Wonder Woman #757: Deus Ex Machina Gone Wrong

Wonder Woman supposedly brings “The Four Horsewomen” to a conclusion, but instead of actually doing that, pulls a bait-and-switch on the narrative and takes the story in a completely unforeseen direction instead. There’s a serious MacGuffin at play here, and although the reason for it appears to be to show the lengths Wonder Woman will go to for a friend – even a friend turned foe like Paula von Gunther – it’s still baffling as to how this issue was a) called a finale and b) thought such a twist ending would be a good idea.

It’s difficult to get into without spoiling the issue, but suffice to say the term “deus ex machina” has rarely been more appropriate. Instead of giving this story a conclusive finish, writer Steve Orlando instead decided to kick the can down the road a bit, or perhaps be the Lucy holding a football to the readers’ Charlie Brown. Why? Well, as I said above, the idea is apparently to show the lengths Diana will go to for her friends. And that’s all well and good (though nothing we haven’t seen before in any given WW story), but it makes very little narrative sense, especially since this particular god in the machine is very suddenly jammed into the story without any real justification. Does this ruin the issue? No. There are still plenty of good story beats. But it does sap it of any sort of sense of closure it should have had, and needlessly convolutes a story that had more than enough going for it on its own.

It’s nice, for example, to see all of the Amazons come together as one to battle Genocide and Paula von Gunther. It’s become something of a trope in recent years that Diana is often on the opposite spectrum of ideals from her sisters; Orlando actively avoiding that signals his awareness of this and instead pushes her in the opposite direction. This of course flies in the face of von Gunther’s rantings; her insistence that her ancestors, the Valkyries, were simple explorers who were slaughtered by the Amazons seems to be permanently dismissed in the flashback early in the issue. This too pushes against von Gunther’s beliefs that the Amazons were savages and her own family was the victim – or that one family is superior to the other, genetically or otherwise.

Donna Troy’s continued presence in this arc is a welcome addition, especially considering how mucked around with her origins have been in recent years (and in recent decades, and since the ’60s… I digress). She shines both in battle and as a peer to Diana – no little sister stuff here. Diana treats her as an equal, and throughout the story, displays the confidence in Donna’s actions to back those words up. Donna is a beloved character who too often falls victim to the depredations of her many, many retcons. But in Orlando’s hands, she truly feels like The Real Donna again.

As a villain, I’ve had a hard time feeling convinced that Paula von Gunther would so completely embrace full-on over-the-top villainhood in such a short amount of time as she has during Orlando’s run. In the span of less than ten issues (plus an annual), she’s gone from Wonder Woman’s friend to a full-blown mustache-twirling cartoon character, all because she’s sad that Diana hid her origins from her in a bid to help her actually have a happy life. Diana’s intentions were always good, even if she maybe erred in not revealing the truth to her at some point. Orlando has taken great pains to show that, but at every turn, Paula has remained a stock “angry and yelling about how wronged they are” villain trope. In this issue, though, the veil is finally pierced, but before the reader gets any sort of closure – as is telegraphed is about to happen – the aforementioned MacGuffin swoops in and completely subverts the narrative. Orlando was clearly gunning for a surprise twist, but instead just left readers feeling hoodwinked.

The art by Jesus Merino remains top-notch, though. As I’ve stated in past reviews, Merino is something of an understated treasure, as sturdy as Paul Pelletier and as dynamic as Mark Bagley. He knows how to draw a thing or two, and his Wonder Woman is exactly how she should be – bold yet beautiful, striking but not a sex bomb, strong yet loving. After the stick-figure Barbie look the previous series artist gave her, Merino’s take is a welcome return to form. As for the cover, Robson Rocha does his usual awesome best, but points deducted for depicting a scene that doesn’t even appear in the comic.