The second set of Blackest Night mini-series is out, and with the action really heating up in Blackest Night #5 I wasn’t really sure how the Wonder Woman and Flash minis would pan out. So after reading the first issue of Blackest Night: Wonder Woman a couple of times, I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.

So far throughout this event, I’ve been really pleased that DC has stuck by their initial statement that readers wouldn’t need to buy every book with a Blackest Night banner on it to be able to follow the story. The minis have served a couple of purposes so far, in my opinion. Mainly they serve to tell us what some of the characters in the DCU not featured in the main title are doing, while in the case of the Blackest Night: Titans mini we learned some key information before it is revealed in the main event. I think that taking characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and giving them their own mini not only gives fans a chance to get a bigger picture of how those characters are affected, but it allows for the main event to unfold without the inevitable criticism of the big three not being involved.

In the case of Wonder Woman’s mini, the first issue takes place just prior to Blackest Night #5, with Wonder Woman leaving to join the rest of the heroes at the end of this issue. So now we are going to get two more issues of a stand-alone story out of it remains to be seen. I’m speculating, based on the “Next: Black Lantern Wonder Woman!” panel, that parts two and three will spin out of the events of Blackest Night #5 where Wonder Woman has indeed become a Black Lantern and we’ll see what happens to her as a result of her transformation from that issue. Unlike other Black Lanterns, who are reanimated corpses of the dead with their memories and any powers, the Wonder Woman variation is really Wonder Woman’s body. So, like the other heroes turned in that issue of Blackest Night, how they are dealt with could cause damage to the living body of the character.

As far as this first issue goes, I love how much of a handle Greg Rucka has on Wonder Woman and in some ways I miss his writing on the main book, although I really, really like Gail Simone’s run thus far. And I continue to believe that Nicola Scott is one of the most underrated artists out there. The issue reads pretty fast, mixing action with insights into how Wonder Woman approaches death and great one-liners from Black Lantern Max Lord.

Their confrontation takes place in the heart of Washington, D.C. There’s a lot of fighting between Wonder Woman, Max, and the zombified remains of fallen soldiers. The issue doesn’t really hint at what exactly this series is going to do other than chronicle what happens to our favorite Amazon during the phase of the Blackest Night. So I’m admittedly a little disappointed that it doesn’t seem to be a bit more ambitious in the storytelling department so far. Hopefully, I’ll be surprised and the next two issues will be home runs, given that there are apparently some ramifications for the character when the dust settles from this event.

I did think it was nice that the better cover for this first issue was the main cover and not the variant. For the vast majority of the issues during the Blackest Night, I’ve personally felt that the variant covers were better, but the Greg Horn cover is just gorgeous. Six out of ten lanterns for this issue.