The latest Wonder Woman crossover event in Trial Of The Amazons is over. The event did a lot to change the state of the Wonder Woman franchise. As the event went on there was a lot of good and bad that happened. So now that Trial Of The Amazons has concluded I am going to dive into everything that happened and what this event means for the Wonder Woman franchise.
Before getting into the analysis for the event as a whole, you can check out my recaps and reviews for each individual chapter of Trial Of The Amazons to see how things went here:
Trial Of The Amazons: Wonder Girl #1
Trial Of The Amazons: Wonder Girl #2
CREATIVE TEAM FOR TRIAL OF THE AMAZONS
Writers: Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala, Joelle Jones, Michael W. Conrad, Becky Cloonan, and Jordie Bellaire
Artists: Laura Braga, Skylar Patridge, Joelle Jones, Elena Casagrande, Alitha Martinez, Rosi Kampe, Paulina Ganucheau, Becky Cloonan, and Adriana Melo
Inkers: Mark Morales
Colorists: Romulo Fajardo Jr., Jordie Bellaire, Tamra Bonvillain, Kendall Goode, and Marissa Louise
Chapters: Trial Of The Amazons #1 – #2, Nubia & The Amazons #6, Wonder Woman #785 – #786, Trial Of The Amazons: Wonder Girl #1 – #2
Trial Of The Amazons was an event that was a collaborative effort by the creative teams behind the Wonder Woman franchise since Infinite Frontier started. That is seen as Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala, Joelle Jones, Michael W. Conrad, and Becky Cloonan wrote both the first and final chapters of Trial Of The Amazons together. From there each writer wrote their respective series that they’ve been writing since the beginning of Infinite Frontier.
The artwork was packed with top level artists as Laura Braga, Skylar Patridge, Joelle Jones, Elena Casagrande, Alitha Martinez, Rosi Kampe, Becky Cloonan, and Adriana Melo all provided their parts. That is along with each artists work on different chapters of the Trial Of The Amazons in their respective series.
Along with the Trial Of The Amazons story we did get two chapters from the Young Diana story that Jordie Bellaire, Paulina Ganucheau, and Kendall Goode have been telling in the pages of Wonder Woman. The Young Diana stories did not directly relate to the Trial Of The Amazons but did feature Hippoylta and other Amazons in the story before Diana became Wonder Woman.
GATHERING OF THREE AMAZON TRIBES
The Wonder Woman franchise has always been filled with a ton of great characters. In the last year since Infinite Frontier has started we’ve seen DC Comics put in more time into developing various parts of Wonder Woman’s mythology. The three Wonder Woman titles in Wonder Woman, Nubia & The Amazons, and Wonder Girl all showcased different corners of the franchise. We saw a push of how there were different Amazon Tribes around the world. Specifically, the Amazons of Themyscira, Amazons of Bana-Mighdall, and The Esquecida tribes have been spotlighted through the three Wonder Woman titles.
Now with the Trials Of The Amazon event we finally saw all three Amazon tribes come together as a new Champion of the Amazons to protect Doom’s Doorway had to be selected. This was a top position that the Themyscirian, Bana-Mighdall, and Esquecida selected a their own Champion to be in contention for this spot. In the process we saw how there was a lot of animosity between the different Amazon tribes as Nubia’s claim as Queen of the Amazons was challenged by Faruka, which was a major driving sub-plot within Trial of the Amazons.
But most importantly what Trial Of The Amazons did was actually showcase how vast of cast the Wonder Woman franchise had. The banquet dinner hosted by Nubia with all three Amazon tribes gathered was a good example of how much untapped potential the franchise still has. Just having Diana, Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark, Nubia, and Yara Flor interacting with each other was refreshing because we don’t get this very often. Having characters of a franchise interacting with one another is something truly special and builds fan interest. Its what I’ve said before about how the strength and longevity of the Batman franchise is that we see the Batman Family spotlighted interacting with one another, especially in the last decade.
As much as having the Themyscirian, Bana-Mighdall, and Esquecida was a strength of Trial of the Amazons it was also a major weakness. Because while early on we saw a lot of different characters interacting. The further we got into the event the narrower the focus was on spotlighting the entire Wonder Woman franchise. The final battle is a great example of that as Chaos is taking over Amazons and having them battle each other. The Amazons taken over just came across as nameless characters that did not carry weight because there was not as much time dedicated to fully developing the three Amazon tribes to make this a major moment.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF HIPPOLYTA
The big plot point for that really kicked off Trial of the Amazons was the death of Hippolyta in the first chapter. This is a major moment that Trial of the Amazons will likely be most remembered for as Hippolyta has been the Queen of the Amazons for as long as the Wonder Woman franchise has existed. Her death changes everything as Diana, Nubia, and other Amazon leaders no longer have Hippolyta’s guidance. You see that with how throughout Trial of the Amazons Nubia steps up even more as the Queen of the Amazons, a position she took on at the start of Infinite Frontier. Nubia’s continued rise was by far the strongest character arc of Trial of the Amazons. By the end Nubia was without a doubt the true Queen of the Amazons that all three tribes recognize.
That said the mystery of Hippolyta’s death wasn’t as well handled. After the first two chapters of Trial of the Amazons placed great importance into this mystery Cassandra Sandsmark’s investigation was made into a sub-plot. While we did see some of that investigation it largely felt like Cassie spent less than 24 hours to figure out Artemis killed Hippolyta. Cassie being a master detective isn’t something we’ve seen before and honestly felt like a plot convenience just to give the former Wonder Girl something important since she wasn’t chosen as one of the Amazon Champions competing in the Trial.
What especially impacted the overall mystery of who killed Hippolyta was the time constraint with Trial of the Amazons. The entire event took place over the course of two days so it meant that Cassie’s investigation had to wrap up very quickly. You felt the rush in Hippolyta’s murder mystery in Trial Of The Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 had to download both the reader and characters with everything about this sub-plot. Its disappointing because this mystery was such an important plotline and could’ve elevated Cassie’s character rather than just be a promotional tool for Artemis upcoming mini-series.
TRIAL OF THE AMAZON CHAMPIONS THAT WASN’T
By far the greatest disappointment that Trial Of The Amazons is that we actually never got the actual Trial to take place. When we finally got to the start of the Trial of Amazon Champions in Wonder Woman #786, the fifth chapter of the event, we finally learned what challenges would take place. Each of the champions were assigned tasks specific to each Amazon Tribe along with tools to help them overcome these challenges.
For Yara Flor, as The Esquecida champion, she was given “The Hunt,” which entailed hunting to survive and the survival of a long-lost sister. Donna Troy, as the Bana-Mighdall champion, was given “The Puzzle” which was to find the answer to why must Amazons fight for equality. For Philippus, as the Themyscira champion, she was given “Navigation” which was to get through life challenges and go into the great beyond. Finally, for Diana, as a self-proclaimed Amazon champion, she assigned herself as the “Sword” as someone who represent peace through strength and battles only as a last resort.
All of these character specific challenges was all great. We were presented with the idea of how Diana, Yara, Donna, and Philippus would grow during this competition that would crown the new Amazon Champion. Unfortunately, the whole concept of the Trial never got past the idea phase. Because as soon as the Trial was set to begin everything was interrupted by Altuum summoning Chaos out of Doom’s Doorway.
That’s right after four chapters of build-up we literally got the rug pulled from under us. Instead of an epic Trial we got a fight with Medusa-like creature named Echidna that Diana, Yara, Donna, and Philippus decided during the fight would act as their Trial. Adding to the disappointment was that right after this Diana, Yara, Donna, and Philippus spent the sixth chapter of Trial of the Amazons just either sitting around or running to get to were they needed to be for the final chapter of the event.
When a creative team pulls this type of stunt you examine how much time was wasted in previous chapters with retreads of the same scenes from different perspectives. That is not at all what readers should be thinking about. Rather we should’ve been in the moment of how epic everything going on in Trial Of The Amazons was. But we never were in that frame of mind in the second half of the story.
DOOM’S DOORWAY = LOST’S SMOKE MONSTER
Which gets us to the utter disappointment that after all the build up of how dangerous Doom’s Doorway was the main villain turned out to be what equates to the DC Universe’s version of the Lost Smoke Monster. The most impactful thing about Chaos was its name. The name, while simple, does get across what pure evil Doom’s Doorway being closed protects the DCU from. But that is really it when it comes to the kind of threat Chaos is.
What especially hurts Chaos as the villain the Amazons take on in the final chapter of Trial Of The Amazons is the lack of emotional connection. Because along with the monsters Chaos unleashes on Themyscira we see it take over several Amazons to fight their sisters. This should’ve been something that added heavy emotional weight as Nubia and the Amazons had to decide what to do next. But we don’t get that as Nubia’s solution turns out to be finding a special spear that knocks everyone out. There is no big sacrifice that needs to be made since the Amazons taken over where none of the ones we got to know.
This adds to how the ultimate decision to have Atalanta and Antiope sacrifice themselves to close Doom’s Doorway’s and guard it from the other side no hit as intended. There was so much time spent on other characters that the twist with Atalanta and Antiope just doesn’t hit the same way. It felt more like the Wonder Woman creative team didn’t want to sideline any of the spotlighted characters because of future plans. Its to bad because this sacrifice to stop Chaos and close Doom’s Doorway should’ve been bigger character moments for Atalanta and Antiope.
FUTURE OF WONDER WOMAN FRANCHISE
That leaves us with what the state of the Wonder Woman franchise is moving forward. We know thanks to Justice League #75 that Diana is fated to die before the start of Dark Crisis. Before her death the current Wonder Woman series will continue to star Diana. Given that in the official Dark Crisis Checklist we don’t see the Wonder Woman series as having a designated tie-in issue Diana will likely continue to star in her own series through the end of 2022. Which gives the current Wonder Woman creative team of Michael Conrad and Becky Cloonan time to set the stage for Diana’s exit, if that is DC Comics plan.
This brings a spotlight on how Yara Flor’s character will be developed for the rest of 2022. We know that Yara will be a lead character in Dark Crisis, with everything pointing to her taking over as Wonder Woman. But before that future we know in the current present that Yara has been officially given the title of Wonder Girl by Diana at the end of Trial Of The Amazons. Yara finally being fully brought into the Wonder Woman franchise is a key part of her character. What this hopefully means is that we will see Diana and Yara interacting in issues of the current Wonder Woman series to strengthen the latter’s character within the franchise.
Along with the Wonder Woman ongoing series we also have the Nubia: Queen Of The Amazons and Artemis: Wanted mini-series that will both follow-up on the events of Trial Of The Amazons. These two titles will be just as important as the Wonder Woman ongoing as they will help set the stage for the future seen in Dark Crisis and beyond. The more we can see characters like Nubia and Artemis be built up along with Yara the stronger place the Wonder Woman franchise can be if Diana does in fact stay dead when Dark Crisis concludes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When all was said and done Trial Of The Amazons was a crossover event that never fully lived up to its potential. This Wonder Woman event started off well with a strong foundation built around several different storylines to follow. Unfortunately, in the second half of Trial Of The Amazons the ball was dropped on fulfilling that potential.
The timing was just off with every storyline. As the event went on you could tell the creative team ran out of time to properly develop each character. That led to an ending that felt rushed and unfulfilling given the potential that Trial Of The Amazons had. Hopefully where the state of the Wonder Woman franchise is at the end of Trial Of The Amazons is something that makes interest in franchise grow rather than looking for matches to light the fire.