Wonder Woman learns about margaritas, the Flash plays truant agent as darkness creeps in and the Birds of Prey learn about Huntress’ past in today’s edition.
Wonder Woman 10
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Nicola Scott
Rucka continues to tell the updated, expanded origin of how Diana came to man’s world, as Barbara Ann Minerva, Etta Candy and Steve Trevor bring Wonder Woman to the mall. The goal is to get her out of the military facility where she’s been holed up and into the world to get her to acclimate to her new surroundings away from Paradise Island.
The outing, for the most part, proves to be a successful endeavor, as the group begins to learn more about Diana’s newly-granted abilities. Since Diana doesn’t speak English yet, Minerva translates as Steve Trevor acts like a lovesick puppy asking what she said. The group has a breakthrough, though, when they each grab hold of Diana’s lasso.
The weird part is that they didn’t try to outfit her in something other than her costume. An Amazon walking around the mall in a red and yellow bustier and boots and a blue skirt isn’t exactly blending in to the crowd. But maybe it makes more sense when they’re all sitting having drinks, teaching Diana about margaritas.
The party is broken up when a group of shooters attack the mall and start killing people and Trevor and Diana leap into action to stop the terrorists. Wonder Woman gets to test out the gifts her patrons granted her, deflecting bullets with her bracelets and stopping a grenade with her bare hands.
Rucka is getting back into the groove writing Wonder Woman and his “Year One” story finally feels like it’s building to something special, which is good because it took him way too long to get to that point.
The Flash 10
Written by Joshua Williamson
Pencils by Felipe Watanabe
Inks by Oclair Albert
The Flash may have taken down Godspeed and reunited with the original Wally West, but he’s always got a new challenge running up on the horizon. Only now it’s not really a villain, it’s training the younger Wally West, the new Kid Flash, and making sure he slows down a bit to learn the finer points of being a superhero. But Kid Flash has different ideas, upset that Flash won’t reveal his true identity and he’s too impulsive to follow through on the lessons his new mentor has to impart.
Wally the younger faces off against two supervillains, and both times he proves he may not be completely ready for the big time by making some mistakes. The first confrontation, against a newcomer named Papercut – yes, his supervillain code name is Papercut… I guess everyone DOES hate a paper cut – gets taken care of when Barry Allen manages to lose Wally’s aunt Iris and changed into his Flash outfit. But he ends the issue running into The Shade, a classic Flash villain making his Rebirth return, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to go very well.
The Shade Kid Flash confronts is definitely tied to the old grim ‘n gritty comic book era…
Maybe a bit too on the nose…
Batgirl and the Birds of Prey 4
Written by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson
Art by Roge Antonio
As the search for the new, evil Oracle continues, we get a history lesson about Helena Bertinelli’s family and how she came to seek out vengeance against the rival family that killed her father, mother and brother. In telling the story of her family’s downfall, she realizes that she doesn’t need to lose a second family. So instead of blowing off her new team, she joins them in trying to take down the bad guys. It helps that their interests seem to keep intersecting.
The story was a bit of a disappointment, though, as a read of the solicitation text promised that Huntress, Batgirl and Black Canary would come face-to-face with the new Oracle. While they found the villain’s headquarters, they didn’t find Oracle. Instead, they found robotic dopplegangers of Batman rogues like Catwoman who meows instead of purrs and a Penguin who says quack. They also find a shrine to Barbara Gordon and Batgirl. This guy (or girl) might have some issues.Maybe we’ll find out what those are next month.
Regardless, the interplay between the Birds continues to feel fresh and Julie and Shawna Benson make sure the three women are written like actual people. I look forward to the book every month, and I hope they don’t drag out the reveal of who the new Oracle is too long.