Broken Frontier

No, it isn’t Gail’s first issue, but rather a last hurrah by guest-scrivener J. Torres, a “taking stock” issue that closes one chapter while flowing into the next.

I know, I know, I was all giddy and doing a jig for Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman run to begin this week, too, but for whatever reason, be it a scheduling re-think or just an out-and-out solicitation snafu, we instead get one more issue by Oni-darling and fan-friendly J. Torres, along with upcoming Superman Confidential team Julian Lopez and Bit.

The story is therefore, naturally, a bit of a steady-as-she-goes fill-in, nothing terribly thrilling to mention plot-wise.  Though what with the horrific lack of honest character development throughout this current itineration of WW, this issue comes across as a nearly necessary thing, a chance to step back from bizarre beginnings, interrupted endings, overly-wry crossover connections, and a sincere lack of character focus to instead offer a mitigating episode, a  single chapter that attempts to persuade how everything in the past year and a half does—no, really—make sense and fit together, and how the upcoming Simone run should fit as well.  It’s a bridge over a river that no one thought to cross, not anymore, but now that a walkway’s been constructed—well, hell, yeah, why not?

Torres had long ago proven to be an engaging writer, both of all-ages adventures and the standard spandex book.  While his previous two Wonder Woman issues were largely absorbed with tying up loose ends left in the wake of Amazons Attack, here he gets to kick back and really let his writing chops fly.  He manages a winning argument for how the previous twelve issues might be, together, be considered something coherent, and condenses all the book’s past action and oddity into what it should have been in the first place—a character concern.  Diana as she stands, both as hero and DMA agent, is carefully considered, and her relations with her extensive supporting cast (they’d gotten so little face time recently, I’d forgotten them!) are thoroughly explored.  Torres manages to sneak in a hefty scene with Wonder Girl, a worthwhile moment that bridges the gap between her role in AA and Torres’ own Wonder Girl mini.  Diana’s standing with her mother in the aftermath of same said crossover is spotlighted as well, a revelation so informative that honestly it could have taken up an entire fill-in issue of its own.

The art by new comer Julian Lopez and old-school inker Bit serve the story right as rain, completing what I have to consider the best fill-in issue of the year.  The duo’s pages are quite beautiful, well laid out, grandiloquent in action, understated in dramatics; it’s a consciously muscular effort to pave the way, visually, for what’s to come, the return of Terry and Rachel Dodson and an upcoming run that’s already garnered an avalanche of press.  I’m not reading Superman Confidential at the moment, but knowing that Lopez and Bit are heading there next, and having witnessed their talents here, I’m tempted.

So truly truly truly?  Best issue of Wonder Woman since the last Greg Rucka issue, oh so once upon a moon ago.  I have a lot of faith in what Simone plans to bring to the book, but it was nevertheless nice—wonderful, in fact—to have one single issue prior to that I could honestly say I enjoyed.  A quiet and overall uneventful issue, but a fanatically skilled fill-in, and flawlessly timed.  I thought I was—but now I know—that I’m ready for what’s coming next.  Thank you J. and Julian and Mr. Bit.  This one was very kind of you gentlemen.  Now send in the women!   (Terry’s kinda girly, so he counts.)