Whenever I see Cliff Chiang’s work on the cover, I get excited. And then I see the names of the creative team and disappointment fills my very being.
For all I care, Cliff Chiang can do the art of all the comic books I read. Perhaps DC could keep a few of their other current artists so Cliff wouldn’t feel overworked. Maybe Diogenes Neves. And Rafa Sandoval who is brand new to me over in Catwoman but I’m really enjoying. I like Guillem March’s stuff. Greg Capullo is knocking Batman out of the park each month. I could probably stand Brett Booth and Kenneth Rocafort if they were working with better writers. Pete Woods is kind of in the same boat. I like his stuff but I never mention it because he’s working on that shithole Legion Lost right now. I guess Tony Akins can keep filling in for Cliff as well. He’s doing a good job on Wonder Woman except he’s not Cliff Chiang! There are probably a bunch of artists I’m forgetting because 52 comic books are hard to keep track of, especially when their creative teams change all of the time.
Oh! And don’t forget Rob Liefeld. Genius stuff. Amazing. He’s on another level than the rest of those guys I mentioned.
Anyway! Quick recap on last issue: Wonder Woman was off searching for Siracca (unless it was spelled differently), one of her demi-god siblings, to help her and Lennox get Zola’s baby back. And while that was going on, some weird shit was going down in Antarctica.
Is this guy one of the Titans? Maybe he escaped from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.!
One of the scientists gets up the nerve to speak with this monster and tells it that it has been buried for seven thousand years. The creature informs the scientist that he wasn’t buried; he was digging his way out of the center of the Earth. His captivity was because of his father, Zeus. This giant of a man is the first born of Zeus. I don’t know what that makes him!
Back in the crypt where Wonder Woman and Siracca are fighting, Siracca decides to tell Wonder Woman a little bit about her childhood. It was a pretty short childhood, as childhoods go. She was a shepherd in Palestine in 1917 when she was visited by her father’s wife.
Spoiler Alert: This won’t end well.
Hera tore Siracca apart, reducing her to dust and sand and grit. But I guess Siracca eventually pulled herself back together. Somewhat. Because now she’s trying to kill Wonder Woman because Wonder Woman is currently subletting a room of her apartment to Hera.
Apparently Zeus put Siracca back together as best he could. Now she’s a head on a half-skeleton body that floats around haunting things. Come on, Siracca. Say, “Thank you, daddy.” Even though Wonder Woman can kick anybody’s ass in the DCnU, her second best talent is making people like her. And that’s the talent she uses on the angry little half-girl.
I hope she becomes Wonder Woman’s sidekick.
Up on Olympus, Apollo has taken Zeus’s throne and he really should be regretting it by now. Since he’s taken the throne, he’s worried about nothing but one of his siblings killing him for it. Are the God’s cursed to never really listen to or understand prophecy? Apollo’s oracles told him that a child of Zeus will murder to gain the throne. But he decided to take the empty throne anyway because he figured he can control things and change fate. But prophecy takes into account the things people do to try to avoid the prophecy! That’s the way it always happens. Another example of this exists right here in this comic book concerning The First Born of Zeus!
This prophecy is so typical you’d think somebody would have learned how to counter it by now! Except you can’t! If you let the child live, it’ll grow up to take your throne. If you have the child killed, it will somehow survive and then return to take your throne! You can’t fucking beat these things. They’re foolproof!
So now we’ve got two prophecies that will likely go hand-in-hand. Apollo believes he must fear Zola’s child, for some reason. But it looks like Apollo should fear The First Born that he doesn’t even know about. I think the First Born will take Olympus without shedding blood. And then Zola’s child (who still might be Zeus!) will spill The First Born’s blood to take the throne of Olympus. And Zeus will be back on the throne without that damn prophecy of his First Born hanging over his head. So, um, maybe Zeus did find a way to beat the prophecy!
Meanwhile Wonder Woman’s half-sister lets Wonder Woman in on why she’s needed. She can hear anything said anywhere since she is the wind. She demonstrates by listening to a bunch of commonly said speech bubbles carried to her by the breeze.
100 Bullets is apparently canon in the New 52. And this might be the first time Perry White says, “Great Caeser’s Ghost!” in The New 52.
Siracca then tells Wonder Woman about their other brother, Milan, living in New York. Wonder Woman heads off to find this sibling, leaving Siracca in the desert. Maybe she can’t leave the area. I hope she can though and she joins them later after Hera is out of their hair.
The last couple pages show Highfather telling Orion that the Source of All Knowledge has seen it’s own ending which would mean the ending of all time. The threat to its existence has been located on Earth. And that’s where Highfather is sending Orion. Next issue: Gods versus Gods versus Gods! And, um, maybe even some more Gods too!
Wonder Woman #14 Rating: No change. I have a pretty good feeling that I figured out what’s going on with the throne of Olympus between Apollo and The First Born and the child of Zeus spilling blood to gain the throne plot. I will happily be surprised if it ends up being different though. As for how The New Gods are going to tie in to this plot, I don’t know. Maybe they’ll just bring their own plot for a few issues which will put the search for Zola’s baby on the back burner. Ha ha. I said, “Baby on the back burner.”
