Trial of the Amazons continues with this latest chapter happening after Wonder Woman was taken out while saving Donna Troy, Philippus, and Yara Flor. With Doom’s Doorway ready to burst open at any moment and Wonder Woman out of commission there is no telling where Trial of the Amazons will go next. Especially with the fact that the person responsible for Hippolyta’s murder still not being revealed hangs over everything going with Trial of the Amazons. Now with only two issues left how will Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 set up the finale of this event? Let’s find out.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Joelle Jones
Artists: Joelle Jones and Adriana Melo
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
SYNOPSIS
Mana from the The Esquecidas brings Cassandra Sandsmark to Queen Nubia to reveal that she has found out who murdered Hippolyta. Cassie goes over all the suspects she had during her investigation including Philippus, Queen Faruka, and Potira. Cassie quickly shows why they are all innocent given their different locations when Hippolyta would’ve been murdered.
As this is going on Donna Troy, Philippus, and Yara Flor rush to warn all the Amazons at the Palace on Themyscira about the dangers coming from Doom’s Doorway.
Meanwhile underground, Wonder Woman is able to get out of the rubble that buried her and takes time to recover. Wonder Woman then realizes where she is at and starts laughing while sitting on a throne.
Back at the Themyscira Palace, Cassie reveals that the person responsible for Hippolyta’s murder was none other than Artemis. Nubia quickly has the Amazon guards arrest Artemis. Artemis does not deny being Hippolyta’s murderer. When Cassie offers to show her some mercy Artemis says that she will never reveal her motives for killing Hippolyta.
An earthquake suddenly hits Themyscira and causes part of the palace to collapse just as Donna, Yara, and Philippus arrive. Wonder Woman shows up just in time to catch the part of the palace that was about to land on Nubia and Faruka.
Everyone is able to make it safely out of the palace before it is completely destroyed by the earthquake. Doom’s Doorway suddenly bursts out of the rubble from the destroyed and starts glowing as it is about to open. End of issue.
REVIEW
If it came down to just artwork Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 is one of the best looking comic books to come out this month. Joelle Jones and Adriana Melo knock it out of the park with the visual storytelling. Its when you actually look at what was accomplished for the plot that leaves a lot to be desired as most of the characters are held on standstill for the majority of Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2.
The best example of this is the fact that Donna Troy, Philippus, and Yara Flor are absolutely not needed at all in this issue. They spend their entire time running to the Themyscira Palace with Yara throwing in some quips. And when they do get to the Themyscira Palace they end up being called out by Wonder Woman for taking too long to get there. At the end of the day their entire appearance in this comic book is just to remind you they are part of the Trial of the Amazons story.
Because of how Donna, Philippus, and Yara do not actually factor into the developments of Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 it makes the narrative choice of having 13 completely blacked out panels even more baffling. I understand that Jones and Melo were going for some visual storytelling to show how much Wonder Woman was struggling alone while being buried under tons of rubble. As we see with this sequence on page five of this issue that there only needed to be one completely blacked out panel to get over this narrative. The twelve other completely blacked out panels could’ve easily been given to develop Donna, Philippus, and Yara side of the plot so they actually appear to play a big role in the story.
This narrative choice also makes how long Cassandra Sandsmark goes to talk about all the suspects for Hippolyta’s murder feel like it never ends. What especially hurts Cassie’s overview of her investigation is that we didn’t see much of it in previous issues. Jones does a lot of catch up work to make it seem like Cassie had an extensive investigation when much of it was done of screen until now.
The only aspect of this investigation that works is Artemis not denying she did it. Artemis outright saying that she did it and won’t reveal why is the biggest eye raising moment of Trial of the Amazons since Hippolyta’s death. This attitude by Artemis creates a lot of questions around what is going on with her character, which her upcoming mini-series should likely answer. This development with Artemis is by far the thing I am most interested to reading more about.
The other positive for Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 was Jones and Melo’s artwork. Outside of the questionable 13 blacked out panels this was the best artwork of the event. Along with Jordie Bellaire’s coloring Jones and Melo were able to get across how far Cassie went with her investigation. The way the flashbacks were framed at least gave the appearance of how much work Cassie put into her investigation. It certainly helped build another aspect of Cassie’s character we don’t normally see developed.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 is a visually stunning comic book but does little in the way of building interest in the event. The way many characters are diminished, specifically Donna Troy, Philippus, and Yara Flor, is head scratching. Hopefully the final part of Trial of the Amazons is able to wrap up this event in a way to build hype for the future of the Wonder Woman franchise.
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10