Wonder Woman Evolution #7 // Review
Diana is famous for getting the truth at the end of a lasso that glows gold. It's not always the right tool, though. What happens when reality itself is false? Even Diana can't throw a rope around the whole of existence. She will have to rely on inner strength in Wonder Woman-Evolution #7. Writer Stephanie Phillips leads her story to its penultimate chapter with the aid of artist Stefano Raffaele and colorist Jordie Bellaire. The big reveal of the true nature of Phillips' story gives the mini-series new life just a couple of issues from the final panel.
Reality bends to the will of shady scientists who have Wonder Woman trapped in a frighteningly sophisticated VR. It's the playground and virtual testing site of Atticus Hill. Dr. Hill is an expert in the emerging field of nanotechnology. He's been given tremendous resources by the US government to experiment. Everyone thinks of nanotech as a tool. Dr. Hill sees it as an evolution. To understand it better, he must experiment on those who are more than human. People like Silver Swan and Wonder Woman. Before she can confront Hill, Diana is going to have to escape a prison planted deep within her own mind.
Phillips spends a good deal of the beginning of the issue revealing the real villain of the series. It's not that Dr. Hill isn't an interesting guy. He is. He's even quite a bit more intricate than the average supervillain. It's just kind of strange to introduce him with only two issues left to go in an eight-issue series. All of the time spent rendering him in the first half of the seventh issue would have been better spent allowing Wonder Woman a more elegant and intriguing escape from the VR in which she is trapped.
Raffaele amplifies the drama and intensity of Diana's frustration but lacks the kind of subtlety and nuance needed to distinguish her specific type of rage and frustration. For the most part, however, the framing of the backstory of Dr. Hill seems cleverly paced. The lack of emotion or responsiveness to others is handled with admirable complexity and a careful eye for drama. Bellaire's colors wrap around the crisp precision of Dr. Hill's backstory in a way that feels tight and clean without being overly antiseptic. Bellaire allows the atmosphere to resonate as the villain's intentions are revealed.
Phillips' reveal of the title's meaning would have been a bit more satisfying if the theme of evolution had been a bit more prominent in the first five issues of the series. As presented in the seventh issue, the overall premise for the series is interesting. Too bad Phillips only has one more issue to bring it to a satisfying conclusion. Given the right momentum going into the third issue, Phillips seems more than capable of guiding the story to its final scenes, but it's going to take quite a bit of finesse to keep it from crashing into its conclusion.
