Diagnosis: Amazon
Written By: Shea Fontana
Art By: Mirka Andolfo, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 26, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Alright, it's time to get back into Shea Fontana's run on Wonder Woman and her five issues about the Heart of the Amazon, where we previously saw Diana having a heavy heart about all the death and destruction she's seen over the years, but mostly about all the people she hasn't been able to save. This heavy topic didn't last the entire issue though, because Wonder Woman was invited to a wedding by Etta Candy, but apparently Wonder Woman can't catch a break because while she was trying to enjoy herself by playing with Etta's niece, she came across a bomb under one of the reception tables and while everyone wants to have a killer reception............ this isn't what they had in mind. Let's jump into this issue and see how our hero defuses this situation and find out what's up with the Picket's physician, Dr. Crawford and why she seemed to get sick out of nowhere last issue. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with us seeing that Wonder Woman didn't have time to defuse the bomb or get it the hell out of there and simply used her body as a shield to cover the explosion from the rest of the reception guests and while this is a cool concept that really starts the issue off with a bang, it doesn't really translate well here because while Destiny, Etta's niece who was right next to Wonder Woman is fine, the rest of the reception hall and a bunch of the guests seem to be affected by the bomb so it's a little wonky. The big part of this scene though is that Etta Candy had a piece of shrapnel embedded in her stomach, which forces Wonder Woman to get her medical help immediately.
Too bad Wonder Woman chose the previously sick Dr. Crawford as her means of help instead of taking Etta to the hospital because as we find out in this issue, Dr. Crawford has been secretly planning on using Wonder Woman's DNA as a way to cure herself of a genetic disease that's killing her and after Wonder Woman comes to, after Dr. Crawford's sedative she gave her, we see that the good doctor has spliced parts of Wonder Woman's DNA into her own and is now essentially a powerhouse, but because of either the power or her initial sickness, Dr. Crawford has lost her damn mind.
In the end, Wonder Woman battles it out with Dr. Crawford and manages to beat her when she ties the Perfect around her and says that the stolen DNA within Dr. Crawford isn't her truth.......... which makes it go away. Yeah, I don't agree with this use of the lasso and it comes off a bit hokey, but in the end Wonder Woman goes to the hospital to visit Etta and binge watch every episode of Friends with her while she recuperates and I hope Wonder Woman gets her rest in when she can here because it seems that a hit as gone out on the dark web on the Amazon Princess.
That's it for this issue of Wonder Woman and while I was really looking forward to what we were going to get from this issue after reading the last, I have to say that this was a bit of a let down because everything came off really forced to get us to our conclusion. Dr. Crawford was sick last issue and planted a bomb at the wedding (which we didn't discuss again in this issue) just so Wonder Woman might show up at her office so that the doctor could steal her DNA. It just seemed like one hell of a stretch to get us to that conclusion and speaking of conclusion, the way that Wonder Woman defeated Dr. Crawford was hokey as hell and just seemed off to me. I love Mirka Andolfo's art, but that too came off a bit odd here too because after the explosion at the beginning of this issue, I really didn't understand what was going on since Diana seemed to contain it and even the little girl Destiny, who was right next to her was fine, but yet the whole damn reception hall was crumbling around everyone and it seemed odd. I still have high hopes for the rest of this arc, but this issue just wasn't very good in the long run.
Bits and Pieces:
While I was all excited for Shea Fontana's run after reading the previous issue, this chapter actually made me pause and rethink that stance a bit because everything we get in this is a forced mess just to get us to our conclusion and because of that it came off really disappointing. I still love the art overall, but even that came off confusing at times, but all in all I still look forward to what we'll get next, but this issue was a misstep.
5.5/10
I agree with you on this one, Eric. The setup was hokey and the payoff was poor. Why the hell would Diana take Etta to Dr.Crawford, a character we only recently been introduced to, instead of hospital? Dr.Crawford must be the most charming woman who ever practiced medicine! Why was she dispatched so quickly? This could have been the opportunity to introduce a fun new Wonder Woman villian to a rogue's gallery that desperately needs it. I understand that Fontana only has a few issues to work with but this is ridiculous. Nonetheless, I look forward to next issue and the hope that Ms.Fontana has only stumbled not fell.
ReplyDeletebest is, after the whole dr. crawford deal, diana must have taken Etta to the hospital anyway!!!
DeleteI miss steve trevor. No really, i do miss the dude.
ReplyDeleteI like Steve...the problem is that Shea Fontana wrote these issues when Rucka was up to issue #19 and I'm guessing that he was not sure how the story would end with Steve.
DeleteI probably would have given it a 6, but 5.5 sounds about right too. I still love the art, and don't want it to go away any time soon. As for the story, it felt like something from the Silver Age or maybe even the Golden Age (what with the whole concept of gaining superpowers by injecting yourself with super-blood). Now that Cheetah is out of the picture, I want Diana and Etta to be a couple. I realize I am not going to get that wish, but that is my head-canon.
ReplyDeletei liked the art too. I really want to like this story, but it's hard. We recorded our review for this last night and I said that I think that Shea is trying to go a bit darker since she only wrote the DC Superhero Girls before this and is afraid people will judge her harshly. I wish she would have just gone with what she is good at and given us a nice little book with heart.
DeleteBTW...this run is ending in September :(
You might be right in thinking that she wanted to go darker for this story, but if that's the case, I feel like that hasn't quite worked out. The issue felt more goofy than dark/ gritty. I guess that's why I gave it a slightly higher score than Eric did. It just seemed so silly, I couldn't be too mad at it.
DeleteOne of my favorite parts was when the doctor goes "It must be nice to have so much HOPE. Guess THAT'S the gene I should've looked for." All she was missing was the Hope Gene, duh. :P
ReplyDeleteI think I am deficient in that gene as well!
Deletelol, aww.
DeleteI liked it.
ReplyDeletei didn't like that Dr. Crawford's plan is so crazy to get from point a to point b...she probably could have just asked for a blood sample and saved the years of research she did to develop the Amazon sedative
DeleteLol, good point. But then she wouldn't have gotten a chance to also bomb a wedding. Maybe she also had something against the bride or groom and felt like this was a good way to ruin their day *and* Diana's. Two birds with one stone, and all that.
DeleteFontana's run is full of political messages but empty of substance whatsoever and is a mere shadow of the indepht character development over Diana that Greg Rucka brought to us since issue 1.
ReplyDeleteIt's a serious letdown.
Is it a sure thing Dr. Crawford planted the bomb?
ReplyDeleteOther then Diana mentioning to her that she's going to a wedding in the last issue, and Dr. Crawford saying in passing that Etta was simply "collateral damage ", it isn't really clarified or driven home that she was the one who planted the bomb.
She could have simply mentionrd during her "bad guy explaining himself" monologue that she was the one who planted the bomb in order to get her there(even though she already had her in the clinic in the previous issue?) and it would still be really convoluted, but at least it would have clarified it 100%.
Pretty much, I'm going by the little girl Destiny saying at the end of issue #26 that she was playing hide and seek with a woman that was sick.
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