Wonder Woman #20 // Review
Hippolyta appears to her daughter in the form of a goat. (She can do this now because she’s a goddess.) Hippolyta tells her daughter that she woke-up in bed after a bacchanal the previous night. There was a god in her bad. Ares. He had a dagger in his back. She doesn’t think that she did it, though. She wants her daughter. Diana calls on the help of an old friend to help investigate in Wonder Woman #20. Writer Tom King opens an enjoyable new story with artist Guillem March. It’s a promising murder/mystery with gods an heroes.
Bruce may not know a whole lot about the gods, but he’s a pretty solid detective. Diana may have been gifted the wisdom of Athena at birth, but this IS her mother she’s investigating and things have always been a bit complicated between Wonder Woman and her mother, so it makes a lot of sense that she would want an old friend to help her make sense of things that the heart might muddy. Bruce is a fish out of water being guided by a hero who has come to dislike the gods in her many years on Earth.
King deftly draws quite a bit of insight into the situation. Diana’s experience with the gods has shifted over the course of the many decades since her debut. King finds a clever rapport between her and the gods that does great service to the complexity of her relations with them. Batman may be a fish out of water, but he keeps a very level head throughout. King provides some insight into Bruce’s overall perspective on the divine as well. His feelings on religion as penned by King might not satisfy those who are deeply into the dark knight, but they DO seem internally consistent and there ARE quite a few moments of sheet poetry in the script that keep Bruce interesting even for those of us who might find him incredibly tedious. (Ahem.)
Guillem March is given the challenge of drawing drama and intrigue in subtlety on the faces of gods and mortals alike. The layout of the issue is...weird. Every single page is a nine-panel page. Every. Single. One. (Well...there IS one splash page that happens towards the end of the issue, but that’s the big jolt where Bruce gets hit by a lightning bolt from Zeus, so that doesn’t really count.) One might expect such a layout to be tedious. March keeps it interesting, though. The tight, moody close-ups between gods and mortals are deeply engaging throughout the issue.
King has spent so much of the first 19 issues of the series focussed on Earthly concerns with Diana. It’s cool to see him embrace the more deeply mythological end of everything as he begins to explore the more mystical nature of Wonder Woman...and it’s fun that he chooses to do so with one of the more Earthbound heroes in the DC Universe. It’s a nice juxtaposition that works quite well.
