By Cat Wyatt

In the last issue of Wonder Woman, we were left off with Diana, Jason, Steve, and dozens of ARGUS guards getting pulled to wherever Darkseid’s base is. To make matters worse, the last artifacts Darkseid needed also came along for the ride, bringing him closes to completing his goals.

This issue quite literally starts off with a fight, which really shouldn’t be surprising, given the previous one’s ending. The first panel showing any person is of Diana punching Darkseid in the face (which was mighty satisfying to see, let me tell you). It seems like Darkseid loves to mention how much help she needed to take him down last time; what I’m wondering is whether he’s saying that to boost his confidence, or intimidate her (my guess is both).

Things are a little chaotic. Grail tries to interrupt her father’s fight with Diana, only to have Jason interfere with her interfering (told you). He grabs Grail and drags her to another location to fight (side note: she looks odd going ass first out like that).

Meanwhile, Steve and his men are facing off against the Furies and all of the forces Darkseid has managed to muster during his preparations. They haven’t even been able to check on the wounded or killed upon their arrival, something I’m sure they’re not happy about (think about it, the wounded are being left to fend for themselves right now; that is not something I see Steve being okay with).

As much as Steve would like to go inside and back Wonder Woman up right now, it just isn’t feasible. They need to cover all fronts to this fight if they want to reduce casualties. Unfortunately they should probably focus all of their manpower on Darkseid in order to increase their odds of beating him…so they’re pretty much in a no-win situation here. I may hate the guy, but I have to admit that Darkseid did a good job setting this whole thing up (he managed to get the home ground advantage and the benefit of a surprise attack all in one).

While everyone is busy fighting their butts off, Darkseid’s Furies are scurrying around collecting the final artifacts needed…for…something. They actually haven’t revealed what it’s for at this point in time (though I promise they do before the end of the issue).Unfortunately it seems like with everything else going on, nobody has noticed what they’re up to, as nobody seems to even attempt to stop them (I’m kind of wishing Diana hadn’t freed them from their chains now – that would have slowed them down a bit at least).

Jason really did try very hard to keep Grail away from Diana and Darkseid’s fight, but it only took one small slip to allow Darkseid to complete his convoluted plans. On the bright side, I finally know what he’s been doing! He’s built a portal to Themyscira. Yes, you read that right. Now Wonder Woman can’t step across said portal to warn her friends and family, as one who has left Themyscira can never go back. Though apparently there’s a loophole just big enough to allow Grail in (she was a baby when she left, and thus never actually stepped foot on Themyscira). Like this hadn’t gone downhill enough, right? I wonder if this loophole would also apply to Jason? Interesting food for thought, if nothing else.

It’s nice to finally see what they’ve been building up to for so long. I knew they needed the artifacts for something (duh), but it never occurred to me that it’d be a portal to get Grail to Themyscira. I’m not sure why I’m so surprised, it makes sense, all things considered. I can’t imagine how awful this must feel for Diana; to see her homeworld, with all of her friends and family under attack, and not be able to do a single thing about it.

The artwork for this issue was lovely, as always. The fight scenes were well done, especially the one between Diana and Darkseid (I swear I’m not just saying that because I got to see her punch him in the face). The last panel was particularly striking and does a great job at making sure we’ll want to come back for the next issue to see what happens.

Score: 3/5

Wonder Woman #44
DC Comics