REVIEW: Wonder Woman #606

Or – “The Further Adventures Of A Further Wonder Woman…”

So, it’s been several months since Diana was struck with the Panstinator, and while the time-space continuum hasn’t collapsed due to the covering of Wonder Woman’s legs, the story hasn’t set the world on fire, either.  In fact, aside from that one weird ‘Brightest Day’ cover, there has been little or no visibility on the amazing amazon since the arc began.  I’ve been back and forth about the Wondy’s Brand New Day All-New All-Different Corset Crisis On Infinite Pants strange new status quo, which makes me unsure whether I’ll be underwhelmed by this’n, or if it will provide the final buy-in to make the whole thing work.  Anybody takin’ bets?

WONDER WOMAN #606  –  “Odyssey Part Six: The Huntsman”
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski & Phil Hester
Artist: Eduardo Pansica
Inker(s): Leisten/Alquiza/Faucher/Ferreira
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Don Kramer/Alex Sinclair/Alex Garner
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

Previously, on Wonder Woman:  Blah blah space-time anomaly, blah blah blah Amazons dead, blah blah blah last daughter of Themiscyra with a whole new history, blah blah blah pants-cakes.  Diana’s adventures in her strange new world have consisted mostly of seeking out hidden sects of her Amazon sisters around the world, and extracting them from terrible situations while unseen forces mass against her.  Last issue ended with Wonder Woman leaping impulsively off a rooftop and get herself speared by another unexpected foe, showing that she is not merely physically younger than before, but actually possesses different experiences and attitudes, as our old-school Diana would never do something so foolhardy.  So, if her WHOLE LIFE is different, what about the lives of those who fought against her?

The Big Fighty-Fighty!

We start where last issue left off, with Diana bleeding in an alley as a mysterious centaur laughs and taunts her for her foolishness.  The interior art isn’t by Don Kramer as previous issues have been, but I have to say that the Huntsman still looks very imposing, and it looks very dark for Diana until her fellow Amazon Phillipus hits the Huntsman in the face WITH A GRENADE.  Overkill much, Phillipus?  The elder Amazon quickly gets Wonder Woman out of the line of fire, removes the spear from her shoulder, and proves me wrong when she is forced to continue fighting the not-at-all-blowed-up Huntsman again.  Things get personal as the centaur impales Phillipus, then taunts Diana that she caused the death of her former teacher with her own rash actions.  He throws another spear at her heart, but an angry Wonder Woman has a badass moment, catching it, then a second spear, and hurling them back at him.  The spears hit with such force that the rooftop crumbles, causing Huntsman to fall to the street below…

And Then, $#!+ Gets REAL…

Huntsman tries to taunt her again, but Wonder Woman leaps down, breaks his SPINE and brutally stabs him to death with HIS OWN ANTLER!  That is HARDCORE, although I have to admit to mixed feelings about seeing this behavior from the star-spangled-panty icon that is Wonder Woman.  She quickly returns to the scene of the crime to find the sign of the Morrigan, finally giving her mysterious tormentor a face.  Diana takes command of the remaining Amazons and sets off to meet her foe in battle, while Morrigan has plans of her own.  Raising three Amazons from the dead, she gives each of them the powers of the Furies of myth, while also embodying Wonder Woman villains past:  Tisiphone/Giganta, Magaera/Cheetah, and Alecto/Artemis, which then brings up the inevitable questions of how this fits into continuity, since the Giganta that has been at large in the DCU has appeared very recently in Secret Six.  Are they meant to represent the old foes remade by the time frammistat, or, even worse, NEW versions of characters who are still active?  The issue ends with Wonder Woman and her warriors arriving at a strange temple, where she finds tiny action figures of herself (in various costumes throughout her no-longer-existing history, even) and a horde of undead enemies!

The Verdict: Still On The Fence

This issue triggered an interesting thought process in me.  One of the plot points involves a child of Amazons being kidnapped for use as bait, while Wonder Woman herself spends a lot of time in dark alleys acting very vigilante-like.  Throw in a job in corporate American, and this current Wonder Woman direction starts to sound remarkably like the proposed WW television show recently green-lighted by NBC for production.  Now, I don’t necessarily believe in this level of synergy/coordination (especially when it comes to comics production) but there could be something going on.  Either way, as much as parts of the issue were quite good, it didn’t really ‘pop’ as a must-have issue.  The art is well-done, but nothing to write home about, while the story gives us our first real glimpses of the big bad in action, something that I’ve been hoping we would get for a couple of issues now.  But aside from the brutal Wolverine-style stabbity-stab-stab, it was a relatively uneventful issue for me, with nothing overtly awful or offputting, but nothing that really captured my imagination.  Wonder Woman #606 delivers an okay story with okay art, though, and sometimes that’s the most we can ask of a book, earning it 2.5 out of 5 stars overall.  The costume looks TONS bettter without the leather jacket, though…

Rating:

Faithful Spoilerite Question Of The Day:  Any thoughts on my conspiracy theory?  D’ya think this will be what the proposed TV series be about?