Broken Frontier

Angered by a murder at their wedding, Wonder Woman has waged war with Aquaman for nearly a year. When faced with evidence that the culprit was not who they expect, she must decide to continue the war to save face and defeat an enemy, or submit the evidence and pray for a cease-fire. At this point, the option may be out of her hands, replaced with a sword.

While its companion book, Emperor Aquaman, did a fair bit of focusing on Aquaman's emotional state, Wonder Woman and the Furies seems to completely eschew Diana's emotions. It may be her character in this altered timeline; she does coldly state that she "is an Amazon" when conflicted.

Abnett and Lanning are a competent writing team, but this issue does nothing to show that. The dialogue is fine, the characterizations are fine (presuming a cold and serious Wonder Woman is the goal), but the whole issue's pacing is that of moving pieces into place. Five pages are devoted to how New Themyscira rose, giving emotions to a character that proceeds to only be featured in a handful of panels. Characters respond to events that happen in Lois Lane and the Resistance, and the issue ends with a cliffhanger leading to Flashpoint #5. In effect, the book sort of feels like disconnected and deleted scenes from Flashpoint. If the main book had been longer or could have focused on threads other than Barry Allen's (and tangential ties to other books, such as Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager), Wonder Woman and Aquaman's war could have had its full force played out in that book. As it stands in this reverse of the norm, Flashpoint continues to feel like the tie-in to an Atlantean/Amazon War book that would be the event of this DC timeline. It's decidedly a unique spin on the whole "event book" concept, but it may just be misguided.

The twist and explanation for the war is one that is telegraphed for any readers of either book. Orm and Penthesilia (admittedly, Penthesilia required a bit of a look-up) being in the book alone should have raised some red flags; while characters in the Flashpoint-verse are skewed and open for modification, sometimes evil is just evil.

Padilla's pencils are very nice, working well throughout the book, but having fun with Tara Markov's anger and anguish stands out from Diana's cold and steely appearance throughout the book. I'd wager the only reason it doesn't look better is that he's not given to much to play with, with most of the book being people telling people things or Wonder Woman being stoic.

In short, much like Padilla, the readers aren't given much to play around with, and like a good Director's Cut, Flashpoint should integrate these scenes. This is not a miniseries but a Special Features section.