As much as I enjoy team books, part of the reason that I think solo books fare better is the character development that can occur through their individual struggle. That being said, I do enjoy the team-ups and one of the series that I’ve enjoyed more than I thought I would has been the Superman/Wonder Woman series. In the New 52, these two characters are in a relationship together and it makes for some pretty interesting interactions. Let’s see how this novel did!
‘Casualties of War’ starts with a flashback to the first time the Justice League come together to fight the forces of Darkseid. We see the initial interactions between Superman and Wonder Woman. Clearly, she is impressed with how strong he is, however, his only concern is the safety of the people. Cut to present day and Diana questions Clark on why he writes and the point of the stories he tells. She gets impatient given that he’s holding up their date night. However, when they finally do go out, their date is cut short as two villains, Atomic Skull and Major Disaster are wreaking havoc on the city. The two heroes go out to face this combined threat but are hastily dispatched by the chaotic pair. Luckily for them, a new hero, named Wonderstar, interjects and saves Clark and Diana. He appears keen to learn how to be a hero and the two decide that they will help him, whilst monitoring his powers. This is because Wonderstar doesn’t particularly know who he is, and where he got these powers from. Despite a successful mission with Superman and Wonder Woman, Wonderstar begins to have issues, when he hears voices in his head. Lo and behold, he turns evil, going by the name, Magog. Whilst the two heroes attempt to bring him down, they learn who is behind this plot and the villain responsible for giving Magog his powers; Circe. Circe has an ancient history with Diana’s mother, Hippolyta, and has come to destroy her and Superman as revenge. Although powerful on their own, and even more so together, how will these two heroes fare against the magic of Circe? And just where does Magog fit into all of this?
Now the first two novels in this series had Clark and Diana fighting Gods and monsters who had physical strength. This is probably the first time we’ve seen them face a magic-user together, and especially one as powerful as Circe. I thought it was interesting to see the differences in their opinions on how to deal with different crises and the novel does well to distinguish the two. We see a little bit of tension between our heroes as it appears their ideals do differ. People are always quick to contrast Superman and Batman, but often they forget where Wonder Woman fits into that classification. Diana represents truth in its purest form, and sometimes that means being blunt about what the mission should be. Seeing Clark deal with that whilst trying to show her a different way, was probably the highlight of the novel. I can’t not mention the villains, especially Circe who I do think would be an excellent adversary for Diana in the third Wonder Woman film!
The artwork was excellent as always, and this series has been pretty impressive on that front. The covers were also very very good and it was tough picking one for this review. Overall, I think this series has been pretty underrated and I’ve kinda enjoyed every novel so far. Only two left in this entire series, so I ‘wonder’ if it could have a perfect run! Haha!
Favourite Panel:
This is such an interesting panel given the motivations of these two characters.
Favourite Character:
Superman in this novel is an interesting read. He’s highly intense in certain moments about his ideals and we forget he has that side to him!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★½
Character Development: ★★★★½
Artwork: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★½
Re-readability: ★★★
Level: Intermediate