Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Wonder Woman #81 Review



Love Me Do

Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Artist: Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, Scott Hanna, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 23, 2019

While I think that G. Willow Wilson struggled with this book from the beginning, one thing she did do well is play well with others.  This book is one of the most dedicated to the Year of the Villain storyline and even if things are a bit off, I do like Cheetah at Wonder Woman's throat...but, I need a little story to go along with it as well.  Maybe this is the issue that it all comes together.  A man can have hopes and dreams, right?  Let's find out...



The issue opens proving my point as we get multiple pages showing all our characters each seeing the Doom sigil in the sky and reacting as we get some doom and gloom from Cheetah as she talks trash on Diana.  My favorites were Steve in his Miami Vice boat (but in Maine...what a tweest!) and Veronica Cale trying to convince herself she isn't a villain here.  It all leads to Cheetah forcing Wonder Woman to say uncle and while that seems big, it didn't feel big at all.



We then get Atlantiades going to Steve to convince him to help Diana for old-times sake just before they become the new God of Love.  I don't want to toot my own horn, but the minute Atlantiades showed up I said on our podcast that they would become the new God of Love and that was before Aphrodite even died.  Take that Eric Shea.  I would love to keep gloating, but again, none of this felt big.  I keep wondering why everything in this book falls flat, and it really comes down to the lack of any true character work by G. Willow Wilson.  I don't speak for anyone by myself, but I have zero emotional attachment to any of the characters in this book and it feels like Wilson feels the same.

We continue with Diana finally agreeing to take Cheetah to Themyscira and I am still wondering why Barbara wants to go.  There is no revenge to take, no gods to slay, really none of the usual things that Cheetah wants and has been yelling about in this story.



Atlantiades shows up with Steve, grants Wonder Woman some armor and weapons and it's back to the old bump and grind we keep getting in this book.  I think that MC Skat Kat should get co-writing credit because we keep going two steps forward, two steps back!

Things go from the usual to worse as Wonder Woman gets rid of the Godslayer sword...by touching it, Cheetah gets her wish with a big catch, Steve and Diana part ways even with love in the air, and Wilson shows that she has no idea how to write Barbara Minerva.  The worst is left for last as all the consequences for this entire nothing of a story are thrown out the window and in a way that directly goes against Wonder Woman's other book, Justice League Dark.  I guess G. Willow doesn't always play nice after all.



Wilson's run is almost over and it can't come quick enough.  She has no grip on any of the characters she is writing and can't come up with an interesting story to put them in.  Everything falls flat the minute it happens and what we are left with is a boring book and one of the biggest disappointments I've had to review since starting our site and podcast.  She is heading off to the Dreaming book which she says is a dream job (pun intended?), but I'm here suffering through whatever she though this job was.  I think that's actually all it was...a job.  A job she should have passed on.  I did like Tom Derenick's art, but it just seems like this book has 4 scenes that keep rotating and repeating so it's hard to be that impressive, but Derenick actually still manages to do it.

Bits and Pieces:

We get Wonder Woman winning the day with a touch, a new god and a whole lot of nothing in between.  In the end, most of the consequences were wiped clean and I was left wishing I had something more than the art to praise here.  Sadly, the love returning to the world didn't help me love this issue or this run at all.

5.0/10







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