Broken Frontier

In this penultimate issue of the series, Wonder Woman faces the consequences of her choices as well as the ramifications of Infinite Crisis.

Picking up moments after Diana’s decision to remain behind while Themyscira retreats from the world, the amazing Amazon faces an army of OMAC’s, only to get an 11th hour reprieve by the goddesses. The last of Diana’s hopes seem dashed, though, as the goddesses impart a bit of bad news before returning Diana to her embassy. Wonder Woman settles her affairs before heading off to join the battle against the looming crisis.

Greg Rucka obviously set out to make a point when he took up the writing duties on Wonder Woman. Here he finally allows those points to unfold as the events of Infinite Crisis leave Wonder Woman’s world broken but perhaps not irreparably. Readers can clearly see what this run on Wonder Woman has been about – the power of faith, hope, love, and charity...most of all hope. This issue tells a quiet story full of emotional import. There is not a single fight scene here and even only a couple of raised voices.

While I understand what Rucka is doing here and the story is well told, I am afraid that it did not grab me. I never felt the emotional connection that Rucka was trying to impart. Throughout his run I picked up an issue here and there, curious about some stories, but the character never drew me in and this issue does nothing to reverse that.

One thing that I found distracting, and ultimately took away from my reading enjoyment of the issue was the way the narrative captions were laid out and broken up – they disrupted the flow of the story as well as the characters’ dialogue. It might have worked out well if the narrative had been shorter but Rucka chose to place the caption boxes in nearly every panel.

Cliff Richards on art was a name I was unfamiliar with and his work here seems a bit pedestrian and only occasionally shines. One of those shining moments comes with his depiction of the pantheon of goddesses. These are rather ordinary looking women, most of them in a variety of modern dress, rather than the stereotypical statuesque, beautiful women in togas, wraps, and sandals.

This story was a nice wrap-up to Rucka’s run; a tribute to the character he has put so much time and talent into. I only wish I could have felt more for it. Fans of the character will find much to love here but for someone wanting to know what makes Wonder Woman so special, I can’t really recommend it.