Review: Wonder Woman Vol 7: War-Torn
Continuity: New 52 (2011 September - 2016 May)
Series status: finished (this is 1 out of 3 volumes by this creative team but it continues on from the previous 6 volumes).
Recommended reading: New 52 WW, New 52 Justice League,
There’s enough exposition for this volume to work as a jumping on point for the Wonder Woman series. Reading Justice League could be useful for background on Diana’s relationship with the League members as they are featured heavily in War-torn. This is definitely recommended as there are many Justice League volumes and I’m not sure how the timelines of the two series sync up. (War-Torn was published between volume 6 and 7 of Justice League but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything for the timelines).
Premise: Diana is torn between responsibilities to her people and to the Justice League, as well as dealing with the fallout of her decisions which altered her life and Paradise Island in major ways.
* Honestly I would give it a 3 if not for the thing with a certain character but more on that later.
Sometimes having low expectations is a good thing? I really wasn’t sure about this volume. Continuing with a series after a creative team change can be daunting. I loved the Azzarello/Chiang run so I took a break after finishing it, which I would recommend doing in general to make the change less jarring. Also, opinions on Meredith Finch’s run are mixed so I wasn’t exactly rushing to read it. (Even though I don’t give too much weight to how well-received a work is, I’m not completely impervious to negative opinions).
Overall it was fine. It’s a standard superhero story, not outstanding, not terrible, The conflict Diana feels was well realised and for the most part, she felt in character. I was a bit confused by her anger issues at the beginning. I have no issue with a female character being allowed to be angry and have flaws but it came out of nowhere (and her almost slicing poor Swamp Thing to bits was maybe a little much).
I have one big exception for the “it was fine” sentiment: the treatment of Donna Troy. She deserves better and I don’t understand the choice to bing her into the New 52 like this. At least her armour looks great?
The depiction of the Amazons and their negative feelings towards Diana were frustrating. I thought this was resolved in the previous story-arc and it wasn’t nuanced at all I hate when Amazons are portrayed as extremist man-haters, this story was leaning into it. Even if it was only a fraction and not all of them.
I feel torn (!) about the art. On one hand, I love the details and the colours. There are some beautiful panels and pages throughout like the one above. Still, Diana looks jarringly young, probably the youngest I’ve seen in a series that wasn’t about her youth. Sure, this version of Diana is younger due to the New 52 restarting everything but she’s an adult. This portrayal makes her look demure in a way I don’t think fits the character and goes against the story’s depiction of a Wonder Woman who has already been through a lot. Maybe it’s a stylistic choice and David Finch always draws faces like this? Certainly, the characters don’t have a distinct look, many of the faces look similar and kind of weird sometimes.
I was worried about the too common over-sexualization of women before reading War-Torn. Mostly based on the main cover, which depicts Diana in a sexy pose, complete with the unrealistically arched back. Juxtaposed with her looking underage, it’s disquieting to be honest. I would say the covers are the worst of it (hello, issue 38 cover) but there are times when female characters look like they are posing instead of standing or fighting. A couple of panels could have been drawn more tastefully (example below) but on the whole, it’s not bad.
A final thought: it’s great to see Wonder Woman written by a woman. Obviously, that doesn’t mean the volume is going to be (or has to be) an outstanding achievement of feminism or feminist at all, just because the author is female. Honestly, I didn’t notice a change in this aspect compared to the previous volumes. I’ve seen complaints about Brian Azzarello’s run having sexist elements or bad female representation, but I don’t agree. I also heard the same about this run, so far I don’t agree with that either, other than the depiction of the Amazons I mentioned earlier in the review. (To be fair, the previous run had that too.)
Apparently, this is also Meredith Finch’s first time writing superhero comics and it’s good debut. I’ll be continuing on with the next two volumes (and not just because I already have them :D).
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