WONDER WOMAN #27

Rise Of The Olympian, Part Two:  A Sense Of Loss

February 2009

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Aaron Lopresti

Inks by Matt Ryan

Cover by Aaron Lopresti

Synopsis

After learning of the carnage at the Twin Rivers Marketplace, Donna Troy contacts Wonder Girl to warn her of what she might encounter when they get there.  At the Mall, Wonder Woman is battered and beaten after her encounter with Genocide.  On Themyscira, Athena is dying.  She asks Zeus to save the Amazons.  In Gotham City, Genocide asks Dr. Morrow to make Wonder Woman’s lasso a part of her.  Meanwhile, Zeus awakens the Amazons around the world and tells them to come back home.  At the Mall, Tom Tresser (aka Nemesis) asks if the amazons still have the Purple Ray of Healing.  Donna then takes Diana to Themyscira.  Elsewhere, Dr. Minerva tells Genocide that it owes them.  They want Genocide to attack a certain place.  At the Department of Meta Human Affairs, Sarge Steel sense Amazonian plots everywhere.  Genocide arrives, destroying everything in its path as it looks for Dr. Psycho.  The Justice League arrives to help, but Genocide beats and batters all of them.  On Themyscira, Zeus tells Hippolyta that he has created an island.  Its inhabitants will assume the Amazon duties so that she will have the warrior’s peace that she deserves.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

On a very basic level, the plot of this story is not that much different from the Doomsday story from, what, nearly 15 years ago in the various Superman books: an unknown creature rampages through the civilians destroying a prominent hero, causing others to gape in wonderment on how this could happen.  The biggest difference is that Superman died; Wonder Woman is still alive.  The other big difference is that there aren’t multiple books with multiple writers and I think it shows.  Simone has a great handle on all of the characters, which is a good thing given the fact that Wonder Woman doesn’t do much in this issue.  Yet, Wonder Woman is at the center of this book, the character whom everyone revolves around, but she doesn’t do much other than sit around beaten and battered.  It a sign of Simone’s ability to write an engaging story and characters without Wonder Woman.  And then to top it off, Simone’s adds to the mythology of the lasso, using it in a unique manner and revealing there is more to the lasso than we had thought.  Simone is pushing the character of Wonder Woman into new areas, examining who she is and what she means not only to the DC universe, but to the characters that surround her.  So far so good and I am eager to see what happens next.

One of the themes that Simone keeps revisiting is what it means to be an Amazon.  Since Simone became the writer of this book, it has been something touched upon in almost every issue.  It appears here at the beginning when Donna counsels Cassie on how to act.  It also comes to play later with Tom and at the end with Hippolyta, who will probably have to make a decision regarding Zeus’ decision.  I actually enjoy these little moments, because I think I shows how different Diana is to those she protects, much like Superman is different from those he protects.  Unlike Superman, whose differences are generally expressed in his abilities and being an alien, Diana is not a literal alien.  Her differences come from her culture, an aspect that is not often delved into.  Simone is changing that and I like what she has done so far. 

At least we now have the explanation on why Sarge Steel has been so gung-ho to go after the amazons and why he things Tresser is involved with the Amazons.  Steel is being manipulated by Dr. Psycho, which makes sense.  I am curious to se if Dr. Psycho will be the explanation for the entire storyline of the DMA hunting Wonder Woman or just Steel’s actions in recent issues. 

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