Wonder Woman #788 – Becky Cloonan/Michael W. Conrad, Jordie Bellaire, Writers; Emanuela Lupacchino/Wade Von Grawbadger, Paulina Ganucheau, Artists; Tamra Bonvillain, Kendall Goode, Colorists
Ray – 7/10
Ray: In the aftermath of Trial of the Amazons, Diana’s story shifts back to Man’s World—and I’m not sure about it right now. Instead of the complex, mystical adversaries of the first part of this run, the villains here are very familiar—led by Dr. Cizko and backed up by old adversaries Dr. Poison and Calculus, these rogues are determined to make Wonder Woman public enemy #1 using that most nefarious of tools—talk radio. Psycho has used the bully pulpit to convince a generation of men that Wonder Woman is their enemy, and they’ve responded by taking the fight right to the headquarters of the Justice League. And they’re hopped up on what might be chemically tainted milk.
Here’s the problem—satire is a tricky thing when the people you’re satirizing are essentially very dangerous jokes already. The MRAs this book is poking at are caricatures, to the point that the cartoonish take on them here isn’t all that far off from reality. So much of the philosophy is making up a person to get mad at. It’s a common problem that Mark Russell’s more pointed works also often fall into. The action does pick up when the villains escalate, and Steve and Siggy’s growing bromance is the funniest part of the issue. However, the threat here doesn’t really work either as a funny satire, or as a legitimate threat. It’s a shame, because the creative team’s compelling take on Diana is strong as always.
The Young Diana segment is probably the highlight here, as our pint-sized Amazon falls further under the spell of her visiting aunt Antiope. Hippolyta’s caginess about why Antiope left has only made Diana more fascinated by the new arrival, and she and Antiope engage in an escape from the palace at night in search of mysteries. This leads them to encounter a strange beast in the wild, and a mishap leaves Diana with a hard-to-hide memento of their escape. It’s a short story, and I imagine these will read much better collected, but this second volume of stories has been pretty great so far.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
