Saturday, July 31, 2010

Wonder Woman #601

I don't care about the new costume, the new story, the new origin, or any of the other attention-grabbing changes in Wonder Woman.

Here's what I care about: is the story any good; and how's the art?

So I have good news and bad news. The good news is, the art by Don Kramer and Michael Babinski is well done, with good character designs, detailed backgrounds and solid layouts.

But J. Michael Straczynski's story, so far, is coming up short. A lot of that is because there are so many blanks to fill in.

In this issue we get a quick recap of the "All New" reality, as we see the destruction of Paradise Island and the scattering of the Amazons, and Wonder Woman being set up as the protector of the lost Amazons.

She seems to have no powers other than (apparent) super strength, but we get indications that her other abilities will be showing up eventually.

But mostly what we get here are a pile of mysteries. Who's behind the evil army that destroyed Paradise Island? Why has Diana's reality changed so drastically? Why is she (more or less) powerless?

Presumably these answers will be turning up in the weeks ahead, but this kick-off issue doesn't inspire me to continue to follow along.

Perhaps that's because I suspect this will all go away eventually, and we'll be back to the "Not So New" Wonder Woman.

But many more issues like this and that might be a merciful thing.

Grade: B-

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