Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Wonder Woman #51 Review

Shoo Mayfly, Don't Bother Me

Written By: Steve Orlando
Art By: Laura Braga, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 25, 2018

It's time to check out what Steve Orlando has in store for us with his run on Wonder Woman for the time being and I'll tell ya, after everything we've gotten from him since Rebirth began........ I'm a little scared.  Really though, I don't have to catch you up on what happened in the last issue because this is a new run....... and because for some reason this issue picks up after issue #28........ I'm not kidding.  This issue is the continuation of Wonder Woman's one issue fight with Mayfly during Shea Fontana's short run on the book.  Oh lovely......... Let's see what we've got.

The weirdest part about this issue is that it feels like Steve Orlando has just finished up his entire run of the book and is now having a victory lap that a lot of writers like to have, where we just see that the hero of our book truly is a hero worth reading........ The only problem......... it's his first issue and because we sit around with Mayfly while she's in prison after her and Wonder Woman's confrontation in issue #28, where Wonder Woman just says nice things to Mayfly.......... which takes literal years within the book......... it's pretty fucking boring.

I'll tell ya, the art in this issue is nice to look at and is the only reason in my mind to pick this book up, unless you need to be reminded that Diana is a good person, but everything else is just so boring and over the top that I found myself counting the pages until it was over. 

Now, I know you're thinking to yourself........."how is it over the top if they're just sitting around and talking?"  Well, there's a lot of moments, but the big one that comes to mind that struck me as odd is that at one point Wonder Woman is distracted and instead of tying this issue into what we just had, where Jason sacrificed himself to save the day, Steve Orlando decides that Wonder Woman is distracted because he got word for Themyscira that her Aunt died.  That doesn't make any sense and it could have easily been avoided.  Overall, I didn't expect much from Steve Orlando on this book and in the end, I didn't get much so how angry can I really be?  It's just that I wanted to start liking Wonder Woman again and after reading this, it seems that I have to wait a while longer

Bits and Pieces:

While I love the art in this book, it's pretty much the only thing I love.  Unless you need to be reminded over and over again that Wonder Woman is a good person than there really isn't any reason to pick up this book.......... especially since it picks up after Wonder Woman #28......... such a strange choice.  



  1. Felt like this should have been an annual

  2. (Sorry. I deleted my earlier comment, because it was mostly unreadable. Try again...)

    I kind of liked this, but that's only because I was expecting it to be characteristically terrible from Orlando. That's not to say there aren't problems here. Mayfly opens up way too easily in that first meeting (shades of The Ray and Dreamslayer in JLA #3) and Orlando's penchant for throwing in random stuff that doesn't really mean anything is well and truly on display here. The future glimpses of Diana, for example, would be interesting but for the knowledge that none of them are likely to be followed up which makes them much less exciting. The relationship between Diana and Mayfly is reasonably well-drawn, though. (Not as big a compliment as it might appear. The relationship is the sole focus of the issue.) But, on the whole, you're right. It's not enough to sustain the issue and it does eventually become a bit boring.

    I notice that Orlando's choice to take a character from Shea Fontana's run is being touted on The Internet as evidence that Orlando is in some sense repudiating Robinson's run on the title. I don't know about that. Orlando doesn't strike me as being that snidey. This story is a nice idea, but I think it needed something more than Orlando's random nonsense. Tony's suggestion about it being in an annual is fair enough - although not for the whole thing. It could do with losing a few pages of 'story' ('incident' is probably a better word) and appearing as a back-up not the main feature. That art is lovely, though. 5.5 for me.

    (Diana using the word 'patriarchy' made me wince, although not as much as Inversion, The Inside-Out Man made me laugh. :))

  3. Someone who's totally not Dancing MikeJuly 27, 2018 at 2:25 PM

    This issue wasn't "Night of the Monster Men" bad; but it was pretty unremarkable. Nice art; but I knew as soon as they started numbering the visits, the issue would end on visit 52. So trite.
    I also want to remark on how much I love Eric's reviews! Eric Shea's wonderful reviews are undoubtedly the number one reason to visit the site!