Review: Wonder Woman #14 (Legacy #814)
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Tom King
Art: Daniel Sampere
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Steve Trevor dies! Trinity is born!
It’s been a while since I’ve read Wonder Woman and even longer since I reviewed an issue. However, with the All In initiative and the hype for the death of Steve Trevor in this issue and the “birth” of Trinity, I wanted to come back and see if Tom King has been able to improve this series. It had been unreadable, and the Absolute Power tie-ins were skippable, because, well… Absolute Power was just boring.
Positives
Well, the easy part is Daniel Sampere and Tomeu Morey’s art and coloring. That’s one thing about this run that has been unquestionably great. If we were only judging the art, then this series would routinely get 5/5 scores. His storytelling is great, and he gets a lot of the subtlety necessary to really do a script justice.
Tom King’s focus for this issue is the relationship between Diana and Steve. He does fairly effectively communicate this. Additionally, the parentage of Trinity is a true surprise and quite honestly, not a bad idea. It’s only possible because King was allowed to return a critical element to Diana’s own origin that has been missing for a while.
While the Death of Steve Trevor is a completely tired idea (he’s already died 2 or 3 times before!), King shows us enough that it’s obvious to everyone that Steve will be back. This is not permanent. Heck, Diana just returned from the afterworld just a few years ago. So, don’t fear- I wholeheartedly believe that Steve will be back, and sooner rather than later.
Negatives
There are two massive negatives with Wonder Woman #14: King’s narrative choice (as it has been since issue #1) and the fact that King doesn’t let Diana do anything. Her agency is reduced to almost nil. That in turn is a complete misunderstanding of Diana’s character. She’s been nothing but passive, and this issue exemplifies that. Even when she learns that Steve has been killed, she takes no action against the Sovereign, displays a debilitating sadness with no anger. It doesn’t come off as shock, but rather just a complete lack of range of emotion in Diana. This lack of agency is certainly missing from the crime that started everything, a thread King seems to have forgotten all about at this point- Emilie the missing Amazon.
Fourteen issues in, King has yet to do nearly anything with the single most interesting aspect of the series- the Mystery with Emilie: Who, What, Why, Where and When? With this issue, we know Trinity is not Emilie’s child…so there’s presumably another child out there to be reckoned with. Additionally, it makes me wonder if King changed his original idea, because it doesn’t make sense that Trinity would be portrayed as such an annoying and dislikable character given her actual parentage which we learn this issue.
Maybe this isn’t the issue to catch up with Emilie’s story, but it’s been so long it’s almost laughable at this point. King’s lack of attention has me concerned that he won’t ever address it in a meaningful manner.
Negatives Cont’d
For the positive aspects about the depiction of Diana and Steve’s relationship, King goes too far in Wonder Woman #14, as well. King gives us a Wonder Woman who seems to have lost all sense of herself when it comes to her feeling for Steve Trevor. Perhaps, it’s just King’s choice of words and his desire to speak in a stilted fashion (which hasn’t made sense at all in this series), but this seems to go hand in hand with her lack of range of emotions.
At one point it’s suggested that she is now “truly alone” with the death of Trevor, but in the same issue she gets comfort from Bruce and Clark. Even if it is just the Sovereign’s position as an unreliable narrator, the juxtaposition in the issue comes off as a poor decision in order to make a point, because it’s contradictory with no clear purpose. So much of what we see is a bereft Diana who seeks to be alone, instead of a Diana who relies on her friends. This doesn’t sit well any way you look at it. King wants Diana to be aloof and “I vant to be alone…,” but that doesn’t ring true with Diana’s character.
Along those same lines, the appearances of the Wonder Girls in this issue are all awkward, not because the situations are awkward, but because King is clearly uncomfortable with the substance of these characters, they are just names and costumes to him. He’s already demonstrated this previously when the were all depicted as fools trying to start the Invisible Jet.
Negatives Cont’d
Perhaps, the one element that is most troubling is Diana’s ultimate reaction to Steve’s death. I can’t decide if it’s just King demonstrating his own shortcomings, or if he believes Diana would react this way.
****MAJOR SPOILERS*****
So, in a sequence that feels massively contrived, Steve Trevor’s announces his Grandmother’s name, Elizabeth Marston. This feels unbelievably forced, and not organic at all, because it’s clear what Diana is going to do. She takes a bit her “soul” and his from the Three Fates and uses them to create a daughter out of sand like Hippolyta did to create Diana. She then prays to her mother and we assume (next issue?) that the child is imbued with life like Diana herself.
While this is a satisfying way of creating Trinity, and a satisfying parentage…the temporal proximity to Steve’s death makes Diana come off as EXTREMELY selfish. When Hippolyta did it, she did it because she wanted to LOVE a child. She wasn’t looking for someone to love her. Hippolyta desired a child and wanted to love a child. Diana just seems to be looking for a way to assuage her extreme sadness and perhaps have someone who will love her, or rather a part of Steve that will still love her. This is the action of someone in need of counseling!
Diana as a single mother and super-hero will have no way to take care of a newborn especially when she has to deal with the immediate issue of the Sovereign and presumably Emilie- unless King really has completely dropped that plot line. It doesn’t make sense unless Diana is a selfish narcissist. However, it does go a long way in explaining why Trinity is the way she is.
Negatives Cont’d
Perhaps, Diana doesn’t go on to be involved in raising her and lets others do it and constantly calls on the SuperSons to babysit like we’ve seen in the back ups. Maybe, they aren’t just supposed to be cute little stories, but instead they point to a darker element of Diana’s thoughtless and irresponsible decision to bring life into the world only to try and make herself feel better. Wouldn’t it be more in keeping with her character to just save Steve from the afterlife? We know it can be done, it’s hinted at in this issue. THAT would make sense. It’s a truly confounding decision, one that paints Diana in a very poor light. Trinity’s characterization was already enough reason to scrub this story from continuity, but this aspect makes that a doubly good idea.
Most troubling is that this makes Wonder Woman appear to be weak and dependent. Her actions are not motivated by the strength that comes through love from Amazon philosophy. King ignores one of the basic tenants of her character. Instead she is motivated by loneliness. Her compassion for others should override the selfish actions she is undertaking.
Like Heroes in Crisis, Strange Adventures, parts of his Batman run, Wonder Woman #14 again makes it clear that King should not be writing “in continuity” or even established characters at all. He can’t ruin or mischaracterize his own independent creations, but he can utterly destroy a character I’ve loved for years.
Verdict
If DC Comics could see how bad series like this negatively impact the overall line, Tom King would never have had the opportunity to write Wonder Woman #14. The little good he does with this issue is overwhelmed by his poor decisions on story and characterization, perhaps he’s just oblivious to the deeper meaning behind Diana’s actions. Unfortunately, Sampere and Morey’s art is wasted on a series that should’ve never seen publication.
