Wonder Woman #31

Let's see what Gail Simone has in store for WW this month. For the record, this is Part 6 of the "Rise of the Olympian" storyline.

-OK, a couple of things have started to become a little bit more clear with this issue, including the true identity of Genocide. However, before I get to that, I should probably start from the top.

-Ares meets up with Alkyone, formerly of Hippolyta's personal guard. Alkyone is angered that Hippolyta has brought a bunch of former Amazons to Themyscira and she winds up making some kind of deal with Ares, however, we do not learn exactly what Ares is up to. Ares does give Alkyone one of those weird clay children totems before he leaves.

-Wonder Woman meets up with Nemesis in the hospital and visits her comatose friend Candy. While sitting with Candy, WW is met by Athena, who has taken possession of one of the nurses in the hospital. Athena explains that she's dead but not really dead(OOOK...)and she tells WW that all of the bad things that are currently occurring are due to the influence of Ares. Ares has been the puppet master, pushing Zeus into his recent rash actions, as well as influencing villains like Dr. Morrow, Cheetah and Dr. Psycho into doing his bidding. Before leaving, Athena reveals that Genocide was actually created from the corpse of a future version of WW! Needless to say this bombshell shocks WW, but Athena tells WW that she has to pull herself together before the Olympians begin a war that will destroy the planet.

-The Olympians arrive in Russia and capture a military base there. WW arrives and battles Achilles, who is completely unaware of the plans Ares has put into motion. While WW and Achilles are fighting, someone(I'd guess Ares)forces the Russians to launch a thermonuclear missile. Achilles is shocked, since he wanted to destroy the missiles, not use them and WW flies after the missile. WW waits until the missile is high enough in the atmosphere and harmlessly destroys it.

-WW then returns to the Russian base and discovers the Olympians have left. With the Olympians gone, WW decides that she will find and kill Genocide before it can kill anymore people.

I enjoyed this comic a lot, but I have to admit the sudden inclusion of Ares threw me for a bit of a loop. Not that I'm complaining, but Ares really seemed to come out of nowhere. While it does make some sense that Ares was pulling the strings, I still have the feeling that the full story hasn't quite come out yet. All of the revelations just seemed to come too easily for WW in this issue. I'd venture that Gail is holding one major twist back in this storyline.

So now, not only does WW have to contend with Genocide, who is supposedly a future version of herself, she also has to deal with Zeus and the Olympians and now it seems Ares is also going to become a large thorn in WW's side. Things should be very exciting as this storyline begins to reach its climax. For a score, I'll give this comic an 8 1/2 out of 10. Personally, I CAN'T WAIT for the rematch between WW and Genocide! Gail should just dedicate a whole issue to that battle, that fight should be legendary!