Review: Superman/Wonder Woman #1

by Graham MacDougall
1 comment

The first issue of any new comic series is an extremely tricky process. You need to try and set up a lot of things—who the major players are, the tone, maybe some future character development, plot lines, and a healthy dose of conflict. Find out how veteran writer Charles Soule measures up in this week’s issue of Superman/Wonder Woman!

Superman-Wonder Woman (2013-) 001-003

Positives:

Thank god there’s a writer on Wonder Woman who can channel her personality, feelings and emotions, rather than a two-dimensional, crazy high-strung warrior woman. Charles Soule does a fantastic job portraying The Amazonian Princess, showing both her aggressive side and her ability to feel great emotion.

Soule does a fairly good job with Clark as well. Clark, a number of people would argue, has had rough times as of late with odd characterization. Writers have a tendency to ignore Clark in favor of Superman.

 

Soule is able to bring out the humanity in Clark, while the Man of Steel is fighting a giant tornado in The North Atlantic. Which I will say is quite impressive.

This issue establishes a surprising dynamic between the two heroes. Diana wishes to make their relationship more transparent to the world and their teammates in The League, while Clark wishes to keep things quiet…at least for a while longer.

Readers will also get a glimpse into the inner workings of Diana’s life. While her mind is usually on Superman, she also has a host of other aspects of her life—such as her family and friends still frozen on Themyscira.

It would of been easy for a lesser writer to just have her focus solely on Clark, but Soule gives her depth that does honor to the amazing work Brian Azzarello has been doing with Wonder Woman.

Along with a number of other plot points and bits of character I won’t spoil this issue comes together to be one of the best starts to a DC comic in quite some time.

Tony S. Daniels also does a pretty great job with the art, Superman and Wonder Woman look great, the action scenes look fantastic, and there are a few wonderful splash pages.

 Superman-Wonder Woman (2013-) 001-008

Negatives:

While Tony’s work in this issue is great for the most part, there are a few panels that felt like they could have used a bit more work. These panels lacked polish, and took the reader out of the story.

Verdict:

Finally, it’s great to see someone take the new relationship of Supes and Wondy, and truly make something of it. For the last year, their relationship has pretty much been, “Hey, they’re together, isn’t that weird?” So seeing more development in one issue than we’ve had over twelve months is extremely satisfying.

Aside from a few hiccups from Tony S. Daniels on a few panels this is a pretty great start for Superman/Wonder Woman.

Great. Great, great, great. If this is a taste of what’s to come, I can’t wait for next month, and every month coming. Charles Soule and Tony S. Daniels give a powerful first issue with lots of great hooks and a lot for fans to love. Go pick this up.

 

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