of redemption from one of the writers of the regular WW book.
Christos Gage and Kevin Maguire are next with “Attack of the 50-Foot Wonder Woman,” a weird and hilarious tale where Giganta manages to steal Diana’s powers—with the unfortunate side effect that Diana gets hers. Her mind temporarily addled by the sudden transformation, Diana essentially becomes a kaiju, and her frequent villain finds herself in the unexpected position of trying to protect a small town she’s come to love. It’s a funny, old-school switch-up from the rest of the serious stories in this issue.
Finally, Dr. Sheena Howard and Jamal Campbell bring the curtain down with “Fresh Air in Philly.” With Philadelphia affected by a mysterious plague of poison air, Nubia is trying to keep the peace in her adopted hometown while Diana takes on the source of the crisis—Poseidon, who is enraged over the pollution of the seas and is retaliating. This story packs a lot of plot into eight pages, but the art is brilliant and it’s great to see the Wonder Woman in battle together.
Overall, a strong final collection with one all-timer in Liam Sharp’s installment.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
