Review: Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 5- A Savage End

Quick Summary

Pros: The stories here are emotional and really get to the core of Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship. Aspects of this relationship end up being heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

Cons: Some portions of the book are not that interesting outside of the relationship aspects. The crossover event is not collected well here, one story doesn’t even contain the story’s ending.

Overall: The final volume of this series is, appropriately, a nostalgic one. The focus here, outside of the messy crossover events, is on Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship and how it has affected them throughout their lives as heroes. This means that this volume will play out well for fans who are fully invested in this duo’s relationship but may not be as entertaining for those who have not.

Review Notes

Though the first story in this volume is independent, the rest of the collection is comprised of two large crossovers. The first crossover is fully collected in Superman: Savage Dawn (our review of which can be found here). The second crossover is fully collected in Superman: The Final Days of Superman (our review of which can be found here). Reading the crossovers here is possible, but the experience will be fragmented. See our Savage Dawn reading order here and our Final Days of Superman reading order here for more information about how to read this event.

Story

Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 5: A Savage End, by Peter J. Tomasi, ends up being somewhat of a love letter to the fans of the Superman/Wonder Woman dynamic. It plays heavily on emotions and shows pieces from the heroes’ relationship that we have never seen before. However, some portions of the story are not that interesting, outside of the relationship drama, and the two crossover events are not collected well. These positives and negatives make for a volume that longtime readers will probably appreciate but new readers will probably not.

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The volume opens with an Annual that is effectively a compressed history of Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship. Here we see brief snapshots from the duo’s relationship that range from its beginning to what is implied to be the end. Having these moments presented back to back is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, all in the span of a few pages. It is also a great introduction to their relationship for new readers and a bittersweet farewell to it for older readers.

From here the collection transitions into collecting pieces of the Savage Dawn crossover event. Though the portions contained here are decently entertaining and full of intense flashes of action, the fragmented nature of the storytelling makes it pretty hard to appreciate what is going on here. It feels like major events are being missed here and the summaries only do the bare minimum in describing them. The event itself is alright (as seen in our review of the entire story) but it simply does not read well when presented in this format. In fact, out of all the volumes which collect pieces of this event, A Savage End does it the worse.

The Final Days of Superman (Review) portion of the book also reads in a similar manner. It is fun and the pieces presented here feel more relevant to the story, but it still feels entirely to choppy to be great on its own. It doesn’t help that the end of this storyline is not shown or summarized in this volume. Simply put, just reading the portions of the crossovers collected here does not make for a great read.

The volume closes with two additional chapters meant to take place between Savage Dawn (Review) and The Final Days of Superman (Review). These chapters are emotional and do a great job of digging into Wonder Woman’s perspective of these events, something not shown nearly enough during the events themselves. However, they also regurgitate a lot of older material and feel a bit cheaper because of this. Overall, these are chapters that big fans of the Superman/Wonder Woman dynamic will appreciate but are not fantastic story pieces in their own right.

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Art

The majority of this volume is drawn by artist Doug Mahnke, whose art we have given plenty of praise in the past. His work in this volume is no different, as he brings a great level of detail and structure to every page he works on. In particular, his gritty and realistic take on the characters matches the somewhat dark nature of the Savage Dawn (Review) crossover and really helps to enhance the chapters from that event.

The rest of the collection is done by a wider selection of talent. Artists like Marco Santucci, Ed Benes, Jorge Jimenez, and Giuseppe Cafaro all provide at least an issue that is collected here. While all of these artists do good work and some of them even do great work, like Ed Benes and Jorge Jimenez, the inconsistent quality of the visuals is a bit of a negative for the work as a whole. This is not a major negative, it is just a small detail that could have helped the collection if it were fixed.

Continuity

Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 5: A Savage End continues the story from Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 4: Dark Truth (Review). However, the vast majority of this volume involves the Superman: Savage Dawn (Review) and the Superman: The Final Days of Superman (Review) crossover events. For more details about how these crossovers work see our reading order for Savage Dawn here and Final Days of Superman here.

The Superman/Wonder Woman series ends in this volume and has not ever continued, as of this day.

This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• Wonder Woman’s role as God of War was established back in Wonder Woman Vol. 4: War.
• Superman’s lack of powers and exposed secret identity are the results of actions taken in Superman Vol. 1: Before Truth (Review)
• Strife references Hell’s battle with the First Born from the very beginning of Wonder Woman Vol. 6: Bones.
• The Fortress of Solitude’s inability to recognize Superman is explained at the beginning of Action Comics Vol. 8: Truth (Review).
• Superman’s fight with Ulysses and the origin of his solar flair ability come from the end of Superman: The Men of Tomorrow (Review).
• The Superman seen at the end of this collection originally appeared in Convergence but his background in this universe is detailed in Superman: Lois and Clark (Review).
• Supergirl began to lose her powers at the very end of Supergirl Vol. 6: Crucible.
• The final chapter, in this volume, references a number of different events from Superman and Wonder Woman’s past. These include:
  • Their first meeting in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
  • Their first kiss in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).
  • Batman commenting on their relationship in Justice League #19, collected in Justice League Vol. 4: The Grid (Review).
  • Batman showing Superman his contingency plans in Justice League #20, collected in Justice League Vol. 4: The Grid (Review).
• The three things killing Superman are also shown on the book’s penultimate page. These include:
  • Superman being imprisoned in Kryptonite back in Superman: Savage Dawn (Review) (Reading Order). This story could also be found in Action Comics Vol. 9: Last Rites.
  • Superman being thrown into the pits of Apokolips back in Justice League Vol. 7: Darkseid War Part 1 (Review).
  • Superman’s fight with Rao in Justice League: Power and Glory (Review).