Wonder Woman #10: Conquering The Gauntlet… Hell Yeah

Wonder Woman #10 picks up with Diana waking up on a seemingly deserted island as the second arc of the series concludes. It turns out that Cheetah is trapped on this island as well, leading to a bloody brawl between the two sworn enemies. Meanwhile, the Wonder Girls do their best to catch up to Diana, refusing to let her fight this battle alone. As their arc comes to a close, the issue tops off with another tale of Wonder Woman’s future daughter, Trinity, who is attempting to fly a kite while the Super Sons bicker in the background. Overall, this is another solid issue of the stellar Wonder Woman series that seeks to define the titular character’s place within the overall DC universe.

Tom King does a fantastic job staying on target with his overall goals for the series. King has spoken on several occasions about Wonder Woman, saying that his overall goal is to show how amazing the hero is, and how this pillar of the DC universe differs from the likes of Batman and Superman. What ensued was the gauntlet, seeing Wonder Woman face insurmountable odds, almost like her own version of The Killing Joke. How much can the hero go through before she absolutely snaps and unleashes the full might of her abilities? Wonder Woman #10 reveals that the stoic, empowered, passionate presence that she puts forward often hides the rage and sadness she feels as the world she has grown to love is turned against her. The realism identified within the goddesses personality really resonates, giving a true image of the actual character behind the fancy tiara and bulletproof bracers.

Daniel Sampere’s art continues to be outstanding, with this issue focusing a lot on Wonder Woman’s fight with Cheetah. As described in the issue, this fight goes on for much longer than the typical super hero brawl, and Sampere really sells it as such. There is something special about how much detail Sampere puts in every panel, highlighting the action in a way that is unbecoming. Tomeu Morey’s colors play a big part in this, highlighting the passing of time with the sun moving across the sky leading into night time. This battle may not be as physically intense as the conclusion to the previous arc, but the personal nature of it sells wonderfully.

Sampere also straddles the impossible task of drawing the invisible jet wonderfully. Some interpretations have inserted semi-translucent structures into the panels that are for the readers benefit only, but Sampere sticks with maintaining its full invisibility, even as the Wonder Girls are sitting inside. While King plays with these moments for humor to break up the more dramatic parts of the narrative, Sampere truly embraces his task, even when a character looks absolutely unnatural since the object they are interacting with is seemingly not there. This allows Sampere to depict characters sitting in mid air or leaning on nothing, all while making it feel different from when character’s like Superman perform the same feats because of their flight abilities. Just the poses of the characters alone show how intricate this process was and how dedicated Sampere was to selling this ridiculous concept. Overall, Sampere kills it yet again on the art.

Getting into the backup, Trinity shines once again as one of the most endearing new characters in recent memory. Seeing random snapshots in her life as she is cared for by the Super Sons really helps paint an image of who she is as a character, solidifying who this character will become after she is fully introduced into today’s modern continuity. This segment follows her attempts to fly a kite, something that sparks a debate amongst Superman and Robin, who cannot agree on the best approach to help her.

The debate comes from Robin’s cynical take which results in him telling Trinity the tale of Sisyphus and his plight/punishment as he attempts to push a boulder up a hill everyday while Superman wants to make Trinity believe that anything is possible. While this is all played for laughs, King and Belen Ortega’s backup really helps highlight the multitude of personalities and experiences that will make Trinity into the character she will grow up to be. In the end, King sneaks in a cameo from one of his popular side characters from his Batman run, something that will put a smile on even the most dramatic of fans.