It's hard to remember that Wonder Woman was just a young and innocent girl growing up on Themyscira with her fellow Amazonians. However, in Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #39, we get a small peek at Diana's childhood.
In Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #39, Diana comes across a man living in isolation with a pet lion. The pet lion is despondent because the man keeps it sedated. The man states that the lion wasn't always a problem, but that lately, he couldn't control the beast.
Diana, who possesses the ability to see the world from the lion's perspective and perhaps even talk to it Doctor Dolittle-style, explains to the man what the problem is (and it isn't the lion), all the while sharing a tale from her own childhood when she was just a young girl. Her tale shares that she once knew two big cats and that the key to keeping them happy and under control has more to do with the human than the animal.
That's right, in this story, Diana is, basically, the Jackson Galaxy (My Cat From Hell) of the comic book world.
This is, obviously, a different sort of story for Wonder Woman, especially considering that there aren't any bad guys to take on. But Diana has always been a champion for peace and diplomacy, so it isn't a huge stretch that she's now handling diplomatic relations between humans and animals.
The writing by Carla Speed McNeil here is OK, but the actual "both ends of the leash" parable sort of feels like it's all over the place. Obviously, the real lesson here is that a lion is probably not a good pet (unless you are, of course, Wonder Woman), but instead, the lesson is something else, although it's not entirely clear what it is. We do like that Wonder Woman can converse with animals, but we'd think the lion might actually tell its owner that it would rather roam the jungle than the dirty outskirts of the city.
The style of the art, also by McNeil, fits the narrative, though, with both feeling a bit cartoonlike, at times. It's sort of cutesy, and not the usual kick-butt version of Wonder Woman we're used to seeing it, but the story doesn't exactly feature a Wonder Woman we're used to seeing, either. That's the whole point of this anthology series: to give writers and artists a shot at doing something new with an iconic character.
Unfortunately, though, this week, much like last week, there just isn't much to go on here. Fortunately, we get a new Wonder Woman story every month through this title, so there's always next week. We're also hoping for a multipart story again soon.
Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #39 is available now at ComiXology.
Story
★★★☆ ☆
Art
★★★☆ ☆
Overall
★★★☆ ☆
Photo Credit: DC
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