All bets must be paid.
Creative Staff:
Story: James Tynion IV
Art: Noelle Stevenson
What They Say:
Diana’s adventure in Man’s World takes an unexpected turn as her battle skills help her defeat her most worrisome opponents yet: teenaged dirtbag Elbow and Dance Dance Retribution! “Wonder World” part 2 of 2.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sensation Comics had a lot of fun in the first half of this story giving us some time with teenage Diana. We’ve had a few incarnations of her in that form across this series and the way the various interpretations go definitely makes for a lot of fun because here are endless ways of re-imagining her while also keeping true to the core of her. With the second half here from Tynion and Stevenson, we get the further exploits of Diana and her new found friends and the kinds of things that the young women of the world face while trying to make their way out in it as well. As we’ve had with other installments, it may feel preachy to some, but it’s the kind of important material that needs to be out there to help change views and minds.
The Dance Dance Retribution gameplay thankfully doesn’t take up too much material here, though it’s expressed well and in a fun way for a single page with the various moves and just seeing the two players going at it with Diana really getting into it. Her newfound friends are really enjoying seeing the way she’s putting the guy in his place after all that he had done to them, though you can feel a little bad that he ends up disqualified because he slipped after putting in such a good effort. Diana’s approach to the game is fun in general simply because it reminds her of part of her training as an Amazon, but with a bit more fun applied to it because of the sights, sounds and music of it all. That she wins, mostly gracefully, a nice point to it, but I also liked that he forced him to follow through on the bet by giving her his shirt.
The real treat is just seeing Diana going off with Riley and her friends after it all and really just enjoying their time together. There’s a good innocence about Diana at this stage that’s welcome to explore and her seeing the world in this form helps her to realize that as bad as it may be, as her upbringing has taught her, there’s a lot of good as well. Which comes into play when her Sisters arrive to get her and that turns into its own little bit of chaos combined with the police coming to help the kid that lost his shirt to Diana. It gets a little messy, and rightly so considering some of what’s said, but the overall resolution is a decent one that fits in the context of the book, essentially giving most of us a happy ending outside of the self entitled jerk, which far too many of us unfortunately know someone like that in real life.
In Summary:
With a simplistic approach to things, Sensation Comics gives us a wonderfully fun ride for Diana as she gets a taste of the world of man and sees its good and bad. There’s an easy moral or two thrown about here and it’s given time to be what it is, and I continue to be glad that we do get comics like this now. Not everything needs to be so serious or world ending. Tynion and Stevenson keep events moving well here and over the course of the two issues really presents their own take on Diana, which in its own way builds upon the other various interpretations we’ve gotten so far. A lot of it stands out simply due to Stevenson’s artwork which really allows it to tell its own story just through the expressiveness of the characters. This is another of the books in this series that really needs to make its way into many, many hands, especially those outside of comics for young boys and girls. Very fun.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: February 12th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
