Tag: The Offer

Best of DC: Week of July 24th, 2019

Best of this Week: Wonder Woman #75 – G. Willow Wilson, Xermanico, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Pat Brosseau

Ever since the beginning of DC Rebirth, Wonder Woman has been trying to get back home to Themyscira and on this amazing anniversary issue of her book, she’s finally home, but not in the way that she expected.

The book begins with Grail, the daughter of Darkseid, sitting on Hippolyta’s throne. She muses about how boring it was to listen to Ares stories as they were both trapped elsewhere and when he escaped and died, she was freed. The first thing she did? Take the God Killer Sword and take what she believed to be rightfully hers.

Grail has been a thorn in Wonder Woman’s side since her introduction during the Darkseid War (2017). She’s appeared regularly as an enemy of Wonder Woman with her schemes normally involving a way for her to take over Themyscira and it seems as though she’s finally gotten her with. Even more so that a few of the Amazons, including one of Wonder Woman’s most trusted friends, Nubia, is apparently among their ranks.

General Antiope and a few others welcome Wonder Woman back to a realm just outside of Themyscira known as Dimension Chi and they inform her of what has happened. Some Amazons decide to dance to welcome back their beloved princess, but Antiope does not as she worries that they aren’t yet prepared for battle, especially not Maggie, the woman who found Antiope’s sword in a lake. The two decide it’s best to train them all up before the fighting starts.

We get a wonderful training montage of Wonder Woman masterfully teaching her fellow Amazons and Maggie, but she and Antiope still worry that it all might not be enough. Wonder Woman thinks she has an ace up her sleeve as she has Atlantiades, a goddess of love and light that was previously trapped on Earth and who is also in love with Wonder Woman, fitted with armor for the battle.

Grail, having held Hippolyta prisoner, tells the queen to renounce her crown in front of her warriors, but Hippolyta is having none of that. She would rather be drowned in the sea than acquiesce to Grail’s cowardly demands and shames the Amazons that have joined her. Before she could push the Quen into the water, an arrow lands at Grails feet and Wonder Woman Amazons break through the barrier of Dimension Chi and attack Grail and her forces. 

Wonder Woman grasps Grail right by the throat as her God Killer Sword suddenly goes missing, but decides to give Darkseid’s daughter a fighting chance. Jesus Merino takes over the art for these pages and the fight itself is pretty damn fantastic. Wonder Woman and Grail look like amazing pillars of strength and beauty surrounded by the clashing swords and spears of the other Amazon Warriors. 

Merino has a knack for action scenes as his shots are absolute quality. Grail has absolute fury in her strikes with little to no finesse. Diana, of course is a very defensive and honorable fighter, a fault that Grail makes use of as she trips Diana to run away. On the other page, Antiope and Nubia engage each other in battle and their faces are drawn in warriors anger, Nubia telling Antiope that maybe not all is what it seems after Antiope chastises her for betrayal.

Maggie tries to make a break to the cave where Hippolyta has been moved to, but Grail takes a knife and makes a mad dash herself, knocking Maggie out of the fight before Wonder Woman follows suit after a distraction by the radiant Atlantiades. Wonder Woman corners Grail who reveals her best leverage – Isadore, the daughter of Wonder Woman’s arch enemy Veronica Cale who hasn’t been seen since the early days of this Wonder Woman run. Wonder Woman drops her weapons in order to see the girl unhurt, but, of course, Grail is a snake and attempts to slit her throat before an arrow catches in her hamstring. Nubia betrays Grail, saving Isadore and Hippolyta and ends this book with Grail back in chains and a hug between mother and daughter… until a new Offer is made involving the God Killer Sword and a certain feline villain.

G. Willow Wilson took the ball and ran with it when she took over Wonder Woman. Her run, so far, has been action packed, funny and heartwarming. It took her time to find footing, but this has been mostly great. I’m certain she’s going to continue, hopefully to issue #100 and I’m glad because she’s found an effective way to build upon Wonder Woman’s relationships and her mythology. Now that she’s back in Themyscira, for however long it lasts, I wonder what kind of stories Wilson will be able to tell, especially with Year of the Villain going on.

Best of DC: Week of July 17th, 2019

Best of this Week: Justice League #28 – James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Hi-Fi, Tom Napolitano

Doom is coming.

Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz, is hearing the whispers of the people. He hears them asking for Lex Luthor to grant their wishes, for power, money, confidence and J’onn is determined to stop him. With Hawkgirl, the two fly to the last place that J’onn traced Luthor’s presence. Luthor, however, was already in J’onn’s head and commands him to knock Hawkgirl unconscious so that they may talk.

Elsewhere on Qward, in the Antimatter Universe, the rest of the League stand on the lifeless world looking for The Anti-Monitor. Daniel Sampere has few pages in the book, but he makes the best of every one that he is given. The first splash page is absolutely beautiful as it establishes John Stewart as the head of this mission given his numerous battles with Sinestro and his Weaponeers. The rest of the League also look badass with Batman’s broody darkness flanked by Superman’s big blue hope. Even with the World Forger and the Monitor behind The Flash and Wonder Woman, they stand out as uber-imposing figures with the League.

They find that the planet is lifeless with a message left by the Anti-Monitor in the Weaponeers blood. He warns them not to follow and the team is left at a loss because the being could be literally anywhere in the multiverse. J’onn and Luthor walk around a secret lab/refuge that Luthor had been hidden for a very long time. Luthor explains that his Offers are going out to the worst of the worst and the Manhunter asks why Luthor is telling him all of this, the newly reborn villain replies with “Why not?” because he did broadcast it to the world before his “suicide.”

What makes this most interesting is the uneasiness at watching Lex Luthor, the man who held his sanity and guile above all things, slip into the realm of madness and resignation to his vow of Doom. He tries to convince J’onn that there’s no more need to fight for the greater good given how willing people were to embrace Doom. He says that J’onn’s own desire to save or rehabilitate Luthor is part of his own eventual downfall.

Luthor praises something higher than himself by waxing poetic about Perpetua’s vision of what man and Martian was supposed to be. He acknowledges his own jealousy of Superman after having a conversation with Perpetua at length. Apparently she tells him that humanity AND Martiankind would have been immortal, apex predators, conquerors of the multiverse. He Offers J’onn a choice; to join him or not.

J’onn calls him insane.

Luthor had hoped that things wouldn’t come to this but i left with no other choice than to activate tech that had been in J’onn’s mind since one of their earlier encounters. It slowly undoes the Martian’s cellular structure as Hawkgirl wakes up and attempt to save him. Fernandez has always been good with faces and the way that he conveys her terror at watching J’onn slowly come undone as Luthor grins evilly is masterful. Hawkgirl cries as Luthor absorbs J’onn’s body into himself, the rest of the Legion attack the League and Starman, Shayne and Jarro see the end of the world at the Legion of Doom’s hand.

This book was absolutely stellar. Ending the Apex Predator arc on a very low note was probably the best decision to showcase how much more powerful Luthor is in this form. He’s gone completely mad and yet lucid. He’s sure of his path and even the best that the Justice League has to offer isn’t enough to stop his plans from coming to fruition. With the Anti-Monitor keeping away from the League, one has to wonder what it is he’s afraid of or what he’s trying to avoid and what is the horrible end that Starman has seen?

The stakes are getting higher and higher as we continue to make our way to the culmination of everything as the Year of the Villain soldiers on.