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Posted by Don MacPherson on April 2nd, 2007
Wonder Woman #6
“Love and Murder, Part 1″
Writer: Jodi Picoult
Pencils: Drew Johnson
Inks: Ray Snyder
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Travis Lanham
Cover artists: Terry & Rachel Dodson
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99 US/$3.65 CAN
While the scheduling and release of the first five issue of this relaunched series proved to be a disaster, DC couldn’t have asked for better timing with the release of novelist Jodi Picoult’s first issue and foray into super-hero comics. Picoult is the Queen of prose fiction bestseller lists right now. I was walking through the local big-box bookstore the other day, and there was a big display of Picoult books that one couldn’t miss. I’ve not read her books, and after reading this Wonder Woman story, I don’t plan to do so. To be fair, writing novels is a radically different business than writing comics, and perhaps Picoult’s strengths lie with prose. The writer does nothing to distinguish her take on the title character from Allan Heinberg’s, and the script here is repetitive. Even more frustrating is a tired premise.
Though she’s assumed the mantle and mission of Wonder Woman once again, Amazonian princess Diana continues her civilian life as Diana Prince, special agent with the Department of Metahuman Affairs. She’s finding the job a bit frustrating, in part due to her personality conflicts with her partner, Tom Tresser, AKA Nemesis. Their latest assignment — babysitting the new Maxi-Man during a public-relations appearance — is far from exhilarating. And things are about to get really complicated at work with their next assignment, as their boss, Sarge Steel, orders them to bring in a certain fugitive from justice: Wonder Woman.
Drew Johnson is no stranger to the world of the best-known super-heroine in pop culture, having illustrated some of Greg Rucka’s solid run on the previous incarnation of this title. His work here doesn’t strike me as being nearly as strong. One of the most important action sequences in this issue unfolds in sketchy linework hidden in the backgrounds of small panels. My impression of his work here is that he’s endeavoring to capture some kind of look that’s consistent with Terry Dodson’s work from the first four issues of the book. As a result, his storytelling isn’t as compelling. The colors are vibrant, but there really aren’t any larger-than-life or exciting visuals that merit that bright energy.
The notion of Wonder Woman adopting a civilian identity so she can better relate to and connect with humanity is a solid idea, but when Allan Heinberg presented it in this title’s first story arc, there was something about it that didn’t quite sit well with me. And I finally understand what doesn’t work about this new take on the character. The secret identity is a great idea, but setting her up as a government agent who pursues superhumans and hangs out with uber-spies doesn’t seem like a way a super-hero can connect with everyday, down-to-earth life. Wonder Woman is still fighting super-crime, just as Diana Prince. What’s the point? Mind you, this is something Picoult was saddled with, not something she crafted for her run on the series.
Picoult’s script is an awkward one. She seems to spend the entire issue reiterating what Wonder Woman’s ethical conflict is. We keep hearing her struggle with how she can pursue herself. Picoult hammers away at this one plot point over and over, to the point that little happens in this issue. I also find it odd that the villain of this story arc — revealed at the end of the issue — is the same mastermind in Heinberg’s storyline. It feels incredibly redundant. Picoult also presents us with a scene in which it’s suggested that Diana is so out of touch with regular life that she doesn’t even know how to pump gas or what a credit card is. This would have worked with George Perez’s take on the character in her more innocent, new-to-Man’s World phase from 20 years ago, but here, it makes the heroine seem like the ultimate bimbo.
I think I get where Picoult is coming from with her approach to Wonder Woman. She’s turned the Silver Age secret-identity plot dynamic on its ear. A staple of comics in the 1960s was Clark Kent’s efforts to hide his dual identity from Lois Lane and his colleagues at The Daily Planet. Now, we have Diana Prince hiding her double life from Tom (who, of course, proves to be the ultimate Wonder Woman fanboy). But that’s really all we get… a Silver-Age premise and little else. As a result, what we’re left with is a comic book with only one character that developed in any way. Diana’s new supporting cast are little more than props. 4/10
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I enjoyed your review, Don. It’s very much exactly what I was thinking after I read this issue. It just seemed very flimsy to me…and the fact Diana didn’t know how to pump gas was laughable. I find myself really yearning for Greg Rucka’s take on the character and the stellar Embassy supporting cast. Where’s Ferdinand when you need him?
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:14 am
I tried my best, but this title is getting dropped. We got jerked around for the first story arc, and that never even got finished. It’s been downhill from there.
They can’t really expect us to believe that trained espionage agents would not recognize Wonder Woman when she’s standing right in front of them. Tom Tresser is a master of disguise, you’d think he can get past the glasses and see what’s really going on.
“Hmmm this beautiful dark-haired 6-foot Amazon of a woman with huge cans just started working with us, and she sure knows a lot about Wonder Woman, and her name is Diana Prince, and we know that Wonder Woman is Princess Diana….nope, nothing fishy there!”
The only thing I could realistically hope for is that they’re all just pretending that they don’t know it’s her, and at some point Sarge Steel is going to be like “of course we knew it was you the minute you walked in the door, we just played along to see where this was going”
That’s probably expecting too much.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Yea don, your review is right on. Redundancy was the word I was looking for when I reached the end of the issue, and Picoult’s attempt to charm readers with her take on Diana’s naivete is proof she hasn’t done much research on the character, much less read up on the previous Rucka or Perez runs.
What a huge mistake it was for DC to relaunch the title. Wonder Woman is a superhero icon who, in my opinion, did not need a shake up or relaunch simply to boost sales. Wonder Woman is a character with history and tradition, something Rucka hit dead-on with his run, and wouldn’t it have been great to see the title reach 300 with as much hoopla and acclaim as the X-Men now face with reaching 200 on one of their titles.
I loved Drew Johnson’s work on the Rucka run, and was very unhappy to see him leave the title, but your right Don, it does look like he’s changed his style to suit a more conventional look than the more unique look he exhibited previously, which is disappointing.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Frank wrote:
Wonder Woman is a superhero icon who, in my opinion, did not need a shake up or relaunch simply to boost sales.
To be fair, I think the post-Infinite Crisis relaunches of Wonder Woman, JLA and Flash were done in part to maintain something of a tradition established in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The mid-1908s incarnations of those titles were cancelled around the time of Crisis and relaunched afterward.
April 5th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I’ve given up on Wonder Woman as well. I was never more than a casual reader of the title but Heinberg impresses me so much with Young Avengers that I thought I’d add this to my pull list. The execution of his first 5 issues was enough to turn me away so I can’t really comment on the quality of the work in issue #6.
But I’ve noticed something about this trend of hiring novelists and TV writers to work in comics. Marvel and DC are both guily of putting people with no experience handing the monthly deadlines of a comic book and no concept of how to write a comic strip on high profile titles recently. But Marvel has at least made sure the talent they hire are people with an interest in comic books. From what I’ve read, Picoult and this guy they’ve got writing Aquaman right now, are not, and have not been (at least for a loooong time), comic book readers. Why would you hand the reigns of these titles over to people with no concept of what the character is about?
April 5th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Court wrote:
Why would you hand the reigns of these titles over to people with no concept of what the character is about?
The industry is desperately trying to attract new readers, so tapping into, for example, best-selling novelist Jodi Picoult’s fanbase is actually a pretty smart move. We didn’t care for the result, but DC is approaching this as a business.
Also, I don’t think it’s fair to say Writer X doesn’t “get” Character Y. You don’t care for a particular take on a character is valid, but it’s a different matter. It’s a matter of taste. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have been around for so long and subject to so many different interpretations that one can’t really claim them to be singular characters anymore. Jerry Siegel’s Superman was different from Cary Bates’s, which was different from John Byrne’s, which was different than Frank Miller’s.
April 5th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
The industry is desperately trying to attract new readers, so tapping into, for example, best-selling novelist Jodi Picoult’s fanbase is actually a pretty smart move. We didn’t care for the result, but DC is approaching this as a business.
That’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t appear to have worked. I run a direct market store, and our sales for the first issue of Picoult’s Wonder Woman are down, not up. I didn’t have a single person come in who knew (or cared) that she was writing a comic.
Anecdotal, I know, but I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the general response across the comic book shops. Maybe when the trade hits things will be different, maybe not, but if that’s the case, why not get Jodi Picoult to write a Wonder Woman OGN that would immediately and directly target her fanbase in bookstores *and* comic book retail (and I say this as a direct market retailer!) instead of putting her on the sixth issue of an ongoing book.
I haven’t read Picoult’s issue, so I can’t speak to whether or not she in particular “gets” the character. People I trust seem to think she doesn’t, though, and on a general level, I think it is fair game to say someone doesn’t “get” a character. Your point about the variance in Superman, Batman, etc. is well-taken, but consider this: In broad strokes, there are things characters don’t do. You wouldn’t have Superman knowing nothing about journalism, or Batman clueless about criminology. Wonder Woman not knowing modern technology isn’t just a stylistic choice, it’s something that is 100% inconsistent with every single past portrayal of her. That’s not getting the character. In my opinion, at any rate.
April 6th, 2007 at 12:23 am
Randy wrote:
That’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t appear to have worked. I run a direct market store, and our sales for the first issue of Picoult’s Wonder Woman are down, not up.
I think part of the reason is that Picoult herself doesn’t seem to be actively letting her prose fans know. DC holds primary responsibility for marketing, I know, but a casual glance at Picoult’s website doesn’t seem to mention Wonder Woman at all.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I was really hoping to like Wonder Woman…having never stuck with the series after trying a few of the various creative teams (Byrne around issue 100, Jiminez and Rucka…but none really clicked for me). She’s a great character and a DC icon. It’s unfortunate that this relaunch went so wrong with delays and unfinished stories. I had hopes during Infinte Crisis that they would reconcile her origin and give her a new starting point that would have let me become a new fan. But after 5 issues, I dropped the book. I’d rather DC stopped the title after the current arc and tried again in 6 months or a year. They owe Wonder Woman better than she’s gotten. And I wonder if this whole Amazons Attack storyline DC seems determined to forge ahead with will do anything to reverse this.
But I will say that I enjoyed Will Pfipher’s issue quite alot (#5). It was standalone and, while not fantastic, did connect with me in terms of what Wonder Woman should be about.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I’m with Foley.
It’s happening over in Action Comics too, now.
I don’t have the same sense of loyalty to WW as I do to SM though.
April 16th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Zito wrote re: delays in Allan Heinberg’s Wonder Woman story arc:
It’s happening over in Action Comics too, now.
What he means is that the last three chapters of Geoff Johns and Richard Donner’s “Last Son of Krypton” story arc, scheduled for publication in Action Comics, will isntead be published all together as Action Comics Annual #11 sometime in the future.
It is frustrating, I agree, but the WW scenario is worse because those delays have threatened to derail a newly launched series. Hopefully, Gail Simone’s upcoming tenure on WW will bring some stability to the title.