You Mess With The Bull, You Get The Horns.... and Hopefully Help
Written By: Greg Rucka
Art By: Liam Sharp, Laura Martin, Jodi Wynne
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 25, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Wonder Woman's world is shattered after she breaks the "Lies" spell that was put on her...... or at least broke free of the faux-Themyscira that Steve and her were on and with that world shattered, Wonder Woman's mind kind of shatters as well. After escaping Dr. Poison's Poison Brigade, who discovered Diana and Steve's whereabouts and tried to abduct them, Steve had no choice but to try and keep Diana safe as he tries to get to Etta Candy, who's on the run as well and the only way to do that is to commit Diana to a mental hospital, where she hopefully comes back to her senses before all hell breaks loose with Veronica Cale. Let's jump into this issue and see if Wonder Woman's still bat shit and if Steve is able to get the band back together so that they can get to the bottom of what's going on. Let's check it out.
Explain It!;
Our issue begins with us seeing that Wonder Woman is still a bit crazy as a Doctor and an orderly check in on her and she doesn't do anything but stick her arm into the sunshine coming in through the window......... and that's it. Yeah, we get to see her later on, where she's being wheeled around the hospital's grounds, but since we see a snake come out of one of the holes in her old snake bite wound and begin telling her about how she has to figure out what's true and what's facts because even though most people think they're the same thing, they're completely different........... So yeah, she's not doing too well right now.
Over at Empire Industries, we see Dr. Poison, or as she's being called now Colonel Maru getting the business from a hologram for losing her chance to grab Wonder Woman in the previous issue. This is odd though because while Veronica Cale doesn't really seem to mind, since she lost Etta Candy as well, we see that the many figures displayed through this hologram don't seem to be happy and it seems that they make up this Godwatch that we find out about in this issue, who seem to be obsessed with Wonder Woman and finding Themyscira. Looking at these characters they look like Baroness Von Gunther, Gundra The Valkyrie and Doctor Cyber........ Oh yeah, Godwatch is a regular Wonder Woman Legion of Doom going on here and it seems that they plan on using Barbara Minerva as a way to find Steve and Etta and with them, finding Wonder Woman.
In the end, Steve reconnects with Etta and Barbara, but it seems that Veronica Cale's plan to go over Barbara's credit cards and withdraws actually worked because Colonel Maru's Poison Brigade shows up at their motel room, but Steve and Etta were able to get away, while Barbara, who we learned in this issue was once a part of Godwatch, asks to see Veronica Cale. As our issue closes, we see Etta and Steve go down a back alley looking for help and apparently help will come in the form of a hobo Minotaur.
That's it for this issue of Wonder Woman and while I'm really interested in what's going on with Godwatch and the members involved, the rest of this issue just seems to be stalled with characters just going around and not doing much...... especially Wonder Woman and even with my interest in who Godwatch is and who the members are, it seems that the few glimpses we get of them are just there to try and get some fan service hype up. While initially I thought the art was great in this book, the style drastically changed midway through and since Liam Sharp is the only artist credited, I don't know what went down here, but the quality that I've come to love from this book went away drastically. All in all, this is still a decent read, but not a lot goes down here as all of our characters take this issue to regroup.
Bits and Pieces:
This issue of Wonder Woman was a bit underwhelming as all the characters involved seemed to take this issue as a breather before whatever it is that we're getting after this. Yeah, we get some cool reveals about who our villain of this story actually is, but all in all it felt like a bit of a stall, where even the art seemed to drop in quality halfway through.
6.5/10
This issue was slow going. I had to google the Baroness Von Gunther and Gundra The Valkyrie. So I guess that Colonel Maru is actually a former Valkyrie named Gundra. Did I interpret the scene correctly when the Godwatch were talking to each other? Am I right in assuming that none of them were in the same room together? They all seemed to be talking with each other but it apppeared as if none of them saw their actual personages; rather they saw their holographic projections which were their 'alternative identities'. And what was up with Veronica Cale's projection? Why did look like she was wearing the same outfit but with a different hairstyle? If they all know each other, why the deceptive holograms? The whole scene never worked well and was unnecessarily confusing. And since this is a Rebirth of WW, why not tell us the actual names of the Godwatch? There is nothing worse than forcing a reader to google a character due to deficient writing.
ReplyDeleteBah.
And Good god but Etta Candy looks like a spaced out reject-fan of 1980's Mr. T. WTF is with her haircut? I thought Barbara's was bad.
And the two page scene with spaced out Diana talking to a serpent crawling out of her forearm was a waste of pages. It revealed absolutely nothing of substance. But then most of this issue was a waste as well.
The last page reveal confirms one of my predictions early on..... namely that Ferdinand the Chef would be returning from Rucka's original run. (At least it looks like him). He was a boring character in Rucka's past run and so I don't expect any excitement from him. WW herself is a clueless wonder who can't seem to handle the truth at the moment.
Finally, am I the only one wondering why the hell Steve Trevor doesn't bother to ask the Justice League for help? Instead they ask a frickin Minotaur with culinary skills?