Wonder Woman #19: The Sovereign’s End

Wonder Woman #19 is the epic conclusion of the arc that started all the way back in issue one (by Tom King and Daniel Sampere). The Sovereign has turned Diana’s life upside down, savagely killing the love of her life, Steve Trevor, after the previous stories within this epic arc showed Diana’s resilience to his plans. This set Diana on a one-way course to completely destroy the Sovereign, which started by dismantling his entire empire, leading up to Wonder Woman #19, where she finally comes face to face with him for their final showdown. Full of setup for the future, revelations from the past, and pathos up the wahzoo, Wonder Woman #19 ends with a bang.

SPOILERS:

The mystery that started this story revolved around a mysterious Amazonian woman, Emelie, who had killed a bar full of men after she started to be sexually harassed. This led to the United States targeting all Amazonians, either deporting or killing them. All the while, Diana pursued the powers that be, knowing that there was a deeper ploy at play, leading up to her direct conflict with The Sovereign. While the series progressed, the mystery surrounding Emelie started to dissipate, with all mentions of her stopping almost immediately around the time of the Absolute Power event. Nonetheless, the book continued to come out, shifting focus over to Diana’s plans to end The Sovereign’s reign. This became a growing concern among fans, who feared that the creative team lost focus with the book and were moving in a different direction. Thankfully, Wonder Woman #19 brings clarity to all of that, setting up new mysteries while answering some of these burning questions.

The big reveal at the end of the first arc of this storyline was that Emelie was pregnant, which many viewed as a red herring for who Trinity’s actual mother is. While this did prove to be a red herring, Emelie was actually pregnant, with Wonder Woman #19 revealing that she gives birth to Lyssa, who will eventually start a war with the Amazons and become Trinity’s greatest villain. This is also why Trinity went to The Sovereign’s prison in the first place, as she was searching for answers related to a mysterious dagger that Wonder Woman used on him that was later used by Lyssa to kill her.

While some may view this as “too little, too late,” fans of King’s writing will know that the last issues of his arcs tend to add structure to some of the more mysterious and obscure story elements. The big difference here is that this is just the end of one major story arc, which is building to many others to come, as Wonder Woman #19 teases the arrival of the next big bad, Mouseman. King is no stranger to spinning an expansive yarn, with Wonder Woman #19 being just the beginning of a journey that looks to be the biggest for the Amazons in recent years.

The big reveals and conclusions are one thing, but there is no understating how beautiful this book looks. Sampere is at the top of his game here, especially as he shifts back and forth between the present day and the future. As this series started, Sampere drew The Sovereign as a mastermind, who had power that made him sometimes overly confident. As the series continued, all the way up to Wonder Woman #19, Sampere starts peeling back the Sovereign’s layers. This starts with a simple expression of The Sovereign’s stature, slowly evolving into the man’s true cowardice. Sampere handles this evolution and unraveling masterfully, making this character truly feel as though he is being revealed visually at the same time as his inner monologue reveals his true personality.