Wonder Woman #63 Review

Wonder Woman #63 Review

G. Willow Wilson’s first story arc as the new writer for Wonder Woman didn’t blow me out of the water. The first story arc accomplish its job in establishing what Wilson’s voice for Wonder Woman will be during the course of her run. The Gods and creatures of Greek Mythology now being part of the normal world is an intriguing hook. There is a lot of potential in this shake-up to the status quo for Wonder Woman and her world. Though Wilson will need to be careful with how she balances out how this new status quo will work. As we saw with Ares, things did get out of hand quickly and not everything about Ares “new” character ended up working. With that said let’s see what comes next with Wonder Woman #63.  

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Artist: Emanuela Lupacchino

Inker: Ray McCarthy

Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: At a Customs and Border Protection office a minotaur (Eirene), faun (Damon) and pegasus (Cadmus) are having a hard time getting their case heard. They are told by one of the officers that due to Wonder Woman vouching for the mythical creatures they are going to be given a case worker.

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The three take a small break and talk about how this isn’t how Wonder Woman said things would go. They decide to break out of the building with Cadmus flying them away in a hurry.

While flying Damon loses grip and starts to fall. He is caught by Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman takes the trio to the park. There she says that she understands it is tough to get used to their new status so she will bring someone to help them. She then takes off to get the person she is talking about.

Since they are hungry the trio decide to get some food while they wait for Wonder Woman to return.

At a diner they order a meat platter and water. While waiting for their food Damon suddenly freaks out about their predicament.

Their waiter returns because one of the other customers wondered why her dog couldn’t enter the diner but Cadmus, a pegasus, could. This offends Cadmus.

Before they can create more of a scene another waitress named Maggie comes over to take over the table. Damon wonders why the waitress stepped in suddenly. She says because they looked like they needed help and she likes to do one revolutionary thing a day.

The customers that complain walk out of the restaurant but not before throwing insults at Damon, Eirene and Cadmus. Damon goes after the customers but is stopped by Eirene.

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Maggie asks if the trio would prefer to go somewhere else that more low-key. Damon excited to get out takes Maggie and starts to run into the streets. Damon then invites Maggie to go on adventures with him. Maggie wasn’t expecting this type of invite but accepts.

Wonder Woman suddenly shows up with another minotaur, named Ferdinand. This surprises both Eirene and Ferdinand as they each thought they were the last minotaur. They then start bonding over their respective backgrounds.

Damon, Cadmus and Maggie decide to stick with Eirene and Ferdinand while Wonder Woman deals with what is going on with the current situation with those from Olympus appearing in other parts of the world.

Later that night at the mansion of Veronica Cale, Veronica is talking business when a noise from her restroom causes her to cut her conversation short. When she opens a door to one of her rooms Veronica asks a chained up Nemesis if she is being naughty again. End of issue.

The Good: Wonder Woman #63 is almost entirely a filler issue that stars three supplementary characters from G. Willow Wilson’s first story arc. While filler issues aren’t seen as good, especially early on into a run, Wonder Woman #63 got its job done. It got over the idea of how Greek Mythological creatures will interact with the public while setting the stage for the next big story arc.

The one refreshing aspect of Wonder Woman #63 is that it did not try preach a message the entire issue. That is something I feared going into this issue given the cover. This is not to mean that Wilson does not tackle the topic of how foreign creatures from Greek Mythology are seen by the public. That was still a big part of this issue but not the dominate the story.

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Instead Wilson made sure that the focus on Wonder Woman #63 was to get to know Cadmus, Damon and Eirene as characters. Given that these three characters were part of the weaker aspects of the first story arc in Wilson’s run it was actually good to see them given some depth. Wilson is able to get over their respective personalities and how their dynamic works when they are together.

And with Cadmus, Damon and Eirene as the first mythological creatures that we see interact with the public they set the tone for how things will go for them. There was a lot of hesitation in terms of how they should be treated since they are creatures the public does not know about. The only thing people know is what they’ve read about them in stories about the Greek Myths. In those stories creatures like Cadmus, Damon and Eirene have been portrayed as creatures to be either frightened off or be awed by.

The scene at the restaurant got over how while things won’t be easy for the Greek Mythological creatures to be accepted that they aren’t being treated as invaders. While their will certainly be a lot of people like the angry customers that looked down on Cadmus, Damon and Eirene there will also be people like Maggie will be happy to accept them and integrate them into the current world. Seeing how Wilson plays with the politics of this as both the government and public figure out how to interact with them will be interesting to see.

Using Wonder Woman’s influence to explain why things did not get out of control and riots to break out was a great way to establish her current standing in the world. It puts over the fact that Wonder Woman not only a superhero but also a major political figure. Her words mean a great deal in putting over how people should not overreact even though no one knows how things will go with Greek Gods and mythological creatures now within our society.

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Through all of this Wilson also does a good job in establishing several sub-plots for Damon and Eirene. With Damon we see that his relationship with Maggie is something that could be built on. For Eirene it was interesting to see it established that it was not known that there was more than one minotaur around. In establishing this fact Wilson can now play more with how the standing of these mythological creatures in terms of how many of each there are and what their own society is like.

Emanuela Lupacchino artwork help get over some of the more fun aspects of Wonder Woman #63. Even though there was some serious topics brought up it did not mean the current situation was not a silly one as well. It was not normal to see this and Lupacchino got over how odd of a situation this all was. The overreactions of Damon specifically showed how Lupacchino can get over a scene even when drawing a character who is extremely animated throughout the issue with his or her reactions.

The Bad: There is no doubt Wonder Woman #63 was good at putting over the story of Cadmus, Damon and Eirene. The problem this issue had was that it never escaped the feeling that this was just a filler issue. There was very little that felt important to the overall direction of the current situation with the Greek Gods and creatures. It wasn’t until the very last page that it felt like we were actually progressing the plot.

Not having Wonder Woman around for much of this issue added to the lack of importance. Her appearance in this issue felt more like she was a guest star rather than the title character. Everything Wonder Woman did was done off-screen, including whatever she said to make not people riot about the Greek mythological creatures out in the public. It would have added to the sense of importance of the story if we at least saw part of what she said. Even if it was just showing in the background the news on TV airing parts of Wonder Woman’s speech would’ve been nice to see.

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Also, while the ending sets up the next big story for Wilson’s Wonder Woman it almost did nothing to create excitement in terms of the characters involved. It was all what was implied. When it comes to Veronica Cane and Nemesis there was nothing to fear because we don’t know what their scene meant in terms of danger level. That is especially the case with Veronica since there was nothing out of the ordinary to make you believe she was a powerful figure. Unless you are a long-time fan who is aware who Veronica is she is a complete unknown. That is the camp I fell under. Hopefully because of that Wilson will use future issues to establish what makes Veronica an important villain.

Overall: Wonder Woman #63 was completely a filler issue. The story is all about supplementary characters introduced in G. Willow Wilson’s first story arc. For the most part Wilson does a good job developing these characters to have individual personalities, which are brought to life by Emanuela Lupacchino great artwork. At the same time, this is not a required reading. You can easily jump into the next issue of Wonder Woman without having read this issue.