[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: James Robinson
Artists: Carlo Pagulayan, Sean Parsons, Jason Paz, Scott Hanna & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Summary
Grail continues her quest to resurrect Darkseid while Wonder Woman battles Giganta.
Positives
The cover by Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair is cool. Diana, Grail and Giganta all look great. And the purple sky is an interesting background.
The interior art features pencils by Carlo Pagulayan, inks by Sean Parsons, Jason Paz and Scott Hanna and colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. It’s really good; the characters are well defined and expressive. The book has vibrant colors that work well. In Grail’s scenes, the colors are moodier and darker but still stand out and make an imposing atmosphere. The colors in Wonder Woman’s scenes are much brighter which contrasts the Grail scenes well, but also looks great on its own.
Giganta is always cool; she isn’t used enough. And like Diana and Steve say, it’s nice to just have a traditional superhero battle. I love a lot of what Greg Rucka and Shea Fontana did in their Rebirth runs but it’s a lot of fun to see Wonder Woman slug it out with Giganta.
The opening with Grail is an engaging introduction to the story. She really shows her strength and power proving that she is going to be a genuine threat to Diana. What she is doing is also interesting. She has to do something kind of intense and brutal in order to restore her father.
Negatives
This is a nitpick but the first page is a splash page that is meant to pull the readers in. The caption reads “This is how it ends” before flashing back five weeks. The page tells us nothing other than Diana is dealing with a brother. For me, these kind of teases do nothing for me. I think they’re obnoxious and pointless. It is a gorgeous page though.
There’s some awkward dialogue throughout. James Robinson is trying to get a lot information out and too much of it is through exposition. A lot of the dialogue is stilted and unnatural.
Verdict
This is a solid start to this new run. The story is interesting with gorgeous art. There’s a couple of fun action scenes and it’s a pretty enjoyable read. I have some minor quibbles but I’m excited to see where Robinson takes this.
