Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #9 // Review
The classic introduction to nearly every golden age Wonder Woman adventure had identified the four pillars of her strength, likening them to Greek gods' powers. Her strength and swiftness are easy to showcase in any action comic. She is also as beautiful as Aphrodite and as wise as Athena. Given the nature of an action-based comic book, it can be challenging to give beauty or wisdom to the center of the page in a Wonder Woman story. With DC Digital's Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #9, writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner cleverly construct an issue-length story around both of these powers in an emotionally stirring action drama drawn by Hendry Prasetya and color by Hi-Fi. Wonder Woman is a character of such great potential. In 16 pages, Palmiotti and Conner make living-up to that potential look easy.
It's like something out of a Terminator movie. Wonder Woman opens the issue fighting robotic skeletons with glowing red eyes. She doesn't know why she's fighting them. Maybe it has something to do with a criminal she pushed out of international waters a decade ago. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's a fight taking place in a mansion that was willed to her by a stranger who also bequeathed to her 500 million dollars. The mystery is going to pull her out of harm's way and into a place that's far murkier than some killer robot-infested mansion.
Palmiotti and Conner bring back some of the charmingly clever sense of humor that occasionally echoes through the character in a story narrated by Wonder Woman herself. There's clever subtlety and sophistication in the way that Wonder Woman expresses herself. "You and I need to have a nice, long talk," Diana says to her antagonist. Her antagonist's reply: "You can't make me." Diana calmly responds, "Yes. Actually, I can. But I'd rather you come along peacefully." It's cleverly subtle stuff. Palmiotti and Conner also openly embrace Wonder Woman's sense of compassion in a thoroughly satisfying way. There's an intellect behind that compassion that makes for a thoroughly entertaining issue.
Prasetya has shown a talent for bringing beautiful heroines and stylish mecha to the page, so he's a natural fit for a story that features Wonder Woman fighting evil robots. He also has a striking command of both beauty and aggression in an action-drama that comes to the page with straightforward style and poise. In action and drama, Wonder Woman carries herself quite heroically under Prasetya's pen. There's a sense of power about her. Tastefully dressed as Diana, she has a far more understated poise. Prasetya manages to do this without making Diana seem like an entirely different woman, which speaks to a stunning sense of detail that echoes throughout the entire panel, including beautiful photo-realistic backdrops that are enhanced with impressive depth by the colors of Hi-Fi.
Agent of Peace has been an exciting opportunity to see Diana from a variety of different angles from many different writers and artists. Still, an issue like this makes a very, very strong case for Palmiotti and Conner being given the reigns of a full-fledged Wonder Woman series. They have a solid understanding of what has made the character so very, very appealing for well over 75 years.
