Wonder Woman #25
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Goran Sudžuka
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Review by Patrick Brennan
Issues like these always get to me. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you’re reading a story and you start to realize that something bad is going to happen? That feeling that starts off like a light hiss in the back of your head, but starts to get louder and louder until you’re practically screaming at the pages in a futile attempt to warn your favorite characters of the obvious doom that is hot on their unknowing heels? Yeah, well, welcome to Wonder Woman # 25.
The plots against Diana are coming from all sides in this issue. We find Casandra’s plan chuging along on its dastardly path after kidnapping Milan, while Strife throws in her own secret scheme to destroy Wonder Woman and her friends. Meanwhile, Apollo continues to taunt and torture his brother the First Son, which obviously won’t come back to bite him in the ass anytime soon, right?
Wonder Woman #25 showcases many of the elements that have made Brian Azzarello’s run such a joy to read so far. There are some wonderfully spot-on bits of comedy is this issue, with sass being thrown around like it’s going out of style (“I’m sorry I…tore your jacket.”). At one point we get a nice bit of character development in the form of some deeper insight into Hera and her change of heart after becoming mortal. And, as usual, we get a little action to boot, this time in the way of Orion and Hermes having a little tiff.
However, what really stands out in Wonder Woman #25 are the darker moments involving Apollo and Dio. I don’t think we’ve seen this level of sadistic cruelty from the Sun God (or from any other character for that matter) in this book yet, and rarely has a comic ever made me shudder this hard. Props to Goran Sudžuka for making the scene look as skin-crawlingly creeptastic as possible.
Verdict:
Buy this book. Wonder Woman #25 is another great installment in the adventures of our favorite rump-kicking Amazon, featuring some solid character performances, a good balance between dark and light moments, and a genuine sense of suspense that will have you on the edge of whatever surface you happen to be sitting upon.
