Just like that, I'm excited as hell for Wonder Woman again. It's a nice tight issue, **** moves fast, deliberately so, to make the reader feel as blindsided as Diana must feel. Stakes are immediately set with Sarge Steel's ruthlessness and how AXE has anti-Amazon weapons that can kill Amazons. Seeing them cut down an Amazon in front of her wife and child sets a grim tone and let's you know things are serious. Connections to Waller shows how this book fits into the general anti-hero status quo that's being set up. Sovereign looks cool, like an evil George Washington, and King connecting him to Wondy through the lasso mythology is exciting. It's Diana's iconic weapon but we really don't know very much about it, can't wait to see what King has in store for these lassos. Steve is in very interesting position, he's a soldier which means he's committing treason by helping Diana. For too long he's just been Diana's wholesome boyfriend, I get that we don't want to make a man take too much focus in a WW book, but as Diana's premiere LI Steve needs fleshing out. Looks like he's finally going to get that.
My only qualm is I wish we saw some of the classic Wonder Woman Rogues' reactions to these events. King has said Circe and Grail are coming, but it would have been cool to get a page showing the entire Gallery reacting to this new player making moves. As a "Circe should be the true archnemesis for Diana" believer, I hope to see Circe get involved and start making moves of her own.
Oh and God I love Sampere's art, it's gorgeous, especially Diana herself. Loved him on PKJ's Action, love him here.
Yeah and King is writing that book too.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Fantastic, brisk, riveting first issue. Loved it and can’t wait for round 2!
Damn, that was good.
The only thing is, Sovereign looks ridiculous, imo.
He reminds me of King Washington from that Assassin’s Creed 3 DLC
Does amuse the hell out of me that everyone was arguing over whether Cale is too similar to Lex, and Sovereign is a bald genius mastermind who is a threat to WW because of his status as a manipulator rather than being a physical threat. King outright gave WW a Lex haha.
Last edited by Vordan; 09-19-2023 at 06:20 AM.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Do we have confirmation one way or another where the king is named Tom?
Pretty great issue. I wish we got see more of Diana’s perspective, but I can understand King’s choice for this issue.
The art is phenomenal and Sovereign actually seems like a very intriguing idea. He may be too important to only reveal himself now of all times, but it’s probably best to not think too hard on that.
I hope in the next issues Diana’s supporting cast also gets fleshed out better. It’s one of the few strengths of the last run IMO.
I enjoyed this. We didn't get much of her perspective here but I found King's writing of Diana to be a lot better than the few times he's written her before. Lot less awkward sounding than before.
But man, hats off to Sampere. Haven't seen much of him (and looking at the books he's worked on, I can see why). Best art on the main book since Evely.
Last edited by Gaius; 09-19-2023 at 06:39 AM.
Someone please inform Rich Johnston of BleedingCool that the legacy hero Commander Steel, Steel of Justice League Detroit and Citizen Steel are all different characters than Sarge Steel, who is the guy opposing the Amazons.
And that Sarge Steel is a Charlton character, later used as Diana’s boss post Infinite Crisis, who wanted Wonder Woman captured. And is now being used by Tom in this new run.
Last edited by Will Evans; 09-19-2023 at 06:39 AM.
I bet White Magician would be so annoyed to find out that there really WAS a monarchy the whole time, he just wasnt invited.
Great start to the new WW run. A few days ago I was thinking that we had already seen the premise, terrorist Amazons in George Perez run that was executed wonderfully, then with Rucka that gave way to the disastrous Amazons Attack, which by the way is again canon and reestablishes Sg Steel's relationship with Wonder Woman.
Unlike the previous two whose arguments were built with dozens of numbers, King returns to this previously seen premise quickly and effectively. Almost as in reality itself, with the speed at which the media spreads the lies that governments want to establish.
In this first issue we are introduced to Steel and his motivations and even better we see the villain who establishes himself as the puppet master behind the governments, the real power vested in a man or corporation, in this case historical, those who manage the destinies of a country, of the world according to their convenience. And yes, all this will be very political, perhaps radical and quite ideological, so there will be those who love it and there will be those who deeply hate it, everything will depend on how identified you are with the underlying political outlook.
The art is phenomenal, I can't believe that we are going to have this level of drawing for the next 10-12 issues in a row according to Sampere's words, that alone is worth having this run, to look at that wonderful art.
What am I missing in this first number? Reactions of the main Amazons living in the US, where Artemis, Donna, Cassie are, what do they think, what is their face about this, I would have liked a single page, even if it was with one expression, one word from each one. And also some villains, Psycho gloating, it's also a triumph for him, Circe scheming, Cheetah thinking/surprised and a few others, but you can't ask for more I guess, well yes, I can ask for it to be biweekly to kill the anxiety.
An exceptional opening to what looks to be a promising story...bravo.
COMBINING THE BIGBADITUDE OF THANOS WITH CHEETAH'S FEROCITY, IS JANUS WONDER WOMAN'S GREATEST SUPERVILLAIN?...on WONDABUNGA!!! Look alive, Kangaliers!
I really enjoyed it. It was VERY fast paced that id love an issue filling in the gaps.
I think my favorite part was Diana refusing to return to the island and having an Amazon give Nubia her sword basically resetting her to status quo oh how she fights.
I do wish the Amazons that we saw didn't look like WW knock offs though. I get what they're going for but a little more distinction would've been nice.
Bullets that pierce Amazon shields...will be interesting to see where they got that kind of metal from since if it can pierce them...it can likely hurt Superman. Though this is why I've always liked them all having the same bracelets as WW.
We got very little of Steve and idk but it felt kind of awkward?
Steele however, was great. I could hear him speaking as i read it.
The big WW fight was also great. I had the WW movie theme playing in my head as i read over it.
Solid start to the new eram excited to see where it goes.
It was very good.
Diana giving the sword to the amazons because she doesn't "want to be tempted" gave me chills. Horrors beyond horrors are happening to her amazon sisters and she is afraid of what she might do if she had a lethal weapon on her.
Diana beating the **** out of Steel's men was very satisfying. I was really nervous that it'd be too violent based on the preview pages, but it was just right. And Sarge Steel attempting to do his best Fox News and lie about who started the fight only for Diana to be all "nope" with the lasso? Amazing.
The Asian amazon with Nubia is never named on panel from what I can see, so I hope she's Euboea. It's been too long since we saw her in the main universe.
As for the Sovereign, he is definitely an intriguing concept for a villain. But Tom King is kidding himself if he thinks the Sovereign is going to reach Joker/Luthor levels. He's a great big bad for a story, but he's also not toyetic in the slightest which is a must for comic book characters. That said, is he supposed to be the embodiment of all US presidents? There are lots of nods to Washington, Lincoln, etc., and he certainly looks the part. I'm a little shocked DC allowed King to go so hard on the anti-American stance, but I really like it.