Wonder Woman stands alone against the Dark Gods and against her brother, Jason. What will it cost for Diana to overcome the odds? Will she be able to pay the price?
WONDER WOMAN #50
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Stephen Segovia, Jesus Merino, Andy Owens, Emanuela Lumachino, Ray
McCarthy
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr. & Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Saida Temofonte
Covers: (A) Jesus Merino & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (B) Jenny Frison
Editors: Dave Welgosz, Chris Conroy, Jamie S. Rich
What You Need to Know:
The Dark Gods have unleashed chaos across Earth as revenge against Wonder Woman for summoning them (inadvertently) from their home dimension. The gods use their powers to control millions and to drive even more into murderous frenzy. Most the of the world’s superheroes, including the Justice League, have fallen, leaving Diana and her brother, Jason, alone against the threat. When Jason falls under the control of the Dark Gods, Diana is out of allies and out of options heading into the final showdown.
What You’ll Find Out:
The issue opens with Steve Trevor and Diana together but about to part for a time. The conflict with the Dark Gods ended some time ago and the two discuss the aftermath and how it has affected them. Much of the story is told in flashback recounting the battle which took place a month ago. The retelling picks up from Diana rushing to Paraguay and to Jason’s side, only to learn he has been enthralled by Savage Fire and the rest of the Dark Gods. A fight ensues and Diana is thrown far from the field of battle.
Jason quickly catches up and uses the chance to reveal to Diana that he is not in fact under their control, but using the power of his armor to deceive the Dark Gods. Drawing on more power from the armor, Jason devises a plan that will allow the siblings to enter the minds of the Dark Gods and face them directly. As the two desperately battle for the fate of the world, Jason executes another plan he has not shared with Diana. What he has in mind will result in victory, but a bittersweet one with a price that Diana may not be willing to pay. In the end, the Dark Gods are defeated and are not likely to be seen again.
What Just Happened:
This issue had a lot of potential going into it but ultimately failed to deliver an epic closing or even a satisfying one. The art was once again the highlight of the book, full of exciting action and solid detail. The visuals of the book have been top notch throughout, and have carried the book in many places where other things have been lacking.
The story outside of the fight scenes consisted mostly of Jason pulling the entire Greek Pantheon out of thin air to make up powers suited to the situation, quickly resolving issues that could have made for an engaging story with difficulties requiring thought. Athena’s wisdom also seems to be able to figure out everything except exactly why the Dark Gods fear Diana. For some reason being able to absorb Jason’s power from the armor turns out to be exactly what they need and they happily take him up on his offer to go with them back to their home dimension. They let the Justice League and everyone else go, and that as they say is that.
Much like the annual, the amount of narrative and plot content doesn’t match the oversized nature of the book. Complicated situations and all of the development of the Dark Gods are swept away as Jason’s armor just comes up with solution after solution that is capable of doing what all of the rest of Earth’s heroes combined couldn’t do. Good thing he inexplicably was kidnapped and accidentally given the armor instead of Diana, or there would have been zero reason for him to be there.
Speaking of which, there was zero reason for Diana to be there. Other than the Dark Gods “being afraid of her” Diana still doesn’t do much except punch a lot and follow after Jason. It seems fitting somehow that Robinson’s run ends with Jason being the hero for absolutely no reason and giving Diana a supporting role in her own book where she throws some punches and frets after her brother. The best thing about this arc is that it seems that we might finally be rid of Jason for a while. We can only hope.
Rating: 5/10
Final Thoughts: After the last issue I held out some hope that the issue would make use of its oversized status to flesh out some meat to this story and make it a solid end to this run. Those hopes were quickly dashed, but at least Jason might be out of the picture for the time being. Hopefully, the next chapter of Wonder Woman will actually feature her.
