It’s virtually all quiet on the Amazon Front over at DC at the moment. The usual Wondy monthlies aren’t due for a couple of weeks. On the weeklies side, Injustice: Gods Among Us is between years; the release dates for the next Wonder Woman ’77 and Sensation Comics are ‘TBD’ (ie possibly cancelled); and DC Bombshells was too busy with Mera (now aka ‘Aquawoman’) rescuing some plunky, ahistorical Brits to bother with Diana. There’s not even a Justice League: Darkseid War special to tide us over.
It’s all a bit suspicious and disheartening.
Anyway, that means we’re down to a single, rather bonkers cameo appearance over in Detective Comics #46. We can talk about that after the jump.
When last we left Detective Comics, the Justice League was busily recruiting new BatIronman James Gordon to their ranks, as they were in need of a detective (hence the title of the comic). The crime scene in question? The body of a dead alien giant out in the Himalayas.
With the help of Wonder Woman and the others, Gordon is able to inspect the body of the murdered giant while the Flash scouts the area.
Unfortunately, their investigations take them to a cave with another a body where another of the giants is holed up. Even more unfortunately, it traps the league inside a big mass of aqueous humour made from human eyeballs.
However, Batman and Cyborg escape, and Gordon deduces that the giant is actually the child of the two dead giants, who killed themselves to provide it with food. Cyborg creates a hologram of the deceased mother, placating the child enough to free the League.
However, the Earth is too inhospitable for the giants to survive. The League depart, leaving the new Batman to sing the child a lullaby as it dies in the arms of its holographic mother.
Is it any good?
It’s entirely weird but bizarrely, it’s also incredibly moving. You’d be a hard-hearted lad or lass not to feel moved by the final page, but it’s also a decent superhero detective story, with Gordon applying standard police techniques to deduce what had happened.
Not hugely great for any members of the league bar Batman, but they all get a go at doing something, with Wondy showing off her flying and her strength. I’m a little surprised that she didn’t hang around to look after the child in its final moments, but that’s League business for you.
Great art, too. The one baffling thing is that the script is by Peter Tomasi, who’s currently turning in such average work on Superman/Wonder Woman. Since his work was good before SM/WW, I’m now going to addume that either the Power Couple just don’t float his boat or that DC editorial decisions are contaminating his creative process.
Rating: 7/7 (artwork: 7/7)
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
