Creative Staff:
Story: Ivan Cohen
Art: Marcus To
What They Say:
Diana’s gifts are slowly deserting her, but things aren’t as dire as they appear, and help is coming from a most unanticipated quarter! “Taketh Away” part 2 of 2.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first half of this story in the previous issue didn’t do a lot for me, largely because it provided a view of Diana with how she thought of herself that’s contrary to how she usually carries herself, and even with the issue prior to that. There were some interesting story beats to it at times with how she interacts with others in the public sphere within the media and the fact that her beliefs are so contrary to what a lot of people themselves believe. But trying to square that disconnect within a world that has so many events going on as it does, you have to believe that the general public either just accepts their own faith and moves on or you’d have extremists denouncing everything as the cause of all the evils going on in the world. Trying to apply real world views to a world like this just doens’t click.
For Diana here, she spends the first part of this book just struggling from losing her powers, finding herself unable to do what she did before and the lack of beauty that seems to be afflicting her. It’s a bit vain in some ways, which makes me even more wary of the book. We see that she’s very downbeat on herself and as she tries to go about her day in regular clothes, she feels invisible because she’s not connected to her faith in the gods. Even worse is that she’s opting to go this completely alone since she can’t safely return to the island as she fears that her invisible jet could be taken away at any time. To complicate matters more, she won’t even ask for help from others because Amazon’s don’t ask for help, they give it. It’s just a portrayal of the character that doesn’t jive well for me.
Where she ends up across this is a little more interesting though. First, she has an encounter with Cheetah at the zoo of all places, which leads to a scuffle that has Diana on the weaker side of it due to all her losses, something that Cheetah takes advantage of with ease. But it’s her wits that saves the day for Diana, and that in turn opens her up to understanding her real foe. It’s not convoluted, but it takes some unpleasant turns as she returns to the TV studio for her date and works her own magic there to get Doctor Psycho to reveal himself as the true villain of it all. With illusions being the game of the day, it’s no surprise to see that things went like they did, but there are so many disparate parts to what’s going on here that it’s a very, very hard arc to find something to connect with.
In Summary:
This arc has not worked for me, though I did enjoy the brief fight with Cheetah that happens here as it’s always fun when the villain thinks they’re finally gaining an advantage, even if they’re defeated relatively easily. The storyline is one that puts Diana in a bad place and tests her through her faith in her gods and herself and a lot of it just left me feeling like it was wanting. It’s understandable to some degree when you get the trick of it all, but it just goes in a kind of weirdly dark place and throws around a lot of keywords with ease that are like triggers that I’m not sure what to make of it. After the variety we’ve had in the first few issues, this is the arc thta made me pull back my interest a bit, though I’m still game for more as not every installment is going to be a winner. This one certainly wasn’t.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 18th, 2014
MSRP: $0.99
