Written by G. Willow Wilson
Illustrated by Cary Nord
Published by DC Comics
Writer G. Willow Wilson continues on her first story arc on Wonder Woman with The Just War Part III.
Ares has escaped from his prison and is wreaking havoc on a village where he has redirected a missile. Wonder Woman faces him down and confronts him at last to see if his intentions have any redeemable qualities.
What is considered ‘just’ in war cannot be an absolute, and Ares is forced to face the consequences of his action or lack thereof. Ares attacks with lightning and Diana responds with a crack of her lasso, illustrating at the very least their powers are on par with each other on the battlefield and of wits.
The cry of a baby is overheard after this attack between the two powerhouses. Ares rushes toward he rubble and rescues the child and returns it to their mother. This is a turning point for the War God as he realizes that he should remove himself from interfering with the mortal conflicts.
His new idea, built up in the last issues has been to align himself with Diana to balance the scales of justice. Ares is seeking a sort of redemption in this arc, but he doesn’t exactly find it as he realizes that “Justice is not taking the side of the righteous at any cost. Justice is simple–the absence of conflict”.
Before he takes off, Diana pleads for Ares to reveal the location of Steve Trevor but she does not know that he is being held captive by another goddess – Aphrodite who reveals herself on the last page.
Diana and Etta have a proper fight against the insurgents with bullets flying off of her gauntlets as she pleads for the end of the conflict, to no avail. She once again chastises Ares for being involved in the beginning and now walking away, a not so subtle jab at foreign policies of current and past administrations.
In all, the redemptive Ares angle was a welcome story, even if the rug was pulled out from us when we thought we were going to get a The Brave and The Bold style team up with Wonder Woman and Ares for a minute there.
Unfortunately, war is a constant and Ares is one of Wonder Woman’s main villains, so here’s to hoping Wilson will develop her spin on the character even more in the months ahead.
Now, she must track down and free her damsel, the injured Steve Trevor from the clutches of Aphrodite. The goddess of love is found relaxing in an oversized t-shirt with two green nymphs at her side. What does she want with Steve? Who are these gryphons and beasts that have ferried him to his new captor? Why did this arc start with Ares escaping prison and now Steve is caught with Aphrodite like Michael Palin as Galahad in The Holy Grail?
I’m compelled enough to keep reading along to see if things are going to heat up with Wonder Woman facing off against Aphrodite and to move away from Ares for a bit. Wilson is definitely bringing her A-Game to the title and has me looking forward to new issues of Wonder Woman each month. Cary Nord continues to make the action look cool and this one had it all from explosions to axes breaking in half to sword vs. machine gun combat. This book flows in a fun way.
