WONDER WOMAN #20

Ends Of The Earth, Part 1 of 4:  An Unreasoning Frost

July 2008

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Aaron Lopresti

Inks by Matt Ryan

Cover by Aaron Lopresti

Synopsis

In the midst of deep snowfall, Wonder Woman makes her way to Mead Hall, where she encounters Beowulf.  Six hours ago, Sarge Steel promotes Diana Prince to field agent and tells her to pick her team.  Diana expresses concern to Etta about the promotion.  When the two return to Diana’s office, they find an intruder sitting on her desk.  He tells Diana that he wants her to save the world.  He then tells her to use the Lasso to determine the truth.  When she dies, Diana realizes the intruder has no soul and it causes her to enter a catatonic state.  At Mead Hall, Wonder Woman and Beaowulf come to blows.  When Diana beats him, he decides it would be better if they teamed together to battle the worshippers of Grendel.  Meanwhile, the intruder tells Etta that he needs for her to kill D’Garth, or the one called the Devil. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Overall, this was a good issue and the two distinct scenes (Mead Hall and Diana’s office) were great.  However, there is one moment in this issue in which the writing and the art doesn’t quite convey I think what Simone and Lopresti wanted it to convey.  Unfortunately it is such a pivotal moment that I think the lack of clarity undermines the entire issue.  I am talking about the scene where Diana uses the lasso and enters a catatonic state.  The feeling I get from the issue is that what was happening at Mead Hall with Beowulf was simply the effect of using the lasso on Stalker.  To undo her compassion, he is forcing her to become more lethal, more deadly.  To that end, she is forced into a situation requiring her to kill her enemies.  If not Beowulf, then certainly the peasants.  Yet, this is not quite clear to the reader, especially in the first reading.  When doing the reviews for this site, I read issues a second time and the situation seemed a little clearer, but I am still not sure.  Stalker says he stripped compassion from Diana.  Is that before or because of her encounter with Beowulf?  Well to be fair, compounding the problem is the appearance of Beowulf, a literary character that may or may not have been a real person, depending on what you believe.  For many, it is already a stretch to include the Greek mythology into Diana’s origin, but to add Beowulf into the DCU?  That is pushing it a little bit.  Now, it is possible that Simone will reveal Beowulf is part of Diana’s imagination (and even then you would have to ask, why Beowulf), but until then it just seems really, really strange. 

Aside from that, Simone’s characterization of Diana still impresses, especially her analysis of her promotion and what it might really mean, and Lopresti was a good choice to put onto this title.  I am not sure if Lopresti is responsible for the winter attire in the Mead Hall scenes, but I liked the look and it fit the scene perfectly. 

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