Wonder Woman #799 // Review
Everyone is dreaming of Diana. Etta dreams of a late Golden Age encounter that never happened. Siggy dreams of her in Ragnarök. Steve dreams of her on the frontlines of the European theatre of WWII. The thing is: it isn’t just a dream. Diana is quite alive and quite aware in and within each of the dreams in Wonder Woman #799. Writers Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad begin to close out a remarkably comprehensive run on the series with the aid of a great many artists, including Alitha Martinez, Juan Ferreyra, Terry Dodson, Paulina Ganucheau, Meghan Hetrick, and more.
Cheetah knows that Wonder Woman is moving slower than she usually does. Wonder Woman knows this too. And there’s something strange about a contemporary Etta appearing in the Golden Age with the Holiday College Girls. And though Wonder Woman spent very little time on the frontline in WWII, something feels familiar about meeting Steve Trevor there as well. Clearly something is going on, but Diana doesn’t have the time to figure it out. She’s too busy hopping from one crisis to another as she moves from dream to dream. She’s clearly been cast to the whims of some strange force, but what is it?
Cloonan and Conrad begin to end their time with Diana in an issue that cleverly ties together the work of some of the more prominent artists to work with her in recent memory. The dreamy nightmare trip through select moments of Wonder Woman’s history is a fun way to celebrate her upcoming 800th issue in June. Tying the history into a strange fugue of a nightmare could lead in a great many different directions as Conrad and Cloonan make their exit from the series next month. Wonder Woman has always worked with a kind of large supporting ensemble, but it’s always been a bit tricky to balance the development of Diana against that of everyone else in her life. In the 799th issue, Conrad and Cloonan do a respectable job of balancing everything.
The coordination of the art is well-executed. Martinez’s art serves as an anchor for the main action while various other artists work around the edges of the dreams. Dodson’s work with Diana is always welcome. Here he’s executing the action set in World War II, which features a particularly romantic moment between Diana and Steve. The work that Ganucheau puts in on the issue serves as a noble and inspiring coda to her work on the Young Diana back-up feature. Ganucheau’s presence in the issue also serves to tie in the Young Diana series with the main title in a gorgeously dreamy way.
The events of the past couple of years reach a climax as Conrad and Cloonan’s run (which began in early 2021) comes to an end. The thirty-issue cycle should meet with an impressive ending if the lead-in issue is any indicator at all. Having been around for the better part of a century, Wonder Woman has periodically been summed up in anniversary issues countless times. It appears as though Conrad and Cloonan may have found a fresh approach to an anniversary celebration.
