Falls Just Short

     Ares finally shows his hand.  Both Themyscira and Talarion are attacked by Euphemus’ sea monsters.  And Wonder Woman, badly injured, washes up on the shores of her homeland.  In the final issue of Rise of the Olympian, there’s a massive battle to decide the fate of the Amazons.  In order to combat the various sea monsters coming towards her, Hippolyta has all the prisoners on the island, including Alkyone and the Circle, released.  She orders Phillipus to keep Wonder Woman from fighting, but as she herself admits, her daughter is very willful.  Wonder Woman realizes just what Genocide was trying to do, and along with her fellow Amazons, she beats back Ares’ forces.  The Amazons then travel to Talarion to save Jason, Achilles, and the Gargareans, and Wonder Woman splits Ares’ head open.  Zeus then reveals his true plans for the Gargareans.  Achilles is to wed Wonder Woman, and the two tribes will be joined.  Then the Gargareans can handle all the troubles of the world.  He killed Kane Milohai just to facilitate this.  In rage, Wonder Woman strikes Zeus and renounces her identity as an Amazonian.  She then leaves the island and everything she knows.  Even though the day is won, she has lost.  And Alkyone reveals that Genocide now belongs to her.

     This last issue managed to tie together all the threads of Rise of the Olympian rather nicely, considering how disparate they were for so long.  However, I stand by my statement that this arc would have been better as two separate arcs, one for Genocide and one for the actual rise of Achilles.  By stuffing everything into eight issues, Gail Simone made everything seem far too rushed and too compact.  That’s its main downfall, and it makes it fall just short of being one of the greatest arcs on Wonder Woman history.  However, it does do a very good job of setting up a new status quo for Wonder Woman.  I’m curious as to where Simone will take her next.  Aaron Lopresti’s work here is as good as it has been in ever other issue he’s worked on, and he’s definitely proven himself to be a superb artist for this series.  He also did quite well with all the sea monsters, proving that he isn’t just limited in skill to draw tough, beautiful women.  Next, we get a nice, relaxing two-parter with Black Canary, so Gail Simone can show off her skill with another female great in the DC Universe.  It’ll be a nice break from this crazy arc.

Plot: 9.0      Art: 9.3      Dialogue: 9.0      Overall: 9.0

Rabid Superheroes

     If you’ve read Justice League: Cry for Justice, then you know exactly to what this title is referring.  In the fallout from Final Crisis (which, actually, ended months ago), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) feels that the Justice League of America isn’t doing enough.  Simply reacting to problems doesn’t save enough lives.  Therefore, Hal decides to form his own Justice League to be proactive, to stop problems before they occur.  And his good pal Green Arrow decides to join him.  Then, in three other segments, three characters decide that they desire justice on their own.  Ray Palmer, along with the successor to the Atom legacy, Ryan Choi, beat up Killer Moth.  Palmer even tortures him to find out who was behind the killing of a friend of his.  The Mikaal Tomas Starman finds out that his boyfriend is dead and blows up a car in anger.  And Congorilla’s entire tribe of gorillas, as well as his friend Freedom Beast, are killed.  Each of them cry out for justice, the last of them quite literally.

     This miniseries is already more than a bit of a joke.  Deliberately forcing these characters into situations where they can, in extremely contrived and cheesy fashions, cry out for justice.  Making Ray Palmer and Hal Jordan suddenly bloodthirsty.  And the fact that Final Crisis finished months ago just makes this story feel so dated.  Besides, hasn’t the idea of a proactive Justice League been explored in both Justice League Elite and Extreme Justice, albeit in different varieties?  So to be honest, I’m just not feeling this story.  And the very fact that it’s utilizing such random characters as Mikaal Tomas and Congorilla makes it even less exciting.  The very concept of Congorilla is more than just a bit ridiculous.  Okay, so Mauro Cascioli’s art is drop dead gorgeous 90% of the time.  But that’s the only redeeming feature of this miniseries.  In fact, it’s shocking that THE James Robinson, the guy who wrote Starman, would write something so silly.  I’m staying for one more issue, but if it doesn’t pick up, I’ll save my money by buying one less miniseries.

Plot: 5.2      Art: 9.0      Dialogue: 3.5      Overall: 4.8