Creative Staff:
Story: Amanda Deibert
Art: Cat Staggs
What They Say:
When Circe attacks the human defenders of Washington DC, Wonder Woman must win a battle without harming her attackers. But is there more going on than even she can see? “Defender of Truth” part 1 of 1.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a pretty fun little two part storyline with Diana cleaning up Gotham and then realizing her ways don’t work, the series shifts to a one-off storyline written by Amanda Deibert and illustrated by Cat Staggs. This one throws Diana back in Washington D.C. to deal with an outbreak at the National Cathedral as there’s a lot of pretty dangerous looking gargoyle-like creatures streaming out of it to cause a lot of problems for the Capitol Police. Diana has long been associated with D.C. in all of her incarnations and certainly as part of her New 52 world as well. So having her show up there quickly to help certainly isn’t a surprise since there’s enough there that she values in terms of architecture, history and overall importance.
What this all turns out to be is Circe trying to get Diana’s attention because… reasons. The why of Circe attacking isn’t given here at all and Diana isn’t interested in the slightest since all she needs to do is to stop the chaos that Circe is causing. This makes for some fun as Circe does transform several men into centaurs to cause trouble and that has Diana doing what she can to protect them from causing harm to themselves and others. Diana’s focus is two-fold here as she tries to stop Circe but also to ensure that things don’t spread. It works well enough as we get some decent scenes involving both aspects of it, especially with the kind of rougher style that Staggs uses for her artwork.
What the book wants to do is paint Circe as someone who simply detests men and views them as animals, which fits in with part of her heritage and the skewed way she’s interacted with the world at large. Diana’s role when not fighting is to reinforce that of equal treatment for all and equal respect for all. It’s fairly blunt in its message and I can’t exactly fault it for that, but it just feels like it could have been done with a bit more nuance as opposed to just practically saying it word for word. Diana’s views are pretty well known and her image as a feminist icon for decades is well established and warranted and it’s a huge positive for her and for comics. That’s done more in the final act where she interacts with some kids where the other part of the problem lies in how men and boys treat each other as one of the boys thinks she’s the best and gets called weird and other things for it. Diana plays it well here and seeds some things right, but it’s the kind of thing that needs constant repetition as a fixture within young boys and girls lives.
In Summary:
The general ideas of the book work well for me and I’m largely in agreement with it, but it’s the story execution that leaves me wanting. With a single issues story there’s obviously only so far you can go with things, but some of the real basics are missing here that keep you from even investing in it a little bit. The lack of an actionable reason for Circe to be doing what she’s doing other than to get Diana’s attention is weaker than weaker and that just makes the message that comes up during the fight all the more blunt. There’s no story. There’s just message. And perhaps that’s part of what Sensation Comics is going for, especially with its all ages intent and the low price point. That’s not a bad thing, but it does leave me hoping for a bit more story or a reworking to less standalone issues if they can’t support story and message at the same time.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: August 28th, 2014
MSRP: $0.99
