Wonder Woman #789 // Review
Dr. Edgar Cizko is 3’9” tall. So it’s kind of surprising when he shows-up 50 foot tall and kaiju-like. What’s going on? It might have something to do with the presence of an old foe in Wonder Woman #789. Writers Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan continues a tangle with Dr. Psycho that’s brought to the page by pencillers Emanuela Lupacchino, Eduardo Pansica, inkers Wade von Grawbadger and Julio Ferreira and colorist Tamra Bonvillain. And somewhere in Diana’s past, her mother consults with the wisdom of fellow Amazon Penelope about the significance of the presence of an itinerant ally in the latest chapter of writer Jordie Bellaire’s Young Diana series. Artist Paulina Ganucheau’s delicate rendering of the drama is given the soft glow of night by colorist Kendall Goode
Wonder Woman tackles a giant project of Dr. Psycho only to discover that there’s a bigger threat in the form of the Duke of Deception. She may have some difficulty, but there is little doubt that she’s going to fare much better than her allies. Elsewhere in the past, Diana’s mother is having a clandestine conversation in the night with a seer of a sort. She’s concerned about the presence of Antiope and what it might mean for her daughter. The conversation leads to confrontation when she spots Diana scraped-up from her adventure last issue.
Conrad and Cloonan have a lot of elements rolling through the script at present. Wonder Woman doesn’t get nearly as much time in her own title for the third part of the current story, but she serves as a formidable hero duking it out with the Duke in a satisfyingly traditional action sequence. Bellaire’s Young Diana story hits a particularly dramatic tone this issue. The desire of youth the change and evolve clashes against a mother’s concerns for safety and stability in a somewhat hauntingly beautiful bit of dialogue that never overreaches for depth. It’s almost poetically reserved.
The art team is handed kind of a big challenge with a giant Dr. Psycho. Getting the perspective to work out on a tiny hero and a massive villain is difficult enough, but when the giant villain in question is normally quite small, that challenge is compounded. The art team handles itself quite well and the perspective IS maintained quite well on the action even as the scene changes from hero to supporting cast throughout the issue. Gamucheau’s manga-inspired art meets a calm nocturnal stillness that’s washed-over by delicate restlessness in the embrace of Goode’s colors, which feel more or less perfect for an evening on the beach with a mysterious Amazonian wise woman. Ganucheau and Goode subtly cast Cassandra in a captivatingly poised moonlight.
The crazy energy that opens the issue in the main feature is a lot of fun. Once again, the current title feels remarkably well-balanced between the main feature and the back-up. The beautiful stillness in the drama of Bellaire’s Young Diana story ends the issue with a cool intensity that tempers the rough and tumultuous aggression that dominates the mood and energy of the main story.
