Review: Wonder Woman Vol. 6- Children of the Gods

Quick Summary

Pros: The way the volume continues past storylines is rewarding and well done. The book’s conclusion is great and helps build excitement for the next volume. The artwork is mostly positive.

Cons: The first half of the book focuses too much on exposition and is generally unexciting.

Overall: This is a promising start to a new Wonder Woman storyline. This volume addresses several cliffhangers in a way that is great to see while also building more cliffhangers to be addressed in the following volumes. The biggest problem is that the book’s opening chapters are a little too focused on addressing the past and, thus, are rather unexciting. All in all, this is a volume for those interested in the mysteries surrounding Darkseid, Grail, and Wonder Woman’s twin and who want to see those mysteries addressed.

Story

Wonder Woman Vol. 6: Children of the Gods, by James Robinson, is a solid opening to a new era in this series. The volume begins to tackle the mysteries surrounding Darkseid, Grail, and Wonder Woman’s twin that were introduced way back in the Justice League: Darkseid War (Review) (Reading Order) event. The way the volume approaches these mysteries is highly compelling and is particularly enjoyable as the volume comes to its conclusion. However, problems exist throughout the book’s first half, which is far too focused on exposition and less focused on generating real excitement. Overall though, this volume succeeds in introducing a new storyline and building anticipation for the rest of the storyline.

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The bulk of the storyline in Children of the Gods explores the mystery behind Wonder Woman’s twin brother and the reemergence of Darkseid. The unraveling of this mystery is written very well. It starts out slow, with the murder of Hercules, before it ramps up to several stunning twists at the end. At this point, readers witness Jason’s betrayal, the reappearance of Zeus, and the execution of Darkseid’s ultimate plan. This portion of the book raises some serious levels of intrigue, as the concepts are lofty, have been teased for quite a while, and are executed well.

All of this also works as an excellent opening to the current larger narrative. Despite the fact that this book provides answers to several lingering plotlines, it also introduces just as many. Readers are left wondering where Wonder Woman’s relationship with her twin will go, what role Giganta’s interference will have, and how Grail and Darkseid will proceed now that Darkseid is back to full strength. The conclusion of this volume got me seriously excited to read the next one.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems in Children of the Gods comes from one of its biggest successes. The volume’s focus on revealing mysteries while simultaneously building up tension for the future leads to a volume packed with exposition. The first half of the book feels like a giant exposition dump, only taking brief interludes for some lackluster excitement. What’s worse is that much of this exposition feels repetitive and unnecessary instead of worthwhile and interesting. The volume doesn’t become truly exciting until the final few chapters, when the showdown between Wonder Woman and her enemies actually begins. As this is the opening volume in a larger story arc, this is somewhat forgivable but it does prevent the book from standing on its own quite as well as it could have.

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Art

The artwork in Children of the Gods starts out alright but begins to improve as it progresses. Sergio Davila and Emanuela Lupacchino’s work in the first few chapters is bold and bright in a way that suits this comic. It makes the tropical locations look appealing and looks great alongside Romulo Fajardo, Jr.’s colors. However, Carlo Pagulayan’s chapters are where this collection truly shines. The level of detail and energetic design allows the characters to stand out and allows the battles to be as engaging as possible. My only real complaint here is that there were not more chapters from Pagulayan. However, the collection still looks good overall.

Continuity

Wonder Woman Vol. 6: Children of the Gods continues the story from Wonder Woman Vol. 5: Heart of the Amazon (Review).

The story here continues in Wonder Woman Vol. 7: Amazons Attacked (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The mysteries following Darkseid, Grail, and Wonder Woman’s brother were all introduced over the course of the Justice League: Darkseid War (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Darkseid’s recent time with Batman is mentioned. He can be seen with Batman in the Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Darkseid’s original invasion of Earth and his repulsion by the Justice League (Reading Order) is mentioned. This occurred across Justice League: Origin (Review).