“Self Care”
Creative Staff:
Story: Danny Lore
Art: M.L. Sanapo
Colors: Wendy Broome
Letterer: Becca Carey
What They Say:
Wonder Woman travels to Las Vegas to enlist the help of Zatana against Devastation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Part of the fun of a title like Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace is the team up aspect. And not always within the characters and story themselves as we get some pretty good creative pairings as well. Danny Lore tackles this tale that brings Zatanna into the picture and he handles both characters well as they deal with difficult situations on both their parts. And at the same time we get Maria Sanapo bringing the artwork to a new level as she puts together some fantastic work that really hits a sweet spot. Both characters are among my top favorites and Sanapo is able to humanize them well with outfits and expressions, along with body language, while also making sure that the action sequences are engaging and a whole lot of fun.
The premise here has Diana coming to Las Vegas as she’s learned that Devastation is coming there to cause trouble. With her ability to sow chaos and invert some feelings, the strip is definitely a place where she can do a lot of damage. For Diana, she absolutely loves Las Vegas as she sees it as part of two very big emotions. The greed is the easy one to see but she also sees all the joy that comes from the wedding and love of it all. And that means a lot to her and worth protecting to be sure. To her luck, she also gets to have some help here as Zatanna is performing with a limited engagement and is able to draw on her magical expertise in order to stave off what’s to come with Devastation.
But what’s amusing is that we get Zatanna not really listening to Diana and instead thinking that she’s come to Vegas for a little break and a little time with her as a friend. That has Zatanna talking past Diana and forcing the spa date thing which just goes badly once she learns the truth of why Diana is there. This does place us with a bit of a younger Zatanna as she handles it badly and emotionally but it’s always good to see her step up and still do the right thing in going up against Devastation. It’s a good bit of fun and it has the right kind of wrap-up overall with how it focuses on Diana and Z. That said, the fight with Devastation is a good bit of fun as well but it’s not one invested with any kind of truly deep meaning or anything being a one-off story.
In Summary:
Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace is a lot of fun and any start that involves Zatanna just makes me happy in general. The team here put together a fun story with some really good moments of downtime that you do kind of wish the whole issue was about rather than a forced fight sequence. Lore’s story works the character material the best and sets up for a fight that plays out well but it’s Sanapo’s artwork that delivers the best thrills here. With great outfits for both Diana and Z and some really great close-ups that make them feel really human, it’s a fun work that just makes me smile.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Kindle
Release Date: November 4th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
