Wonder Woman #26 Review and *SPOILERS*

Put Away Childish Things

Written By: Shea Fontana

Art By: Mirka Andolfo, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 12, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Now that Greg Rucka's run to Wonder Woman is over, it's time to see what Shea Fontana brings us with her story "Heart of the Amazon".  It's got to be odd just jumping in for an arc and after the complete love or complete hate for Rucka's run, I think this will be an interesting breather from what we got previously and really, I'm just looking to have fun with this arc.  Hopefully, that's the case, but with not really needing any kind of backstory on what we've been dealing with in Wonder Woman, let's just jump in and see what Shea Fontana and Mirka Andolfo has in store for us.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Wonder Woman on a peace keeping mission in Greece, where we see her protect a refugee family before actually getting into our story, but even before that, we see a flashback to when Diana was a child on Themyscira.  In this flashback, we see that Diana was a normal child, who had a doll that she really loved and that normal aspect is what bothered some of the Amazons because in their minds, she should be the greatest of the Amazons and not just some normal child.  The Amazons' words reach Hippolyta, who seems to realize that maybe she isn't doing what's best for Diana by letting her play with dolls instead of weapons, but before Hippolyta can think on this situation more, Diana seems to make the decision for her because with out the rest of the Amazons knowing, Diana was hiding underneath of a table and heard everything they said and with that, she took her doll and locked it away so that she could become the Princess that they all expect her to be.......... and it's a bit heartbreaking.  

Once Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor's mission is over in Greece, Diana returns back to the Picket's new secret base, where she's being debriefed by the General in charge and then runs into Etta Candy, who seems to be all smiles and hugs instead of the character she was at the end of Rucka's run, but we'll see where that goes and even if it doesn't come back to that in this arc, I can just say that Etta's a big girl and was willing to let things go for the sake of her relationship with Diana and with that, Etta invites Diana to her brother's wedding, which our hero accepts.  Before all the celebrations can begin though, Diana has to go get checked out in the med bay and it's here where things start to get weird....... or where the story begins to pick up for what it will be because Diana's doctor is acting odd and seems to be really sick, but doesn't want to talk about it.  Hell, she even has a cryptic talk with another doctor about some secret blood test.  It all just leads you to not trust these people, but we don't have time for that because wedding bells are ringing.

In the end, Diana and Etta go off to the wedding, which goes off without a hitch, but as our issue closes and we get to the reception, Diana seems a bit forlorn and chooses to help a young girl find her missing shoe instead of going off to dance with Etta and it's during the search for the elusive shoe that we find out that this young girl was playing hide and seek with a woman that seemed sick and as this issue closes, it seems that this sick woman also planted a bomb underneath of one of the tables.

That's it for this issue of Wonder Woman and at the end of the day, this is a decent issue that is pretty straight forward in dealing with the weight on Diana's shoulders from having to be there for the world and the fact that even though she is this "Wonder Woman", she isn't able to save everyone she wants to.  It's the straight forward storytelling that I think I appreciate the most because it allows me to just have fun with the issue and not have to worry about whether or not there's some bigger meaning to everything like we had previously in Rucka's run.  The art was great and reminded me a lot of the Legend of Wonder Woman series, which I really appreciated and as a first issue to this arc, it wasn't bad.  There wasn't a whole ton going on really, but it was decent and I look forward to what we have coming next.  

Bits and Pieces:

It feels like Shea Fontana has an uphill battle with this arc coming in after Greg Rucka's run because of how important that felt for Rebirth and the future of the character, but Shea delivers us a fun issue with this and Mirka compliments that with her art style.  Yeah, we're diving deep into the psyche of Diana and how she deals with everything she sees, but if the balance of fun and these deeper elements continues, I see this being a really interesting arc going forward.

7/10