COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Wonder Woman Annual #2 (Love is All You Need)

Zamaron is under attack from the Dark God of love, and the Star Sapphires turn to Diana for help. Will pure love conquer cruel love or will Diana burn for her sins?

WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #2 “Love is Lost”
Writer: James Robinson
Artists: Marc Laming, Frazer Irving, J. Calafiore, Stephen Segovia
Colors: David Baron, Frazer Irving, Allen Passalqua
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Cover: Yasmine Putri
Editors: Dave Wielgosz, Chris Conroy, Jamie S. Rich

What You Need to Know:

Mysterious entities called the Dark Gods have arrived on Earth. So far they have been shown to drive the moderately faithful mad with rage at their fallen faith. In the midst of discovering more about the threat, Wonder Woman is summoned to Zamaron, home of the Star Sapphires on a matter of urgency.

What You’ll Find Out:

We quickly learn the troubles of Zamaron are also due to the arrival of the Dark Gods. As the Sapphires recount the arrival of their own monolith, they tell Diana of Karnell who claims to be a god of love (but…’mean’ love). He has the ability to sense flaws in someone’s love and devotion — jealousy, ambition — an ability that allows him to burn and destroy the Sapphires. Wonder Woman agrees to help Zamaron and hopefully learn more about these gods that claim to be summoned by her. A quick wardrobe change and Diana resumes her role as a Star Sapphire herself.

As she approaches the monolith, Wonder Woman recalls making a wish during the events of Dark Metal, when reality and dreams collide. She soon encounters Karnell who reveals that he influenced the Sapphires into summoning Wonder Woman to Zamaron to draw her away from Earth. He also confirms that Diana’s wish for the return of her gods instead drew the Dark Gods from the Dark Multiverse and that they are none too pleased about it.

The god of love also turns out the be the god of monologuing as he reveals to Diana: the nature of his world, his personal life history complete with potential vulnerabilities, and the plan of the Dark Gods led by King Best (their leader). The Star Sapphires manage to free Diana, and as they regroup Diana realizes the key to defeating Karnell is to combat him with the power of the Sapphires’ love combined with her own. The heroes make short work of their adversary after that and after some hugging, Diana returns home. Wonder Woman lands in the middle of a battle and her next face off with the Dark Gods….to be continued!

What Just Happened:

The most significant outcomes from this story are that we learned who the Dark Gods are and how Wonder Woman is responsible for them being here. As a standalone story, the issue held its own, though the substance itself was somewhat thin for an annual. Other than knowing a bit more about the Dark Gods, not much changed for Diana from the beginning to the end of the story.

The art was excellent overall, I particularly liked the style of the flashback art. The painted quality of the scenes of the past contrasted with the classic line art of the present scenes was very well executed. When Karnell is telling his story, the art immerses you in an almost dream-like quality with muted colors and shadowy figures. The shift in style and back to reality feels very much like waking from a dream.

Despite being longer than the normal book, the story itself was fairly thin, stretched out through the use of several full-page drawings. The Dark Gods arc doesn’t really advance, even though it serves as the motivation for the plot. There really aren’t any compelling side stories that add substantial development to Diana’s character. Ultimately, the annual was entertaining and visually solid, but a missed opportunity as a stand-alone issue or as a supplement to the regular series.

Rating: 7/10

Final Thoughts: As a single issue, this is one of the better issues of late if for no other reason than Wonder Woman is the central figure throughout, a quality that has been missing in the regular series of late. But as an annual, the story was fairly sparse despite the extra pages. The artwork helped the book along, but as it was it was a confusing use of a special issue.