When I found out that Sensation Comics #5 would feature Wonder Woman facing the dark New Gods of Apokolips, I was both anticipating it and feeling a bit apprehensive. Jack Kirby created a set of amazing characters in his “Fourth World” stories, but they were also very personal works. Subsequent stories featuring the New Gods have been very hit or miss. There have been certain creators who had a good grasp of the characters, such as Walter Simonson, John Ostrander, Paul Levitz and John Byrne. I definitely have to add Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman to that list based on their work in “Dig for Fire.”

In past issues of Sensation Comics it has been apparent that sometimes 10 pages just is not enough room for some creators to adequately tell a complete story. I’ve mostly been more satisfied with the tales that were 20 pages long. So I was hoping that eventually there would be a 30 page story entry that would comprise an entire issue. I finally got my wish with “Dig for Fire.”

Like most other stories to appear in this book, Bechko & Hardman’s tale is vague as to its place in continuity. It appears to be set roughly in the post-Crisis, pre-New 52 era. Hardman draws Darkseid with his original Kirby design. I prefer that to the New 52 look, which is much too busy & complicated for my tastes. As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy the continuity-lite approach of the series, which enables creators to tell stories without having to worry about what is going on in other titles, and to utilize a variety of approaches to the character.

When two Amazons who have been sent to observe Apokolips go missing, and Parademons begin to pop up on Paradise Island, Hippolyta dispatches Wonder Woman to investigate. Knocking out a pair of arriving Parademons, Diana uses their Boom Tube to journey to Apokolips, where she disguises herself in their armor. She makes contact with Luftan, a merchant who had previously served as a contact for the Amazons. Luftan, however, informs the authorities of Diana’s arrival, and she is attached by the Female Furies. Diana finds herself outmatched by the Furies, who are incredibly formidable opponents.

Bechko & Hardman have a very good understanding of the world of Apokolips, and of its iron-fisted ruler Darkseid. Often writers will make the mistake of depicting Darkseid as a god of evil, which he is not. Darkseid as envisioned by Kirby is the god of fascism and totalitarianism.

Apokolips is a police state. Its inhabitants hate Darkseid, but they also believe that he is omnipotent, an all-knowing, all-seeing being who will instantly be aware of the slightest act of disobedience and punish it in the harshest manner possible. His rule is cemented as much by fear as it is by his actual power. When the Female Furies inform Darkseid that they have apparently killed Wonder Woman, he is actually enraged at them. He would much rather that they had captured Diana to be executed publicly; a spectacle to further enforce among his subjects the futility of resistance.

Wonder Woman is an excellent ideological opponent to Darkseid. Diana believes in liberty and justice and in the self-worth & dignity of the individual, in enabling each person to strive to achieve greatness. All of this is anathema to Darkseid.

Barely surviving her run-in with the Female Furies, Wonder Woman rescues her fellow Amazons from their own executions. Eluding pursuing Parademons and Dog Calvary, the three inhabitants of Paradise Island find a temporary refuge. There Diana is shocked to learn what her sisters have been up to: they have obtained an incredibly powerful bomb, a “planet killer,” from Lexcorp which they intend to use to obliterate Apokolips, thereby preventing Darkseid and his minions from ever threatening Paradise Island. Naturally enough, Diana is aghast at the thought of committing mass murder.

(I suppose that the closest real-world scenario would be if someone dropped a nuclear bomb on North Korea in order to take out Kim Jong-un and his inner circle. Yes, that would eliminate them, but it would also result in the deaths of millions of civilians who were unfortunate enough to be living in that horrible country.)

Wonder Woman and the Amazons are captured, but not before the planet killer is deployed. Diana manages to convince a skeptical Darkseid of the threat, and that she is the one to stop it. Plunging deep into the fiery heart of Apokolips atop a “scavenger-bot” with only a heat suit for protection, Diana manages to retrieve the bomb before it detonates. She returns with it back to the surface, where Darkseid uses his Omega Beams to destroy it, before turning them on the two rogue Amazons wiping them from existence. Acknowledging that they had an agreement, Darkseid reluctantly allows Wonder Woman to depart.

Bechko & Hardman do recognize that Darkseid, despite his tyrannical nature, also possesses pragmatism as well as a sort of code of honor, albeit a very individual one that he will readily bend to his convenience. Although he probably could have killed Wonder Woman if he really wanted to, Darkseid chooses to honor their deal because she did aid him. And perhaps he also would rather have Diana’s chaotic influence removed from his world as expediently as possible, without any more disruptions to his orderly rule.

By the disgusted, sulking look on Wonder Woman’s face on the last page, it certainly appears that Darkseid has come out completely unscathed, his rule totally unchallenged. But then Bechko & Hardman show us two of his lowly subjects who had previously been paralyzed by fear of their ruler. “An Amazon – an outsider – saved us. Even Darkseid knew it,” observes one of them, with the other responding “He did at that. And you know what? He’s not as tall as I thought he’d be.” Without even realizing it, Wonder Woman did achieve a minor victory, eroding ever so slightly the perception among the people of Apokolips that Darkseid is all-powerful.

The artwork by Hardman in “Dig for Fire” is perfect. He works very well in laying out pages that work in both the digital and print formats. It’s a very tricky thing, I imagine, designing pages so that will appear as two separate images on the computer screen and as one single page in the print edition. Hardman constructs several pages that work in such a way that the action is self-contained if seen in the digital format, but which also has the action flowing from top to bottom in the printed book.

His depiction of Wonder Woman is strong and beautiful, determined and defiant in the face of adversity. Hardman renders Apokolips as a sprawling industrial horror, replete with ragged, scavenging occupants, dank, dirty tunnels, and colossal machinery. It truly is a grotesque, nightmare world. Jordan Boyd’s subdued coloring works perfectly with the art in creating a grim, oppressive atmosphere.

My only major criticism of Sensation Comics #5 is the cover. On its own, yes, it is a nicely illustrated piece by artist Lawrence Reynolds. However the style of the piece is very polished and clean, which is the complete opposite of the interior work. Given that Bechko & Hardman story comprises the entire issue, it would have been better to have a cover that complemented the material.

Indeed, there’s really nothing on Reynolds’ cover that relates to the story within, except the image of Parademons that is reflected in one of Diana’s bracelets. And what is Superman doing on the cover? He is nowhere in this issue. It would have been a better choice to have Darkseid in his place, and place Apokolips instead of Earth in the background.

Well, it is said that you can’t judge a book by its cover. That’s certainly the case here. I was very satisfied with Bechko & Hardman’s story, and I would be happy to see them work on the character of Wonder Woman again.