Wonder Woman #18 – Tom King, Writer; Daniel Sampere, Artist; Tomeu Morey, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: This is the longest run Tom King has done on a book since his epic, controversial Batman run, and there have been certain running themes that go through it. One of them is that Wonder Woman, when she truly believes in something, is unstoppable and implacable. The second issue of this series showed that off in epic style, and the penultimate issue of this first arc revisits it as Diana marches on the White House. She’s taken down the Sovereign’s empire piece by piece, and now she’s marching on the man himself. The idea of an unelected, mad oligarch taking the White House for himself seems…more relevant than it did a few months ago, but this is likely just an insane coincidence. What isn’t is just how intense this issue is. There’s a brief, funny segment of the Wonder Girls babysitting a baby Trinity (and all the mess that entails), but it’s the only moment of lightness in this.
Instead, we see Diana as she tears through everything in her way. First, a literal wave of gunfire by the Secret Service and military. Then, the despicable Sgt. Steel, who attempts to leverage the lives of Amazon prisoners to stop her. Then, the revamped General Glory, here a puppet of the government and likely brainwashed and experimented on. Diana wastes little time on him, but shows a bit more mercy. And finally, the sadistic Grail, who has been waiting months for a rematch and is surprised to see Cheetah enter the fray instead. And over it all is the Sovereign’s narration, lamenting his loss and still completely unaware of how much he deserved everything that’s coming to him. This issue and this arc in particular is perfectly paced, and the final issue has left plenty of room to discover new twists. I have no idea what King’s next act is, but it’ll have a lot to live up to after this year-plus of stories.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
