Review: Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 2- War and Peace
Quick Summary
Pros: The chapters presented here are some of the best from the Superman: Doomed event. Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship is portrayed wonderfully here. The artwork is beautiful.
Cons: The way the story is collected here is terrible, especially at the very end. The Futures End tie-in is lackluster.
Overall: In this collection, readers will find some of the most action packed and well written moments from a massive crossover event. These moments present Superman and Wonder Woman at their finest and show how the two maintain a relationship even when the fate of the world is at stake. However, the structure of this event causes some major confusion and ultimately leaves the end of the crossover completely unexplained. This is not a book for people who have not already read Superman: Doomed, unless they truly only care about the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman.
Review Notes
It is worth noting that the majority of this collection is only a small part of a much larger crossover. The full crossover is collected in Superman: Doomed (our review of which can be found here). Reading this book on its own is possible, but the experience will be significantly fragmented. See our Superman: Doomed timeline here for more information about how to read this event.
Story
Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 2: War and Peace, by Charles Soule, starts out with a number of crossover issues from the Superman: Doomed (Review) event and ends with two tie-in issues for the Futures End event. For these reasons, this is a volume that is heavily reliant on other books to make sense and is not something that reads well on its own. The collection tries to explain what readers missed between issues, but the jumps are too significant, especially near the end.
However, if readers are able to overlook this flaw, they will be happy to see that the issues collected here are some of the best from the event. They focus in on Superman and Wonder Woman’s connection and show how important it is to both of them. They are also filled with action from Superman and intense strategy from Wonder Woman. This makes War and Peace a collection for those who have already read Doomed (Review) or for those who really only care about the heroes’ relationship and do not care about the conclusion to Doomed (Review).
(spoilers start here)
The Superman: Doomed (Review) crossover issues collected here are some of the best of the event. Readers get to see Superman’s expulsion from Earth, his run in with the Red Lanterns, and one of the most epic stages of Brainiac’s invasion. This means that there are some fantastic battles to see here and plenty of action overall. One of these battles is also one of the best moments in this entire storyline: Wonder Woman commandeering Warworld and using it in an insane attack on Brainiac’s headquarters. It is fun to watch play out and also shows how awesome Wonder Woman can be.
Apart from the action, the highlight here is the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman. After the couple’s initial altercation, Superman forces Wonder Woman to promise to kill him if he gets too out of control. Seeing the two balance duty with love is interesting and provides a dynamic that is unique but still relatable. It also shows the extent these two care about both each other and the planet they protect.
As stated earlier, the biggest problem with these Superman: Doomed (Review) crossover issues is that they present a poor snapshot of the event as a whole. War and Peace tries to smooth the transition from between jumps by starting each chapter with a brief summary of what readers missed. This is not ideal, but is passable for the most part. That is, until the end. The last main issue of Doomed (Review) ends on a massive cliffhanger but the next issue simply starts the event’s epilogue with absolutely no explanation as to what happened in the event’s conclusion. For those going into this book without reading the whole event, this will make no sense and will provide a completely unsatisfactory conclusion to an otherwise entertaining story.
This collection also contains two Futures End tie-in issues. These are two issues that are wonderful in regards to concept but poor in regards to story. Seeing Wonder Woman convene with generals and soldiers from across history is great and shows that she can be both a loving caretaker and a merciless strategist. It also is fitting that she ends up as God of Peace by the arc’s end. However, the actual story here is not that entertaining. It starts with some promise but then shakes things up right when they start to get interesting and, in doing so, completely invalidates the first half of the story. This is a unique snapshot of Wonder Woman but an ultimately average arc in regards to entertainment.
(spoilers end here)
Art
Much like the story, the artwork in this volume ends up being some of the best from the entire Superman: Doomed event. Tony S. Daniel presents a Superman and Wonder Woman who are equal parts strong and beautiful. Daniel also excels at drawing monstrous beings, so Superdoom looks better here than anywhere else. Even in the chapters not drawn by Daniel, artists like Jack Herbert, Paulo Siqueira, and Pascal Alixe do a fantastic job at mimicking his style. This helps in keeping consistency and also just looks great in general.
The collection ends with two Futures End tie in issues, drawn by Rags Morales and Bart Sears. These issues are not bad but do not look nearly as good as the rest of the collection. Bold lines and extensive use of shadows help make the heroes look older, but also have the added effect of making everyone else just look strange. This portion of the book is average at best, but is so short that it does not have much of an effect on readers’ overall enjoyment.
Continuity
Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 2: War and Peace continues the story started in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Power Couple (Review) and references the events in this book multiple times. However, the majority of this volume is a massive crossover with multiple series that come together to form the Superman: Doomed (Review) event. For more details about how this works see our Superman: Doomed timeline here.
The story here continues in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 3: Casualties of War (Review).
This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:
- The entire premise of this story relies heavily on Brainiac’s invasion of Earth back in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- Wonder Woman’s status as god of war is something she obtained in Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War.
- Lois Lane’s connection to the Collector started in Superman Vol. 4: Psi War (Review).
- Superman mentions Wonder Woman’s troubles with the First Born. The First Born makes his initial appearance in Wonder Woman Vol. 3: Iron (Review) but doesn’t start troubling Wonder Woman until Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War.
- Superman’s fight with Mongul is brought up a few times. This fight is chronicled in Batman/Superman Vol. 2: Game Over (Review).
- Sergeant John Corben’s past with Superman and Brainiac is brought up. This past is detailed in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- Supergirl’s involvement with the Red Lantern Corps begins and ends in Supergirl Vol. 5: Red Daughter of Krypton.
- Swamp Thing mentions Superman giving him advice in the past. This happened in Swamp Thing Vol. 4: Seeder.
- The end of this collection is a tie-in with the Futures End event.