Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Wonder Woman #5: A Review

By Zak Edwards
August 31, 2016 - 15:14

Wonder Woman #5 is an incredible comic. Everything about it, from the story to the art to the themes with which it engages, is beautiful and incredible. If you aren’t reading Wonder Woman, you are missing out on one of the best Rebirth titles out there, and doing yourself quite the disservice.

With its alternating storylines, Greg Rucka has explored Wonder Woman at two key moments in her life. Last issue, we watched Diana leave her home island of Themyscira for the first time. This week, we’re back to the Diana who’s been in the world a long time and is wrestling with her history.

While I could continue to simply sing praises for everything about this book (with the single caveat that artist Liam Sharp has an issue with faces, as you can see on the right), I want to instead talk about this book in relation to something that happened the other day: a silly blog called “How to Talk to a Woman Who is Wearing Headphones.” (No, I'm not providing a link).

The blog offers (terrible and dangerous) advice to men who want to talk to women in public who are wearing headphones, despite the fact that having headphones on is the international sign for "F*uck off, I'm listening to something." The writer insists that by smiling, waving your hand in their field of vision, standing a precise number of metres away from your “target,” and saying something like “Awkward!” once you've convinced a stranger to ask what you want, anyone can end up chatting with a pretty lady. As a side note, it also reads like instructions for serial killers.

Smarter and more capable writers than I have already talked about why the article is silly, strange, and dangerous, but I want to talk about it in terms of its assumptions about masculinity, and how last week’s Wonder Woman #5 actually addresses similar ideas.

In the latest issue, the evil cult leader Caludo talks about men, women, and their respective places in society with long-time Wonder Woman love interest Steve Trevor. At the heart of the conversation, and one that I want to talk about in relation to the “Headphones” article, is this exchange:

Caludo and Steve Trevor exchange ideas on masculinity.

In the page previous, Caludo waxes on about strong men and the weak men who follow in their footsteps before moving into his rant about women’s loyalties. Steve, however, rebukes Caludo, pointing out that entitlement and ownership are what Caludo believes to be at the heart of power.

Both the headphones article and Caludo subscribe to what I call the “Cult of Confidence,” a particular aspect of masculinity that basically tells men to be arrogant. We're taught that being confidence is a pass for most things, including bothering strangers, and that with it we can be more attractive and be successful in pretty much everything. But let’s be clear: thinking you own a woman or have the right to bother complete strangers because you managed to get half-erect on a subway doesn’t make you confident. That's just arrogance and, as Steve says, entitlement. If men actually want to act confident, it has to rely, in some part, on empathy, not simply taking for granted that you can do whatever you want so long as you have an “easygoing smile.”

Much of Rucka’s recent Wonder Woman run has firmly relied on the show-don’t-tell philosophy. While many progressive writers are quick to fill their panels with conversations and inner monologues about the politics with which they engage, Steve’s conversation with Caludo is a rare moment where this actually takes up significant room in the series. But by couching the conversation in the classic supervillain monologue, Rucka has a chance to pick apart what’s wrong with the assumptions about masculinity that Caludo (and men who bother women wearing headphones) has.

tl;dr review: Wonder Woman’s great. It’s absolutely gorgeous and Rucka takes some time to talk about toxic masculinity, all while Liam Sharp draws impossibly-muscled dudes. Also, it has this sequence:

Wonder Woman appears in this week's best sequence. Art by Liam Sharp. Colours by Laura Martin. Letters by Jodi Wynne.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12