Wonder Woman’s Dawn of DC title has had its fair share of ups and downs. The overall story of Wonder Woman and the Amazons being marked as Enemy of the State is an interesting idea. It’s a good way to build up Sovereign as a big threat as soon as he is introduced. That said, the story itself is taking time to really get going. Especially when it comes to seeing the ramifications of what took place in the first issue of Wonder Woman’s Dawn of DC title. Let’s see if Wonder Woman #5 solidifies this story to be one to follow in 2024.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Tom King (Wonder Woman: Outlaw and World’s Finest)
Artist: Daniel Sampere (Wonder Woman: Outlaw); Belen Ortega (World’s Finest)
Colorist: Tomeu Morey (Wonder Woman: Outlaw); Alejandro Sanchez (World’s Finest)
Letterer: Clayton Cowles (Wonder Woman: Outlaw and World’s Finest)
SOLICITATION
“If the U.S. government can’t stop her, then who can?! As Sargent Steel retreats to gather deadlier forces, the Wonder Girls call on Diana, begging her to lay down her lasso. Will she see the truth before it’s too late? Plus, Trinity invites the sons of Batman and Superman to Themyscira for a contest they’ll never forget!” – DC Comics
REVIEW
If it wasn’t apparent before then it should be now that Tom King is not writing Wonder Woman for the monthly release format. Wonder Woman #5 solidifies that fact with its slow-burn approach to showcasing Diana’s relationships with her proteges. In the long term, this creative run is going to be best read when it is collected. That is certainly the feeling this latest issue gives off.
King addressing the fact that the Wonder Woman franchise hasn’t handled its legacy well is a good idea. We’ve seen for too long Wonder Woman solo. There are a lot of creative runs with that version of the character. Changing that up by bringing in Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Yara Flor is the best call.
That is shown through the dynamic established between Diana, Donna, Cassie, and Yara. King does make sure to show that Diana has always had the mentality of letting her proteges live their own lives. She isn’t like Bruce Wayne is with his Robins and Batgirls. Her hands-off approach has led him to know Donna, Cassie, and Yara in distinct ways.
However, where King does run into problems is having to make sure each scene Diana shared with her proteges each lasted four pages long. Creating this same length for each scene did create a repetitive feeling to what the conclusion Diana got to each of them. It would’ve been more effective if the page count differed to make these scenes more effective. This would’ve let King play up the distinct characters Donna, Cassie, and Yara each are.
Not only that, but it would’ve helped to show Diana knowing each of them for a different length of time makes their relationship different. That’s not what is felt, especially with Diana and Donna, who have a more familial sister dynamic. But here it did seem like King was counting the pages and word count to make sure he didn’t play favorites with Donna, Cassie, or Yara.
Running the Sovereign’s recruitment of Wonder Woman’s Rogues Gallery didn’t help. King is still struggling to not make it sound like he is narrating the story. He tries to make it seem as though Sovereign is speaking but the distinction in voice is just not there. The narrative choice of this entire story happening from a future Sovereign speaking to Elizabeth Prince, Wonder Woman’s daughter, has become a detriment to this entire story.
That said, credit to Sampere for making the recruitment of Giganta, Circe, Dr. Psycho, Grail, Silver Swan, and Angle Man have a strong impact. Each of them has failed to defeat Wonder Woman individually. But when you see how Sampere portrays them individually and together you do feel they are an unstoppable force. It is noticeable that the one Wonder Woman villain Sovereign and Sergent Steel did not recruit Cheetah.
It helped make the ending with Donna, Yara, and Cassie telling Diana they are helping her even if she asked them not to be impactful. However, the ending does make the length it took to get to this ending be felt. That is not something you want the reader to come away with from a story. But at least we got fantastic artwork to try to balance out the faults in the writing.
The up-and-down nature of the main story makes it even more noticeable that when simply focusing on telling a fun comic book story King can do that. We see that with the “World’s Finest” back-up story King does with Belen Ortega. Seeing King simply focus on the fun dynamic between Lizzie Prince, Damian Wayne, and Jon Kent was refreshing. Each part of this narrative showing them at different ages has greatly helped establish the strong relationship this Trinity shares.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wonder Woman #5 solidifies the fact reading this series on a monthly comic book basis is not the best way to experience Tom King’s run. As fantastic as Daniel Sampere and Belen Ortega’s run is, the pace of King’s Wonder Woman story is best experienced in a collected format. The core concept of Diana interacting with Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Yara Flor is a good one. But a concept is only as good as the execution of the idea and Wonder Woman #5 just didn’t hit the mark.
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10