DC Comics reviews for 7/24/19 – Wonder Woman #75, The Flash #75

Justice League Dark #13

After last month’s big wrap up to the first year’s storyline, James Tynion IV uses this issue as a soft reset before kicking off the next big arc. For Tynion that means two smaller stories and a Year of the Villain tie-in.

In the first, Kent Nelson considers Wonder Woman’s request to become Dr. Fate again. Tynion keeps getting better at quickly summarizing character origins and their agendas. Kent’s origin is very tragic and considers a hero who sacrificed greatly to protect Order. Mark Buckingham illustrates this story and adds an appropriate Golden Age flair to his pages.

With the second story, Zatanna confronts Constantine on his arrangement with her father while learning Constantine’s tragic past as well. One of the biggest strengths of JLD has been Tynion’s ability to get to the core of the characters making it easy for readers to invest in them.

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The tie-in, like the others, is a quick two page refresher on the Villain Luthor makes his offer of unlimited power. As one of the co-writers of Justice League, Tynion makes this offer a bit more substantial than some of the others with the tease of a promising storyline.

Daniel Sampere handles the art for these final two segments. Sampere provides an easy to follow yet highly detailed take on both events. He’d make for an ideal regular fill-in artist if needed.

This wasn’t the title’s best installment, but Tynion keeps adding welcome layers to the characters that make them more than just the DCU’s magic corner of the universe.

Rating: 9 out of 10