Convergence: Wonder Woman #1 Review

Written by: Larry Hama
Art by: Joshua Middleton
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 22, 2015

Domesday

With the Convergence Event in full effect, one thing has been missing...Wonder Woman.  She is part of the Trinity, so it's been odd not seeing more of her.  Well, here she is in all her white jumpsuit glory.  What's funny is that even though I wasn't reading comics back then, I was aware of this Wonder Woman and while she doesn't get much love anymore, I kind of liked her.  I mean, who doesn't love a kung fu kicking super heroine?  Does this Convergence tie-in kick ass or is it just a weak reminder of days gone by?  Let's find out...

Larry Hama does a good job of getting right to the order of business.  I guess that's easy enough since most readers who pick up this book will already know the basics.  Diana is starting the day with a little philosophical Dome discussion with her man, Steve Trevor.  He has to get to work while Diana is off to help the needy with Etta Candy.  So far, so good.  Things get even better as Diana puts on the old white jumpsuit.

As far as Convergence beginnings go, I really liked this low key start.  Having Steve and Diana together again was great and Larry Hama sets up the underlying premise of the issue through their dialogue.  I'm talking about the religious cult that is all the rage in Gotham.

I'm not a religous guy myself, but if I woke up one day and my city was under a Dome and I lost my superpowers, I may start believing crazy things.  Of course, nobody is sealing up Quakertown, Pa and my superpower is nap taking, but that's beside the point.  Some people in Gotham have the idea that the Dome is the work of a higher power and some day soon, angels will come and save them. We get an up close and personal look at the cult when Etta and Diana take an old lady to a sermon.

Telos interrupts everything with his speech and a good issue goes right down the drain.  Larry Hama starts the downward spiral by letting Diana get knocked out by a bunch of religious kooks, but that's only the beginning.  After Telos has given his speech, I couldn't wait to see Wonder Woman get her powers back and start karate chopping some zealots, but the wait was longer than usual.  I have read every Convergence book so far and I know the basic routine.  Telos gives his speech, we sometimes see the opponent of our hero, the Dome comes down and the super powers return.  If you asked me, I'd say the time for all of this may be 5 minutes tops.  Not here.  The time between speech and Dome disappearance is ridiculously long.  I just feels wrong.

When Diana finally gets her powers back, it's too late for the Cult.  They thought angels would free them, but instead they were killed by Red Rain versions of Catwoman, Poison Ivy and the Joker.  I'm not sure this even makes sense, but it's cool enough.  After leaving Steve Trevor to seemingly get torn apart by Ivy and Catwoman, the issue ends with Diana ready to fight the Joker.

There were a bunch of problems with this issue, but mainly it was not a good story.  I was actually bored by the end.  I like the idea of Cults forming under the Dome, but it doesn't go anywhere and felt like a cheap setup to the Red Rain characters.  Also, while I enjoyed the dialogue that opened the issue, it got worse as the issue went on.  By the time we see Steve and Diana back together fighting the vampires, it was plain awful.

Just an aside...I wish that DC would give a little information on the more obscure characters in each book.  We get a Wonder Woman history lesson when I'm sure that most readers really could have used a Red Rain one instead.  Before reading this, I thought Red Rain was just a pretty good Peter Gabriel song.

I liked Joshua Middleton's art, but I didn't think it fit the book.  I wish it had more of the retro mod look of the old Wonder Woman comics instead of something that wouldn't look at all out of place in the New 52.

Bits and Pieces:

This tie-in issue started off strong, but quickly devolved into something much less.  It was a boring read that did nothing to get me excited for next month's finale.  If Wonder Woman gets beat by her Red Rain villains, I won't be upset at all.  I wish I could say more, but I really didn't like what we got here.

4.0/10