This third volume of the Wonder Woman New 52 series concerns Wonder Woman struggling to adjust to several things. First there is the fact that she is the last Amazon, then there is what happened to her mother, but she is also adjusting to the fact that she has a whole slew of siblings (they share a father-Zeus), but the newest one of those siblings has been stolen by Hermes. Diana has promised the child’s mother, Zola that she will find and return him.
Oh, and Hera is human.
But has discovered ice cream, so there’s hope there.
Yet, there is this First Born of the gods running around trying to kill everything. He hangs with Cassandra. Or to be more exact, she hangs with him, and what is with her neck?
One thing I love about this series is the way that the Greek gods are portrayed. There’s War, who is an old man; Aphrodite whose face we never see; Hephaestus, who has cool arms; the twins Apollo and Diana are quite wonderful. And Hades. Hades is awesome.
Orion and the New Gods also make an appearance.
In one sense, this story ARC is a quest story, the object being finding Zola’s baby, whose sex Zola doesn’t even know for the child was snatched at birth. The story is really about relationships. This collection includes the story of Diana’s training at the hands of her uncle War. It is a pretty good short story about teacher and student. The story is important for what occurs later in the ARC.
One of the relationships that is centered is that of Wonder Woman and Zola. Zola might be a woman in distress, but she is far from helpless. Diana might be a kick ass super-hero but you would also want Zola in your corner. She also stands up to Hera, asking why Hera attacks the children and lovers of Zeus instead of Zeus himself.
The most powerful though is the story of Sicora, a child of Zeus whose help Wonder Woman must get if she is to find the child. Sicora’s story and actions, and Wonder Woman’s response to them is just heart-rending. The use of the cost of being a child of a god is so starkly shown multiple times in this volume. It is quite nice to see that aspect of Greek myth being used.
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