Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Wonder Woman #4 Review

By Zak Edwards
August 13, 2016 - 11:46

Wonder Woman is my personal favourite of the Rebirth Rebrand. Burdened with a biweekly release schedule, writer Greg Rucka has given us two Wonder Women. One, the confident Wonder Woman of now. The other, inexperienced and about to embark on a great adventure. Previously, I felt the stories were quite disparate, but with two issues dedicated to both, they’re actually complementary.

I’ve sung this book praises in the past for a variety of reasons, but today I want to focus on something specific: the intimacy. The book is gentle, even as it’s filled with some seriously buffed-out Amazons deflecting bullets with their gauntlets. But for every moment of violence, there is another panel, unencumbered by words, in which Nicola Scott’s characters share a moment. It’s something I wish I did more in my own life, to simply take stock and spend a moment just being with someone, communicating your respect and gratitude without having to be dramatic or even articulate.

And if you think that’s a fair amount to pack into a single panel, you’re absolutely right. It’s one of the great strengths of Scott's art, though, this ability to condense so much down into one singular and important moment.

The issue is largely about a princess leaving her kingdom and a man waking up in a foreign one. For the latter, there is violence and loss behind him, and curiosity ahead. For Diana, it is reversed. She spent much of the second issue staring up at the stars and thinking. Now, she must go forth and face unknown challenges. In the moments that Diana spends with the people around her, there is a quiet. That quiet separates this book from the usual capes-and-tights affair. The series feels new to me for one simple reason.

It breathed.

There are quick intakes of air, like when the Amazons discover guns. There are pregnant pauses, awaiting with bated breath, as Amazons prepare to deflect bullets with just their gauntlets. But there are also the sighs of relief in the moments where characters just are, together.

Scott’s pacing and paneling, along with Romulo Fajardo, Jr.’s colours, are entirely key to these moments. Scott deftly draws the eye, guiding it to linger on the intimacy that’s so important to this issue. Fajardo's colours, moody and simple, create space and enhance the pencils and inking, never dominating but absolutely essential.

Take, for instance, this page here on the right. Fajardo’s red and blue contrasts Diana and Steve, one just coming out of danger, the other offering solace before she heads into it herself. Each character ends up in the other’s frame, but the end breaking of the frame, the illusion of an overlay, pushes the quiet moment to the forefront. I lingered there, and it wasn’t the only time it happened this issue. Scott uses the same strategy at the end of the issue with Diana’s mother. There, we're left with a crying mother, proud of her daughter and Amazon’s chosen champion.

My previous Wonder Woman review wandered around the idea of violence in a book about Diana and what her violence means amongst the usual superhero violence. In this issue, the only action comes in preparing to defend against a threat, and it ends with a character going out into the world to be an ambassador. A warrior fully capable, andcapable of more than fighting with her fists.

tl;dr review: I wax poetic about all the things that make this issue, and this series, great. Just go buy it already.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12