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COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews Superman/Wonder Woman #3

December 12th, 2013 by Irwin Fletcher Comments

Written by Charles Soule

Art by Tony S. Daniel

Published by DC Comics

Issue #2 of Superman/Wonder Woman left us with General Zod standing alone, having crash-landed on Earth. In my mind this automatically spelled bad news, but then I realized that this is technically the first time Supes and Zod are meeting because of the New 52. Very much in the same vein as Man of Steel, once Zod is exposed to our yellow sun, his powers spike exponentially leaving him angry and confused. He makes quick work of a native man and is thrust into battle with the JLA, also making quick work of them. While this is going on, Clark is still dealing with the blast of energy he received from Apollo in the last issue and he’s frightened that he’s seen what he’s truly capable of. Not to worry readers! As always, Batman saves the day by talking him down and pointing him in Zod’s direction.

One of my favorite things about this series so far is that Charles Soule has treated the Supes/WW relationship more like a team-up at times than a romance. Even though that illusion is broken up at the end of this issue I found myself loving this issue even more than the previous two because he finally brought in the rest of the DCU into this series. While it was great to see Zod kicking some serious ass, the best moments come when Clark and Bruce are going back and forth. Soule really gets the duality between the two characters. Batman is the Yin to Superman’s Yang and that’s why their partnership has always worked as well as it has; some writers don’t do this well displaying that important dynamic to their friendship though; so I can look past the passionate kiss that Supes/WW at the very end of the book.

How terrific is Tony S. Daniel’s art in this series?! He’s dealing with some really heavy hitters (literally) in the DCU in this issue and he couldn’t have pulled it off more beautifully. The true star of the art has to be the panels upon panels of action that we’re given. With all of this action it would be easy to look past the great human emotion he displays though. Clark is going through some major stuff in his life and the art shows that he’s shaken down to his very core until Bruce talks him through it. Even Zod has his moments here too. He looks genuinely concerned when he crashes into Earth and you can definitely tell the landing knocked a screw loose. (Having him paint the blood on his face was a brilliant touch!)

This is a series that more people should be paying attention to. As I said before, it might be titled Superman/Wonder Woman, but their relationship feels like a secondary plotline as opposed to the book focusing most of the attention on the romance like I thought it would. Charles Soule and his amazing creative team showed me that my faith in them was well placed though! In a world of superheroes and gods, they’ve managed to make it seem more real than a lot of comics I’ve read because of their attention to detail when it comes to the great character moments happening everywhere. For that, I give this issue:

4.5 out of 5 nerds

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.