Two short stories for the price of one.
Creative Staff:
Story: Van Jensen / Scott Kolins
Art: Jheremy Raapack / Scott Kolins
Colors: Hi-Fi / Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Story 1 – Deadshot has his sights set on a corrupt government official, and it’s up to the Amazon Princess to protect him from the legendary assassin—but does this particular target actually deserve to be saved? Story 2 – Steve Trevor finds himself in over his head while trying to help Wonder Woman on a mission—but is he doing it for the right reasons, or just trying to prove something to himself?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This installment changes things up in terms of the creative side as we get two short stories that clock in at about eight pages each. The first comes from Van Jensen with Jheremy Raapack on the artwork, both of which works well. Raapack has a good design sense here with Deadshot, who doesn’t always get done right, and I really like the way his movements and costume come across. The second story has Scott Kolins writing and illustrating it so there’s a busier feeling to it as it moves through a lot of close-quarters combat. Both are decent enough stories but the 8-page format is one that a lot of writers just haven’t mastered well and it shows still.
The first story from Van Jensen keeps things simple as it moves fast into the action. With Wonder Woman helping out in dealing with an assassination attempt they’re hearing about, the person they’ve got on hand reveals through the lasso that it’s Deadshot that’s been hired and he’s going to take out President Toulan while meeting with an important dissident. That has Diana heading off to go toe to toe with him but it plays out chaotically, first because the president’s security forces protecting him have no care if they shoot civilians nearby, and second because Deadshot always has some tricks up his sleeve. It’s a good action sequence story coming in at about eight pages as it leads Deadshot to throw a twist into it and to show off his cockiness while also allowing Diana to highlight her frustration in dealing with people that don’t listen to her.
Scott Kolins’ story focuses on Steve Trevor, which isn’t a bad thing as there’s always a lot that can be done with him, with or without Diana. Here, he’s been informed of Diana going after a terrorist group called PANDORA and that has him heading to the same location to help out. He knows he’s not a superhero and we even get a moment with Batman talking to him about how to manage surviving alongside her, but the reality is that Trevor is true military through and through and will do what he can to help in any way. It’s a fun little romp through a group of unimportant terrorist types in costumes that’s a mix of action and comedy and it leads to a great finale with Diana. But it’s an awkward story with how much narration there is that feels weirdly stilted as it takes some time to find its footing as so much has to be introduced in order to do so.
In Summary:
The way the DC Giants work in putting in different length stories and focusing on characters as it does allows for a lot of variety and repackaging those here works pretty well. The doubling up of two shorter stories makes sense but perhaps these read better amid the longer stories. They’re not bad per se but they just show the weakness in the creation of short-form material for superhero stories, an area that’s really not done much. Both creative teams do a solid job here but there’s just that extra little something missing that it needs to really feel like it works as strongly as it should.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Kindle
Release Date: May 20th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
