Sensational Wonder Woman #3 // Review
Artemis is in trouble on the mobile, weaponized satellite known as Warworld. Wonder Woman heads off into space in hopes of saving her, but she’ll get more trouble than she might expect when she arrives on the world in Sensational Wonder Woman #3. Writer Andrea Shea launches Diana directly into combat on a gladiatorial world with the aid of artist Bruno Redondo. Colorist Adriano Lucas adds stylishly clean and primal contouring to the visual depth of the story. Shea, Redondo, and Lucas strike a strong action dynamic for the beginning of the second story in the young DC Digital series.
Diana has received the distress signal. Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is in trouble on Warworld. Diana’s past with Artemis is a mixed one, but she is honor-bound to save her sister Amazon. Distress comes in many forms. Wonder Woman will find herself thrown into the heat of combat when she arrives on a planet run by a Tyrant named Mongul. Beings from across the galaxy who are brought to Warworld can leave one of two ways: victorious or in a casket. There’s little question Wonder Woman will be victorious. Precisely what the victory will cost her is another matter altogether.
Created back in the mid-1990s by William Messner-Loebs and Mike Deodato Jr., Artemis is a fascinating contrast to Wonder Woman with great potential that’s never rarely been explored. Shea strikes a solid contrast between Diana and Artemis in a chapter that puts the two of them on a collision course without much room for subtlety. It’s a powerful clash that hits the page with sharp force in the final quarter of the issue. The opening dialogue between Diana and her mother, Hippolyte, firmly establishes the premise of the story while delivering a degree of nuance to a very complicated mother/daughter relationship.
Redondo lends Diana a profoundly vivid emotional life in relatively few panels. Her posture while talking via video with her mother on a ship bound for Warworld is remarkably expressive. The subtle shifts in Wonder Woman’s emotional state when talking with Artemis are smartly conveyed without much exaggeration. The actual combat that makes it to the page shows a clear contrast between Diana’s lasso-and-shield fighting style and Artemis’ all-offensive sword and poleaxe. Lucas’ colors provide gorgeous facial muscular contours to both characters. The neon-like signage in the background of the Warworld arena calls gentle attention to the immensity of the massive crowd that has assembled to watch the combat.
Stripped of any distracting subplots, the dynamic between Diana and Artemis is gracefully given the center of the panel in a briskly-paced opening chapter of a whole new story set in the only arena big enough to hold the two warriors. Shea, Redondo, and Lucas frame the action almost perfectly as the chapter shifts swiftly from introduction to the establishment and initial resolution of conflict. Once again, Sensational Wonder Woman proves to be a great deal of fun as it nears the end of its first month.
