Tom King’s Wonder Woman has not been something I’ve connected. There have been some interesting elements. Most have to do with broader points King is trying to hit with Wonder Woman’s core character. The problem with King’s direction is how hard he has committed to trying to make Sovereign this big bad that he absolutely has failed to accomplish. Sovereign has been just plain boring and undeserving of so much time and development. Let’s see how much longer we have to put up with this Sovereign story with Wonder Woman #9.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Daniel Sampere
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
WONDER WOMAN #9 SOLICITATION
“REUNITED WITH STEVE TREVOR! The ultimate test! As Sovereign’s grip on Wonder Woman’s psyche tightens, she retreats into the arms of Steve Trevor. Will their love for the ages prove victorious over the web of Amazon lies weaved in Man’s World? Plus, Trinity lets the dogs out!” – DC Comics
REVIEW
Wonder Woman #9 is an incredible example of style over substance. Though thanks to Daniel Sampere’s excellent artwork throughout this creative run that has been an ongoing theme. On a pure visual level this is a beautiful comic book. Its when you take a look at the actual content development that Wonder Woman #9 is yet another disappointment in Tom King’s run.
So you remember how Wonder Woman #8 ended with Diana Prince breaking out of the Lasso of Truth, defeating a bunch of mercenaries with little effort, and having Sovereign in a chokehold? No? Well you are not the only one because we go from that Diana victory to somehow being led to believe she was locked up.
Tom King has really done zero favors in building up the threat of Sovereign. Rather we miss out on a whole story because King has skipped 100 steps in making Sovereign a believable villain. Because Sovereign lacks any sort of credibility, the fact that King thinks we should believe that Wonder Woman would be locked up for months laughable. Nothing about the Sovereign says he would be able to get Wonder Woman to the point she would be led to Steve Trevor being her coping device.
It doesn’t help that King just continues to use every issue of Wonder Woman to do the same thing. And more than even previous issues Wonder Woman #9 reads like a term paper about King’s thesis for who Diana Prince is. Maybe if this same thing was done for several issues of this run already Wonder Woman #9 would be unique. But the fact is this style of storytelling of tell rather than show has been King’s go to.
This narrative decision also once again highlights one of the biggest problems with King’s Wonder Woman run. That is after establishing the United States turning on the Amazons after one rogue Amazon killed a bunch of people there has been zero follow-up to that. The events of Wonder Woman #1 was a game changing event that made every decision Diana makes even more important to the DC Universe.
Unfortunately since then King has done very little to develop this bigger story he started. There are so many things that could of come into play to strengthen King’s approach to analyzing who Wonder Woman is and what she represents. That has been completely absent in order to drive home how poor of a job King has done developing a compelling villain.
The passage of time also makes Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandmark, and Yara Flor look like terrible friends and heroes. For Wonder Woman to be MIA for over a month and it appearing that no one cares is terrible utilization of the series cast. The time period makes you wonder why Batman, Superman, and the Justice League aren’t shown looking for their friend. And even if it could be said that they are dealing with Batman Zur-En-Arhh and Brainiac, that still leaves the questions about the Wonder Girls whereabouts.
King made it worse for how he has gone about portraying Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandmark, and Yara Flor since Wonder Woman’s kidnapping was so public. After saying they have Diana’s back its being shown that is far from the truth. They are coming across as liars to their mentor and sister. Which all goes back to how small King has made this entire story after starting out by making it seem there was a grander scope to his run.
The only saving grace for Wonder Woman #9 is Sampere’s artwork. King completely relies on Sampere getting across how Diana is coping in her mind with the torture and isolation we don’t see going on. Sampere’s artwork is absolutely beautiful and does as best it can to mask all the problems with the story. There are so many moments where you just pause reading to be amazed by how great this comic book looks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wonder Woman #9 is all style and zero substance. By far this is one of the best looking comic books you will see right now. The work done by Daniel Sampere is purely amazing. This makes it even more unfortunate that for as incredible as this comic book looks, the writing does nothing to match that quality. All of the problems with the narrative just leaves you hoping this wraps up as fast as possible and we move far away from the Sovereign story.
Story Rating: 1 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
For more opinions on anime, comic book, movies, and sports you can follow Kevin on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, and X.