Comic Book Review: Wonder Woman #42

Book Information

Written by Gail Simone

Art by Nicola Scott & Fernando Dagnino

Plot

A galactic battle force sets its sights on Earth for reasons only known to the attacker.  Apart from the slithering prize they wish to claim, a mysterious connection between the alien attacker and Wonder Woman exists.  With no victory in sight, Wonder Woman must now rely on assessing abilities and put a stop to this insane woman’s agenda.  Hopefully Wonder Woman is able to maintain her composure after the attacker reveals her identity.

My Thoughts

While I still enjoyed this issue, I’m not quite impressed by it.  The new artist team up was great, but the story was a tad contrived and confusing. 

Writing

I’m not entirely sure why the two Green Lanterns were integrated into the story in the first place.  I was hoping to find a connection for that later in the issue but, sadly, that never happened.  Perhaps the reasoning was to merely introduce this new threat in the Wonder Woman world, but from how everything progressed in the story, I didn’t see the necessity of having Green Lantern’s in it other than to say that they were there.

The weak start became stronger as the story went deeper and deeper into the plot, when finally the ending gave me something to hold onto.  The majority of my time reading this issue was spent wondering when it was going to be done, which is a big deal since this has the Gail Simone literary stamp on it.  But there truly was nothing that my mind could take hold of to keep my interests peeked.  Not until the revelation at the end does the story finally BECOME something.  As I think back on what I remember of Wonder Woman, I can’t seem to recall Wonder Woman ever having an aunt.  This new twist has given me some hope that next month’s issue will be much more interesting as I’m sure a missing part in Wonder Woman’s family comes out

Of course, Simone maintains her ability to write very poetic pieces of dialogue, giving Wonder Woman that mature edge over the other female and male heroes.  Ever since this title started up three and a half years ago, through great writing and storytelling, Wonder Woman has been defined by her very profound statements via inner monologue and spoken words which seem to, on some level, be commentaries on humankind in general.  The story isn’t great, but Gail is good enough of a writer for this to work well in a low quality storyline.

Rating: 4

Themes

The thematic setting of the story lacks in substance almost as much as the writing itself.  The potential in the last few issues that Simone has on this title are tremendous with the kind of ending that we as readers are given, but nothing really sticks out as being incredibly profound. 

I did enjoy seeing the classic saving of Steve Trevor; a shout out to the days when Lynda Carter was saving Steve all the time, almost neglecting everyone else around her.

Rating: 3

Art

I hate dual art duties where two artists come together and collaborate together on one book.  However, this issue seemed to work REALLY well.  There was a definite Nicola Scott stamp that went into this issue, but it didn’t seem to be her entirely working the pencils.  Dagnino and Scott did quite the job at maintaining unity in the art and not allowing a certain style to stick out too often.

I was truly impressed by the explosive moments and usage of color.  The book tends to go from a predominantly green tone, to bright yellow.  I will always miss Aaron Lopresti’s artwork on this book, but the replacement is a quite satisfactory and pleasing choice on DC’s part.

Rating: 8

Overall

I find it hard to believe that this is how Simone is choosing to end her run on Wonder Woman.  Yes she has a little more time on the title, but this can only be the last story arc for Simone before focusing her efforts on the Secret Six and Birds of Prey.  One can only hope it gets better.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming April 28, 2010

The fan-favorite writer/artist team behind SECRET SIX reunite for part two of this (literally!) Earth-shaking story! Who is the leader of the mysterious invasion force attacking our planet, and what connection does she have to Wonder Woman? It's a War of the Worlds, with Diana in the middle!