Review: Wonder Woman Volume 7 - War-Torn

Torn between her duties as the leader of the Amazons, as the God of War, and as a member of the Justice League, an exhausted Wonder Woman must deal with an insurgence on Themyscira led by a group of rebels who object to her judgements. At the same time, Wonder Woman and the Justice League are tasked with finding and rescuing missing villages from an unseen foe.

Wonder Woman Volume 7: War-Torn collects Wonder Woman #36-40 and Annual #1, written by Meredith Finch and illustrated by David Finch.

Having inherited Wonder Woman from Brian Azzarello, Meredith Finch must have had a difficult task ahead of her as the writer of this title. Depending on whom you ask, Azzarello’s run on Wonder Woman was either a brilliant and fresh reinvention of the character and her mythos or a disrespectful slap in the face to decades of beloved stories. As such, Finch would have been faced with either continuing on down the path Azzarello had chosen or forging her own. What she does is a little of both. The narrative she crafts deals with the aftermath of the First Born’s banishment and the Amazons’ displeasure at Wonder Woman’s decision to have men live on Themyscira. The latter storyline creates a pressure cooker wherein each moment our titular heroine takes off from her homeland brings the Amazons one step closer towards civil war. Finch also introduces Donna Troy to the New 52 canon, giving Donna her umpteenth new origin. This time around she’s forged from clay and given life by the sorceress Hecate. She is then used as a tool by the book’s antagonist Derinoe in an attempt to usurp the throne from Wonder Woman.

I quite enjoyed Finch’s initial arc on Wonder Woman as I feel it connects the character more to the DC Universe than Azzarello’s did and it focuses far more on Diana as a woman rather than as a demigod. The Justice League serves as supporting characters in this collection and they act as anchors for Wonder Woman in the mortal world. Finch even pens a couple of really great scenes between Batman and Wonder Woman, which helps to continue the history of their friendship. She also seems to understand the character on a more fundamental level as we see Wonder Woman portrayed with a wider range of emotions and as someone who doesn’t solve all conflicts with the tip of her sword. She’s complex and, like any woman, is stretched thin by trying to do too much and be everything for all people. This adds a new dimension to her character and helps readers to see her as more human than many other writers allow her to be. Another step in the right direction was with Finch’s approach to the Amazons. There’s no tip-toeing around the fact that Azzarello’s Amazons were unlikeable in their thirst for violence and desire for segregation, but Finch paints a much more layered portrait. She presents them as a people who have been burned in the past. Some are willing to change and others are not, but regardless of what they believe it is emphasized that Amazons are more than just warriors – they are sisters. This helps to pull the weighty cloud of sourness off of them and brings them closer to what Wonder Woman fans expect and want from the Amazons.

Where War-Torn runs into problems is with its art. Though David Finch is undeniably a talented artist, he’s also inconsistent and walks a thin line between drawing women as empowered and as overly sexualized. Whether the baby faces he draws are appealing to readers is subjective, but he is to at least be commended for attempting to match the emotiveness of the script. Unfortunately, he seems ill-equipped to illustrate anything beyond doe-eyed bemusement. That’s not to say that he doesn’t render a couple of really great splash pages or that Diana and Donna’s climactic fight isn’t done well, but there’s a quality to his work that just doesn’t seem to match the tone of the book.

Wonder Woman Volume 6: War-Torn represents a small step in the right direction in the Post-Azzarello landscape in the narrative of the Amazing Amazon. Meredith Finch provides more emotional depth to the titular heroine and proves herself capable of crafting a great superhero story. Her dialogue is sometimes hit-and-miss, but this is a small con in a collection full of mostly pros. For instance, she makes great use of supporting characters like Dessa who seems to be the New 52 megamix of Philippus and Artemis. David Finch’s art leaves much to be desired and will possibly turn some readers away. Thankfully, his wife’s willingness to try something new and move the direction of this title further from the Olympian melodrama that Azzarello’s run focused on does more than enough to make up for his shortcomings on pencils.

RATING: B