Mortlake on the Schuylkill

When I was a teenager, I loved New Wave movies because they featured crazy camera shots and exciting quick cuts. As I got older, though, my favorite filmakers turned out to be pre-New Wave directors like Jean Renoir, because they really focused on the actors, and what the acting itself communicated to the audience... . — Austin English, in a "Bullets" review of Vanessa Davis' Spaniel Rage, in The Comics Journal #176, pp. 56-7.

(Spoilers follow in abundance.)



Wonder Woman #1 looks marvelous. Terry Dodson's assured pencilling is perfectly complemented by Rachel Dodson's inking and Rob Leigh's masterful coloring. The comic now has a visual depth and complexity that it lacked under previous teams, with individual panels and pages offering multiple points of focus and and perspective.

For example, these two panels, showing nothing more than acting Wonder Woman Donna Troy's entry into the Museum of Natural History, (which has an exhibit on Themyscira, The Lost Civilization of the Amazons), carefully bring together light effects, shading, background detail, and perspective to make things visually interesting.


And the following two panels are quite nicely juxtaposed, especially since the departing Diana serves as a centering focus on the left, while Donna takes that position in the right panel. (And the visual cliché of the windswept leaves works in the first one, since they frame the image and reinforce the vertiginous perspective.)


Though it delivers visually, the issue doesn't quite keep pace with respect to story-telling, since the action primarily serves as a prologue, introducing the current Wonder Woman, her enemies, and the title's supporting players (one of whom, going by the name of Diana Prince, is dramatically revealed on the book's final page).

As I read the issue, I was reminded of the experience of seeing Star Wars when it was re-released in theaters a few years ago; the audience heartily applauded when each character made their first screen appearance, and full-page spreads here serve to elicit a similar response, getting us to cheer (or hiss) when important figures first take the stage.

In short, I was left wanting more when I finished issue #1, and felt that the seeds of an interesting story-line with strong characterization have been planted and await future development.

Surprisingly, it seems possible that we might get a story-arc that's as much about Donna Troy as it is about Diana of Themyscira. For, although Donna's encounter with a cabal of formidable adversaries does not go exactly swimmingly, I can't imagine that Allan Heinberg intends to allow a villain's one-liner to encapsulate his own characterization of Donna Troy. (To Donna's You-- you're not Wonder Woman, the villain replies: With all due respect ... neither are you.)

At this point, I have to admit that I'm actually less interested in who Wonder Woman is, than I am in learning why Diana felt the need to take a 52 week vacation, and how her absence has affected her relationships with Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandsmark, and other individuals in the DCU.

To extend the film metaphor: when it comes to Wonder Woman, I prefer a character-based director's film to a less-nuanced action blockbuster.