Wonder Woman #764 // Review
Dangerous tech has been appearing on the market. Diana has dealt with this sort of thing before. Back in 1993, she had to pull herself out of a black hole near a fast-food restaurant in Boston due to an errant singularity gun from S.T.A.R. Labs. A couple of decades later, Wonder Woman #764 finds Diana in a different life, accompanying Maxwell Lord on a hunt for his lost tech in sunny Miami. Writer Mariko Tamaki is aided by artist Steve Pugh in a story of uneasy alliances between altruism and something else. Pugh's art may fail to render a great deal of sophistication into the story, but Tamaki's story is a fun action encounter on the beach.
Maxwell Lord doesn't like Miami. He doesn't like being babysat either. Someone has stolen his technology, which he feels is his own business. He doesn't appreciate officially appointed help from "a member of the damn Justice League." Diana and Max have come to the beach to confront a man who has come into possession of supervillain-level military-grade. Naturally, there will be issues that will invariably involve an invasion that will make a beach in Miami look like something out of an awful James Cameron film. Diana has to act quickly and call for help if she's going to be able to keep everyone safe.
After giving her quite a bit of time in Boston, Tamaki gives Wonder Woman a work vacation in Miami. It's a fun idea, but aside from the beach scene, there isn't much time for local flavor. Tamaki spends a bit of time on humor involving Max Lord being mistaken for a famous actor, but the issue is mostly action. It's all business with a few twinges of appealing dialogue and a rather strange moment in which Diana makes an Aquaman impression for the sake of wrapping everything up in Miami in a single issue. There's even a few moments for a bit of peaceful reflection at issue's end.
Though there ARE a few palm trees here and there around the panels' corners, Pugh doesn't have enough space to explore Miami. Once the encounter sets-in, Pugh hauls action across the page with respectable energy. There's a real sense of danger, but the full scope of things is lost in the resolution of the action. The conclusion isn't nearly as satisfying as it needs to be. Tamaki hands Pugh a real challenge in bringing the action to its conclusion. A tremendous amount of energy is piled into a single burst of action that's meant to close-out the encounter. It works well enough, but it's far from satisfying.
Tamaki is expanding Diana a bit here. She's given an opportunity to be on vacation, which is a nice contrast from the daily life Tamaki has brought to the page for Diana in recent issues. The serene moment at issue's end is a nice contrast to the action which precedes it. Tamaki is working with a nice balance in this issue, but it doesn't settle onto the page very well. The flow from page to page lacks enough grace to feel as distinct as a trip to Miami should have.
