Wonder Woman Annual #1 Review

Written by: Meredith Finch
Art by: David Finch and Goran Sudzuka
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 4, 2015

Two for None

This Annual serves as the end to the War-Torn story and I hate to say it, but it's been just "meh".  Meredith Finch has worked hard at making the book her own by opening Wonder Woman's world to include the Justice League while continuing her ties to Themyscira and Olympus.  I appreciate the effort, I just haven't always been able to recommend the results.  Like I said, this ends her (and David Finch's) first major arc, but also ends my reviewing of this book.  Yep, after twenty some reviews, I am handing Wonder Woman over to Eric to review.  So, with a (kind of) heavy heart, here is my last review for Wonder Woman...



The issue starts off with Wonder Woman confronting the Alien Queen who has caused so many problems and it kind of feels like a microcosm of Meredith Finch's whole run...it's interesting in concept, but falls flat on the page.  After the Queen gives a cool back story for her and her followers, Wonder Woman comes up with the solution to all the trouble...she says they can help.  Really? That's it?  Yep, case closed and we move along to the next issue, Donna Troy.

Of all the things that the Finch's have done since taking over, introducing Donna Troy has garnered the most attention.  Form what I've seen, most has been negative, but any attention is good attention, right?  When Diana returns to Themyscira, she finds the slaughter of her Amazonian bothers and wants revenge...or at least justice.  I'm with Wonder Woman here.  I liked the reasoning and mythology behind the Brothers of Themyscira and to wipe it away really upset me.

The final confrontation between the two finally happens and again, it's pretty lackluster.  Donna accuses Diana of being weak (again) and Diana counters by telling Donna she's a pawn (again) and when things get crazy and different, the fight ends.  Seriously, a thing happens in this fight that may be the most interesting thing to happen in this book in months and it is thrown aside way too quickly.

The story ends with the Amazons accepting Diana as their leader and all the loose ends being tied up way to neat and tidy through a monologue.  That's right, the story ends with Diana telling the reader what happened to Donna Troy instead of seeing it.  Boo!

After all the setup, this story felt so rushed.  Why didn't the Finch's use the extra space of an Annual to give this story a better ending? Did Convergence screw things up a bit?  I guess we'll never know, but I do know this ending was lackluster to say the least.

I can't say that about David Finch's art, however.  It is pretty damn good throughout this entire issue (and series) whether in the heat of battle or quiet time.  The art has been this book's saving grace and while I have hopes that the writing eventually catches up, at least we can all look at the pretty pictures for now.

Guess what?  That's not it.  We also get another story written by Meredith Finch with art by Goran Sudzuka.  I hope fans of Wonder Woman were as excited to see Goran's art again because I am a huge fan.  I wasn't a huge fan of this story which was the origin of Derinoe.  That's the evil old crone who created/controlled Donna Troy for those who are confused.  Don't feel bad, I'm confused too...about why we are getting this story now and at all.

This tale did nothing to increase my enjoyment of this book because I never cared for the character in the first place.  Maybe that's just me, but I'm sure there are others out there that share my opinion.  I won't go into detail about this throwaway story except to say that the art was great and the story was okay even if it was severely mistimed.


Bits and Pieces:

Readers get two stories in this annual and while the art was great in both, the first story felt rushed while the second felt unnecessary.  I don't know which is worse.  I do know that I can't recommend this Annual except as a way for readers to wrap up the War-Torn story arc and look at the pretty pictures.

6.5/10