Review – Wonder Woman #60: Gods of Chaos

Wonder Woman #60 – G. Willow Wilson, Writer; Cary Nord, Penciller; Mick Gray, Inker; Romulo Fajardo Jr., Colorist

Ratings:

Ray – 9/10

Corrina: The Cost of War

Ray: G. Willow Wilson’s run has followed so far in the footsteps of Azzarello and Rucka in telling a big meta-story about the Greek Gods and their ties to Diana. However, she’s telling a very different story than Azzarello’s brutal war story or Rucka’s epic fantasy. The focus on Ares, the God of War and Diana’s arch-nemesis has made this a much more political story than Wonder Woman usually deals with, and Wonder Woman #60 makes clear just how dangerous an unpredictable reborn Ares can be. He’s still trying to figure out what his new role as God of War is, and his first attempt to balance the playing fields for a “just war” only ended in more carnage. Diana’s attempt to stop him angered him, and they’re at each other’s throats again when the issue begins. That ends when she manages to stun him and he sees the horrible human toll his war is leaving on the human population. After a rescue of a child victim, he swears off intervention.

That brings its own problems, of course – he’s escalated a war, and now he’s decided to abandon it. His immediate transition to arrogant distanced God reminds me of every smug handyman or government agent who is more than happy to hand off a problem the second they can say they’re done. But Diana is far from done, and she soon finds herself enmeshed in this growing civil war which is threatening the lives of multiple people she loves. I’m less sure about Steve Trevor’s ongoing plotline, as he’s still the hostage of a group of vaguely menacing monster pilgrims. It’s an odd plot, and the reveal of the monsters’ mistress adds another major player from the Greek Pantheon to the story. Overall, this is a story that wavers from intriguing to excellent based on which plot it’s dealing with, and that’s a pretty good endorsement for the run as a whole. Wilson continues to build her own unique mythology and direction for the title.

Corrina: Conversely to Ray, I like Steve Trevor’s plotline more than WW/Ares fighting about his responsibilities. Not that I dislike the main plot, it’s fascinating to watch Ares struggle with the consequences of his decisions. That’s something we’ve never seen him do, it was always “man must struggle because that’s who he is.” Forcing Ares to see the consequences of helping one side or of abandoning a conflict he’s started is effective. His attitude is like “fine, I shouldn’t fight, so I can’t help, so I’ll leave,” which is about the mindset of the Greek gods in the stories based down about them. The reader must make up their own mind about whether this is also a commentary on U.S. foreign policy, though my mind went there as well. (But I suspect it’s a general comment that helping people in the middle of the war is not a cut and dried proposition.)

Back to Steve. What I’m enjoying about that is the mythical beasts sense of displacement and their eagerness to find a leader that will, well, tell them what to do. I also enjoy Steve’s bemusement, as he’s been doing this long enough to accept talking mythical beasts, though certainly not to trust them.

It’s a distinctive run so far and I love the take on the gods. Let’s see what this newly reintroduced one has in mind as well.

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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.