Cutting Down The Family Tree
Written By: James Robinson
Art By: Carlo Pagulayan, Sean Parsons, Jason Paz, Scott Hanna, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: September 27, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
With over a year's wait, it's finally here! That's right, we're finally getting back to the story of Jason, who, if you didn't read the Darkseid War at the end of the New 52, is Wonder Woman's twin brother. I was so disappointed when Greg Rucka took over this book at the beginning of Rebirth and didn't do anything with that phenomenal cliffhanger to the end of that event because it seemed like the biggest thing done to Wonder Woman's character in a long ass time, but it's finally here and now that Diana knows what the Truth and Lies are, hopefully she can navigate her way through this story. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with us being introduced to Paul Jackson, who lives up in the woods by himself, but who the town people have lovingly referred to as Paul Bunyan because of his size and his ability to chop down a tree like it's nobody's business. Don't get attached to Paul though because Grail has come a callin' and after telling us that he's Hercules, son of Zeus and that she's there to suck off his "Old God" life force, she does just that and it seems that Hercules is no more.
Over in Los Angeles, Wonder Woman is busy fighting Giganta, who's been on a cross country jaunt to museum after museum that held ancient artifacts, but now that our Amazon hero has defeated her, it seems that it's up to Steve Trevor and her to figure what the connection to these items are. It doesn't seem like they'll have a lot of time to do research though because at the scene of the fight, they're confronted by Blake Hooper, Probate Lawyer, who tells Diana that she's sole heir to Hercules' fortune.
In the end, we move back to Grail, who is using Hercules' life force on what seems to be "Young Darkseid", but even though she thought that this power would restore the New God to his former self, he's more of "Teenage Darkseid" at this point, but he doesn't seem worried by this snag because as he tells Grail, there's plenty of Zeus' kids on Earth so they'll just have to kill them faster.
That's it for this issue of Wonder Woman and while this does a fine job in setting up the story at hand, I have to say that there's not a lot to this at all. We meet Hercules, Hercules is killed by Grail, Wonder Woman fights Giganta and Grail gives Hercules' life force to Darkseid........ that's really it, but maybe it's because I've been waiting for this story for so long and that I'm really into finding out what James Robinson has up his sleeves for it that I'm actually fully on board with what we got here.......... No, I'm not going to give this a 10/10 or anything like that, but I still enjoyed this story for what it was and I loved the art the entire way through. I just hope that we really explore what Grail is doing with Darkseid because at the end of the Darkseid War I got the impression that Grail wanted to raise him different than what he was, but here it seems she's just trying to make him whole again and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Bits and Pieces:
While I'm all about this story and can't wait to see what we get next, I have to tell ya.......... there's not a lot going on in this issue than the bare minimum of set up. The art is great though and I'm happy as hell that this is the direction that we're going with in Wonder Woman, I just hope to get something with a little more meat to it next issue.
7/10
Eric, I feel like your score is completely reasonable. Heck, I would actually argue that it's a bit high. This book was all setup and while I'm liking the possibilities, I was expecting a lot more with the hype behind this book. Nonetheless, I look forward to next issue and seeing some of the goodies that are in Herc's treasure horde.
ReplyDeleteOMG, i am really confused. Maybe I am wrong to assume everything in DC universe is happening at the same time, BUT: hadn't Batman kidnapped Darkseid and was using him to go back in past when Barbatos came back to life? So.... Should I assume grail just found Darkseid again?
ReplyDeleteYeah, from where we are here, it seems like Metal would have already happened.
DeleteOr that Metal is pure nonsense and shouldn't be in continuity...
DeleteI found this issue to be absolutely.....Wonderful?
ReplyDelete“This was fun. After the last few months unable to define fact and fiction, a simple super hero – super villain showdown was a palate cleanser”. This was a spoken to Steve by Diana and perfectly represents this issue. It seems James Robinson is to Rucka felling as Hercules is to tree felling. I guess that makes him a genuine Rucka-feller. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Greg Rucka's run on this book, but now it's time for something completely different.
Finally the return of one of my favorite characters. Grail is back with the intent of serving old Gods, but watch out 'cause it's a cookbook! After a cool fight with Hercules she destroys him, classic Hercules font and all. She feeds Diana's brother's lifeforce to her father/child-child/father and now I'm my own Grandpa.
Meanwhile Wonder Woman battles Giganta in downtown L.A. in a really fun looking battle that makes me hope Patty Jenkins reenacts it for the inevitable Wonder Woman movie sequel. After the battle Diana is informed that she is the heir to Hercules' fortune. She is told this by Vincent Price posing as a probate lawyer and now I'm guessing next issue will be Diana spending the night in a mansion on Haunted Hill. I heard Jim mention this on the podcast, but “zoinks” it's exactly how it feels.
This book is a lot of set-up and set-up is always more fun because it's free to go in limitless directions. I hope the rest of the story is just as fun. The art is great, especially the Giganta stuff. I would have given this a 7.5, but it gets an extra point for it's presentation of Darkseid. After seeing that ridiculous baby Darkseid with it's ridiculous baby Darkseid helmet in Metal I never wanted to see the character again, but now I can't wait for more. 8.5