The darkness only grows.
Creative Staff:
Story: Renae De Liz
Art: Renae De Liz, Ray Dillon
Colors: Ray Dillon
What They Say:
Diana tries to escape her fated course, but in avoiding her chance to become immortal like the rest of the Amazons, she meets a new challenge!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The shift in story with Diana now in her teenage years has been a positive, as much as I liked young Diana, because it makes her a more active participant in things. While a teenager can still be written off by adults for many reasons, it tends to be a bit less so than a child when it comes to dealing with certain matters. For Diana, the bonus of growing up has been having Alcippe train her and guide her about different things with how the world works in her own gruff way. That gives a new layer of input into Diana’s world beyond her standard teachers and her mother and opens things up a lot more – on top of her already being out and about beyond the walls of the city, which in itself is huge.
While the training has gone well for the most part, everything changes here with the “incoming” moment that results in the arrival of Steve Trevor crashing down in front of them. It’s a chaotic moment in small because of the visuals of it but also because this is Diana’s first actual viewing of a man – and someone from the outside. With her growing up believing that nothing was truly left out there, though doubting it to some degree since her experiences outside the city, it’s still a shock to the system. To make matters worse, it’s Melanippe that arrives on the scene not long afterward, come to collect him as part of what she and Antiope are doing for Ares and Hades. Diana’s not really able to process this just yet, but Alcippe at least starts that process before she ends up taken down by Antiope and the staff Hades loaned her.
What becomes interesting is that Diana is tasked with keeping Steve alive and off the radar of Antiope, who is using him as a way to get Hippolyta removed from power. We know that slow conspiracy process has been going on for a while, but she and Melanippe really reinforce that they’re in deep here, though Melanippe is at least played a little sympathetic. The machinations of Hades and Ares aren’t hidden deep below the surface anymore and are ready to come out and really be apparent. That draws a lot of tension to the scenes as they unfold, as Diana knows more now but is committed to the secrecy of it all, and as she’s more invested in the outcome. There are a lot of variables at play and this political maneuvering she has to deal with is definitely a baptism by fire for her on top of the warrior training.
In Summary:
Legend of Wonder Woman has a solid outing here as it shifts things up with the arrival of a man on the island. That’s a huge game changer and we see how different sides are looking to utilize it in different ways already. Diana’s place in it is small at the moment, but since she’s sorta kinda on the outside of it all, she’s the one who may be able to actually do something about it. There’s some really good moments here as we see how she has to deal with being in the presence of a man and hearing what Antiope is all about in a two-faced way while being careful and quiet. The visual design of it continues to be strong, though the minor action sequence just didn’t feel like it flowed right, a little convoluted before you realized what was going on. The quieter scenes and the character driven scenes continue to be solid though and I love the way the coloring job on this just gives it all so much life.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 17th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
