The stage has been set with Wonder Woman and Sovereign assembling their respective forces. As things stand Sovereign is the one with all the advantages. Especially since Wonder Woman still doesn’t know she has a new nemesis orchestrating her current status quo. With the sides defined now, it is time to see the story escalate to its next level. That is needed now that Tom King and Daniel Sampere have reached the sixth chapter of their Wonder Woman run. Let’s find out with Wonder Woman #6.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Daniel Sampere and Belen Ortega
Colorist: Tomeu Morey and Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
SOLICITATION
“HER GREATEST FOES RETURN! Wonder Woman against her greatest foes! After thwarting each threat that the Sovereign has thrown at her, he decides to bring in the biggest guns the DCU has to offer. Let the battle royale begin! Plus, the Super Sons’ bedtime story goes wrong!” – DC Comics
REVIEW
It’s not a good sign when the best part of the main story is the “to be continued” teaser on the final panel. That is the place we arrived with Wonder Woman #6. That is no fault of the artwork of this issue, which is amazing. The problem comes from the narrative direction of this series leading Sovereign to become the Ted Mosby of the DC Universe. In doing so we are left not knowing if Sovereign is narrating from the future or Tom King speaking directly to the reader.
The best comic books are ones where the creative team are working in concert with each other. That does not happen in Wonder Woman #6. Daniel Sampere certainly does his best to deliver the best artwork you’ll see from any comic book on the stands. The problem is that King makes sure Sovereign’s voice is at the forefront of every page. Apart from one tiny panel, there is no point where Sampere’s artwork is allowed to tell the story.
This is a great shame because Sampere does an excellent job of making Wonder Woman a badass fighter. Everything from the homage to Lynda Carter’s transformation to punches thrown has an impact. There is a lot of care placed into how this entire issue is choreographed from beginning to end on the art side of things.
Unfortunately, the writing does not let you appreciate the choreography. King gets in his own way by making the Sovereign explain everything that is happening. It is to such an extreme that you are left questioning whether King the writer or Sovereign the comic book villain is the narrator. Given how little of the future Sovereign tells Trinity this story it is easy to forget this aspect of the story.
The way this story goes also puts into question what happened to the rest of the Wonder Woman family. We saw in the previous issue that Donna Troy, Cassandra Sandsmark, and Yara Flor were committed to helping Diana. But what comes of that? The only hint we get at answering this is someone who appears to be Donna Troy capturing Sergeant Steel without Sovereign noticing.
Even if the plan was to draw out Sovereign by making Diana bait, this effectively made Wonder Woman’s rogues gallery look weak. This is especially the case for Grail, who previously was established to be as powerful as Wonder Woman. For Grail to be defeated by an already beaten-down Wonder Woman after an hour-long fight looks bad.
The moment Grail appeared we should’ve seen one of the Wonder Girls step up to help Diana. It would provide a great payoff to the ending of Wonder Woman #5. In turn, it would’ve been an instant reminder of the threat Grail was as soon as she appeared.
This all-paints Sovereign as a generic old man villain. He utterly failed in his plan. That failure is shown by Sovereign’s negative reaction to Wonder Woman overcoming the odds. This leads to Sovereign not being an endgame-level villain. Rather he’s a villain that has overstayed his welcome after only debuting five issues earlier.
For all these problems, King does show in the backup story his writing can complement the great artwork by Belen Ortega. There is a fun energy to Damian Wayne and Jon Kent babysitting a young Trinity. The writing reflects the dynamic Damian, Jon, and Trinity are shown to have in the artwork, and vice versa. It’s a collaboration that isn’t present in the main story.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When it comes to delivering a cinematic experience in comic book form no one does it better than Daniel Sampere. The artwork in Wonder Woman #6 is absolutely stunning. It makes the fact that Tom King’s intrusive writing doesn’t work to enhance the wonderful choreography created by the artwork that much more jarring. The book report-style writing drags down both the story and villain that King has been trying to build up this entire time.
Story Rating: 1 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
