Do immortal gods plan for their own deaths? It’s an interesting philosophical concept, one that oddly enough last week’s Deathstroke decided to investigate.
Meanwhile, the punchy, kicky Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Four naturally decided to ask that eternal question: “If you were a god and could destroy any other religions, which ones would you go for?”
Wonder Woman ’77? It just wanted to bring back some old comics characters, from just like in the good old days.
I’ll be talking about all of these after the jump, in Weekly Wonder Wonder. That’s next on TMINE.
Deathstroke #10
Plot
We’re reaching now more or less the end of Tony Daniels’ “I wish I was still drawing Superman/Wonder Woman” nostalgia fest. When we last left Deathstroke before the holidays, Diana was a bit ticked off that Deathstroke had turned up with a god-killing sword on Paradise Island and had set free a Titan.
The following issue, Superman turned up and together, they all had to survive the Titan Lapetus’ army as well as Lapetus, in order to save Paradise Island, the gods, the world and possibly Green Lantern’s miniature pony collection, too.
This issue, the war continued, with Deathstroke and his god-killing sword taking on Lapetus, Superman dealing with an erupting volcano and Wonder Woman leading her army against the Titan’s minions.
It’s a nifty division of labour by Daniel, allowing each to shine in their own way without playing second fiddle to any of the others. How does Deathstroke destroy Lapetus? By insulting his girlfriend, of course?
So what’s been going on? Turns out that Apollo commissioned Hephaestus to create the god-killing sword and get Deathstroke to kill Lapetrus – except it was all a big con, intended to unleah Lapetrus on the rest of his family.
Of course, Deathstroke’s killed a god now, which means the remaining gods want to punish him… with a blood sacrifice.
How will Deathstroke respond? Will he sacrifice a child, Agamemnon style?
Time to restore the status quo, I think. Brace yourselves. This isn’t going to be pleasant…
…I’m warning you…
…here you go then…
Is it any good?
Well, the art’s great, because it’s Tony Daniel and the plot’s reasonably strong, but it doesn’t quite feel right. Wonder Woman and Superman get to show off, but it’s doing the things they’re well known for (if I had a penny for every time Wonder Woman led the Amazons to war against some enemy or other, typically with horrific numbers of Amazon casualties…).
Equally, while Daniel worked on Superman/Wonder Woman, it seems he didn’t really get the hang of all the Greek gods, even the DC universe versions. Here we have Apollo wanting to destroy all his relatives. Even Artemis, his twin sister, to whom he seemed very attached. Maybe he considered it a mercy killing, maybe Hephaestus can’t be believed, but for someone who presumably anticipated he might be killed fighting the First Born, it seems odd for Apollo to want to unleash someone who’s basically identical in terms of plot function (old god that wants to kill younger gods) in case he fails, unless (NerdFilla™ coming up) he was actually hoping that Lapetrus would kill the First Born but his timings were out.
As an issue, it’s fine from the point of view of Deathstroke, but from the POV of both Superman and Wonder Woman, it’s merely okay.
Rating: 4/7
Wonder Woman ’77 #11
Wonder Woman fights Celsia. Wonder Woman defeats Celsia, despite a small technical hitch with the Lasso of Truth.
But the Senator she was protecting feels it’s time to call in his secret weapon… the Atomic Knights. They have their own font and everything.
Is it any good?
It’s okay. It’s basically a long fight between Celsia and Wonder Woman, in which Diana protects innocent bystanders and Steve. The fillip with the Lasso of Truth is of momentary interest (it being the TV series, the Lasso doesn’t have Hestia’s fire powering it), but doesn’t last long. As an issue, it’s basically all about the final page.
Now, I’m an epic nerd. You may have deduced that from either the entire blog or from the fact I do these Wonder Woman round-ups every week. But I had no idea who the Atomic Knights were. I wiki-ed them. You can wiki them, too. They’ve appeared in Wonder Woman and Hercules Unbound. I’m not sure I care that much. But they’re here and I’m sure if you love 1970s DC comics and their typefaces, this is all very exciting for you.
Rating: 3/7
Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Four #21
Plot
While Superman is off on Apokolips fighting Darkseid, the world is wondering whether it should believe in the Greek gods or not, particularly now they’ve turned up and decided to stamp out all the other religions (Ed: easy choice, surely?).
On the table at the UN: nuking Themyscira because it might be where Olympus is… or something.
Just to make a point, Zeus zaps the Vatican. And a mosque, which doesn’t please Wondy at all.
Still, she’s a lot happier when she gets to see her dead mum.
Is it any good?
It’s a bit daft, as usual, and is again largely about Superman punching things (this time: Darkseid), but it does at least pose an interesting question. One of the many DC universes’ biggest issues is that it’s a universe full of gods: Greek ones. There are references to God – the Spectre, for example – but it’s not like Jesus turns up every other issue. Whereas the Greek gods do. A lot. And not just to the reader of DC comics, but to the denizens of the DC Universes, too.
The big question therefore is: why do they not have more believers? Whether it’s in Wonder Woman, Injustice: Gods Among Us or AN Other title, continually the gods appear and that affects no one. Wouldn’t you have thought that even if people were generally reluctant to give up on God or other gods, there’d at least be some new recruits? Wouldn’t Wonder Woman’s presence as goddess of war at least prompt a few soldiers to wear WWWWD (what would Wonder Woman do?”) armbands?
Yet there aren’t. Here, we actually have Zeus destroying the Vatican and a mosque with his mighty lightning, without any sign or retaliation, and demanding the whole world worship him. Yet everyone’s working out ways to nuke him (aka “the god who actually bothers to prove he exists”) rather than working out the best way to worship him.
Okay, admittedly, if you’re going to zap something in Delhi to make a point (85% Hindu, 15% Muslim), you’re probably going to go with the Akshardham, rather than a mosque, which might suggest you’re not as omniscient as all that, but maybe in this Elseworld, India is a majority Islamic country?
It’s just odd.
Anyway, an intellectually interesting issue, even if it does quickly regress to a quite pedestrian slappy match between Supes and Darkseid.
Rating: 5/7
Disclaimer: Owing to the small fortune it would take to buy every single DC comic each week, this is not a guaranteed rundown of all the comics that feature Wonder Woman. If you know of any I’ve missed, email me or leave a comment below and I’ll cover them the following week
