An action packed finale.
Creative Staff:
Story: Trina Robbins
Art: Christopher Gugliotti
What They Say:
Dr. George Herbert’s paradise has been compromised by Luthor’s henchmen, but Wonder Woman is determined to save the Cheetah—both body and soul! “Island of Lost Souls” part 3 of 3.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The third act of this storyline brings the series to a close and it’s one that’s definitely left me with mixed feelings. The arc and its focus on Cheetah, or more specifically on Barbara when you get down to it, is one that goes back quite a ways as the two are well linked over the decades. Focusing on the source of Barbara’s powers and how it’s dwindling and impacting her life as ecological changes range throughout the world has some potentially good storytelling to it. But as the arc shifted to the middle it began to fall apart, and hard, with so many things out of left field that it left me not quite sure what to think about it. The saving grace was Gugliotti’s artwork as I love his particular take on the characters, especially combined with the coloring style.
With the finale, things don’t really improve in terms of story because there’s not too much of one as it’s all about the action. The Luthorcorp folks who came to shutter the lab that the Doc was running end up lost out in the jungle and violently killed – surprisingly violently to be honest. The problem faced there is that without the Doc to give the animals their shots, they’re all reverting to a more animalistic and primal stage. The problem is that things just happened and they’re turning suddenly, making it feel rushed and forced. For Diana, she’s still trying to save Barbara and figure out how to deal with all of this. She lucks out in that Molly is still mostly able to talk and communicate, so she’s able to take her to someplace where Barbara might get some help.
That it’s the root of the cult that created the serum? That’s not exactly bad, but it just gets a little wonky from there as Barbara herself now reverts to full on violent Cheetah mode in the face of the statue as it’s essentially controlling her. There’s a decent fight to be had there and a lot of what saves it is the artwork as I love Gugliotti’s coloring for Cheetah, especially in contrast to the more vibrant colors of Diana’s outfit. The fight is decent and the setting works well enough, but it all just doesn’t click in terms of story and progression, especially with its resolution. It’s just and in the end brings us all back to zero. Or less than zero as there are several dead bodies, a lot of angry animals and an abandoned lab on an island that nobody’s going to deal with.
In Summary:
While this arc didn’t thrill me overall and it’s a weak way to close out the series, Sensation Comics has a whole has been a fantastic book. I got a lot of great wonder woman stories over the last year-plus that it ran, I discovered a great range of new writers and artists that are on my watch-list and I got to enjoy some very fun standalone material that took chances without having to be neck deep in character mythology or continuity. While I enjoyed a whole lot of shared universe books, I wish we had a few more like this every week for some other characters or anthology material in general as a digital-first release because the potential for excellence is most definitely there. A great series overall, with its ups and down to be sure, has now come to a close.
Grade: C-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 29th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
