Artemis: Wanted #1 – Vita Ayala, Writer; Skylar Partridge, Artist; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: Trial of the Amazons brought a lot of changes to the Amazons, but it also left a surprising number of things unanswered. Artemis was exposed as Hippolyta’s killer, but she refused to answer why she did it and escaped in the aftermath of the final battle. Now she’s on the run, with Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark in hot pursuit. Cassie, who played the role of detective in the event, is still puzzled by many of the inconsistencies in Artemis’ story, while Donna is only focused on revenge. Artemis, meanwhile, has found her way to a small town in rural America. There, the townspeople seem guarded, locking doors whenever a stranger comes into town—but come the night, the entire town seems to transform into a horror show with strange shadow wolves hunting everyone in sight—and maybe having ties to the missing townspeople. Things feel a little disjointed at first, with the various pieces not exactly fitting together.
That nicely fixes itself in the second half, as it becomes clear that the strange town has ties to the Amazons. One thing I’ve really enjoyed about this run is the way it’s expanded the world of the Amazons, showing that there are not only more tribes than we knew, but that there were other Amazons besides Diana who left the island and carved out a different path for themselves. As for Artemis’ fate, this issue has some massive reveals that come via a literal deus ex machina. Really, this was the only reveal that made sense to me, and solicits sort of hinted strongly at it already. Death is a strange thing when you’re an immortal with a direct pipeline to actual gods. But what works here is the new status quos it sets for characters. It does feel a little pat at times, with several pages devoted to a character explaining to other characters why they’re such great heroes, but as a whole it’s a solid next installment in the Amazon saga.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
