Weekly Wonder Woman: Action Comics #32

Action Comics #32

A slightly quieter than normal week for Wonder Woman last week, with just a single appearance (AFAIK), again in the continuing ‘Superman: Doomed’ storyline. She doesn’t get to do much, but it’s an important issue in the storyline. And she does get to bond with Lana Lang. More after the jump.

Plot
With Superman now out of confinement, the world’s superheroes are looking for, as are Superman’s friends. Wonder Woman’s using an emergency communicator to get hold of Superman, but instead she gets Lana Lang.

Wonder Woman calls Superman, gets Lana Lang

Lana Lang answers the phone

Lana wants to know if Wonder Woman still trusts Clark. She does. So does Lana and they bond. Turns out that everyone affected by Superman/Doomsday is sending signals out into space (cough, cough, Brainiac, cough, cough).

Wonder Woman passes the test

Meanwhile, mere mortals are hunting down Superman. Their cunning plan? To fire a gas of kryptonite at Superman in an attempt to kill him. How do you think that works out?

Kryptonite gas

Superman hits the ground

No more Superman

Is it any good?
Well, it’s Greg Pak on writing duty, so naturally it’s a step above Scott Lobdell’s Superman #31, but there are still issues with it.

So on the one hand, it’s great to see Wonder Woman and Lana Lang bonding. Lois Lane is off being half-evil as Brainiac these days, so can’t exactly be trusted (even if she is clearly upset by the apparent demise of Superman, despite partly organising it as Brainiac), but Diana and Lana being part of ‘Team Superman’ works nicely and shows them being strong, take-charge women, even if they’re a Bechdel fail, spending all their time talking about Clark and nothing else.

We also get a glimpse of Wonder Woman off saving small children in Hyde Park, something not noted in the text but indicating that Diana’s not focused on Clark to the exclusion of everything else.

However, the narrative is a little disjointed and has a few minor issues. Firstly, Wonder Woman might be ‘on it’ but ‘it’ is child-saving, rather than heading off to join Steel and Superman, so she feels like she’s just malingering in this issue at the end.

Secondly, given this is apparently set shortly after the almost interminable Forever Evil saga, in which Ultraman roamed the world, sucking up all the kryptonite to fuel himself, one might also question where the epic quantities of kryptonite came from this issue.

Lastly, there’s still this whole ‘secret identity’ thing that Diana’s not getting – neither her own nor Clark’s. She calls the Superman emergency number, starts asking for ‘Clark’ and gets Lana Lang. Oops. Then when asked who’s calling, she says ‘Wonder Woman’, not Diana. Oops again.

Had Lana not already known that Clark and Superman were the same person, that would have let the cat somewhat out of the bag, don’t you think?

Still, minor quibbles aside, it’s a decent enough issue with decent character moments for everyone, including Superman, and reasonable bits of action, even if it does drone on about Steel and co more than it should.

Rating: 3.5/5