Sensational Wonder Woman #2 // Review
A powerful heroine is trapped in a white void somewhere on the other side of consciousness as her ally defends her body at the end of the first two-part story of DC Digital First's weekly Sensational Wonder Woman. The second issue in the series makes a primal impact thanks to a very clear and simple script by Stephanie Phillips. Artist Meghan Hetrick wraps-up a story that feels powerful on both physical and psychological planes of existence. Colorist Marissa Louise adds depth, shadow, texture, and sheen to a primal visual world for the end of the two-parter.
Diana is trapped in an artificial reality. The walls on her lovely, little 1950s suburban housewife life have collapsed, and now all that's left is a white void. The illusion may have dropped, but the twisted construct of wispy darkness that used to be her 1950s husband is still clinging to her. She needs to remember what's real as Hawkgirl guards her body against the very real threat of Doctor Psycho. Wonder Woman's mind fights the abstract as her body struggles to right itself off a metal slab in a nightmare hospital. Time is running out for both body and mind.
An issue of the new digital series slips by very, very quickly. Phillips opens the issue in moody darkness for its first quarter before lunging-into action in a dual-tracked conflict. Wonder Woman deals with her inner demon as Hawkgirl protects her from the psychic menace of Dr. Psycho. The pairing of conflicts serves as the heart of another deftly-balanced issue. Philips seems to know exactly how much story the page will hold in the concentrated brevity of a single short digital issue. Phillips' work approaches a clever kind of narrative poetry in the second issue as everything wraps-up quite nicely at the end of the new series's opening story.
Hetrick and Louise sharply capture the vivid emotional world of Phillips' story. Hetrick's lines bring exactly enough detail to the page without overloading it. She seems to know exactly what to expect from Louise's colors and exactly how much depth and texture they're going to add. There's an impressive contrast between the heavy atmosphere of the hospital and the blinding, white void of Wonder Woman's battlefield. The visual package makes for a powerful presence on the screen. Diana maintains beauty and power in the conflict that is mirrored in the heroics of Hawkgirl.
Phillips, Hetrick, and Louise work extremely well together in another chapter that fits a DC digital format. There might be a tendency to weigh things down a bit more heavily in so small a space. There aren't many panels to a single page in the issue. The creative team makes precise work of detail and negative space both visually and narratively. The first two issues of Sensational Wonder Woman show promise in a standalone story. If the rest of the series can capture the energy of the first two issues, it's going to be a good one.
