Wonder Woman #56: Something Wicked This Way Comes

So far after two installments, this story is shaping up to be an interesting adventure combining reality-level threats, magic, crossovers, and lots of heroes. The first part struck a good balance between focusing on Wonder Woman and the on the Justice League, the second installment focused appropriately on Diana. This book had more people running around than you can shake a stick at. There is considerable time spent at the beginning on a unicorn hunt that ends up being fairly pointless, and I suspect mostly there just to give so many guest stars at least one thing to do to justify them being here. There are a lot of people that aren’t in the normal circulation of mainstream books, so their characterization is a bit rusty or in some cases completely off. Constantine’s portrayal in this book is a bit vexing to a long-time reader, apologizing no less….maybe the world really is ending. 

The number of guest stars aside, the main players in the story are setting up in an interesting way. Diana’s fear and anger at being marked are making her impulsive, leaving Zatanna to be the rational voice in the room. Things always good a bit pear-shaped for Diana when Circe shows up, and I really don’t think this is going to be much different. She’s being a bit too sympathetic and a bit too helpful for any version of Circe I’ve seen in DC or Greek mythology. I’m expecting a knife in the back, or the side, or wherever soon enough on that one.