Comic Book Review: Blackest Night Wonder Woman #2

Book Information

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Nicola Scott

Cover by Ryan Sook

Plot

Wonder Woman fights with herself a she does battle with Mera.  Will Wonder Woman be able to break free of the black rings hold on her, or will she fall to the hands of a friend?

My Thoughts

After the first issue of Wonder Woman’s Blackest Night tie-in, I was really excited for this installment.  However, as good as I thought the issue was, I was a wee bit disappointed in its unnecessary storyline.

I opened up the first page to discover that this second issue doesn’t connect with the first.  This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it was quite a surprise to discover this.  The other tie-ins for Blackest Night have been series; where as Wonder Woman was more self-contained and segregated from each other.  I wasn’t sure why Rucka decided to do this, or why DC allowed this to happen.  Wonder Woman is such a power horse in the DCU and the potential that was this tie-in was wasted by constructing the three issue spread like this.

I did enjoy the triple dialoging that Rucka put into this story.  Observing Diana Struggle with herself was an interesting approach and a great emotional story telling tactic.  There she was, Wonder Woman fighting off Mera, but deep inside Diana was powerless to stop herself.  We’ve been given two major clues in this series to show that the risen lanterns, and the alive heroes who inherited black rings, aren’t actually themselves when becoming a Black Lantern.  The first was when Deadman’s body rose while his soul was still in tact, and now the second clue lies with Wonder Woman.  Something else is controlling the dead bodies of heroes, while their soul/consciousness remains the same.  Rucka is an incredible story teller, and this issue proves it.

Nicola Scott brings us another incredible display of artistic talent which is constantly portrayed in The Secret Six.  She’s completely on par with Aaron Lopresti and maintains a consistently fantastic array of clean lines and fully expressive faces.  Thank you Nicola for delivering such powerful artwork to DC comics.

I wasn’t sure if I understood the dream sequence Diana had.  What was the point of bringing Batman to her dreams in that manner?  I’m sure we all know that Batman has an even bigger part to play in this story, but it really didn’t make sense.  And having Aphrodite give Diana a Star Sapphire ring seemed rather strange as well.  Is Aphrodite a Guardian, or was it a way of making sense to Diana when she’s was struggling to be free of her Black Lantern state?  I don’t know, do you?  Please enlighten me.

Overall

It is wroth buying based on Rucka’s quality writing, with exception to a few little gripes about the story telling structure.  However, nothing new is pushed into the foreground which makes this issue easy to skip.  This issue would have been better served being published BEFORE Blackest Night #6.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming February 3^rd, 2010

Following closely to the events of BLACKEST NIGHT, this miniseries event concludes as the Amazonian Princess comes to terms with who she is and what her role is in the world. But will her acceptance make her more appetizing to the Black Lantern hordes – or could that emotion be their undoing?