Wonder Woman #8 leans into why the character exists in the first place. Diana is a beacon of hope and encouragement for women and girls worldwide. King taps into that idea, and the Sovereigns misogyny presses down heavily on the protagonist. Read Full Review

There's an intriguing subplot involving the Wonder Girls capturing Sarge Steel and trying to get information out of him, but this issue is mostly a tense, one-on-one play as Diana is lost inside her mind and battles her way out bit by bit. It's a brilliantly done spotlight that sets up next issue's showdown. Read Full Review

Disturbing and fascinating new chapter kicks off in this excellent ongoing series, and I can't wait to see where it's all heading. Read Full Review

Sampere delivers some beautiful art throughout the issue. The visuals are filled with gorgeous detail and I love the visual comparison between the suburban nightmare and the real nightmare Diana is facing. Read Full Review

Wonder Woman #8 is another masterclass in art, with thought-provoking ideas and incredible character work. There isn't a superhero comic like it. Read Full Review

If Wonder Woman #8 was a standalone issue without any sort of history behind it the creativity would've made it a winner. Unfortunately, Tom King has dropped the ball so hard with making Sovereign a credible threat that the story in this issue falls apart almost immediately. The saving grace is the continued excellent artwork by Daniel Sampere that carries the entire story to at least be a visual showcase. Read Full Review

Wonder Woman #8 is a slowly-paced, tedious, boring, and off-putting comic. King wastes a lot of time delivering multiple heavy-handed messages about Religion, the patriarchy, and misogyny to play out what amounts to one scene. If Sampere's art wasn't so good, this comic would be a total waste. Read Full Review

It's tedious, heavy-handed, weird, and has a muddled message about misogyny and patriarchy to boot. The art, however, is glorious. Read Full Review

Tom King masterfully weaves a subversive and thought-provoking narrative that delves deep into the psyches of Diana and The Sovereign. King’s character work is nothing short of impressive, as he expertly explores the intricacies of Diana’s willpower and The Sovereign’s twisted ideology.

One of the standout aspects of this issue is King’s bold & unflinching examination of religion as a tool of oppression throughout history, particularly against women. This commentary adds depth & substance to the story, making it a purposefully uncomfortable read.

Daniel Sampere and Tomeu Morey delivered truly stunning art. The alternate reality sequences, where Diana is trapped in a never-ending cycle of domestic torture, are as visually attractive as they are painful to watch. The attention to detail & the mastery of color & composition make these scenes a true visual spectacle.

Breaking up the seriousness is a delightful scene featuring Donna, Yara, & Wonder Girl playfully tormenting Sergeant Steele. This brief interlude serves could be seen as a throwaway, but I saw it as a reminder that Diana still has allies out in the world.

The usual backup story, featuring Lizzie, Damian, & Jon, is another highlight of the issue. King’s script is full of humor & heart, & Belén Ortega’s art & Alejandro Sánchez’s colors bring the story to life perfectly. Lizzie’s adventure in Samurai Japan is an absolute hoot.

Wonder Woman #8 is a triumph in character-driven storytelling, thought-provoking themes, & stunning artwork. Tom King and the entire creative team have outdone themselves, and this is only the first act of a new arc! more

+ Like • Comments (1)

• Likes (1)

• Von Esper

Mathew Rosenberg's Mom - Apr 20, 2024

Tom King should never be allowed to write Damian Wayne - after saying he has no hopes and dreams earlier, he now makes him a neglectful jerk who just wants to play video games! I guess Damian as Damian aged, he decided being smart was for the birds!

Sign in to comment

While the premise is tired and overdone because it's a very easy idea, this issue does do something I've been pleading with this run to do. I've wanted it to show a Wonder Woman who struggles, and in this issue she does. I think the messaging here is very effective, for the most part. Religion as a tool of oppression is not a new idea, but I'm glad that it's so openly stated in this issue. If this run is going to continue to tackle themes such as patriarchy and oppression, it needs to do so sharply, or else it's going to fall into the trap of appearing somewhat complicit and wishy-washy with regards to the societal problems it speaks to.

This issue is about how society will beat women down and silence them, and even convince them of the misogyny that restrains them. You may call it over the top, but it's only over the top because you recognize the framing. From the onset the issue tells you, "This is bad." You catch the small slights Lasso of Lies Steve fires at Diana because you're prepped to, until the subtlety is replaced by overt misogyny. If this was presented in a different context, I think there would be far less whining about how over the top it is.

So many people in their reviews for this issue out themselves as willfully ignorant or media illiterate. Guys, here's a hint: If something is genuinely bad, you don't have to lie or exaggerate in order to make it seem bad. I could go through each and every intensely negative review for this issue and point out their flaws, but it'd honestly be a waste of my time. I mean, the reviews themselves signal that they couldn't even read and comprehend my rebuttal if I posted it. more

SPOILED REVIEW.

We return to our adventure, before/after foolishly first visiting the space-mall, this issue with domestic housewife Diana having trouble in the kitchen, while the not so humble, stogie smoking, husband Steve is fretting about not being late for his date out with the boys.

Dissociatively elsewhere, it would seem that Wonder Woman has found herself in a real bind. She’s tied up with a ‘Lasso of Lies,’ held by someone who calls themselves the Sovereign. Forced to endure bits of biblical quotes written by Paul, the Bible Guy, Wonder Woman isn’t one to be so easily swayed by browbeaten persuasions of submission.

Back at the dinner table, the married couple enjoys a romantic candlelit meal together. 'Sweetums' Steve objects to the rarity of his steak roast. Demure Diana decides to skip eating dinner this fine evening in order to maintain her figure. 'Smooching' Steve gives his doting wife, Diana, a big ol' spit swap’n after telling her he doesn’t have time to chat about what time to expect him home. He responds to her persistent nagging with, 'You can't cook, and you never know when to keep quiet. But damn it, you do look alright in that outfit.' Such a charmer.

Meanwhile, Sovereign, the old misstating rope wrangler, tells Wonder Woman a story about his imaginary dog. 'To be good, to be happy, to live a life where every comfort and desire were met. All the animal had to do was submit to the will of her betters,' he tells her. She wasn’t buying it despite that rope having a way with words. 'I want to feel your Adam’s apple on my palm as I push,' she retorts.

Steve turns in after returning home at some ungodly hour, while Diana's thoughts turn to a fluttering chorus of sermons flowing through her not-quite-sleeping mind. 'Women should keep silent... They are not permitted to speak... If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home... For it is shameful for a woman to talk...'

Home again and it turns out that Amazonian Princess Diana may not know how to operate a vacuum cleaner, as it somehow ends up flung out of the front room window.

Diana’s thoughts drift back to the time her Amazon girlfriends caught that smartly dressed guy in the forest. He had a fondness for apples, apparently. Sergeant ‘balls of' Steel was his name. He claimed to be six foot one tall, but he was really only five-eleven. The ladies, blindfolded, made sport of taking turns shooting arrows at him while he was tied with a lasso of truth to a tree. Good times. Good times. Wonder what ever happened to good ol’ Steel.

In the kitchen once more, Diana is preparing her hungry hubby Steve’s final meal: half-burnt eggs, bacon, and toast. He didn’t like it.

Shifting back to more of Sovereign's soliloquies. He reminds Wonder Woman that she may not be anyone's son, but she's certainly someone's daughter. Apparently, he thought that was important for her to know, just in case she didn't.

In the kitchen, imaginary Mom Hippolyta pays a visit to Homemaker Diana. They discuss all the imagined lies Mom told Diana about unbreakable magic lassos.

Hold on just a gosh darn minute. If this is a lasso of lies, and her Mom said she should believe it couldn’t be broken, then… ipso facto, oh Senior Supreme Tiny Man, you better stand back because this Woman has been contemplating shoving the pointy end of her thumb through a certain man’s apple all day.

Back home, soon-to-be sobbing, single Steve receives a letter from his dear Sweetums. 'Steve, I'm leaving... and you're going to need a new vacuum.' TO BE CONTINUED.

Over at the Fortress of Solitude, an entirely different adventure unfolds. Jonathan Kent returns home to find Damian Wayne, who should have been babysitting, not looking after Lizzie, the daughter of Wonder Woman, AKA Wonder Girl (for now). Instead of staying home, she had left to work on a social studies report about Ancient Samurai and had even taken the Fricking Time Sphere to visit one in person. After some potentially future-altering meddling in the past, Lizzie returned to the Fortress, of her own time, to show off her new samurai cosplay outfit. THE END.

Overall, I have to give it to the super-cowboy for final rating of this issue: You have, and I mean this from my heart, Tom, “no idea what you’re talking about.” more

This act is tired.

Tom King's exposition and dialogue really feels like the scene where RDJ's Iron Man tells Thor in Avengers "Does thy mother weareth your drapes". It feels very old fashion, clunky, and expositional in a bland way.

The only reason this isnt lower is because of the art, and the backup stories. I enjoy the back up stories more.

Do any of you actually think the Sovereign is a threat to WW? This character has never been established as a real threat. WW has just destroyed every challenge he put against her. This series reads more as a curb stop. WW just as to be reminded she is WW and that this was never a good read, or a real enemy. Tom King is a hack at this point. I have never wondered what challenges WW will experience in this book. She was never in any danger. She has never experienced any real threat in this entire run. Sovereign is a weak, pathetically written character. He is only good at controlling every day people. I find it hard to believe that he actually controls things behind the scenes except for the face that King has to constantly tell us this or show us in ways that dont really pan out.

Art is ok but not Sampere's best work.

Also the entire 'dream sequence/hallucination' that WW was in made me burst out laughing. How many female characters in the past year turn out to have their largest fears be 50s house wives? I was not aware that 50s house wives were the worst experience one could have throughout history (which Diana should know given how long she has been alive). King might fear 50s house wives but I seriously doubt WW does (or at least fears a lot of other stuff a lot more). more

The art is good. But, Wonder Woman exists as the truth to combat the lies of the evil patriarchy who spread nothing but lies and only seek power to oppress women. Christianity is a tool of the evil patriarchy, blah blah blah. This series started off OK but after these last two issues maybe it’s time to take this off the pull list.

+ Like • Comments (6)

•

Show all comments

Amazing Psycamorean - Apr 20, 2024

Boo the wonder woman comic is what it's always been boo

Bi1lyPilgrim - Apr 21, 2024

Is this what iwonder woman has always been? Or is this what Tom king has always been?

Amazing Psycamorean - Apr 21, 2024

Wonder Woman has literally always been anti-patriarchy and implicitly sapphic. The idea that Tom King invented this, or that it's even prominent in his other works, has no basis.

tron - Apr 23, 2024

King takes it to insane levels just to try to prove he's progressive and impress his mom. He's a male feminist who is inserting over the top bs to serve his own agenda. It's in all his books. You just want to be the same way and can't call a spade a spade.

Amazing Psycamorean - Apr 23, 2024

Something fun about the terminally online is that their insults only make sense within their own framework, and they look like fucking weirdos to everyone else.

Hex - Apr 24, 2024 (edited)

Myself and many other men are male feminists. You say that like it's a bad thing to want women to be treated, vaunted and celebrated the same in both comics and the real world. Something that tron doesn't seem to have experienced in a while. His basement must be so far from mummy's lawn. All those steps. You'd think someone so dependent on mom's charity would really appreciate feminism.

Sign in to comment

The art continues to be good. Obviously, I read a different book from the rest of the critics since many of them gave it 10s. I am on the completely opposite end of the spectrum. I think what Tom King is doing with this character is appalling. This is not Wonder Woman. He doesn't even bother telling us how she was captured. In previous issues, she fought off the entire US military, now a 90-year-old asshole was able to capture and cut her just so he can make a point about trad wife--bad and down with the patriarchy. Steve adores her and even in a fantasy world, she would know that he would never treat her like this. She would fight against that narrative and respond with love. That's the character, which goes against everything Tom King is trying to say. If he's still on this book after twelve, I'm out.

My Comic Review Channel - https://youtu.be/itIUX2gmO4U more

I heard about this issue and HAD to read it and yeah, it's one of King's worst. Damn I miss Greg Rucka. Put simply this is cliche bullshit. The Sovereign is an old man who is incompetent apparently cause he's done NOTHING in this run. Is that what King wants to tell us all, that the patriarchy has no real power beyond what we give it? Dear Lord. Wonder Woman is a stereotypical housewife again. WTF? Same old shit and now it's powerful writing??? It's sad that the most bad ass woman in all of comics is reduced to this trope. Modern day pandering and out of character moments to fit the writers world views just shows that Tom King is nothing more than a hack. A+ art.

Wonder Woman character was created and introduced in All-Star Comics as a character to raise up and unite American people. Now we have CIA's Tom King using the DC Comics issue almost as a parody level of absurdity of targeted hate based on race, gender, and religion. If the roles were different, the DC Comics published tract would be labeled as a "hate crime" piece. But as it is, CIA Tom King's effort to divide and demean is now good "comics fiction."

Wonder Woman is a prisoner of the criminal Sovereign who seeks to brainwash Diana with a "Lasso of Lies," while Wonder Woman hallucinates including a scenes where her daughter uses a bow and arrow to mutilate (and possibly murder?) criminal Sergeant Steel tied to a tree. The comic goes through various out-of-context writing from the Christian Bible, based on a Jewish writer Saul/Paul and his religious teachings based on the Torah (yes, Tom King leaves **THAT** part out for certain), and eventually after I concluding "I do not believe in Your God," Wonder Woman breaks the Lasso of Lies and attacks the criminal Sovereign.

The story begins with Wonder Woman hallucinating about the 1950s era with a sexist, hate-filled version of Steve Trevor, and the criminal Sovereign using a "Lasso of Lies" and quoting Christian religious scripture of Ephesians 5:22 from 2000 years ago, twisting it out of context to make it be a basis for inequality, rather than a basis for love. Furthermore, using a translation that does not match the original text in Greek. And since Tom King wants to use this as a religious attack, the correct statement is: "Submit to one another," NOT "Wives, submit to your husbands."

Tom King also takes out of context Christian Bible passages from Corinthians (based on Paul/Saul's Jewish history and his interpretations of the Jewish Torah), Timothy (again based on Paul/Saul's Jewish history and his interpretations of the Jewish Torah), Titus (once again based on Paul/Saul's Jewish history and his interpretations of the Jewish Torah).

Now if this was Saul, and they were quotations from the Jewish Torah? How would this be viewed in USA today? Would it be considered Anti-Semitic twisting of religious verse to spread anti-Jewish hatred? But since it is Paul who converted to being a "Christian," Tom King views this as "OK."

But the goal here is for Tom King to divide between men and women, religious Christians and others, young and old, and target a certain group as inherently evil. Mr. King fails to note that he actually fits a lot of the element of the inherently evil hate he spews towards others.

No I am not going to rate this comic based on the "backup comic." That would be cowardly and lame dodging. Let's be clear about what this issue of Wonder Woman #8 is: "Hate Crime Tract." It is the same type of thing you would read from racists, those who hate people based on their gender, and those who hate people based on their religion. In fact, it is PRECISELY the type of thing that the Wonder Woman character was created to combat. But now, with the CIA's Tom King, DC Comics has turned Wonder Woman into the very thing she was to defeat: Hate Itself.


I only give this a 1 because there is not any lower score available. It does NOT deserve a 1.

To those of you who think, OK, but I hate old people, I hate white people, I hate men, I hate Christian people, etc., remember - other Hate Mongerers can fill in those labels with different lables. Hate is NOT the Answer and it has no place being praised in comics heroine stories. more

+ Like • Comments (6)

• Likes (3)

• fzanca
• RKS
• myconius

Show all comments

AN OCCASIONAL READER - Apr 16, 2024

No, you got it wrong, the villain(Sovereign) represents the wrong interpretation of Christianity. Christianity preaches love and forgiveness. The villain(Sovereign) represents the opposite of this, he represents people who interpret the wrong Christianity to achieve their goals.

myconius - Apr 17, 2024

@Bats20832 - Do yourself a HUGE favor and avoid tom king comics, as one would avoid stepping in a sloppy pile of dog poop.

Von Esper - Apr 18, 2024

Tom King isn't trying to cause a divide or say that Christianity is evil. It's the method of the villain. The villain is doing villain things and using religion to manipulate people. As being the underground king of America, this tactic makes sense. The bible is being twisted with verses cherry-picked to manipulate Diana and keep her submissive. I mean, he's even using the Lasso of Lies

Mathew Rosenberg's Mom - Apr 20, 2024

Von Esper - it doesn't matter how you spell it out - Tom King is showing that people can and do manipulate the Bible for evil and I bet any amount of money, he will never show the good that non-evil get from it. Plus, as you stated, the Sovereign is using the Lasso of Lies (which ridiculously can be destroyed if you think it, itself, is a lie) so there is no reason to even include the Bible verses. If you don't see this is Tom King is trying to cause controversy, you are blind

Von Esper - Apr 22, 2024

Of course powerful people manipulate the Bible, and religion in general for evil purposes. Look at the Catholic Church back in the day. Even if you look around today there are people using religion to manipulate people. A character like the Sovereign would absolutely use religion to manipulate the masses. The fact that the Sovereign is using the lasso of lies shows that the Sovereign is lying, so Tom King is even showing that this is improper use of the Bible verses. How can you not see this?

fzanca - Apr 23, 2024

I completely agree. Let's get him off this book.

Sign in to comment

It is 2019. I am reading a comic in which Wonder Woman has been brainwashed into being a housewife.

It is 2021. I am reading a comic in which Wonder Woman has been brainwashed into being a housewife.

It is 2024. I am reading a comic in which Wonder Woman has been brainwashed into being a housewife.