SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN #7
Written by Charles Soule
Art by Paulo Siqueira, Eddy Barrows, Barry Kitson
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: April 9, 2014

After the explosive events of Superman/Wonder Woman #6, Clark & Diana get some down time as the Superman titles gear up for Doomed.

Charles Soule brings the pace of the story down a fair amount in this issue, setting the stage for Doomed and giving the series a real ‘calm before the storm’ feeling. Soule focuses heavily on the moments after the final pages of Superman/Wonder Woman #6, what happened to our powerful couple and how they coped with and healed from the huge explosion that rocked their world. Soule does a very good job of planting the seeds for some mystery going forward, but for the most part what we get is an examination of the relationship of the power couple and a look at Doomsday. This issue does feel like it is biding time for the crossover, and while the details about the healing of Clark and Diana weren’t poorly written, they weren’t exactly mind blowing to read either. Soule is writing this relationship well, considering the two players involved, and he does a good job in this issue of showing how these two characters care for each other. Both are terrified of being too open with their feelings and Soule writes that awkward tension well. His take on the characters and voices for the title characters are strong, and he does a solid job of integrating the key aspects from their solo titles in this book. This story is, at the end of the day, a primer and, as prologues go, it does the job well. For readers who aren’t interested in the crossover there isn’t a lot of meat on the bone in this one, and the pacing may be frustrating.

The art in this issue is handled by the trio of Paulo Siqueira, Eddy Barrows and Barry Kitson. The three combine to provide adequate art, with few missteps throughout. There aren’t any jaw-dropping panels throughout, and the panels featuring Doomsday aren’t overly menacing considering the character, and, other than the final page of the issue, nothing was overly interesting to look at throughout the issue. Some of this will be due to the fact that the issue is primarily setup, but the full page shots of Clark and Diana in some pretty interesting locales came out devoid of spark. There isn’t a lot of energy in these pages, and while the art is never bad, per se, it also never breaks out into ‘wow’ territory either. The combined efforts of these artists really amounts to feeling like placeholder art from a fill-in team brought in for a placeholder issue.

Superman/Wonder Woman #7 is a prologue issue for a crossover, and therefore doesn’t build up a ton of momentum for the characters. The most interesting parts of the issue are simply setting the board for events to occur in Superman #30, rather than build the story of Superman/Wonder Woman in any major way. After such an explosive conclusion to issue #6 this comic loses steam fairly quickly, even though the writing and art are not poorly done. Readers who are invested in the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship will enjoy the softer moments of this issue, but if you aren’t looking to dive into the Doomed crossover there isn’t a whole lot here for 4 bucks.

The Verdict: 6.0/10