Member Reviews

Rucka's return to Wonder Woman has been nothing but solid. Having said that, Godwatch does suffer a little for consisting of issues that ran before and after those in Vol. 3. By the time we trek back to this material, we already know where the story is going, which takes away some of the suspense. Still, it's another satisfying book, and Rucka's writing will definitely be missed until he can be coaxed back to the character.

Was this review helpful?

If you have not read the pervious 3 volumes of Wonder Woman, then volume 4 will make absolutely no sense. As someone who has read the previous 3 volumes, I still found it confusing up until issue #24.

We jump back to before the events for the first 3 volumes occur, and focus on how Barbra Ann becomes Cheetah and why Veronica Cale went about everything the way that she did. Since I was unable to figure this out for the first 4 issues, I was constantly asking myself “hasn’t this already taken place?”. Maybe I just was not with it when I read Godwatch but I do feel like Rucka could have easily made it clearer that we had gone back in time to before issue #1 occurred. Once I had figured this out though, everything made sense, I just wish that I had been able to enjoy the story the first time around, as once I had re-read it with this knowledge I found it to be much more enjoyable.

The art style again seems very hit-and-miss. I find it very hard to understand why over 24 issues the art style has not changed for the better. Whenever I read other reviews of Wonder Woman Rebirth, the constant complaint is that the art work just does not work. So at least it is not just me being fussy. I have no idea what I am not liking about it but I do hope that the art work is brought up to the quality of the story telling.

Whilst enjoyable, I wish that a more coherent and understandable story that draws me into it was utilised the first time round.

Was this review helpful?

This is just unreadable piffle of the highest order, and hardly even features WW to any great amount. A new low for the post-Rebirth WW books.

Was this review helpful?

Overall a pretty interesting arc for Wonder Woman. I definitely have been enjoying Rucka's run on the book, though I will say that I have been preferring his early WW stories to the present day ones. That said, this story was pretty compelling and had some creepy villains who do creepy things. Definitely a worthwhile read if you've been following the Rebirth Wonder Woman title!

Was this review helpful?

I find this volume of Wonder Woman a bit befuddled. Some of the event take place before/between the other volumes in this series, and some skip ahead 7 years. Then you have Justice league story line, that back tracks to Wonder Woman joining the Justice league. It’s just all over the place. If these were individual issues I would have liked them all, but complied like they are they seem like a big mess that is out of order.

Was this review helpful?

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this 4th volume of Wonder Woman. If the previous volumes that I read, 1 and 3, focused on Wonder Woman, here we get the other side of the story, Cale's story, which helped me understand her a little bit more.

I still believe it would have been better to have these volumes include the issues in order, but at the same time, having this last part told from a different POV altogether kind of made me like the story more. I got a few of the answers that I hoped I'd get, while at the same time some of the gaps I had are still there, like for instance what convinced Diana to fight the inner demons that kept her mind captive. But back to this volume.

We get to see how Cale, Doctor Cyber and Cheetah became who they were. The volume starts way back in the past, with Cale's daughter being a normal little girl, and we get to see doctor Cyber as a regular human, Cheetah as Barbara Ann. I believe this was a story that deserved a bit more page time, probably a bit more story development than it got, because there were a lot of elements that could have been explored more, but as a whole I liked the story. I would have wanted to see more of Cheetah, so I'm hoping there's a comic book out there that focuses on her a lot more than this one did.

Despite these missing details, I loved seeing the struggle of Victoria Cale and her transformation from regular woman to villain, her dehumanization in a way. At her core, Cale is just a mother trying to protect her daughter and willing to do anything in order to keep her safe. There's a wonderful scene halfway through this volume that shows just that, when she takes her now teenager daughter to see some specialists that might help figure out how to cure her. I liked that, because here you have a woman willing to do anything, from creating an inanimate AI version of her best friend to subduing the two gods who cursed her daughter, while at the same time you get the mother who is trying out everything medically possible to figure out how to cure her doctor. I loved that side of the story. Based on that alone, I kind of liked the idea of the story being split across the volumes, with this last one focused on the "villain's" side of the story.

The art was a bit confusing. While still pretty, it was strikingly different than what I was used to from the previous volumes. I felt like this was more similar to the older, 80s version of Wonder Woman. It kind of set the two versions of the story apart. This kind of made me realize that while everybody else was enamored with Wonder Woman, as shown in the previous volumes through the clean, almost poster-like art used there, here you have Cale who doesn't really care one way or the other, which for me seemed translated in the art. That's how I interpreted the choice made to have this big difference. It also made me think of how the insanity of Cale translated in the art. There's a sort of disturbing quality in the art, if it makes sense, which I loved seeing. It's not that the drawings are bad, on the contrary, but the lines, the colors used, everything about it made me think of how disturbing this version of the story was.

The volume has a few loose ends, and I hope that maybe they'll be picked up in the future and resolved, but if not, I thought this was a good way to end this run. I'll definitely read future installments if they come out, but if not, I just hope we'll get some connected stories, at least so we can see Barbara Ann get some form of happy ending. All in all, a good volume that I enjoyed a lot more than I anticipated.

Was this review helpful?

Wonder Woman Vol. 4: Godwatch delivers a strong story and classic artwork. As gods Phobos and Deimos try to manipulate Dr. Veronica Cale, she flips the script and uses Wonder Woman for revenge against the gods. Wonder Woman has her hands full trying to save the world and her former friend Barbara/ Cheetah. Full of action and reminiscent of old, the artwork delivers a colorful, classic looking Wonder Woman with a well thought out plot full of twists and turns. Everything you love about Wonder Woman rolled up in a new chapter that does not disappoint. My voluntary review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley

Was this review helpful?

I received an advanced copy of Wonder Woman Vol. 4: Godwatch from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The order in which Wonder Woman is read depends pretty heavily on if you’re reading it by the issue or by the volume. This has been the case since the beginning, as two plots have been bouncing back and forth every other issue (note: the issues covered in this volume are 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24). Godwatch concludes what was started in Year One; fleshing out Wonder Woman’s origin story for us, as well as the backstory for many of the side characters and antagonists.

Godwatch brings us the conclusion of both plot arcs that Rucka has created for Wonder Woman’s Rebirth line. I’ll admit I’m not sure what is next for Diana; but I certainly hope that the series will continue from here. I’m too attached to let it go at this point.
I mentioned above that there’s two ways of reading this series (issue vs. volume). I personally read everything by the volume; but that has more to do with my preference of reading comics in bigger sums than just one at a time. I found the story to make sense this way, even when events didn’t always happen in order. It’s just a different storytelling style, and in this case is really works.
I still can’t get over the level of depth all of Rucka’s characters have; Wonder Woman is such a complex character (more so that one would assume at first glance), she’s full of love, hope, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. Listing her attributes out like that makes her sound so flat, but that isn’t the case. Alongside her we have a strong female villain, Veronica Cale, and the morally grey character Barbara Ann. Both have complex backstories and reasons to doing the things they do. Together these characters make up the backbone of the series.
While I still really enjoyed continuing Diana’s origin plotline, what really caught my attention were some of the other character’s backstories. I truly wasn’t expecting Veronica Cale to be fleshed out the way she was; but in the end she became a sympathetic villain for me, and I almost found myself wishing for something better for her (a little less so when I saw the lack of sympathy she showed towards Barbara Ann, but that’s a different story). Turning a villain into a person we can sympathize with is not an easy task, but Rucka managed to do it, all while juggling other plots and character development points.
I think I still like the artwork in volume one the best; but Godwatch still had some very strong artwork. Most of the artwork is consistent throughout this volume, with the exception of issue 22, which gets a change in style. It’s borderline chibi style, with the characters looking much cuter and simpler than normal. The change actually works really well with the story being told, so I enjoyed it.
I keep seeing people say that Godwatch is the end of Rucka’s run with Wonder Woman. I sincerely hope that that isn’t true, as I think he did a phenomenal job. If it is true, I hope Wonder Woman continues and picks up another talented writer.

Was this review helpful?

Good Read, But Not Much Wonder Woman

I get it that we are in the era of the DC Universe Rebirth and that we are rebooting and reimagining classic characters. I've been happy with this freshening and sprucing up, and welcome the opportunities for characters to move in new directions. The Wonder Woman Volume 1 started at ground zero and gave us a new and appealing Wonder Woman, which I was more than happy to see.

But we are now in Volume 4, and we're still laying groundwork. First off, DC is running parallel story arcs in alternating comics issues. That's why, in order to get a complete arc in this volume they had to collect issues 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24. Because the arcs bleed into each other from issue to issue sometimes the "chapter" breaks in Volume 4 are jumpy, with some gaps. That's not a big deal, but the reader should be aware that we are still building character backstories.

This volume focuses on Veronica Cale and how she ended up being the villain. We get the Barbara Ann/Cheetah transformation again. Toward the end we have guest appearances by Batman and Superman, I guess with the intention of fixing WW firmly in the DC Universe. What we don't get is much WW; she is more of a guest star, who hovers in the background, or makes brief appearances at critical points.

That said, the backstories and groundlaying are interesting enough. Any amount of Wonder Woman is good Wonder Woman. If you are a new fan who's in for the long haul, or an old fan who wants to see what DC is up to, well, I imagine this Volume would be considered essential. If your more of an enthusiast than die-hard fan, this is still interesting, just not necessarily Wonder Woman interesting.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Was this review helpful?