Written by Becky Cloonan,
Michael Conrad, Jordie Bellaire
Art by Travis Moore, Paulina Ganucheau
Published by DC Comics
Ragnarok may be on the way.
The goddesss tree is dying. Valkyries are disappearing. And the ranks of warriors continue to thin with each daily fun-battle.
It’s time for a hero to rise and save Asgard!
But don’t count on Thor.
He’s too busy feasting, drinking and telling bawdy stories.
Asgard is just in the midst of typical renewal, making room for new champions, he says. Besides, all he has to do is not get killed in battle, which is getting even easier with so many already gone.
What a dunderhead. Even in the afterlife, god to god, a woman’s gotta deal with being doubted about what she sees with her own eyes.
It leaves Diana incensed enough that she accidentally leaves her buddy Siegfried’s sword in the mead hall. She sure could have used it when she and her talking squirrel companion Ratatosk encounter some nasty murk elves on their way to the dwarf forges to acquire a new magical weapon.
If all that were vexing enough, that scolding figure from Diana’s dreams returns. And then so does an old enemy who recently has been getting new life on a certain HBO Max animated series. For once, amnesia is helpful, as Diana can’t quite remember the person at the forge.
Diana’s mortal life as Wonder Woman remains hazy, but old habits and skills emerge. Somehow she knows her ways with rope and lasso. She climbs the goddess tree and wishes she could (still) fly.
Along the way she meets Odin, who’s way more chill than his son. He speaks words that Diana, and therefore us the reader, cannot yet understand. That’s what the rest of the story is for, right?
What we’ve gotten so far this issue is appropriately, mythically Norse. How couldn’t it be, when this part of the quest involves a world-eating snake and a giant egg from a giant eagle?
Travis Moore’s art remains a Prince Valiant-and-then-some delight, though I do wish for a more expressive faces on Diana. The panel work moves the camera around nicely, mixing up points of view for the sake of story.
Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan’s story remains in the mystery phase, still. Their Diana talks more down-to-earth rather than the elevated god-speak. It’s refreshing!
I’ll say the same for the Young Diana backmatter story.
Even though it all takes place in a library, we get a solid meditation on the nature of history and national identity. What parts get lost to time, and what dark spots get shuffled away for the sake of building a shinier story of one’s people?
Under these circumstances, Young Diana receives her detective case to find the missing book of Aphrodite and help her new scribe friend Clio. But will a pesky palace functionary stop her? Only time will tell.
It’s nice to see the main and backpage stories depict an inquisitive Diana who picks up a mystery to solve.
