Review: WONDER WOMAN #19

WONDER WOMAN #19
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Liam Sharp and Laura Martin
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: March 22, 2017

An old friend brings Wonder Woman back to her senses and back to her friends, as Steve, Etta, and their team prepare to go up against the villainesses of GodWatch. But what of Barbara Ann? In order to protect Diana and her love Etta, Ann makes the ultimate sacrifice — becoming the Cheetah all over again.

There is something very powerful to be said about a comic book — and a hero — for whom hugging is a super-power and plot resolver. We’ve seen it before between Wonder Woman and the Cheetah, and we see it once again here, used as a powerful moment of clarity between two old friends, one of whom is once again a little furrier than our named heroine.

It’s an absolutely gorgeous full-page moment, and speaks to so much of what this series means to accomplish. Because Rucka, Sharp, and company aren’t here just to realign some arbitrary continuity for type-A fanboys (I mean this in the kindest way, as I myself am a hardcore type-A fanboy — at least where Wonder Woman is concerned). They’ve shown up to realign Diana’s soul and the soul of her mission, to make clear the vision she has and that the means by which she executes it are not, as many believe, contradictory.

So, it’s a powerful thing to juxtapose hugging with intellectual deduction, defensive violence, and even outward aggression. They are all part of Diana’s arsenal, and yet more than weapons. They are rooted in her long lost cultural origin, in the divergent influences of multiple patrons, and in the very nature of humanity as well. We are no more one thing or another (despite our insistence on narrowing life and politics down to black and white) than the Wonder Woman. And in that sense, Diana has always stood as both a comfort and a challenge to us.

As well she should.

Greg Rucka hits so many emotional raw spots with this issue, driving home the love and loss experienced between Barbara Ann and Etta — a relationship revelation two issues back that I cannot stop squeeing and feeling my heart break over. The writer’s monologue for Diana about buying into lies and wanting so desperately for them to be truths applies so clearly to her own history, to Barbara Ann’s sickness, and ultimately to the exploits of the villains Diana and Steve are about to face once again.

Because we don’t necessarily have one-dimensional cackling women facing off against the Amazon Princess. This is not Paula Von Gunther pushing forward an agenda of Nazism (although I suspect Rucka could deliver a far more nuanced and profound dialogue on the allure and necessary defeat of white supremacism than some more outspoken colleagues attempt today). He’s put together a rationale for their antagonism, both in the micro (Cale’s magically corrupted daughter) and the macro (threat of the Gods incurred by Diana’s arrival) that feels satisfactory and still leaves room for Diana’s compassion, if not stay.

Liam Sharp and Laura Martin back that up with a continued reverence for the balance between softness and steel in the vision of Wonder Woman. The angles of Sharp’s facial features, combined with the blush of Martin’s color palette across her cheeks and eye sockets, creates this beautiful woman who is no more likely to back down from a devastating fight as she is to refuse a hug from a needy child. She’s not perfect, per se, but she is evolved. And that takes some doing graphically.

The full-page reveal of Doctor Cyber’s form is in some ways the perfect antithesis to Sharp’s thesis on Diana — shiny and hard where Diana is muted and soft, with skull-like features emphasized over the luminous nature of her counterpart’s face. Even in listening to Doctor Cyber’s argument, we get a sense of Wonder Woman’s sympathy and concern — and that is so much of what inspires those around her to fall in line and defend her time and time again.

Another rich, magical issue from a trio of creators that clearly understand Princess Diana better and deeper than others have in years, Wonder Woman #19 blends the mystical and ancient with the modern and cold without ever forgetting what’s truly at the heart of both sides of the conflict — protection, heart, and a need to love. That’s what Wonder Woman stands for, and what shines through on every page of this series.

The Verdict: 10/10

 

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