By Cat Wyatt

Issue 37 brings a conclusion to the Children of Gods plotline, though I very much suspect this will not bring an end to the Darkseid plot (there’s no way they’re taking him down in a single issue, even with daddy dearest tagging in). For those that need a recap; last issue left us with Jason weakened (from using too many attacks) Diana likewise (Darkseid turned her into a snack) and Zeus arriving to beat the snot out of Darkseid. Finally! The fight I’ve been waiting for! (Ok, not the exact fight I was waiting for, I just want to see Darkseid get curb stomped).

Saying the twins were surprised at the appearance of their father would be an understatement. What should have worried all of them was the lack of surprise from Darkseid. Am I the only one that found that alarming? A bad guy not being upset about a god appearing makes it sound like he has something up his sleeve (err, gloves in this case).

Not that I’m complaining, as they’re finally giving us the fight that’s been building up for what feels like ages. The last few issues it’s been noting but setting up a fight only to pause it midway through, at least here it looks like they’re finally going to follow through. And I’ll admit, seeing Zeus and Darkseid beat the hell out of each other was pretty satisfying, even if they were basically destroying everything around them at the same time (not that Darkseid would care about that).

The wanton destruction is the reason for Diana not joining in on the fight (despite her desperately wanting to). Darkseid knows Diana, and he knows that she’ll not fight him while there are innocents to be saved, so obviously he arranged for some innocents to be in danger. I’m sure Jason would have loved to join the fight and help his father (now that would have been an epic father/son reunion if ever I’ve heard one) but he was also preoccupied, with Grail. It’s actually pretty fitting that Jason is the one to deal with her, considering he’s been assisting her this whole time.

I think it was around this point that everyone started getting a little overconfident, a very dangerous mistake when fighting a villain like Darkseid. Both Zeus and Diana felt Darkseid getting weaker (Diana knew/assumed this because her strength and youth returned), which led them to assuming the fight was all but won. I wonder how differently this fight would have gone, had they instead taken the time to consider what else may have been going on here, and taken a moment to regroup/plan (though in all fairness, Diana really did want to back her father up during this fight).

Now, I can’t be the only one that was wondering where the hell the Justice League was during this whole ordeal. It’s not like the fight was quiet or discreet, and this is totally their jam. But then again, the police has what, an average response time of 10 plus minutes (best case scenario) and that’s just to travel a city or town. The Justice League has a slightly larger jurisdiction, to say the least. This is something I have to constantly remind myself of, when I find myself getting annoyed by superheroes not arriving rapidly.

As predicted, this issue doesn’t appear to be concluding Darkseid’s plotline, unless they temporarily put down the plot in favor of another (that does happen, from time to time). I’m not sure where things are going to go next, and if the Justice League will be involved or not (they did end up showing up, and I’m resisting the urge to say “even if it was slightly on the late side”). I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

I loved the fight scenes in this issue, and not just because I’ve been waiting for some violence for more than one issue. They were pretty well done on the whole, considering the scale of the fight (Zeus vs. Darkseid = massive destruction). Once again the backgrounds in this issue were outstanding, even if they did get sort of messed up courtesy of the battle.

Score: 3/5

Wonder Woman #37
DC Comics