Wonder Girl #3 Review

Sometimes Pretty Eyes And a Flashy Smile Aren't Enough

Written By: Joëlle Jones

Art By: Joëlle Jones, Adriana Melo

Colors By: Jordie Bellaire

Letters By: Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 31, 2021

In Wonder Girl #3, Yara Flor makes her way out of the plane crash from the end of issue #2 to suddenly be caught in a love triangle of sorts between Eros and João. However, Eros's interest is more than personal as he's been sent to bring Yara before her Olympian benefactress. Meanwhile, Cassie and Artemis team up to find Yara before any more damage is done.

Was It Good?

The art and the storytelling took a downward turn in this issue compared to the previous two issues and the story coming out of Future State.

Let's start with the art because it's the most obvious problem that's also the easiest to fix. Melo's art and Jones's art styles are significantly different. Almost radically different. When the Yara scenes transition to the Cassie/Artemis scenes, it's almost as if you're reading a completely different comic, and not in a good way. 

Publishers will sometimes "hide" a different artist by using them to flesh out a flashback scene or some setting that's so different from the main plot that an art style change works as part of the transition. Here, the art style only changes up when you're shifting focus to a different set of characters and it's jarring in the worst possible way. That said, the fix is an easy one. Pick an artist and have them do the whole book. Going halfway is becoming a major down point.

The story is taking a bit of a downturn because the plot is starting to wander aimlessly to get the very short distance from A to B.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Yara wanders away from the plane crash at the end of the last episode when she and João share a kiss. Suddenly, Eros is shooting at them with arrows (and missing?!?). In turn, a giant, snake made out of smoke and blue fire starts chasing Eros.

Yara seeks the giant, blue, fire snake chasing a man in a toga and she runs after them to help. Eventually, Yara finds herself in a clearing surround by all kinds of mystical monsters who tell her they've been waiting to meet her.

Cut to Artemis and Cassie fighting the two Amazonian Amazons. They win and reluctantly decide to team up.

Back to the jungle, Yara takes out the bolas she received from Iara and attempts to throw them at one of the monsters... unsuccessfully. Out of nowhere, eros walks up and stabs Yara in the stomach with one of his arrows. There's no explanation as to where eros came from or what happened to the giant snake. The arrow enchants Yara enough to become enamored with Eros and she decides to go with him to wherever he plans on taking her, leaving João in the jungle, surrounded by monsters.

Eros takes Yara up to Mount Olympus by way of a tornado that also magically changes her clothes into a more presentable toga. There they meet Yara's benefactress, Hera, Queen of the Gods.

If that all sounds like most random things happening that don't quite tie together, you'd be right. The brief encapsulation of this story is as follows: Yara gets off the plane, runs into the jungle, meets Eros, and follows him to Mt. Olympus. The End.

It's a lot of random stuff for a very short walk, and it's starting to look like it's going to take several more issues to find out what this story (and Yara) is really all about.

Bits and Pieces:

Wonder Girl #3 is on the downslide. Two artists with radically different styles make this issue visually offputting, and the story seems to be throwing random happenings out of nowhere to get the plot to travel a short distance from A to B. We get no information about why Yara's arrival is a global threat, and having no information about the main character or the central plot is not a good place to be on issue #3.

6.5/10