Wonder Woman #18 Review

I should stop saying that Brian Azzarello is a fantastic writer because it’s become a staple in these reviews, but even if you’re tired of hearing it, it’s still completely true. There is some great dialogue in this issue, especially in a conversation shared between War and Demeter. But the shining moment in this book is between Wonder Woman and Orion. This entire arc I’ve been begging for a fight between these two but it was great to just listen to them talk to each other.

The story picks up where we left off last month: Wonder Woman and War fighting it out with Hermes. Azarello pushed through the conflict pretty quickly while interweaving small elements revolving around the First Born. This isn’t what makes Azzarello a good writer, it’s the fact that he managed to turn what I felt was an “out of character” moment in the previous issue into a storytelling element in this issue. Oh you thought that was a mere slap on the ass? Ha!

The conflict ends without much excitement and even when Azzarello hints at a juicier ending, we’re hand fed an ending that seems almost too typical for a book of this nature. While the ending is bland the final page is beautiful, not only because Cliff Chiang produced it but because it’s a very peaceful moment when we as readers know we still have the First Born to worry about and the whole fact that Orion is here to kill Zola’s baby.

The art in this book is tackled by four artists: Dan Green, Tony Akins, Goran Sudzuka, and Cliff Chiang. It’s almost never a good thing when a book needs multiple artists. And this is where the book suffers the most. We’re given mediocre art throughout a majority of the issue that shares similar styles to Cliff Chiang only to have two pages at the end of the book pencilled by Chiang. It’s like watching your friends eat a whole box of gushers only to give you the very last one…yeah..that’s a very weird analogy.

Wonder Woman is a book that is a whole lot of fun. There are great characters and amazing dialogue. This issue however suffers from an unexciting battle and an even less exciting ending. However, Azzarello, as mentioned before, has been developing a much greater narrative than what’s been resolved here.