Wonder Woman #78 Review

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Written By: G. Willow Wilson
Art By: Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, Norm Rapmund, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Pat Brosseau
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 11, 2019

Aphrodite is dead and it looks like love is no longer in the air...in fact, it's plain out gone!  We saw a little bit of what that means for our heroes, but is there more?  Let's find out...



The issue opens with Diana and Cheetah fighting as we get what really sounds like some of the dark poetry I used to write in my room listening to the Smiths while pouting and acting all mysterious.  I think I remember wearing a black turtle neck and in my mind, I really wish I was wearing a beret and playing the bongos as well.  Yea, I was a pretentious jerk and this is not good narration.

The scene itself is pretty good, even if I wish it played off bigger based on what's happening here, but after a brief scene with Steve Trevor and Atlantiades that sounds like they are namedropping a Chvrches album, they find a beaten and weary Wonder Woman...without her mythical trappings!

If you don't like a theme bashed over your head for an entire issue, this one may not be for you.  The subtle hints of a world without love we got the last issue make way for over-the-top statements and in your face cliches.  Love is dead and you are going to be told, damn it!

We head off to Washington DC where Etta tells Diana that there is no love left in our nation's capital and then get a mention of ARGUS which was eye-rolling considering what is going on right now in Event Leviathan.  I know you can't make everything and everyone work together, but come on!  Pay attention people!!!

The issue continues with Diana going off to see Veronica Cale to cash in a favor because...she has no love.  Except that most of what we've gotten recently had to do with her love of her daughter, Isadore.  Get this...Diana uses that to show Veronica that, you guessed it, love is dead! The issue ends with more people acting crazy because they have no love anymore until Diana throws them against a wall while Cheetah looks on.

This issue was just a forced mess and really, I won't miss Wilson at all on this book when she leaves.  I don't think she ever got a real grip on Wonder Woman as a character and must have been hired for her name and the hope that she might have a good Wonder Woman story in her.  As far as I could tell, she didn't.  The book looks really good thanks to Tom Derenick who draws a heck of a Wonder Woman...even if she looks like a middle-aged housewife without her magical weapons and armor.

 Bits and Pieces:

This is just another disappointing issue in an overall disappointing run of Wonder Woman.  Love is dead in the book, but it's also affecting my love of one of my favorite characters and that is really starting to upset me.

5.5/10