Wonder Woman #760: “I Hope Nothing Terrible Happens Tomorrow”

All abord the hype train as it leaves the station and please keep all hands inside the vehicle until a full and complete stop! This new era of Wonder Woman is the best book DC Comics is currently publishing and in my opinion, it isn’t even a close competition. The story is sharp and there is an obvious synergy between Janin and Tamaki in terms of narrative construction at work here. The return of Maxwell Lord to the DC Universe is terrifyingly portrayed, particularly since it isn’t yet clear if he is indeed the larger threat at work in these pages. The notion of mind-control and the interplay between it and larger notions of rhetoric and discourse seems timely and important in a Presidential Election year for the US, even if that metacommentary isn’t necessarily intentional here.

Because the craftsmanship at play in this young run is executed at such a high level, I plan on looking at a different specific element each issue. One of the most striking elements this month was the dialgoue. Diana’s dialogue fluctuated in voice and pacing depending on who she was talking to in any given scene. We see short, curt and to the point when speaking to Lord versus a more relaxed pacing when chatting with her new neighbor, Emma. Emma’s dialogue in particular was incredibly natural and rhythmic in its colloquial flow, a feat in no small part carried by letterer Pat Brosseau. Often lost in the analysis of dialogue is the role played by word bubble design and placement as well as choice in punctuation placement. A carefully placed period over a comma can make a major difference in tone even if the move itself is incredibly subtle and Brosseau does a masterful job in this issue of controlling the pacing for each character in different ways.