Sensational Wonder Woman #11 // Review
Artemis of Themyscira is attacking British Parliament. Okay, so it's bold, but it's not entirely out of character. Why is it that she's backed-up by other Amazons? And why is it that they seem to be controlled by someone else? Diana discovers the answers in Sensational Wonder Woman #11. Writer Sina Grace opens a surprisingly expansive adventure for Wonder Woman featuring many characters. Despite the sheer volume of action, the first part of Grace's story somehow manages not to feel too rushed or cluttered, thanks in part to the clean energy brought to the page by artist Paul Pelletier, inker Norm Rapmund and colorist Adriano Lucas.
The Palace of Westminster has been overrun by Amazon Warriors. Naturally, Wonder Woman is going to arrive to investigate. She is immediately confronted by the great warrior Artemis. She's been aggressive before, but even THIS is way beyond her usual activity. As it turns out, she and her Amazon sisters are under the control of some other force. It doesn't take much deft outmaneuvering on Diana's part to lasso the entire invasion force and find out the source of the danger: the villain known as Queen Bee. Now she and the captured Amazons must go to Themyscira and confront the villain.
Grace manages an impressive pacing for the issue that works remarkably well in spite of appearances by Artemis, Silver Swan, Hippolyte, AND Queen Bee…not to mention more than a few others introduced to the story at issue's end. There's no real reason why a story cramming this many characters into a single issue would feel anything other than cluttered, but Grace keeps the action moving swiftly enough to breeze through the adventure with style and form. It's easy enough to make this work a lead-in to the second part of the story in issue #11, but Grace's real challenge comes next when everything should ideally get resolved.
Pelletier and Rapmund's clean lines and dynamic action are pleasantly reminiscent of British artist Alan Davis's work. The action is granted extra force by artistic blurring and beautiful depth of color by Lucas. Pelletier and Rapmund give just enough background to provide settings for the action. The detail of British Parliament and Themyscira might lack the kind of breathtakingly detailed architectural rendering that would maximize the impact of the settings. Still, the action in the foreground would suffer from too much detail in the background. The center of the story IS Wonder Woman's struggle with her opponents. Pelletier and Rampund cast the light of the action exactly where it needs to be.
It's nice to see Wonder Woman in over her head as much as she is at the end of the issue. Still, the danger of introducing this many characters will come when she's forced to confront all of the villains…nearly all of her rogues' gallery at once next issue. It's fascinating to see them all lined-up like they are in issue 11, but it's really difficult to do justice to all of them if they're all crammed together in a single space like they are here.
