Written by Mariko Tamaki
Art by Carlo Barberi
Published by DC Comics
Wonder Woman #763 brings us to the final confrontation between Wonder Woman and a new villain named Liar Liar aka Emma Deropalis aka Emma Lord, the unbeknownst daughter of mind-bending supervillain Max Lord.
As usual with comic book heroes, a villain works all the better when a sympathy or similarity exists between the characters.
In Wonder Woman stories, this storytelling dynamic plays well to the character’s sense of loving empathy and conflicts with her militant impulses.
But this issue in Mariko Tamaki’s first arc on this book definitely does not bring any resolution to Liar Liar as a character, that’s for sure. Whether she’s compelling is a whole other ball of wax.
That extends to some of the action in the story.
Mental powers are tough to depict for storytelling, let alone a battle of two people with mind-control powers. Maybe you can use a bunch of Star Trek-style misdirects and plot trickery to make it interesting.
However, not much of that happens here.
It could have been interesting to have Wonder Woman’s mind torn between Max Lord and Liar Liar in kaleidoscopic mindscapes of deception that test her ability to trust Max to get her out. Instead, we get something much more straightforward.
Liar Liar’s story in Wonder Woman #763 hinges on the lies regarding her paternity. How does she figure out that Max Lord is her father? It appears her mind-control powers may include being able to read people’s minds – something we don’t see from this version of Max Lord in this story.
There are also more references to the neck-snappingly infamous events of Justice League: No Justice when the Source Wall fell that I won’t spoil. However, how Liar Liar was privy to those revelations is another mystery.
Carlo Barberi’s art still doesn’t impress me. Wonder Woman has even more of the baby doll face on top of a waifishly super-muscled body. Etta Candy’s design continues to look terrible in a way that says Barberi has never studied drawing fat people; he just draws the same standard face, but bigger, and gives her a roided-out linebacker neck.
On top of that, there’s the nitpick in one scene where the narration notes a minivan, but Barberi’s art depicts a clear SUV or crossover vehicle.
By the issue’s end, you may be wondering whether Liar Liar’s illusions go beyond manipulating people’s minds and into the physical world itself.
Maybe we’ll get into that in the next arc, or somewhere else down the line, as Wonder Woman and Max Lord continue working together.
