Wonder Twins #6 // Review
In Wonder Twins #6, Polly Math asks Jayna (of the titular Wonder Twins), “If your good doesn’t matter, what does it matter if you’re good?” This is the big question of the issue, perhaps of the series, and neither the Wonder Twins nor the Justice League come out looking all that great at the end of the chapter.
The issue follows the world’s reaction to the threat of the “Great Scramble,” a situation where the villain called the Scrambler, aided by Polly Math, has promised to swap the minds of everyone on Earth if poverty and inequality aren’t solved in thirty days. This is undeniably a terrorist act, but Jayna--and the reader--asks if it’s actually a bad thing, particularly as world governments begin enacting legislation that actually does make the world a better place as a response to the threat.
Writer Mark Russell is asking a larger question that he’s been interrogating in earlier issues of this series--whether or not the work of the superhero, which always tends towards maintaining the status quo, would actually make the world a better place. It’s an interesting question, and it’s a bold move to use the wholesome cartoon faces of the Wonder Twins as the vehicle to explore these issues.
Stephen Byrne’s art, along with lettering by Dave Sharpe, continues to be perfect for the series, his bold lines and cartoony faces taking the heightened world of the DC Universe and skewing it just ever so slightly. Byrne and Sharpe continue to interpret Russell’s quirky humor with nuance.
In original solicitations, this was supposed to be the final issue of the Wonder Twins miniseries. Given that the series has now been doubled, it will be interesting to see how Russell and Byrne explore the ramifications of this issue’s events.
