Comic Info
Comic Name: Wonder Woman (Volume 4)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Meredith Finch
Artist: David Finch/Goran Sudzuka
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2015
Wonder Woman (4) #36 Variant
Reprints Wonder Woman (4) #36-40 and Annual #1 (January 2015-August 2015). Wonder Woman finds herself at a crossroads. Now the embodiment of War, Queen of the Amazons, and a member of the Justice League, Diana finds her loyalty divided. Cities on Earth begin to be wiped out by a force that Wonder Woman could partially be responsible for while on Paradise Island a coup is forming and a woman named Donna Troy could overthrow Wonder Woman’s reign as queen just as it is beginning.
Written by Meredith Finch, Wonder Woman Volume 7: War-Torn is a DC Comics New 52 collection. Following Wonder Woman Volume 6: Bones, the collection features art by David Finch and Goran Sudzuka.
I am not the biggest Brian Azzarello fan, but I found his run combined with the art of Cliff Chiang to be one of the better parts of the New 52 relaunch. It really dove into the mythology aspect of Wonder Woman’s origin, and I always liked mythology. Unfortunately for anyone following Azzarello’s spin, the pieces they have to work with are kind of obtuse and stylized…which makes it a bit hard for a new writer to just pick up and get going.
Despite being part of the New 52 relaunch, Wonder Woman seemed to stand outside of the New 52 in many ways. The story didn’t fit in nicely with the other titles and it kind of felt like Azzarello was doing his own thing. Here, the story tries to be much more DC Universe-centric, but the framework set-up by Azzarello doesn’t mix well with the Justice League, Paradise Island, etc. It feels a bit clunky as a continuation to his story (but it is ok as a Wonder Woman story).
Wonder Woman (4) #40 Variant
I always was a big fan of the Teen Titans and Wonder Girl was always a key aspect to the Teen Titans. Donna Troy’s origin was worked and reworked over and over again in the pre-New 52 world and here, she is reworked again…and I kind of hate her. Donna’s virtue was that she was a less hardened version of Wonder Woman, but here, she feels soulless and ill-used. I feel with multiple versions of characters on Paradise Island, they maybe could have used a different character instead of forcing Donna into the role.
Derinoe was created for this storyline, it felt really odd to have her thrown in there. Despite this, I really liked the solo mini-story explaining her motivation from the Wonder Woman Annual (“For the Love of a Queen”). It gave the character more depth, explained her hatred of the men brought to the island, and made her slightly more sympathetic…I just wish it had been introduced sooner into the storyline to help this random, new character have more dimension.
Wonder Woman 7: War-Torn feels like it could have ended this volume of Wonder Woman. It felt like too many storylines being explored in it and that it could have only focused on one or two aspects of Wonder Woman’s life. I realize it was the part of the point of the story since Wonder Woman is being pulled in all different directions, but I think it could have done the same thing with a more in-depth look at parts of this collection. Wonder Woman 7: War-Torn is followed by Wonder Woman 8: A Twist of Fate.
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