Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 Review

And Then There Was One...

Written by: Joëlle Jones

Art by: Joëlle Jones, Adriana Melo

Colors by: Jordie Bellaire

Letters by: Pat Brosseau

Cover art by: Joëlle Jones

Cover price: $3.99

Release date: April 19, 2022

 

Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 puts Cassie Sandsmark in the detective role as she does her best Columbo impersonation to reveal Hippolyta's murderer.

 Was It Good?

 

At the very least, you can say Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 gets the job done.  The whole point of this issue is to reveal Hippolyta's killing, and Cassie Sandsmark lays it out all as meticulously as any detective procedural you'll see on TV.  Make no mistake.  This issue is all Cassie.  The other Wonder Girls (Yara, Donna) barely make an appearance, so set your expectations accordingly.

To give Jones credit, Cassie lays out the facts and steps through the sequence of events leading up to Hippolyta's murder in great detail.  Every action by every character makes sense, and you can see how Cassie reaches her conclusion (no spoilers on this point.  I'm not THAT mean).  Overall, the reveal is expertly done.

That said, the reveal falls flat on a few fronts.  First, the weight of Hippolyta's death didn't have enough of an impact to directly affect the lives of any of the present characters or even delay the Trials.  It's not fair to say nobody cared about her death, but it is fair to say nobody cared enough to grieve.  You could argue that grief among Amazon warriors is a luxury, but that doesn't jive with the tone of this event.

Second, the killer refuses to explain themselves once they are named.  With one issue left in the event, what possible reason could there be to play coy with a lackluster murder mystery?  If it plays into some larger scheme involving Doom's Doorway and Chaos, this move only leaves one issue to play it out.  If the murder is unrelated to Doom's Doorway, any explanation time in the final issue will only distract away from the main conflict with Chaos.  If it's never addressed, that's just bad writing.

The last pages show what happened (and is still happening) to Wonder Woman after the previous issue's events and show Doom's Doorway stepping up (literally) as the source of trouble.  As convoluted and unfocused as this event turned out, it's difficult to believe how everything will get wrapped up in one issue, so we'll see. 

On the plus side, Jones continues to impress as one of DC's better artists.  The character designs are excellent, and this issue has a unique panel layout that gives the reading experience some flair.  Again, I liked the art a lot.  It's too bad it's attached to just an ok story.

Bits and Pieces:

Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 solves the case of Hippolyta's murder.  While that is done well, there is still so much left on the table.  It seems unlikely that everything will wrap up nicely and neatly with one issue left.  Pray for a miracle because the creators are going to need it.

7/10