“The Queen’s Hive, Part 1”
Creative Staff:
Story: Sina Grace
Art: Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Becca Carey
What They Say:
When Queen Bee mind controls the Amazons of Themyscira to aid her in a plot to have women take over the world, Diana finds herself potentially in over her head with a deadly opponent who’s caught her off guard. Wonder Woman must rely on her strength and wits to take down Queen Bee, her “squad” of villains, and an army of Amazon drones!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sensational Wonder Woman has had a solid run on creative so far and this installment gets me to a writer I haven’t had the chance to read before with Sina Grace. His work here is pretty solid as it introduces us to a story with a fair number of parts moving in it, though the overall structure keeps things simple and moves us right along with ease. It’s definitely got the right hooks to draw you further into it as well. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s paired up with Paul Pelletier and Norm Rapmund on the artwork as they’re a really great team together in general and with Adriano Lucas’ color design we get a really good-looking book overall with some fun detail and colorful villains appearing throughout.
The general premise is one that sets things up for Diana to have to look at the big picture after discovering that Artemis and a couple of her fellow Amazons have attacked Parliament in London. They’re not able to get too far here while demanding that the Queen be removed and Diana is able to subdue them quickly with the lasso in order to stop any further damage. But what she discovers is that her fellow Amazons are not right of mind and are under the control of someone else without giving it away, even to the lasso. Amusingly, the cops are ready to keep them in London and you have to presume at this point that they have some facilities for it, but nobody tells Diana no when she’s this series and she’s intent on taking them back to Themyscria in order to figure out what’s really going on.
The problem is that Paradise Island isn’t what it seems and her return there reveals that more Amazons have been taken over as well. That’s when things start to really panic her, as much as she can be panicked, because there’s so much uncertainty about what’s going on with the rest of her people – her mother included. While the reader knows that it’s all about Queen Bee overall, seeing her presiding over the island and having her little group of generals made up of well-known women who have sparred with Diana for so long sets a challenge in front of her to be sure. It’s a solid reveal even knowing that Queen Bee doesn’t operate alone and the idea that these others would come on willingly just to be on the winning side makes a whole lot of sense.
In Summary:
Sina Grace’s script keeps things moving well and deals with a couple of fun spots along the way, from the London cops to the reveal of the larger group assembled here. It’s a straightforward story that works well without a lot of clutter in the way to lessen the impact or smoothness of it. That’s aided well by Pelletier and Rapmund’s artwork that gives it a good sense of urgency where it’s needed and with its energy it connects well. The last couple of pages definitely work the best in showing off what’s to come and I’m looking forward to seeing just how much Diana has to face here in order to save the day.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 17th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
