Ah, children…
Creative Staff:
Story: Derek Fridolfs
Art: Tom Fowler
What They Say:
“Return to Gaia” part 1 of 2! Diana’s visit to Paradise Island’s harvest festival is interrupted by monsters! Typhon, the last son of Gaia, is breaking free of imprisonment and his minions have already begun wreaking havoc.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a few weeks off, Sensation Comics rides again, this time with writer Derek Fridolfs and artist Tom Fowler. As mentioned previously, the fun of this series is that it can essentially do whatever it wants, which frees it up nicely. A lot of the run after the first few figured out that doing varied and really different things works in its favor for providing standout stories that can appeal to a lot of people. This one goes back a little more traditional, focusing on action and familiar aspects, but it does a solid pairing up that helps to make it a lot more fun. And it’s fairly compelling just from the artwork itself as Tom Fowler provides a great look for the Amazons and their home, both within the city and within the jungle.
With this story, it takes place on Paradise Island and just throws us right into chaos, with Hippolyta during Harvest Day where everything has suddenly gone wrong. While originally excited about Diana returning home for awhile, it’s become messy with explosions and blood everywhere. The blame is quickly found with a stranger in the forest nearby, and a quick reaction from Amazons are a given. But is that the right thing. This time it would seem so at first when the mother and daughter pair head there and discover Poison Ivy all alone out there amid lots of Amazon bodies in various bad states. Ivy doesn’t do herself any favors with how she presents herself, at least in the eyes of Hippolyta, but it makes for an engaging if brief action sequence with those two at an impasse and Diana trying to suss out the truth of matters of what Ivy is doing there.
What’s interesting is what we learn from Ivy in that she had received a message from the Green, which has grown mildly in importance in the DC Comics world in the last several years, bleeding into other series outside of the Vertigo-verse. Revealing that something under the surface is causing problems, she’s come here to where she was told because of her desire to do as the earth mother instructs her. Things pivot quickly as one would expect as another explosion causes them to realize it’s not Ivy’s doing, and it becomes intriguing with the reveal, or belief at least, from Diana that Typhon is behind all of this. With his status as the last and worst of all of Gaia’s children, there’s a good sense of threat from him, though it’s all off stage in a sense. What we get here is the fun of seeing Diana and Ivy working together for common cause – and armoring up for it in an intriguing if almost comical way – at last for Ivy.
In Summary:
The first of two parts for this storyline, Sensation Comics gets off to a hectic but solid enough start with what it wants to do. I generally enjoy the trips back to Paradise Island and this one gets things moving well while bringing in one of the characters, at least in name only so far, that I don’t recall being explored much in my years gone by reading of Wonder Woman and her mythos. So that provides something fresh and new for me. Fridolf’s script isn’t bad, but some of the pacing just feels a bit off at the start before things come together. Fowler does some really good stuff with the artwork and design though and the panel layout hits it largely right across the board, making for a smooth read with this digital format release.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 23rd, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
