Review: Wonder Woman #79
[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artists: Scot Eaton, Wayne Faucher & Jose Marzan Jr.
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Reviewed by: Sean Blumenshine
Summary
Must a world without love be one without our hero? Wonder Woman is forced to discover a new way to fight after the destruction of her golden lasso and unbreakable bracelets at the hands of Cheetah and her God Killer sword. How can she possibly stop the unstoppable?
Positives
The interior art is solid. The characters are all nicely detailed and expressive. The feeling of hopelessness is nicely conveyed just by looking at Diana’s face. Romulo Fajardo Jr.’s colors are always great as well.
The ending is great. With love taken out of the equation, what happens is an inevitability. This is one of the few aspects of this premise that I find interesting. There are things that keep people together other than love and I think the question of if a relationship based on love alone is ultimately healthy.
Negatives
I don’t love the cover. The idea is good and I do like that you can see Steve Trevor and Veronica Cale in the crowd. But Diana’s face is strange and little unintentionally hilarious. It kind of throws the mood off.
I don’t love seeing Diana sitting around moping. Obviously, love is a big part of the character but there are other elements that motivate her. As the book points out, justice is one of those. Truth is another. And in a previous issue, she was able to confront a thief without problem. I don’t completely buy that taking love out of the equation would reduce Wonder Woman to this. And it’s no fun reading a story in which the protagonist just sits around sadly. The only characters doing anything are Veronica Cale and Maggie. That’s a little frustrating for me.
Verdict
This is an okay issue. I’m still not that invested into even the premise of this story. It’s not fun or interesting to see Diana sit around sadly while every other character drives the story forward. And I don’t think losing love will cause Diana to be like this; that’s a hurdle I’m having trouble with. The art is good and there are interesting ideas throughout the issue. It’s all well constructed but it’s not coming together for me.
