Wonder Woman #3 Review and *SPOILERS*

Jungle Love

Written By: Greg Rucka
Art By: Liam Sharp, Laura Martin, Jodi Wynne
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

I feel so out of the loop with this new Wonder Woman series because it seems like I'm spending the majority of my time while reading an issue looking for something deeper in the dialog or in the art only because there doesn't appear to be anything really going on on the surface of this comic....... at least in the odd numbered issues dealing with "The Lies".  With a name like "The Lies" too, I have to wonder how much of anything I'm dealing with is actually happening or how much about what I thought I knew about the characters involved still holds up to continuity.  It's been a bit of work to try and understand what's going on here and really, I still don't know and because of that..... and all the other things I've said in this opening paragraph, I haven't really been digging this series and I really just hope beyond hope that things become clearer as the series goes on....... or even in this issue because I really want to be able to go into a Wonder Woman title and like what's going on and to be able to understand it.  Let's jump into this issue and see if I get my wish.  

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Wonder Woman and Cheetah having themselves a little frenemy situation, where yeah, they have been enemies, but with Diana saying that she never stopped considering Barbara a friend, that seems to shut the situation down and allows the two to walk through the jungle and have themselves a pseudo civilized conversation.  This leads to us finding out that maybe Barbara Minerva isn't as happy to be Cheetah as we've previously seen and that things aren't all worshippers, RC Cola and Pinatas in the jungle.  While Cheetah does have her worshippers going on, it seems that the Hyena Men we saw in the previous issue of "The Lies" are now under the command of the Warlord Cadulo............  who we also find may worship the God Urzkartaga, who bestowed the power of the Cheetah on Barbara, but it seems that Cadulo doesn't want to share his god, or possibly wants the power of the Cheetah for himself because the Hyena Men are on the hunt for this Wonder Woman foe.  

While all of this is going on, we see that Steve Trevor isn't about to sit around the war torn jungle village we saw him in in the previous "Lies" issue and rallies his men together to go after Cadulo's men, who kidnapped this village's daughters, but while we saw that Diana and Steve are in the same country, we find out here why the scenery didn't quite match.......... it seems that the jungle Cheetah and Diana are walking through is actually some sort of mystical jungle that doesn't exactly appear in normal reconnaissance means like satellite, drones, etc.  That's not stopping Steve from going all Liam Neeson and going straight in to try and find the taken women.  

In the end, Cheetah is injured when the Hyena Men finally catch up to Diana and her and after Diana subdues the monsters, we see a very vulnerable Cheetah, who believes she's actually being punished by the God Urzkartaga........ because from what is said here I can only assume that the god is angry that Barbara wasn't a virgin when she became the animal bride of the god of the hunt.  It's after this that Cheetah agrees to help Diana find Themsycira again, but only if she helps Cheetah kill Urzkartaga, who Cheetah now believes wants her dead as well.......... and maybe that's the case because as this issue closes, we see Cadulo in a temple of Urzkartaga, with Steve Trevor and his men captured and this Warlord seems to believe that it is the God of The Hunt's will that they have come.

That's it for this issue of Wonder Woman........ and I'm still a bit lost about what's going on in this series, especially with this issue because...... well, because this seemed pretty straight forward and doesn't appear to have anything hiding within its paneled pages to make me scratch my head over.  This is really a re-introduction to Cheetah and I love the fact that the character seems to be so vulnerable because of the choice she made to become bride of the God of the Hunt...... especially now that the honeymoon appears to be over.  Also, it was really great to see the connection between Steve and Diana being in the same place here as well and how Steve's target seems to be the one behind the hunt for Cheetah.  It's all coming together and while I don't know how this exactly fits in with all the "Lies" we've had up until this point, I'm happy that it seems like we get a break from that in order to have ourselves some super heroics from Diana as she solidifies Cheetah's help in finding Themyscira and also maybe repairing the damage done to their friendship.  As with every other issue of Wonder Woman so far, the art was spectacular and that goes right down the board from pencils, inks to colors.  It was just a joy to look at and with the story not making me feel like an idiot who's missing something, I can't wait to see what else we get from this story arc.

Bits and Pieces:

The "Lies" continue in this issue of Wonder Woman, but to my surprise, the title of this story arc seems to play little to adding to the confusion of the story as this actually becomes something that's decently easy to follow, while opening up the doors to finding out more about Cheetah....... and it works great.  On top of that we have ourselves some excellent art throughout the issue and I find myself for the first time really caring where this story goes.

8/10