Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #2 // Review
Husband and wife writing team Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s new weekly series shows considerable promise as Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace enters its second issue. Artist Daniel Sampere renders an Amazonian adventure in the Karakorum Mountains with guest star Lois Lane. Color comes to the digital page courtesy of Hi-Fi. There are a group of mountain climbers who have disappeared and a powerful ancient creature of magic that has just awakened. The sprawling comedy of the first issue’s one-shot story gives way to something much more serious for the series’s second issue. Wonder Woman and Lois Lane confront an ancient power deep in one of the loftiest places on Earth.
Lois Lane is investigating the disappearance of a renowned group of mountain climbers when tragedy strikes. The tiny single-engine prop plane crashes into a mountain along the China-Pakistan border. There’s danger in the mountain that goes well beyond the basic forces of nature. Fresh from rescuing victims of a typhoon in the Philippines, Wonder Woman’s in the same general hemisphere as Lois. (Typically Superman engages in this sort of activity, but he’s a bit busy in a distant galaxy.) Lane and Wonder Woman encounters a supernatural creature that has been awakened in the mountain that will challenge Lois’ wits and Wonder Woman’s might.
Conner and Palmiotti set the adventure journalist tone of the issue right away. The issue opens and closes with Lane’s narration. Wonder Woman gets her turn to tell the story for the bulk of the center of the chapter. Conner and Palmiotti’s grasp of Wonder Woman’s heroism is sharp and dynamic. She’s as strong saving lives in a monsoon while staring-down a giant ancient sentient monster. True to form with the previous issue, the guest star here is given a prominent role in helping to defeat the creature in her own way. It’s a very well-balanced script from beginning to end.
Sampere has done a solidly respectable job of rendering the intrepidness of the adventure. The Karakorum Mountains feel frigid, desolate, and unforgiving. Some of the power of the nature seen here comes thanks to colors by Hi-Fi, which render a cold and snowy depth to the action. Wonder Woman’s bravery is striking in panels that strikingly illustrate the size difference between herself and the ancient monster.
Palmiotti and Conner’s series seems to be developing into a Wonder Woman Team-Up series that has started rolling through a couple of really promising one-shot stories. More than just the standard team-up series, the first two issues of Agent of Peace show versatility in Conner and Palmiotti’s styles that suggest a mood and tone that matches the guest star of the week. The first week’s Harley Quinn crossover took a wildly comic adventure tone. An issue featuring an investigative journalist proves to be a much more reflective look at Wonder Woman’s potential. If Connerand Palmiotti can maintain the shifts in tone, this series could be something truly special.
