Wonder Woman #779 // Review
Diana faces a final encounter with a goddess who wields one of the most powerful weapons imaginable in the final chapter of her cross-multiverse “Afterworlds” series written by Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan. A conflict in a blinding, white void is brought to the page by artist Travis Moore and colorist Tamra Bonvillain. Meanwhile, in the past, Young Diana is offered a brief break from conflict as she is given an opportunity she had assumed she wasn’t ready for in a wrap-up on a story by Jordie Bellaire with art by Paulina Ganucheau. Two stories reach their end in Wonder Woman #779.
She’s nowhere. Literally. Diana has been shuffled off to nowhere by forces beyond her control. Deadman lies dead in her arms as the future half of the god Janus towers over her, wielding The God Scraper. If Diana is to win-out, she’s going to have to do it in her own way. By contrast, Young Diana is far from nowhere. She is home...and in light of recent events in recent issues of the series, home feels that much more welcoming as she heads off to a competition with Themyscira’s greatest warriors.
Conrad and Cloonan make a surprisingly philosophical turn in the final chapter of their story as Wonder Woman faces Janus in the white void known as nowhere. There’s a cunning balance between character-based action and concept-based drama that makes for the single best chapter in the entire “Afterworlds” series. The final chapter of Bellaire’s opening arc with Young Diana is a satisfying conclusion to her coming-of-age story. Bellaire reveals development on all sides of her story as Diana and Themyscira have grown quite a bit.
So often, the action in the foreground of a comics page crowds out the backdrop of the world in which it’s occurring. It’s quite striking to see action taking place in a space with no background at all. Moore and Bonvillain are allowed to focus all of the visuals squarely on the conflict for one full chapter, and it looks fantastic. With all of the primary conflict out of the way in Young Diana’s story, Ganucheau is given room to show the wonders of Themyscira in the background of a newly empowered protagonist. The visuals strike a suitably triumphant tone at the end of the story.
Conrad, Cloonan, and company have led Diana on quite a journey in recent months. One gets the feeling that the ending might have had a bit more impact if they’d been allowed a bit more time in each of the worlds that Diana had fallen through, but this is a largely satisfying end to the journey. Bellaire’s story serves as an enjoyable introduction to the Adventures of Young Diana one-shot special, arriving in October. It will be interesting to see how Bellaire and Ganucheau handle an extended 80-page story. They’ve done so well with an ongoing serial at the end of Wonder Woman’s legacy series. Given more space, they should have a bit more freedom to explore the world of Young Diana.
