Future State: Wonder Woman #2 // Review
Future State: Wonder Woman #2 is written and drawn by Joëlle Jones, colored by Jordie Bellaire, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. Future State: Wonder Woman #2 wraps up Yara Flor's Future State story arc.
When Future State: Wonder Woman #1 left off, Yara was in the Underworld, desperate to find her missing Themysciran sister and rescue her. Now, Yara must convince Hades to let her search his realm, even though she must put her fate on the line. But to successfully navigate the Underworld, Yara must overcome her urge to fight and let her anger control her.
In Future State: Wonder Woman #2, Jones continues to build upon Yara Flor's characterization from issue 1. Yara is an incredibly powerful and gifted fighter, but she's impatient. Yara can be impulsive, driven by her emotions to act before thinking, letting her anger control her, and causing her to choose to fight as the first option before anything else. But in Future State: Wonder Woman #2, Jones pushes Yara as a character, forcing her to control herself, to go against her instincts to save her friend. And it's not easy. Yara is angry that her friend is in the Underworld, angry at herself, angry that Hades isn't making it easy for her.
Through this anger, Jones humanizes Yara Flor and makes the reader feel for her. Flor may be a demigod and a superhero, but she's not perfect. Yara struggles, she fails, and Jones shows that makes her no less of a hero for it. What makes Yara a hero is learning from her mistakes. She keeps trying and keeps going.
In Future State: Wonder Woman #2, Jones once again creates dynamic and engaging action that shows off Yara's battle prowess. In addition to this, the variety of characters showing up in this book shows off Jones's ability to create visually interesting character designs where each character appears unique and yet cohesive with the rest of the art.
Bellaire's colors help reinforce the tone of the story throughout different scenes. The best example of this is Yara confronts Hades, enraging him by demanding that he let her search for her fellow soldier. Bellaire uses vivid red, really driving home the idea that Hades is furious. But as quickly as he's angered, he's calmed down by the presence of his wife Persephone, her arrival signified by the colors becoming softer and brighter.
Cowles lettering compliments the art in Future State: Wonder Woman #2. The speech bubbles and text boxes don't get in the way of the action or cut off characters, and there's no excess space. And when Cowles uses sound effects, they feel truly representative of the action taking place.
While Future State: Wonder Woman #2 completes the miniseries, Yara Flor will be sticking around as DC begins their Infinite Frontier era. And with everything we've seen from her character so far, she's sure to continue to grow and develop and make an excellent addition to the DC Universe.
