Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Liam Sharp
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Jodi Wynne
Publisher: DC Comics

 

Story

“The Lies: Part Four” has Wonder Woman and Cheetah teaming up to take down the demonic god Urzkartaga that granted Cheetah her powers in the first place.With the help of Steve Trevor’s team, they’re able to rescue all the captured daughters of all the nearby villages, but no sign of Steve anywhere. They tell Wonder Woman they’re here to stop a warlord named Andres Cadulo who worships Urzkartaga and is offering Steve Trevor as a sacrifice. The question is, can she trust Cheetah not to betray her, or can Urzkartaga trust Cheetah not to betray him?

 

Thoughts

On paper (pun intended), this seems like the plot to pretty much every other Wonder Woman story: Wonder Woman has to save her Damsel in Distress Steve Trevor while taking down some evil god. Rinse, Repeat. However, if you look below the surface, there’s a hidden message in this story of magic and monsters. You may be familiar with Cheetah, but maybe not so much her backstory. Before she gained powers, she was actually one of Wonder Woman’s closest friends when she came to Man’s World. When she became the bride of Urzkaraga, her former best friend became her worst enemy.

Let me break this down for you. At the heart of this story, it’s about two women who are best friends that become enemies once a man enters the picture. One sees him as a god while the other sees him a demon. Wonder Woman decides to take the high road and stops fighting her friend to fight the REAL source of the problem: the abusive husband.

It becomes blatantly obvious with how Urzkartaga is regarded as the God of Masculinity and Potency. I doubt most people will catch the subtext of this story, but it’s there if you wish to see it. If not…well…you still get plenty of action about Wonder Woman beating up a jungle demon, so win/win for everyone. Plus, Wonder Woman seeing Steve for the first time Post-Rebirth…was kind of heart warming. Yeah I said it.

 

Verdict

This arc has really displayed what separates Wonder Woman from every other hero. Her fists aren’t her most powerful weapon, it’s truth. Cheetah actually has a more complicated relationship with Wonder Woman than the casual reader realizes, so it’ll be interesting in see where they go from here.

Writing: 4/5
Art: 4.5/5
Cover: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5

You can find Wonder Woman #7 here.

 

 

 

 

Guest review contributed by Outright Geekery. Outright Geekery’s writing team is a group of passionate comic book geeks writing about what they love most, and that passion shows in their content.