Ricky Church reviews Wonder Woman #15…
“THE TRUTH” part one! Diana has finally seen the full scope of how her life and history have been transformed…unfortunately, the knowledge has driven her completely insane!
A new arc has started in Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman that explores the fallout of her discovery in Wonder Woman #11 and #13 as Rucka delves into her shattered psyche. ‘The Truth’ continues on from the major revelation that Diana has never actually been back to Themyscira since she left, calling into question many of her experiences as Wonder Woman.
While Wonder Woman #15 spent most of its time building off of recent events to set up the arc’s future, it still delivered an intriguing story by shining a light on Diana’s mental state. This was a perfect blend of Rucka’s writing with Liam Sharp’s artwork, literally fracturing the pages to emphasize just how bad a place Diana is in right now. It was very cool to see much of Sharp’s and Nicola Scott’s art from the series so far peppered through that two-page splash near the beginning of the issue.
One of the other great aspects of this issue was how the villains got time to shine. Veronica Cale gets a little more time in this issue, though what her motives are beyond finding Wonder Woman and the location of Themyscira isn’t known yet, though it seems like Ares or Hades is somehow involved based on her choice of pets. Rucka presents her as cold and calculating, seemingly everything Wonder Woman is not. Its been great to see her return to the DC universe and is apt Rucka is the one to have brought her back.
I spoke briefly about Sharp’s artwork on the beginning splash page, but this issue looks fantastic from start to finish. He may have delivered his best-looking Wonder Woman yet with his detailed facial work and body language. Though Diana says absolutely nothing in the entire issue, its clear from Sharp’s work what is going through her head. He even adds to Cale’s deviousness by putting just a hint of a smirk on her face. An added bonus is how he takes Nicola Scott’s depictions of Hippolyta and some of the other Amazonians and adepts them to his style while retaining Scott’s look.
Sharp’s real standout moment, however, comes about halfway through the issue in yet another splash page as we travel through Diana’s shattered psyche, giving a couple hints as to what the snakebites on her arm are. The layout of this page is actually reminiscent of Yanick Paquette’s in the recent Wonder Woman: Earth One graphic novel, though again Sharp makes it his own. Laura Martin’s colours also make his art pop off the page, adding a great amount of vibrancy to each panel whether it be Themyscira or Dr. Minerva’s gungy apartment.
This team continues to knock it out of the park with Wonder Woman #15 with Sharp’s artwork being the best aspect of it. Combined with Martin’s colours, its just too beautiful of a book to pass up. Rucka’s character work and careful story structure really add to this being more than just a simple superhero adventure tale, making this one of the best titles currently on the shelves.
Rating: 9/10
Ricky Church
Originally published January 28, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
