DCU Comic Book Reviews

WONDER WOMAN #30

Rise Of The Olympian, Part 5:  Songs My Sister Will Sing

May 2009

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Aaron Lopresti

Inks by Matt Ryan

Cover by Aaron Lopresti

Synopsis

In the aftermath of the destruction of the DMA, Steve Trevor takes command.  He asks Wonder Woman to bring his wife back home safely.  Elsewhere, Genocide interrogates and tortures Etta Candy to learn more about Wonder Woman.  Meanwhile, Wonder Woman interrogates Cheetah to learn more about Genocide.  On Thalarion, Zeus creates a son for the Olympians:  Achilles.  On Themyscira, Hippolyta reunites with the lost Amazons and the Bana-Mighdall.  Meanwhile, Wonder Woman attacks the headquarters of the Secret Society to confront T. O. Morrow, the creator of Genocide.  Morrow tells her where to find Genocide.  When she gets there, Genocide is gone.  Etta Candy is barely alive.  In rage, Wonder Woman destroys the Secret Society headquarters.  She then demands Morrow tell her how to kill Genocide.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Since Simone started to write this title I have liked the way she has portrayed Wonder Woman.  Diana is presented as a warrior with a strong code of ethics.  But she is also presented as someone who feels battle is the last resort to solving a conflict.  So, in this issue, to see Wonder Woman in such an uncontrollable rage and destroying objects and attacking people is an oddity.  Because it doesn’t work.  Diana’s actions seem to be out of character for her; she is not the type of character to go into a berserker rage.  She remains cool, which is why she was able to make the calculated decision to kill Maxwell Lord.  I guess that Simone is trying to suggest that Etta means so much to her that Diana would get extra angry, but I don’t think this book has provided enough of their relationship for Simone to earn that emotion.  Maybe if there had been more of their relationship, more of their friendship, then I could understand it.  And while I can buy they are good friends, I don’t buy Diana would act this way for Etta.  Hell, I am not even sure Diana would act this way with Tresser.  Ultimately, I didn’t feel like I was reading about Wonder Woman; just a character that was dressed like her.

The other problem I have with this issue is the way Simone portrays the villains, which seems wildly out of place and doesn’t feel right.  You don’t get to be in the Secret Society if you didn’t have some credibility as a villain.  So to see these characters cowering at the sight of Wonder Woman (even a berserker Wonder Woman) makes you wonder what the hell they were doing there in the first place.  To compound the problem, Simone switches gears on Cheetah, presenting her as a badass mastermind in one minute and then a whiny bitch in another.  The abrupt shift in tone for the character undermines the story and makes you wonder how and why Cheetah could’ve done what she did in the first place.

Having said all that, the sections with Zeus continues to sparkle and I am eager for the Olympians to interact with Diana.  I firmly believe that Genocide is only a placeholder until Simone get the Olympian story going, at which point Genocide will be defeated (either by Diana or Achilles) and then the real story will begin.