I've only started reading the New 52 Wonder Woman recently, but now that I'm in the full swing of things I've started to regret that choice. The book proves to be well-written and unafraid of addressing a key feature of comic book universes: magic.

In comics, the hesitation to explain or explore the full potential of magic seems to stem from the lack of boundaries that accompany these concepts. This month's Wonder Woman not only uses magic a whole lot, it integrates it into the plotline that's already rife with politicking and personal manipulation.

Some things I liked:

• The art continues to be lovely, and as a new fan of the book the character designs really stand out as better than more standard interpretations of gods.
• I'm definitely a fan of the (metaphorical) backstabbing that seems to take place in this book, and hope to see it play out over the next couple issues.
• The "feather" sequence stood out to me as a great application of a god's power. Simple, effective and it didn't need lengthy explanation. Good work.

Some things I didn't:

• The twist of the issue came out of nowhere, and frankly seemed a little silly.
• A lot of the dialog just seemed to happen without any major consequence to it; the issue ends very abruptly, as if they got deep into the plot and said "Oh, crap, we have a couple pages to tie this up!
• The cover? Not indicative of the story contained at all.

Wonder Woman #12
DC Comics
$2.99

The Verdict: Book as strong as Hercules with a little bit of quibbles that keep it from being perfect. Out of all the superhero books I'm reading, this is one of the better ones. Four lassos out of five.