Wonder Woman #31 *Spoilers*

[RealWonderman]

Grail and Darkseid... to be honest, there is something about the ending of DS War and this thats bothering me... and thats New Genesis, Darkseid is their archenemy, he is in an incredibly vulnerable position right now, and there is no sign of Orion, High Father or any of those you'd imagine would pounce on him now that the chance is there.

I presumed that only Grail knew baby Darkseid was alive, no?

[Awonder]

... One of our fellow postors, Awonder, reminded me that the October solicits placed Jason, somewhere in the Grecian isles...

SacredKnight gets that honor, not me.

I'm here hoping Hercules isn't actually dead just very nearly dead. There's not any real reason he couldn't be nearly dead to have his energy stolen.

Well, during Darkseid War, when Babyseid stole the god power from Superman, Lex, etc, it didn't kill them. So, I guess he can steal the god power from Hercules and others without killing them, too.

And really I thought Rucka's whole run was about removing the rape-azons from continuity and changing Diana to no longer being Zeus' kid.

I wish.

... since even less was actually accomplished in that story over 2 years than we thought.

It's only been a little over 1 year. The double shipping makes it seem longer because we have more issues.

So the Rucka run certainly implied that by connection she had her clay origin back.

I don't think he was allowed to change it, so he ignored it (yay!).

So hopefully they just revert to what I thought of the film's story and have Zeus spark the clay to life as oppossed to really being a father by blood.

That's my head canon for the movie; but, for the comics, we have to have a twin brother. And, I doubt Hippolyta sculpted twins. (If Johns forces Jason into the movie, too, I'm going to be pissed!)

[Nyssane]

Decent, better than what we've been getting recently, thats for certain.

It does however bother me a bit that Robinson is going straight for the superstars when it comes to offing the offspring of Zeus. Like if the New 52 taught us anything, it would be that there are a lot of Zeus' kids that are basically in hiding due to Hera. And, while this might be a shocker for some, why didn't Grail strike out at someone like Milan or Siracca to get the ball rolling and maybe at the end strike someone like Hercules?
Plus it irritated me a little bit that the end of the fight, it seemed like Hercules was actually still alive, though only barely, and then Hercule Poirot shows up and says he didn't. Bit of a bummer... plus it just took way too long to actually get to that point.

Grail and Darkseid... to be honest, there is something about the ending of DS War and this thats bothering me... and thats New Genesis, Darkseid is their archenemy, he is in an incredibly vulnerable position right now, and there is no sign of Orion, High Father or any of those you'd imagine would pounce on him now that the chance is there.

It's entirely possible that:

A - Grail already went after less powerful demigods like Sirracca and Milan, since Darkseid is already reaching his teenage years he must've been fed plenty of demigods already.

B - Azzarello's created demigods don't exist anymore post-Rebirth.

I did think Hercules was still alive at the end, but I guess not. Unless the lawyer is keeping the dried-up-yet-still-alive husks of the demigods for his own use.

As for New Genesis, DC doesn't really seem to care that deeply about it beyond Orion. And honestly, I don't think fans care much about the place either. But I don't think anyone knows Darkseid is alive anymore.

What I don't understand about Giganta is: shouldn't she be near invincible when she is full giant sized. One punch - even from Wonder Woman - should never knock her out. Also, I don't understand why we don't see her using more giant height based attacks. Shouldn't her stomps cause earthquakes, her scream should shatter glass and even kill nearby mortals, a handclap should cause a sonic boom. Writers/artists/tv shows always make Giganta battles so boring, but she should be an even more intimidating Hulk.

I agree wholeheartedly. I assumed she did put more of a fight up based on the fact that she's one of Wondy's top villains, but we only caught the climax of the battle.

Fun fact: her screams do cause glass to shatter!



But yeah, the whole point of her is that she hits hard and can take a hit, yet this is like, what, the third time in a few years where the first time we see in her a comic, it's of her getting punched out by Diana? Ugh.

[Mel Dyer]

Don't agree that too much time was spent on Paul. or the fight. One, regarding just Paul, only a couple of pages were spent on him solo. And that was clearly to foster the red herring that he was Jason. Which worked. The rest was with his battle with Grail as Hercules. And yeah, if Robinson really wanted to he could have written her as one-shotting him. But it seems to me he wanted to portray one of the Old Gods at least getting the chance to defend himself. I'm fine with that and don't consider it a waste.

George Perez's magnificent, long-suffering and finally redeemed Hercules, who returned to fight at the side of the Amazons, during WOGs, has been treated so shabbily - and Perez's work, so disrespected - by WW writers and editors, that I'm almost relieved he's finally DEAD. As much as I loved Champion, conceptually, I hated seeing one of my favorite scribes, John Byrne, running poor Hercules into the ground with his nonsensical revenge scheme, against the Amazons.

I'm still hoping that Robinson paid the attention to Hercules that he did, before bumping him off, because he had some significant role to play in Jason's upbringing. Perhaps, he raised Jason in the Grecian isles...mentored him, somehow. As Jason presently has no emotional investment in Diana or the Amazons, maybe, grief over Hercules's murder motivates him to join forces with Diana, to take down Grail and Kid Darkseid.

[NYCER]

I did really enjoy the art, however!

As did I.

Wasn’t a fan of Sharp’s work but did like Scott’s enormously. The subsequent artists, however, were meh at best and didn’t do justice to Diana.

Could this probate lawyer be Jason after all? Just my hunch.

[NYCER]

This is pretty official sounding...

"Yes, one of the aspects of this storyline is the children of Zeus. We meet one character in the first issue, and of course, both Wonder Woman and Jason are children of Zeus, too."

Because of the movie and, more importantly, its success, DC shoehorned itself into retaining Azzarello’s origin for Diana as mainstream DCU canon and effectively retconned Rucka’s REBIRTH mortal Diana. Personally, I’m okay with Diana being immortal and a god/demigod and I very much like how Robinson defers to Patty Jenkins’s take on Diana.

As long as we don’t get the Herodotus man slaying, sex pirate Amazons in DCU mainstream continuity, I’m good.

[Hawk80]

So Rebirth was still bad fanfiction and a waste of time...

Maybe I'll stick around to see it written on page. At that point I'll quit for good.

[tardisoperator]

Touching on Darkseid's current state in Wonder Woman, I wonder where this story takes place with the current Mr. Miracle miniseries.

[Gaelforce]

I gave it a 3.

1. Love the artwork.
2. Don't like the return of the Zeus origin or the twin concept.
3. Really didn't like Diana being in the issue so little, let alone so much going to Hercules who was just killed off.
4. I'm intrigued by the lawyer...what demi-god keeps a lawyer on retainer, let alone leaves everything to a sister who, so far as we know, he's never met?
5. I like the concept of the plot, but this is dimmed by #2

I like Robinson's writing, but I just have a hard time getting behind the whole 'there are lots of Zeus's kids running around and Diana has a twin because Hippolyta slept with Zeus' thing. It just doesn't work for me and, imo, makes Diana's origin too generic/common.

[Outside_85]

I presumed that only Grail knew baby Darkseid was alive, no?

Good reason for them to invade and make sure Apokolips is ordered no?
Also, why has none of them shown up to actually confirm it?

It's entirely possible that:

A - Grail already went after less powerful demigods like Sirracca and Milan, since Darkseid is already reaching his teenage years he must've been fed plenty of demigods already.

B - Azzarello's created demigods don't exist anymore post-Rebirth.

As for New Genesis, DC doesn't really seem to care that deeply about it beyond Orion. And honestly, I don't think fans care much about the place either. But I don't think anyone knows Darkseid is alive anymore.

A) Entirely possible. But why not show us any of that?

B) Rucka only unmade the New 52 Amazons, he didn't mention anything else. Also if thats the case, this whole story is built on something that never happened.

True, but to my mind, writer/company apathy towards the New Gods is a poor excuse in this case.

[Sacred Knight]

So hopefully they just revert to what I thought of the film's story and have Zeus spark the clay to life as oppossed to really being a father by blood.

That's pretty much impossible. Diana and Jason are twins, thus that demands a natural childbirth, not the clay origin with just allegory of Zeus's fatherhood by bringing her to life.

[OBrianTallent]

The only thing Rucka discounted was the Amazons that Diana thought she knew. (Which...what really happened to them? Were they never real, just a figment of her imagination or were there a different crazy race of women out there that Diana hung out with? Also...how does any of that apply to Donna??? Sorry...wonderings for another thread) However, The clay origin versus the Zeus origin were never questioned in Rucka's run. Honestly at this point, i am kind of apathetic about it. No amount of whining from me is going to change DC's mind on this so it's just a matter of hoping we can get some good stories from here on out. It does however make her a demigoddess which is kind of cool I guess.
As for this issue...I really liked it a lot, with the major exception of the death of Hercules. I had recently started trying to track down the old Hercules Unbound series so this was an almost really cool surprise to find it was him. I also like that Grail is going to be a Wonder Woman villain it looks like, rather than a Justice League villain. I also (and always have liked the idea) of the New Gods being tied into the "old" gods and would like to see that fleshed out, preferably in their own series. (Was it ever in any of the previous? I cant recall.)
As for the art...I have always wanted to see Carlo Pagulayon drawing Wonder Woman. I think I first took notice of his art when he was doing Hulk/Red She Hulk and thought he would be perfect for Wonder Woman. For me, he is perfect on the book. As it stands, I wouldn't mind if Robinson and Pagulayan stayed on past their initial plans! (I'm also extremely excited about Emanuela Lupacchino coming on board for art as well.)

[PyroTwilight]

That's pretty much impossible. Diana and Jason are twins, thus that demands a natural childbirth, not the clay origin with just allegory of Zeus's fatherhood by bringing her to life.

Not really. I mean even in Pre-Crisis Diana had Nubia who was her sister crafted from black clay etc... And was considered a blood sister from what I understand.

[Pinsir]

A better start than the most recent runs, I'm not looking forward to more Grail though.

[Fenix]

Not really. I mean even in Pre-Crisis Diana had Nubia who was her sister crafted from black clay etc... And was considered a blood sister from what I understand.

Robinson has clearly stated that Jason and Diana are the children of Zeus and Hippolyta in his interview. There's really no reason to discuss it further.