DCU Comic Book Reviews

WONDER WOMAN #44

Wrath of Silver Serpent, Part 3 of 3: Cut From Pound of Flesh

July 2010

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Nicola Scott and Travis Moore

Inks by Doug Hazelwood, Wayne Faucher, John Dell, and Hi-Fi

Cover by Nicola Scott

Synopsis

Diana (aka Wonder Woman) stands inside an arena fighting against Theana, the daughter of her Aunt Astarte.  It is a fight to the death.  Diana chooses as her second for the fight one of Astarte’s commanders.  Diana then orders the commander to help Diana defeated Theana and thus defeat Astarte and free them from her rule.  As Diana fights, the commander contacts Achilles for help.  Meanwhile, Diana manages to defeat Theana while at the same time talking to her, trying to convince her there was more to life than just fighting.  Seeing Diana’s victory, Astart orders her soldiers to kill Theana.  Angry, Diana tracks down and defeats Astarte.  In victory, Diana then becomes captain of Astarte’s ship.  She orders the ship to depart and to find resources on uninhabited planets.  Afterwards, Diana joins her mother and the Amazons to join in the victory and to help the city rebuild.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Damn plane never made a lick of sense anyhow.”

Don’t you just love comments from characters that also serve as a comment from the fans?  I mean, really, I have to agree with Steve:  those stupid invisible planes never made sense. 

Anyway, one out of two ain’t bad.  For this entire story I have been shaking my head in disbelief that Simone would introduce new members of her family, namely her aunt and cousin.  After, what?, 60 years or so, it felt odd and strange that we would suddenly learn that Hippolyta had a sister and that the sister had a child.  She did say it took nearly 30 centuries so, hey, the odds finally worked in her favor.  Regardless, I did not particularly care for the plot and at least Simone found a way to deal with one of the new family members.  We won’t have another Wonder Girl running around.  We might, at some point, have Astarte return, but that’s a little better than Theana.  Other than the family thing, there were some good points in the story, especially the way the fight against Theana ended, which is a great example of Diana’s dichotomy.  She attempted to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but maintained a fighting stance in case that doesn’t work.  To me, that is the core of Diana, a woman of peace but when that doesn’t work, willing to fight for her beliefs.  That one panel of Diana holding the gun to Theana’s gut was a perfect example of that.  I also liked the way Diana foiled Astarte, taking control of the ship and changing the way they operate and taking control of Astarte and brining her back into the Amazonian fold.  Plus, I like the way the Amazon’s came to the rescue, thanks to Achilles.  Overall, there were some good things in the story; I just didn’t particularly care for the role of Diana’s family.