Wonder Woman #33

This issue is the conclusion to the thus far stellar "Rise of the Olympian" storyline. However this storyarc ends, things have definitely been shaken up in Wonder Woman's world, which should make for some very interesting stories going forward. The writer here is Gail Simone.

-This comic opens with Wonder Woman returning home to Themyscira beaten and unconscious after her victory over Genocide, her insane future self. As the Amazons and WW's mother, Hippolyta, look over the beaten princess, a legion of sea monsters attack the island. Hippolyta orders WW to be taken to safety and the Amazon's attack.

-WW awakens to the sounds of war and ties hew lasso to her right hand and an axe to her left and joins the battle.

-Ares, the orchestrator of this battle, orders his creatures away from Themyscira and after the island home of Zeus' current favorites, the Olympians. Hippolyta orders the Amazons to pursue the monsters and the Amazons lend their assistance to the Olympians.

-While the battle wages all around her, WW figures that Ares is probably close by, reveling in the pain and suffering he was responsible for. WW locates Ares and buries her axe deep in his skull(!!!), seemingly killing him.

-Ares "death" halts the battle and Ares forces retreat to the waters from whence they came. Zeus takes this opportunity to show his face and to tell WW that he created the Olympians as a favor to her, so she could become a wife and mother. He also lets it slip that he murdered the god WW had made a pact with after WW had forsaken Zeus a few issues back. Upon hearing of Zeus' actions, WW lays out Zeus with a well placed haymaker to the shock and horror of her mother and the combined Amazons and Olympians.

-Needless to say, Zeus is less than happy about taking that shot to the chin, and he tells WW that as her god it is her duty to worship and obey him. WW refuses, and Zeus tells her that it is his decree that Achilles, the leader of the Olympians, is now the leader of both the Olympians and the Amazons. WW rejects Zeus and turns her back on her home. Hippolyta tries to convince WW to listen to Zeus like a good Amazon should, but WW tells her mother she can not be Zeus' puppet anymore. After Achilles promises to take care of the Amazons, WW leaves Themyscira for possibly the last time(well at least for now, I'm trying to be dramatic!).

-This issue ends with the evil Amazon, Captain Alkyone, pulling out one of those weird clay babies and revealing that Ares had put the soul of Genocide in it. Alkyone then puts her "daughter" away for safe keeping.

I'm kind of torn about my feelings regarding this comic. One one hand there were some pretty cool action scenes(come on, WW burying that axe into Ares head was simply AWESOME!), but for some reason the story just didn't click for me. I really wanted to love this issue, since I've so enjoyed this storyline, but there was just something lacking... Maybe it was the ease in which Ares was defeated(killed?). Since Ares was supposed to be the guy responsible for all of the crap WW has been through in recent issues, I would have liked to have seen WW and Ares have an epic battle(a couple of pages long at least). A nice long fight scene with Ares taunting WW before WW finally put the axe into his brain. Not just a quick "CHONK!" and nothing more...

Oh, and call me old fashioned, but I also don't like to see Zeus running around in a spacesuit. What the hell is THAT all about anyway!?! Shouldn't Zeus be running around in a toga or something? For a score I'll give this issue an 8 out of 10, mainly based on the strength of the fight scenes. Aaron Lopresti really did a fantastic job with the pencil work here and Matt Ryan's inks did a nice job of embellishing Aaron's art. While I wasn't overly fond of this final chapter of this story, I'd give the entire storyline a very strong recommendation.