Written by Becky Cloonan,
Michael Conrad, Jordie Bellaire
Art by Andy MacDonald,
Paulina Ganucheau
Published by DC Comics
Olympus has fallen!
It’s not every day you get to say that. Or, at least, say it without Gerard Butler yelling down your neck ready to kill 50-some-odd terrorists in the White House.
This time, it’s Wonder Woman who finds the kingdom of the gods in ruins and the Olympian gods dead and gone.
Well, all but two. I won’t tell you who.
Diana arrives to Olympus with her rodent ally Ratatosk, who shows a more sinister than trickster side in this issue, part five of the “Afterworlds” arc. Through the talking squirrel we find out that Diana did not ascend to Olympus after her death because another god had taken her place.
Diana also has a new outfit now that she has reached Olympus.
Gone are the Norse-style heavy armor and fur-lined capes of Asgard. Now she wears a golden face plate with matching bands that cover her entire forearms. Her blue skirt is trifold and lined with red in the famous meander or Greek key design. A crimson breastplate is wrapped in a white tunic that drapes similarly to the eagle’s crest.
In true Wonder Woman fashion, Diana gets to the truth of the matter in short order. Of course, it’s only to uncover another great task. Just as she saved Asgard from its premature end, now she must restore Olympus by traveling to the underworld for the gods.
More death after death? Afterlife for the eternal? When does it stop? When will Wonder Woman’s job ever end?
We’ve got a new artist in Andy MacDonald.
Their work continues the recent run on Wonder Woman of artists with strong senses of comic book and sequential storytelling paired with the draftsmanship and style you’d see in a Prince Valiant or other kind of adventure book.
I prefer this style for Wonder Woman, because she works best outside typical superhero tales and more old-school, pulpy action-adventure.
Truth and deception are running themes in Wonder Woman’s story, and the Young Diana backmatter continues on them as well.
Diana has torn-out pages of Themyscira’s history from the hermit witch Magala. She’s so tempted to read them without her librarian Clio’s guidance.
And then Diana hears a voice telling her to read the pages – Clio will never know.
Soon she is sucked into the story of a male warrior who sacrifices himself in the name of ending a war, and Diana becomes obsessed with the story. Almost as if the story were made for her to relate to it.
She shuts herself away in her bedroom, thinking only of that boy, her eyes filling with tears.
What is happening to her? Why has she fallen into this? Buy the issue’s end, Clio appears to comfort her. But all is not what it seems.
Maybe next time we’ll find out what evil magic is at work.
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