Wonder Woman #37

Writer - James Robinson  Pencils - Carlo Pagulayan & Stephen Segoyia

Inks - Jason Paz, Art Thibert, & Raul Fernandez  
Colors - Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Letters - Saida Temofonte  

Children of the Gods  Conclusion

Let us start this review off by saying that the story by and large is not bad. It just was not needed as a part of the regular Wonder Woman series. It is really strange how DC Comics could take the excellent run by Greg Rucka that coincided with the outstanding movie by Patty Jenkins and then take the Wonder Woman comic into a storyline that places Diana on the sidelines. That is the big flaw of this story. It would have been better to have made this a mini series and keep the focus of the Wonder Woman comic WONDER WOMAN. It is clear this was a story to remake the over used Darksied into an adult.

It is a good fight even if it is between Zeus and Darksied. Robinson really seems to not get that Wonder Woman is relevant now. She has been treated as a strong character and given great stories. He places her as the defeated daughter that just has to watch as events go around her. Even as he wraps the story up he has her resentful to see her teammates. Diana is not the petty woman he made her. That is a shame as in 2017 she truly became a flagship hero for DC.

My hope is that soon in 2018 DC has the sense to let one of the talented women that are writing in comics now have a long run on Wonder Woman. I would love to see Amy Chu be given the character, but Dynamite unlike DC has seen the value of her talent and has her busy. They do have the Bensons & Bennett who could do an awesome job. Keep the Wonder Woman love going DC. We need her in this messed up world we are living in right now.

BDS

Batwoman #10

Writer - Marguerite Bennett  Artist - Fernando Blanco & Marc Laming

Colorist - John Rauch  Letterer - Deron Bennett

Kiss From A Rose

This has been a strange trippy tale of Batwoman. It harkens back to the earliest appearances of this incarnation of Kate Kane. She was wandering in the desert when all this began. It lead her to a cage shared with her Daddy’s favorite Colony Prime. The two were then tortured by the Scarecrow. It was a breakdown of Kate Kane that is brave at this juncture in her Rebirth life. Like all heroes, Kate fights back.

In this concluding act of the story, Batwoman has embraced her inner demons and now the Scarecrow should be afraid. It is a great battle of the mind that has been made real by technology. You really have to read it to fully grasp the greatness of this ending.

Kate’s dad makes an appearance and we get more of the obsessive “you picked Batman” angst he brings. She does show she is more than a female Batman. Batwoman is her own person and her own justice bringer. That is one of the great things about this book and I do hope DC Comics can see that fact. We need books like this one. It helps broaden the reach of comics aby the role model Kate Kane is and can be.

BIG surprise at the end. I loved it and look forward to seeing where it goes next. I also hope Batwoman stays out of Gotham a bit longer. It is nice to see her outside the shadow of the Bat.

BDS

Brightest Day #12 & #13

            I will double up on this quick review of the Brightest Day series.  It has been good so far, slow in places.  Here in these issues we get two of the faster paced parts of the story.  In case you have been under a rock and do not know what this is about I will give you my explanation.  The end of Blackest Night saw a number of individuals brought back from the grave permanently, kinda.  See we learned that each has a task to perform to remain alive.  Boston Brand, or Deadman, is one of the people brought back and he now has a mission to find the new Guardian of Earth.  He has a White Ring as well.  The series is the tale of his mission and the tasks that the others are to undertake.

            Issue #12 is a Martian Manhunter centric story that also has Firestorm in it.  The Firestorm story has a Black Lantern return in the form of Deathstorm and a crew of Black Lanterns that we all thought gone.  It is the Martian Manhunter story that is most tragic and intriguing.  He is apparently able to return “the Green” to Mars.  The problem is that another Green Martian is there on the planet as well.  They are a former Martian Murderess that had escaped the destruction of the race of Green Martians.  She wants J’onn to be her mate.  She wants to repopulate a genetically designated race to replace the flawed one she was glad to see gone.  There is fighting.  There is a surprise resurrection.  There is a twist ending that chills the spine.  Poor J’onn is all I can say about it.

            The central characters of Issue #13 are Hawkman and Hawkwoman.  There is a great telling of their history and how the current state of them and Hawk World came to be.  All the secrets that currently were hidden are revealed.  We see some gruesome fighting as Carter Hall battles to his love.  She is facing her mother and the reason apparently for all the troubles the Hawks have faced over the centuries.  Really cool story here.

            Boston and Dove are the other part of the book.  They are looking for the new Guardian and I think they are kind of sweet on each other.  The big twist here is who might be this Guardian.  The newly returned……well that would be telling would it not?

BDS