Wonder Woman #31

Writer: James Robinson

Artist: Carlo Pagulayan

Inkers: Sean Parsons, Jason Paz, and Scott Hanna

Colourist: Romulo Fajardo Jr

Letterer: Saida Temofonte

This issue, much like Detective Comics #965, starts a story I've been waiting to see for a long time, since Rebirth #1 hit the shelves. For those unaware, legendary writer James Robinson and the brilliant Carlo Pagulayan are here to tell us the story of Wonder Woman's brother Jason, who was birthed in secret on the same night Diana was born. It's interesting, and is one of the many plot threads Geoff Johns left untangled when he ended his run on Justice League.

This story is interesting, and I'm in. I love James Robinson but this issue also feels off in some places. There are pretty much a grand total of four scenes in the issue, with two of them dragging on quite a bit. The dialogue has a weird quality about it; I haven't seen people talk this like in a comic for a long time. Initially I chalked it up to the two characters first appearing as simply being a part of the way they spoke, but everyone in the issue spoke in a weird way. It's hard to explain without dropping quotes, which I don't really want to do, so you'll have to read it for yourself.

Carlo Pagulayan is one of my favourite artists. His work is consistently excellent and I hope he had the time to draw the entire arc. His work on Deathstroke was great and his art here is no exception. The fight scenes look great and the level of detail is awesome.

What surprised me the most about this issue was its scope. It certainly feels a lot larger than I expected. A couple of characters show up that I wasn't expecting to see at all, which just cements this story in terms of its potential impact.

The art is gorgeous and the plotting is great, but the dialogue leaves a bit to be desired. It's either unnecessarily detailed or just contrived. It's not a bad read at all, though, so I recommend it.