Another lean week last week, seeing as Wonder Woman ’77 is taking her time getting ready for her debut, so it’s just part two of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman’s ‘Dig for Fire’ (aka Dungeon & Dragons: ‘Apokolips tavern incursion’ module) that we have to look through after the jump. Let’s talk there about fire and sewers – in that order.
Plot
Being immune to fire, naturally enough Wonder Woman survives her tranquilliser-induced descent into an Apokolips flame pit, where she’s rescued by a droid.
There she meets some underground-dwelling NPCs who daren’t rebel against Darkseid.
Strangely enough, these scavengers have some Lexcorp property…
Wonder Woman hopes that her Amazon sisters will know what’s going on. Unfortunately, they’re about to be executed.
Together, Diana and the Amazons prevent the execution and fly off – down the sewers.
Where they’re hotly pursued by some giant dogs. Roll 1d6 for initiative, Diana.
Is it any good?
The art continues to remain very good and the script is better than last week’s, but we’re still talking a very generic script here.
Perhaps most disappointing is how rubbish Wonder Woman is. As per usual, the writers are going with “Diana’s superpowers are how she inspires everyone and her relationships with other women”.
Yes, she has a mother; yes, she has her Amazon sisters. These are points made time and time again. They do not need to be made yet again. Wonder Woman’s superpowers are her superpowers. She has a whole host of them that are a match for Superman’s, yet here she’s slow-moving and generally underwhelming – no better than, say, Deathstroke in the scheme of things. Immunity to fire is nice, but not really cliffhanger-worthy; flying is nice, but not if you decide to go very slowly and fly down some sewers. ‘Wisdom of Athena’ is great – try showing it.
The strip also continues with its sub-D&D storytelling, with implausible, underwritten slaves with poor dialogue doing the usual unlikely plot dump and ‘thank you for your help stranger. In return, I will take you to the Dark Tower, but only for four hexes and if you roll against Charisma for inspiration’ routine, rather than anything oppressed aliens minions might do when presented with a lone warrior who’s just had to be rescued from a flame pit.
And the giant sewer dogs of Apokolips? Not exactly Darkseid are they?
The one thing of note in the whole thing: Darkseid doesn’t know who Wonder Woman is in this universe. Which is odd.
Next issue: slaves will be helping Wonder Woman and revealing things they almost certainly couldn’t have known, and Lex Luthor’s dark secret will be revealed.
Rating: 3/5
Disclaimer: Owing to the small fortune it would take to buy every single DC comic each week, this is not a guaranteed rundown of all the comics that feature Wonder Woman. If you know of any I’ve missed, email me or leave a comment below and I’ll cover them the following week
