Broken Frontier

The action heats up in Themyscira as Wonder Woman battles as its champion and is warned about the coming storm in the process. 

There is an interesting clandestine plot being woven into the pages of everyone’s favorite Amazon Princess. Not only does Wonder Woman have to deal with the growing uneasiness as Themyscira’s Ambassador, but now she finds herself drawn into the conflict between Athena and Zeus as well. To top it all, she’s blind as a bat and obviously dangling at the mercy of many of these warring factions. So what does Wonder Woman do in a situation like this?

That’s an intriguing question, and one this issue tries to answer as Wonder Woman is summoned to Themyscira and pitted against Zeus’ champion Briareos. The battle between them is fierce, but Wonder Woman manages to hold her own despite being blinded in a prior battle against Medusa. The fight between them lasts for about several pages, while many of the Olympian Gods stand in awe and salivate over the ensuing battle. The action here is quickly paced and meant to mimic the harshest of tragedies of the Greek stage, and you can’t help but think of Wonder Woman as a helpless puppet. She’s definitely being manipulated and caught between the struggles of usurping Zeus from his throne of power.

Intrigued yet? Well there is only one writer capable of crafting fine drama like this and writer Greg Rucka does it with the best of them. He’s done a fine job after taking over the reigns of this title, and guided Wonder Woman into a more immediate direction than in previous incarnations. He’s also responsible for redefining Wonder Woman’s political views and allowing the character a platform unlike any other hero in the DCU. I thoroughly enjoy the change in Wonder Woman’s philosophical and political views, since it gives more credence to her humanitarian causes. She’s definitely become one of the elder statesmen in comics, and as long as Greg Rucka remains at the helm there’s no stopping her.

This issue was also backed by the pencils of guest artist James Raiz. He’s a relative newcomer to DC comics and his work here is quite sound. His past efforts have included stints on Star Wars and Transformers for both Dark Horse and DreamWave respectively. James is more than competent enough to handle the action scenes in this issue and I think he will be a break out talent with DC judging upon the work done here. He’s a fine penciler and some that should be attributed to the inks of Ray Snider. This tandem did a great job overall on an issue packed to the gills with action.

So, if you’re interested in stories with political intrigue mixed with high octane action, then I suggest you pick up this issue. Wonder Woman is a title with all this more.

- Kenneth Gallant