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: May 22, 2024
Wonder Woman #9 takes a montage trip with Steve Trevor through Wonder Woman's mind as she endures the torture of isolation as the Sovereign's captive.
Is Wonder Woman #9 Good?
At some point, somebody within DC Editorial has to exhibit an ounce of courage to step in and tell Tom King this isn't working. King's secret weapon of using spectacular artists to cover his thematic shortcomings won't work this time, and DC's greatest female hero suffers for it. I'm not talking about the torture she's enduring in the comic.
When last we left Wonder Woman, she endured a torturous series of hallucinations while under the control of the Lasso of Lies. Serving as a bizarre vehicle to showcase how the Bible is misused to oppress women, the Sovereign ultimately failed in forcing Wonder Woman to know her "place." The issue ended with Wonder Woman using her super strength to break the Lasso of Lies and charge the Sovereign.
In Wonder Woman #9, Wonder Woman was somehow recaptured and stowed in an isolation cell, courtesy of Lex Luthor's power-dampening tech. No explanation was given as to how the Sovereign's men were able to restrain her and get her in a cell while she still had her super strength.
The entire issue follows Wonder Woman engaging in snippets of conversations with her imagined version of Steve Trevor as they travel the world, fight enemies, stroll on the beach, or simply watch the news on a sofa at home.
The issue ends with the Sovereign paying Wonder Woman a visit in her cell to see if he's broken her yet. The answer is "no."
"Wait! What!? That's it. It's all just Wonder Woman talking to Steve to keep her sanity?" you might wonder. Yes, that's right. There's no explanation as to how she got in the cell, the series of hallucinations take place over two months where nobody appears to be searching for her, and there's no hint of where the story is going next.
What's great about Wonder Woman #9? Daniel Sampere's art is spectacular in this issue. Between Dan Mora and Daniel Sampere, DC has some of the best superhero comic artists around. Well, at least Dan Mora's talents aren't wasted.
What's not so great about Wonder Woman #9? It's all superficial atmosphere, buoyed by amazing art, but not a lick of substance, themes, or plot. Grossly, this issue is almost a sadistic demonstration by King to see how much punishment he can inflict on a woman before somebody intervenes. If you're into torture porn, this issue might work for you, but for any reader with a healthy outlook on life, you'll likely find this issue repugnant.
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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I wouldn't call this misogynistic or torture porn cause it isn't, just beacuse the protagonist is going through a difficult time and happens to be a woman. Same happens over and over to other main characters in different media but we don't call that names, it's just a difficulty in the path of the main character. Apart from that this issue is nonsense, see when you have a character like clark and diana who are very very powerful and especially in Diana's case you take advantage of that power to constantly showcase that this character is powerful then you should also accept that it will be harder to write certain plot points for them, for example having them in confinement for a long period of time by normal human beings when said prisoner has a lot of friends who are also very powerful and know what's going on aka the wonder girls, JL, the Amazons etc. Sovereign is simply not as powerful as these group of people to be able to hold diana for this long without outside help from a legion of doom or injustice group. I know cheetah is going to come into this story somehow but even then that is still not on par with Diana's team of people. (It's kinda similar to the Heartless problem in Nightwing, but way worse cause this series is dealing with a group of superpowered people as protagonists and their allies from all over the world including a militant nation vs just one country at most. Even King himself has shown over and over that these villains are really no threat to wonder woman and I get Diana has a plan by staying in confinement on purpose but there surely would have been a lot of easier ways to deal with these guys). King either should have made this plot entirely about mind battles between Diana and Sovereign with politics and diplomacy and etc as main plot points or simply wrote a more physically powerful force . As it stands this series is still not only nonsense but also extremely dry with hardly any side characters in Diana's life to care about or exciting superheroics or mysteries. I also still do not see why wonder woman is a good character, all I've seen is better series and runs about other characters that have more potential than her and get wayyy less advertised cause she just has to be important and is a recognised name.
ReplyDeleteGabe Hernandez should read this issue again as it is clear that he missed a major revelation (on page 3) that explains why Diana is still in captivity and why help has not yet arrived.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous- I went and read that page again. And yeah I understood the first time reading it and still have a problem with this plan. I said it in my comment, it doesn't make sense for Diana to need to go this far against an enemy this much weaker than her. All this plotting Sovereign has done would have been solved ages ago if they instead found Emily (or whatever her name was) and came out with the truth and also have a video of the things Sovereign has done already to Amazons uploaded. This plan for Diana to subject herself to captivity for a certain amount of time works for an enemy that is way more dangerous than Sovereign. Basically the problem lies with the writer failing to make the antagonist establish himself as formidable because every effort he takes is immediately and I mean truly at the scene immediately, undermined by Diana and how she can never be beaten so this plot is very confusing in the why and reason it has decided to go this route, not that people don't understand what's happening. (Again if Diana was established as a Pacifist hero this would make sense perhaps, but not only in the past but in this series itself it has been established time and time again that she is a warrior type and will fight even if it means against people who are just going with their orders for better or worse depends on the readers opinions on the matter). Also that page says she is here cause she doesn't want to break out herself and is waiting for the girls as part of a plan but it doesn't explain why it has to be this long or what difference a rescue by wonder girls vs her breaking out herself does, I persume it might be explained in future issues but I don't think based on this track record it will be a clever plan. (Most likely it is just a flex to show that no way WW can be captured by this guy as opposed to it being a logical plan for an important purpose but hey I could be wrong and be proven incorrect, not denying that)
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