Wonder Woman #798: Then A Hero Comes Along, With The Strength To Carry On

It’s the countdown to the end of this volume of Wonder Woman in this tie-in to the Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods mini that’s going on, setting up the new status quo for the Shazam! cast of characters in the Dawn of DC era. It’s all this plus it’s the beginning of the end of an era, as authors Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad bid their adieus to Diana, Steve, Etta, Siggy, and the rest of the Wonder Woman cast before Tom King and Daniel Sampere relaunch the Amazing Amazon this September,

Suppose you’re just now joining the program. In that case, everything’s coming to a head, including the all-out war that has been declared between Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and the rest of the Wonder crew against Hera and the rest of the Greek pantheon. It looks like it will be a battle that will shake up the godly firmament status quo after this. What will Diana’s fate be after she chooses to be the champion of the people of Earth rather than a tool to be used by the queen of the gods? How will the sacrifice made here affect things in the long run? Well, that we know won’t be a long-term change, but it could be exciting if it were possibly explored in depth or an Elseworlds tale; it’d just be a shame to see that end here.

It’s a bittersweet time for me since the announcement of the ending of this chapter for our amazing Amazon because it marks the end of an era with Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan and the amazing artists they’ve worked with, introducing a more humanized Diana, no longer being the pious, stoic Amazonian diplomat to the world, but a red-blooded woman who let her hair down. She drank, fought, made love to Siggy while in Valhalla, had a very casual friendship with Deadman, gave us a new Villainy Inc., a new foe with Janus (and a big ole lol when I realized the old white man part of Janus was a commentary on the gatekeepers who’ve fought change in modern comics), it was just a lot of fun. But there’s a lot to look forward to. I’m very excited to see what Tom King and Daniel Sampere will bring with them.

The weakest piece of the issue was the art, which I feel horrible for saying because Amancay Nahuelpan is giving us some very serviceable work here after being exposed to Travis Moore, Jill Thompson, Emanuela Lupacchino, and even Becky Cloonan herself, which set the bar very high. The action in the story is depicted quite well, and the action sequences are done in a very energetic style, with the fight scenes being the highlights of the issue, but the figures gave the most pause. Especially Ares. It just…didn’t work for me. I can’t wait to see he brings readers the new Hawkgirl series coming later this year.