Review: Wonder Woman Vol. 5- Heart of the Amazon

December 1, 2020 ComicBookWire

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is exciting. There are a few gems among the short stories at the end of the volume.

Cons: The main storyline feels too segmented and never develops enough traction. A few of the short stories are just alright. The artwork ends up just being average.

Overall: This is an alright volume that fails to seriously impress or disappoint. The story is solid at points but never really turns into something seriously worthwhile. The art has similar problems, in that it looks nice in places but doesn’t in others. Readers interested in a straightforward and mostly standalone Wonder Woman story may enjoy this book but it definitely isn’t for everyone.

Story

Wonder Woman Vol. 5: Heart of the Amazon, by Shea Fontana, is a pretty average Wonder Woman volume. The main storyline is filled with moderately exciting bursts of action and some worthwhile ideas. However, it never gains enough traction to become seriously compelling and ends up feeling like a series of only partially worthwhile conflicts. The volume’s conclusion has a similar problem in that it contains a variety of short stories that are mostly good but not good enough to be worthwhile on their own.

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The main storyline in Heart of the Amazon has its fair share of action and drama. The volume starts with Wonder Woman saving a wedding from a bomb, develops into a fight with supervillains, then develops into a larger fight with even more supervillains, and, finally, concludes with a showdown against the big bad and his powerful henchmen. The conflicts here are moderately exciting and the variation between them keeps each one fresh. Alongside all of this, the main storyline has some positive messaging about real world issues.

However, some of the story’s main advantages can also be disadvantages. The fact that each chapter has Wonder Woman facing off against and conquering a new threat diminishes the intensity of each encounter. It becomes hard to get excited about a new battle against a new enemy when you’re well aware that this battle will likely be as simple for Wonder Woman to overcome as the line of battles before it. In a similar way, the meaningful messaging behind the encounters is diminished by the number of messages. For example, the volume makes a great statement about valuing the spirit of an individual and makes valid criticisms against the military industrial complex yet does not take the time to flesh out these messages. This leaves the volume with some flash, excitement, and lofty ideals but prevents it from going very far with any of these points.

The rest of Heart of the Amazon consists of shorter stories featuring Wonder Woman or her allies. These end up being pretty mixed and don’t seriously improve or damage the overall quality of the volume. The Steve Trevor story is interesting but feels like a simple prelude to something larger, rather than a worthwhile story on its own. Meanwhile, the King Shark story and the “Curse” story fare better but aren’t long enough to form a significant portion of this volume.

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Art

The quality of the artwork in Heart of the Amazon is similar to the quality of the storytelling in that it ends up being just average. I really enjoy how crisp, clean, and stylized Mirka Andolfo’s work looks and think it looks particularly good paired with Romulo Fajardo, Jr.’s colors. However, there are also places where the level of detail is a bit disappointing and ends up making characters look a bit strange. Then, other artists take over for the rest of the main storyline and the quality ends up dropping slightly again. Luckily though, the quality jumps back up again at the end, particularly in the story from Stephanie Hans, yet these chapters form only a small portion of the book as a whole. This mix of positives and negatives ends up mostly evening out and leaving the overall quality looking average.