Wonder Woman #5 Review

     

    

Written by: Tom King
Art by: Daniel Sampere
Colors by: Tomeu Morey
Letters by: Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Daniel Sampere, Tomeu Morey
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: January 16, 2024

Wonder Woman #5 finds Wonder Woman enacting tournaments to prevent her Wonder Girls from joining her fight while the Sovereign gathers a team of Wonder Woman's enemies.
Is Wonder Woman #5 Good?

Wonder Woman #5 is an odd issue. Tom King improves greatly on the previous four issues by not inserting scenes of a vile or offensive nature, but consistent with the previous issues, the pacing is poor, and the character voices are off. In short, the issue is beautifully drawn and inoffensive, but slow as a tortoise.

When last we left Wonder Woman, the Sovereign used Delgado's death as the flashpoint to convince the entire country that Wonder Woman is at fault and is now considered enemy #1. While a country-wide hunt commences to capture Wonder Woman, the titular hero decides to take a day to grant a dying boy his wish for a visit, seemingly oblivious to the danger Wonder Woman places the family in.

Now, Wonder Woman engages in a series of tests against the Wonder Girls. If each one loses, they must swear not to join Wonder Woman in her fight. Yara Flor chooses archery and loses. Cassie chooses arm wrestling and loses. Donna chooses a video game (Injustice, naturally) and loses. Meanwhile, the Sovereign sends Sgt. Steel to assemble a team of Wonder Woman villains, including Giganta, Circe, Grail, Dr. Psycho, Silver Swan, and Angle Man.

And that's it.

In effect, you have an entire issue where the Sovereign and Wonder Woman assemble their respective allies for the fight ahead. If you've been following this series so far, the flaw in that approach becomes apparent, but if you've felt the one thing missing from this series is a setup issue, you're in luck.

Wonder Woman #5 Video Review

What's great about Wonder Woman #5? As always, Daniel Sampere's artwork is phenomenal, so you'll love the look of the book. Also, you do get the sense that the plot is starting to move forward as the teams come together.

What's not so great about Wonder Woman #5? King's script stumbles on three fronts. First, the pacing is horrendous. Most of the panels are taken up with the Sovereign's overblown narration, which slows the reading experience to a crawl. It would be different if the narration added something to the story, but on most panels, you could remove the narration, and it would make almost no difference.

Second, King's bad habit of not getting characters right is in full effect. Yara sounds like Donna, Donna sounds like Cassie, and Cassie sounds like a generic nobody. If you're going to create a script to assemble a collection of characters, it would help to at least get the character voices correct.

Third, Wonder Woman and all Amazons are considered enemies of the United States. There's a massive hunt happening to capture, expel, or kill anyone associated with Themyscira. Why on Earth are Diana, Donna, Cassie, and Yara meeting in public in a diner or hanging out in Diana's apartment? King doesn't do anything to make the "Enemy #1" approach to this story serious or believable. Wonder Woman might as well be hanging out on an average Tuesday.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces:

Wonder Woman #5 delivers a setup issue where the Sovereign and Wonder Woman assemble their allies for the coming war. Although it's a setup issue, the plot does feel like it's moving forward, and Daniel Sampere's art is amazing. That said, the pacing is horrendous, and King got the voices of each of the Wonder Girls wrong.

6.5/10