It’s another quiet week in DC land, with once again only Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman giving us new stories and/or appearances by the Amazon princess. Sensation Comics gives us a one-issue battle between Diana and a dragon, but could someone else be behind it all?
Meanwhile, over on Injustice, it’s a momentous issue, because it marks the end of both the current storyline and Year Three altogether! How will we all cope until Year Four starts, I wonder?
How about with this video of Wonder Woman kicking everyone’s head in on the video game – it amounts to the same thing and is a tad more edifying, too.
Sensation Comics #28
Plot
A dragon has arrived in town and it’s killing lots of people. Only Wonder Woman can save them.
Except the dragon wants revenge for when the Amazons killed off all the other dragons.
Diana protests that the Amazons were fighting the pirates who were raiding the region and diplomacy had failed – the dragons only suffered because they fought on the side of the pirates.
The dragon doesn’t care, though. Freshly energised by the ‘dragon god’, he wants his revenge.
Diana tries to negotiate but when the dragon begins to attack nearby mortals, she’s left with no choice.
But who was truly behind it all? Who truly was the ‘dragon god’? There might be a clue somewhere if only we could spot it…
Is it any good?
It’s a very creditable little piece by writer/artist Aaron Lopresti, one that doesn’t really offer pat answers to the age of problem of the cycle of violence and ’the casualties of war’. The pirates attack, so the Amazons, once diplomacy fails, are forced to attack the pirates. But that forces the dragons to defend their island, which in turn forces the Amazons to kill the dragons. That in turn leads to the dragon killing the city’s citizens, which in turn leads to Wonder Woman having to kill the last dragon, when diplomacy again fails.
Throughout, violence is the ostensible last resort, yet diplomacy never works, meaning that violence and death are inevitable. All because of Ares, the common thread throughout. The only way to stop the cycle is to stop Ares.
The issue manages to show all this reasonably subtly while giving us a decent, if limited fight between Diana and the dragon, and a chance to explore Wonder Woman’s warrior beliefs, making it one of the best efforts from Sensation Comics for a while.
Rating: 4.5/5
Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three #24
Plot
While Dr Fate and Shazam’s plan gets put into motion, Raven wakes up.
She decides to join her father.
Just at that moment, Dr Fate is able to use Shazam’s lightning to send the magical combatants into the void.
Later, the battle over, Superman has a strategic – and maybe romantic – rethink.
And it turns out that it was all a plan by John Constantine. As always.
Is it any good?
It’s all a little thin on characterisation and development, beyond the not very earth-shattering revelation that John Constantine’s in it for himself. Wondy gets to do not very much, and despite that Lasso of Truth on her hip, even Sinestro is more inclined to be telling people the truth that she is. Still, at least she gets to hold hands with Superman and dream about a happy future with him.
Ultimately, Year Three comes down to being an explanation of why various magically powered entities aren’t involved in the Injustice punch-em-up and at that, it does well, even if it’s had to do a lot of twisting around of the characters to fit the plot points that needed to be hit. Still, it was a better and more interesting year overall than the “Superman’s gone baaaddd” year two and it also gave us back Wonder Woman after her year in a coma.
Rating: 3.5/5
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
