Creative Staff:
Story: Adam P. Knave
Art: Matthew Dow Smith
What They Say:
Diana and Big Barda fight monkeys. Well, gorillas. Okay, they’re robot gorillas, but Barda gets to have a lot of fun with them anyway in “Not Included” part 1 of 1.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sensation Comics certainly works well in a basic kind of exposure to various parts of the DC Comics universe through individual character stories with Wonder Woman and the team-up aspect. This issue, written by Adam P. Knave and illustrated by Matthew Dow Smith, goes for a straightforward piece with its moral aspect that harkens back to the old days in a decent way.What we get is a team-up with Big Barda as she and Wonder Woman are returning to Earth via Boom Tube after Diana helped out with some training of new recruits. That there are differences in the two women’s approach to training and battle is no surprise as they’ve grown up in vastly different environments, teachers and training themselves. Wonder Woman favors a bit more compassion for new recruits as they deal with the harder truths of battle while Barda, owing to her origins, finds that approach will keep them from really grasping what they need to and make them soft.
While the two are back and supposed to do an interview with Lois, they instead get called away to deal with some danger at a nearby advanced energy museum exhibition. There’s some good fun in this as we see them coping with robot gorillas, which Barda keeps calling monkeys, and that provides for some bash ‘em up material in a classic sense. But we also get the real masterminds showing up here with Mallah and the Brain that leads to its own fight. It’s naturally fun to see Barda going up against Mallah, but you also get that diffused aspect as Diana tries to figure out why the Brain is really there and what he’s after and comes up with a solution for it all. It’s what you expect and want from your heroes, but at the same time you feel like it’s a fight and sequence that’s just cut too short. They solve the problem with words? Impossible!
In Summary:
Sensation Comics plays well here as Knave essentially keeps the dialogue rooted in the present with its phrasing and issues, especially with the “Yes, All Superwomen’ article that Lois is writing. The monkeys vs gorillas aspect is cute as well and while I may rag on it a bit, I do like Diana’s approach as it’s largely consistent with this series. Smith has some good artwork throughout here and I like the slightly more blocky look to things with the heavy character border inking that gives it a rougher feeling. It’s not played for fanservice and just works to serve the story well, especially with the outfit Big Barda wears with its classic 70’s aspects. It’s a fun book and definitely a solid entry in the series.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 23rd, 2014
MSRP: $0.99
