Written by Becky Cloonan &
Michael Conrad, Jordie Bellaire
Art by Travis Moore, Paulina Ganucheau
Published by DC Comics
The “Afterworlds” story arc ends here, and the first thing I have to say is …
Endings are hard.
After all that reality-hopping and gods, fighting and death, questing and finding magic items to fight other magic items, the story of how Diana died and found her way back to life had to reach the back-to-life part.
Wonder Woman #779 is full of reversals and a big reveal of what that talking rope Diana has been carrying around from Asgard actually is. It’s a doozy of a turn, and it leads to some philosophical arguments about the connections of past and future that feels more like a Watchmen outtake than where we are in a Wonder Woman story.
But it works for Wonder Woman, the warrior-scholar of the Greek mold, right? Of course, right.
After Janus killed Deadman in the last issue, Wonder Woman and Janus are stuck in the In-Between, a white void we last saw when Diana was between deaths in Asgard.
Boy howdy, Diana looks beautiful even when she’s weeping over her dead comrade-in-arms.
But I did mention those reversals, right? So many of them!
Deadman is dead, killed by the God Scraper? Just wait a minute.
Siegfried is missing? Please hold.
And is Janus, our villain this whole time, being played by a bigger villain? Your message is on read but those three dots are moving.
It’s a solid ending, if a bit rushed, including some bits of dei ex machina because we have literal gods at work here.
That said, we still get the Diana whose character of honesty, justice and hope prevails. Not only in the punishment our villains receive, but in her desire to return to life and keep laboring in pursuit of the great balance of good and evil, right and wrong.
Reconciliation is a key element in the Young Diana backmatter story as well. This installment is more of an epilogue, as Diana narrates us through the fallout from Queen Hippolyta’s reveal of Themyscira’s hidden history as a place that began from bloody overthrow of bondage from Hercules and his men.
In that story, embracing the traumatic truth allows for genuine healing, a healing that involves atoning for their deceptions. It’s a true principle even among the immortal, all-female paradise, which rarely looks as fun as it does in Paulina Ganucheau’s art that feels like a mix of Moebius and manga.
And don’t think I didn’t spy the entire Sailor Squad in attendance at Themyscira’s Olympic Games!
