The cover is awesome, but then again, it's George Perez, it's going to be awesome. It's got Atlas standing on some columns, holding up the world. Amazons are falling from it like water from an over-filled cup, and Hercules is hanging onto a column. I can't help but wonder one thing. What are the columns standing on?
And then there's a shadowy Diana's head looking at all this. What is that expression on her face?
"Atlas Shrugged"
Writer: George Perez
Penciller: Jill Thompson
Inker: Romeo Tanghal
Letterer: John Constanza
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Associate Editor: Tom Peyer
Editor: Karen Berger
The story begins with Wonder Woman praying at a temple.
A couple of other Amazons approach, expressing worry Diana has been praying for two days, and hasn't had anything to eat or drink. Probably hasn't slept much either. The three Amazons discuss Wonder Woman's recent issues, and Diana feels like someone has opened her personal Pandora's Box. One of the Amazons, Pythia, also has some further bad news: another Amazon named Iphthime is calling for war, wanting blood for Hellene's death.
Elsewhere in Themyscira, a ritual is going down. Unlike in Defenders #94 , this one is rather innocent. It's a healing ritual. An Amazon named Menalippe is getting treatment for her injuries, but she's not woken up from her coma. She's the Amazons' oracle, and something happened that broke her spirit. Her girlfriend Penelope is beside herself. Suddenly, Menalippe wakes up, and has to talk to Diana. The Gods are making a comeback.
We then next switch scenes to Patriarch's, or Man's World. Particularly, Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts. Hey, I lived near there once! A thunderstorm darkens the sky, broken only by brief flashes of light by the crash of lightning. Lt. Etta Candy and General Hillary, two of Wonder Woman's allies, have been summoned to another man's office. A man named General Yedziniak. Yedziniak is heading an investigation, and he considers the two officers people of interest in it. As such, he has another person of interest:
One Steve Trevor, brought forward in chains. Hillary is outraged by this, but Yedziniak reminds Trevor that Trevor has a bit of a history of escaping military custody, especially where Wonder Woman is involved. He explains the world is on the verge of war, and he blames the Amazons for it.
In New Jersey, an Army convoy is carting a group of captured Amazons...somewhere. I don't know. The soldiers don't consider them much of a threat, until they remember the injuries the people who cuffed them took. The soldiers act like jackwagons to the Amazon captives, until the trucks explode, and the surviving soldiers are...removed.
The Amazons' liberators are...Amazons themselves, who appear to have an African/Arabian theme to them.
They are seemingly more bloodthirsty than the Themysciran Amazons, and based on the grenades on one of their belts, they clearly are familiar with modern explosives. One uses a gas grenade to knock out the Amazon prisoners. They leave with them, leaving a survivor, so he can tell others what happened here, as Circe ordered. Back in Themyscira, the Amazons get a surprise visitor: Hercules, the son of Zeus.
Funny enough, this take on Herc kind of resembles the Marvel version of the character a little bit. The head band, the hair, the green. Kind of funny.
Menalippe asks why Herc didn't go with Diana and Hermes. I don't know, I think it was something that happened in the main War of the Gods mini. The Roman gods thought he'd be of better use down in Themyscira. Basically with Diana unavailable, they figured he'd be a good substitute to protect them. An angry Iphthime wants to know why the gods took so long to help them out. Pythia shushes her, hoping that Herc could give some info on where Queen Hippolyte is. Herc is puzzled by this, and say he has no idea.
Ipthime is enraged by this, as the gods should be all-knowing. Menalippe remarks that it's impossible. Pythia is desperate, wanting to save her soul-child, Julia Kapatelis. Yeah, see here for the story between them. Themsycira rumbles, a cackling filling the air. Hercules knows who it is, and wants the fastest horse Themyscira has.
Pythia puts on some armor and grabs a pair of winged sandals, the...Winged Sandals of Hermes. An Amazon named Myrrha reminds her that only Diana can use them, and Pythia can't fly. Pythia explains that she has to get to Julia, and the sandals may be the only way she can get to Patriarch's World. She takes to the air...and the sandals take her for a ride.
Hercules arrives at an area on Themyscira called Doom's Doorway, the archway reduced to rubble. Herc casually tosses the rubble aside, and races in. Yeah, this is the Marvel Herc alright. The Amazons arrive to help, but Herc tells them he's got this. He falls, and lands on a column. The cause for the shaking stands revealed.
Atlas, the man who holds up the world! And evidently has daughters, based on the flowers in his hair. Atlas takes a shot at Herc's intelligence, then explains he has no idea why he is there. Herc commands him to release Themyscira, but Atlas is like, "LOL, nope", and shrugs. His shrugging causes more devastation to the island.
Meanwhile, we find out where Pythia went off to. She tumbles though some clouds, where she sees Hermes battling Mercury, his Roman counterpart. She gets overcome by a light, and she finds herself in a stone temple. She hears chanting in modern Greek, and realizes she's been led to Circe.
Atlas flicks a boulder at Hercules. It doesn't hurt him, but it does knock him off the column he's standing on. Before that, Herc laughs off the boulder, saying it wouldn't stop a "son of Zeus", which makes Atlas stop. Zeus? Hercules explains he's actually Heracles, the Roman counterpart of Herc. Atlas realizes they're strangers. Wait, didn't Atlas ever encounter the Greek Herc?
Atlas starts to vanish, blaming Heracles. Heracles insists he's not behind it. Atlas realizes it was "the boy". Heracles wants to now what he meant by that but Atlas vanishes. Heracles, swearing to save Themyscira, leaps to catch the island. He screams "FATHER!" as the island comes down on him.
We next go to Boston, where one Ed Indelicato, a Boston PD officer and friend of Diana's, is drinking some beers and looking over some police files. Eddie is being noir at the moment. He's just buried his partner, Mike Shands (His police partner), and he's got a head full of regrets. Mainly, he regrets not listening to him about being blindly devoted to Diana. As a form of penance, he's taken Mike's files, wanting to finish what he started.
The murder of the Amazon Hellene by Cheetah, the disappearance of Julia Kapatelis and Hippolyta, Dr. Psycho, and all the craziness rocking the world. Ed knows it's all connected. But he just can't figure it out. He sees the picture, but doesn't have the pieces to complete the puzzle, as it were. He then hears someone call for him.
Ed is shocked to see Diana in his apartment. He asks her where she's been, and she explains there's a War of the Gods going on. TITLE DROP! She got tossed around, and then ended up in his apartment, because gods are crazy like that. She didn't know where else to go, but Ed tells her it's alright, and that she's safe there. Diana reconsiders, saying she doesn't want to put Ed in danger, but Ed refuses. The comic ends with him telling her the only way she's getting away from him is over his dead body.
This issue was an enjoyable one. I didn't feel I really had to need the first issue of the War of the Gods miniseries to read this one. It is a bit of a dense story, but it's a good kind of dense. You get a feeling that a lot is going down, which is appropriate, as War of the Gods is depicting the DC Universe literally dealing with a war involving various pantheons. Jill Thompson's pencils are clean, and nice to look at.
Next time, in honor of a certain Wakandan monarch's upcoming movie, we'll take a look at the beginnings of the Panther's Rage...
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