Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Wonder Woman #15 Comic 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: November 20, 2024


Wonder Woman #15, by DC Comics on 11/20/24, sends the Wonder Girls across the globe to find and destroy the Sovereign's stores of wealth.


Is Wonder Woman #15 Good?


Wonder Woman #15 isn't bad, which is an improvement for Tom King. An aspect of the plot makes progress, and the Wonder Girls get a chance to contribute to the title in a meaningful way. The opening premise of the series (Amelie killing a bunch of men in a pool bar) remains lost to the sands of time, but at least something meaningful is happening.


When last we left Diana in Wonder Woman #14, the Sovereign senselessly killed Steve Trevor out of spite against Wonder Woman. Rather than attack the Sovereign out of vengeful fury, Diana chose to grapple with her grief in quiet dignity. The issue ended with Diana using a lock of her hair and Steve's to create a child out of clay, giving "birth" to Trinity.


In Wonder Woman #15, Diana's methodical destruction of the Sovereign and his network of power begins.


First, Cassie Sandsmark pilots a fighter jet to the middle of the ocean toward a fully automated battleship. She ejects before the fighter crashes into the ship, sinking the vessel and the Sovereign's vast store of wealth contained inside.


Second, Yara Flor robs seventeen banks spread over nine states, each containing a priceless item used as collateral for the Sovereign's operation.


Third, Donna Troy finds Solomon Grundy and beats him to a pulp. When Grundy is down (but not completely out), Donna slices a hole in his abdomen to remove a diamond owned by the Sovereign and worth more than the stats of Rhode Island.


Lastly, Cheetah catfishes a finance broker to meet at a seedy hotel for some naughty fun. By the time Cheetah is done slicing and dicing the broker, she has all the transaction codes necessary to redirect all the Sovereign's online holdings to charities of her choice.


And that's the end.


What's great about Wonder Woman #15?


For a Wonder Woman comic where Wonder Woman doesn't play an active role, Tom King is one of the few writers who uses one of the many DC superhero families well. Each Wonder Girl has a part to play, and they play their parts beautifully in this first-stage attack against the Sovereign.

What's not great about Wonder Woman #15?


There are two aspects of this issue, and the series as a whole, that won't get better, no matter how much Tom King chooses to ignore them.

First, the Sovereign's overblown narration is tedious and tiresome. Truly, King could have easily replaced the Sovereign's narration with well-placed dialog, and the flowery language serves no purpose other than to bore the reader and slow the pace of the comic.

Second, King appears to have completely abandoned the central premise of the book. Where is Amelie? What happened to Amelie's surprise pregnancy? Is the United States government still acting against the Amazons after the events of Absolute Power? How? Why? The more you consider how the story reached this issue, the more broken and disjointed it appears.

How's the Art?


Daniel Sampere's artwork is Grade-A, top-notch, and has all the complimentary superlatives you could imagine. The only artist that comes close to Sampere's level of quality at DC is Dan Mora, and even then, it would be a toss-up for the #1 spot.






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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Final Thoughts


Wonder Woman #15
 
marks the beginning of the end for the Sovereign when Diana sends her Wonder Girls to dismantle the villain's wealth, brick by brick. Tom King's script is probably the best use of a mainline hero's extended family we've seen in a while, and King manages to avoid injecting off-putting elements for once. Plus, Daniel Sampere's artwork is next level.

7.5/10





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2 comments:

  1. 7.5????? I mean sure if you think so lol. But if dismantling Sovereign was as easy as just sending three amazons and Cheetah to do it then why was he such a threat???? Why didn't the Amazons themselves do this sooner? Investigate him a bit then just send in 4 amazons to do the job and he is ruined. Somehow he managed to bend a lot of government agencies to his will and outlaw amazons as a collective but he gets taken down this easily. That's the problem with King's writing. He over hypes his villains for 10 or more issues then takes them down in the easiest way possible to then over hype the hero. Another villain comes along (they might even have been a joke in the previous arc written by King) suddenly super powerful and no one does anything till issue 30 or so when the hero suddenly punches them once or twice and they are done, figuratively speaking. Anyone remember how Diana had to endure months of torture at the hands of this guy to just get a minor plan to work? Or how she was on the run for months from him? You mentioned Amelie yourself so I won't talk about that more.
    As for the backup. Again, he keeps exaggerating and going overboard with his statements. It can't be that Steve misses Diana in heaven. No no, not only does he miss her, no creature before him has ever missed anyone like this before or at all!! It's really insulting to all that has been before and at best eye rolling.

    The narration alone having made up at least 60 percent of this issue's narrative should prevent this issue from going above a 5. It is really like nails on chalkboard level of writing and it keeps going on.(if you take it out what remains of the issue beside a bare bone plot synopsis like a wiki? There is no meaningful dialogue or character scenes that relate these plot points together beside what the narration provides. We might as well be looking at still images of a fight scene maybe with an addition of a character quip that isn't funny. There is almost no flow between different story beats, it is mostly provided by the narration and the narration is written horribly.) Not to mention the trick with a character singing a song just to make a point and basically not talking like a human being to sound artificially profound. It has been done hundreds times before in his writing and it has never worked cause it's written obnoxiously.

    Look, this might not sound like it but I truly mean this as a criticism on his writing and not as a personal attack. I don't know him at all, I just read his writing and sadly it just isn't good quality most times.

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  2. King using the "Wonder family" to commit atrocities. How quaint.

    We have kamikaze Cassie sinking a ship, killing the people on board because it contains Sovereign's property
    Yara Flor robbing banks, beating up police and scaring folk just doing their jobs. Because the bank holds Sovereign's property.
    Donna Troy beating up and gutting Grundy, who has the mind of a simpleton...a child. To, say it with me, because he holds Sovereign's property.
    And then we have Cheetah...well she's a villain, but King is treating her like a misunderstood anti-hero.

    King is gross. He needs a therapist instead of a writing gig.

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