The dangers of friendship.
Creative Staff:
Story: Renae De Liz
Art: Renae De Liz, Ray Dillon
Colors: Ray Dillon
What They Say:
Themyscira is alive with the sounds of Amazons on the hunt. Will they find their prey before Diana has a chance to rescue the outsider who fell from the sky?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Legend of Wonder Woman has certainly upped the pace of events in the last couple of issues, though the lingering darkness in the background has percolated in a rather engaging way, bit by bit. The shift to Diana in her teenage years was definitely the best move since we had so much young Diana in the Sensation Comics series and there is only so much you can really do in a series of this length with the younger character beyond setting up some base foundations and connections. The shift to her older years works well as it allows it to draw in from the outside, such as Steve, as well as firming up her relationship with others like Alcippe and her mother, though that has its own wrinkles.
With this installment, things narrow down considerably with what’s going on, at least until the final pages. With Diana having hidden away Steve as per Alcippe’s wish, she’s now starting to get a feel for what this strange “man” is doing while also broadening her scope of things. Steve, for his part, is handling being kept prisoner in the open air where he’s unable to climb due to injuries and is simply trying to heal while pathetically attempting to catch fish. It’s comical from Diana’s point of view that he can’t seem to do much of anything and it certain makes him anything but a threat. Yet she knows what he represents and what others will do to him, forcing her to work to get him off the island as soon as he can survive the journey. What proves interesting to her, however, is that she does learn that the legend is true that those that arrive lose the bulk of their memories, and that helps her to believe that when he leaves he’ll forget it all too.
Over the course of several days, the story shifts to showing her helping him both in gathering some food and working together his makeshift boat so he can escape – while also showing him how to protect himself at night on the shore from the mermaids that are looking to eat him up. While she shares practically nothing, he goes on about his childhood in various ways as those old memories are what comes to the surface. It’s an interesting angle to play after his being unable to remember the present, and barely his own name, but it allows him to humanize himself in front of her even as she does her best to avoid revealing anything about her. But time spent together has things revealed and it certainly unnerves her that he figures out some of it. Her intent to get him off the island is what’s driving her though and it works well to see her playing this stoic and serious role with little dialogue and just a whole lot of looks, at least until things go really bad at the end and she’s going to have to intervene with her people to save him.
In Summary:
With the bulk of the time spent between Diana and Steve, albeit a quiet Diana with just a bit of narration to describe her views of things, we get a good bit on Steve himself. But it’s a limited view because we do not know the circumstances of his arrival or who he is as an adult, nor any shading from him as a character because of that. The core appears to be a good person, however, though circumstances as an adult can certainly change it and I enjoyed seeing how Diana had to play off of him. The book fleshes him out in limited but engaging form while allowing it to be seen through Diana’s eyes and Renae De Liz delivers it well. And she does it with the artwork and styling alongside Dillon, who continue to delight me in how this book looks week after week. While Steve does look a little too boyish at times, almost manga style in some ways, it works because you can imagine him shedding off the weight of being an adult from the memory loss and just having that lifted from him and coming across as more innocent in a sense. Overall, a good chapter that expands things while not revealing too much just yet.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 23rd, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
