Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Review | Tagged: a.r.g.u.s, darkseid, dc comics, diana prince, emanuela lupacchino, fantasy, female furies, grail, james robinson, jason, justice league, ray mccarthy, Romulo Fajardo Jr, sci-fi, steve trevor, superheroes, wonder woman

Wonder Woman #44 Review: Fun With Darkseid, But the Story is Shallow

Wonder Woman, Jason, and A.R.G.U.S are at war with Darkseid, Grail, the Female Furies, and their Parademons. Darkseid's servants have almost finished their machine, so the clock is ticking on Diana and her allies to finish off the forces of Apokolips.

To start, it's objectively awesome to read a comic that is almost entirely about a fight between Wonder Woman and Darkseid. Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, and Romulo Fajardo Jr. do an excellent job of bringing this battle to life, and, if nothing else, there is fun to be had in watching this fight go down.

That's fortuitous for the overall book, because it really has nothing else going for it. The fight is supposed to be partly fueled by the fact that Darkseid has killed Zeus and other members of the Greek Pantheon. That doesn't bear much weight, as they haven't generally been central sympathetic figures to the story. Sure, Zeus is Diana's father, but that doesn't add much given Zeus' scarcity in the comic. It also doesn't help that Zeus is a historical dick and giving Diana daddy issues is the last damn thing this comic needs.

Beyond that, the dialogue is quite bad. When it's not being expository, it consists of a lot of cliched battle cries and overblown attempts at emotional conveyance. It can take you out of the fun of the fight.

Finally, this comic shows the problems of decompressing a story so that an entire issue can consist of a massive fight sequence that doesn't properly end, and the comic concludes with more nonsense being added to said fight.

That said, the art team does a good job of making this a comic that is at the very least, readable. The fight is given thunderous and impactful blows by Luppachino's line work, McCarthy's inking keeps things neat and defined, and Fajardo Jr.'s color work is well-balanced and appealing.

Wonder Woman #44 is a fun comic. I can't take that away from it. Despite the narrative meandering throughout the runtime, the dialogue tripping over itself, and the pacing's near lack of existence, Diana v. Darkseid makes this book tentatively recommendable. It's fun, and the artists do a great job of making the visuals presentable. Feel free to pick it up for a fun-if-shallow read.

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