Wonder Woman #775 // Review
Diana comes to the resting place of gods armed only with a squirrel, her wits, and an old, dead friend. Her story is brought to the page by writers Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan. Their tale is bound to page and panel in Wonder Woman #775 by artist Andy MacDonald and colorist Nick Filardi. Meanwhile, in the past, young Diana faces a test that will challenge her courage in a conflict written by Jordie Bellaire, drawn by Paulina Ganucheau, and colorist Kendall Goode.
A pile of dead Martian Manhunters clogs the entrance to some presumably ancient pyramid. (THERE'S an image to open an issue on.) The future half of the twin god Janus isn't far away. She wields a god scraper scythe. If Wonder Woman is to defeat her, she must first free all of the Olympian deities wrongfully incarcerated in the graveyard of the gods. Elsewhere in Diana's past, contact with an ancient text has infected the Amazon Clio with dark magic. Diana's mother tries to defend herself, but it is Diana who must square off against powerful magic to vanquish the darkness.
Diana is suitably heroic in a rare action fantasy story that leans in heavily on the "as wise as Athena" aspect of Wonder Woman's power. Conrad and Cloonan ground the story's climax in a battle of riddles that feels surprisingly powerful on the page. Conrad and Cloonan give Diana a wonderfully resilient sense of internal strength and courage in cerebral combat. Bellaire launches Young Diana into story-length combat. As she had been long envisioned as a warrior of peace, Wonder Woman always seems awkward with a sword, but Bellaire wields the sword as a symbol of Young Diana's courage in a way that looks a lot more graceful than it usually does.
The Groundskeeper of the Graveyard of the Gods looks like a gracefully amplified plague doctor. It's a visual that might have looked kind of silly had it not been for just the right visual framing by MacDonald and Filardi. The cosmic weight of the battle of wits might have felt quite flat had it not been for the truly dazzling cosmic backdrop lent to the page by Filardi. There's a beautiful ethereal glow in the Graveyard of the Gods that almost becomes its own character. Story-length combat between might and sorcery is a bit of a challenge for ANY artist to try to breathe new life into, but Ganucheau and Goode give the combat between Young Diana and Clio quite a bit of vivid life, with Ganucheau framing the action that is gorgeously illuminated by Goode in darkly glowing eldritch imperial violet energy lighting up a storm in Themyscira.
Wonder Woman's wisdom in the present is paired with Young Diana's strength in the past. Though it WOULD be nice to see Bellaire and company do a full-length Young Diana series, the pairing between past and present works quite well for the time being. Several issues in, the new format for Wonder Woman's main title feels solidly entertaining.
