Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #22 // Review
Diana knows all too well that fear is a dangerous thing. She runs into another reminder of its power in the form of a villain who draws into her own fears in Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #22. Writer Josh Trujillo conjures a Wolfman/Perez villain forged in the early days of the Teen Titans and places her against one of DC’s most seasoned superheroes in a story rendered by Hendry Prasetya. The radiance of magic and madness are fused into the visuals by colorist Ulises Arreola. In the space of just a few pages, Trujillo and company establish a meeting between Diana and the villain, put Diana through hell, and deal with the aftermath in a remarkably tight single-issue story.
A young woman speaks in front of a large group of people. She grew up in a war-torn country. She’s survived like so many others. She’s an inspiration calling to the heart of human courage, but she meets her match in a woman with the psychic ability to tap into the greatest fear of any individual. It’s not difficult to find that in a woman born in the fires of war. It’s considerably more difficult to find the same in Wonder Woman, but the danger is that much more palpable in drawing-out the fears in one of the most powerful heroes in the DC universe.
Trujillo manages the 16 pages of the issue’s story with a very sharp pacing. The conflict swiftly shifts through all of the major elements of the better Wonder Woman stories with very little time to spare from one panel to the next. Much of the rest of the Agent of Peace series issues have fared better, focusing on one or more elements of Wonder Woman’s appeal. From courage to action to reformation, this issue covers a little bit of everything and manages to be strikingly satisfying at every turn in spite of very little time for each moment.
Prasetya brings forth a regal sense of righteous heroism in his rendering of Diana. She’s in a simple blue dress and a tiara, but she’s strong, confident, and powerful as the conflict begins. The villain mirrors her confidence with a darker emotional element that’s well-articulated in Prasetya’s hands. Arreola’s color adds strength to the visuals with a lush texture that permeates nearly every panel. From the wispy distant architecture of a hospital’s establishing shot to foam ceiling tiles within to eldritch fog and flame, Arreola’s color stops just short of totally over-rendering the visuals. Every panel looks like a painting, but Arreola tones back the richness of individual panels from slowing-down the action.
It’s been announced that the DC Digital First Wonder Woman series will be switching gears next year, which makes Agent of Peace #22 the penultimate issue in a very, very appealing series. With the initial announcement talking about story arcs, the one-story-per-issue format sounds like it’s going away. This is kind of a big disappointment. Agent of Peace’s format has been really appealing throughout 2020.
