Now that The Sovereign is taken care of, Tom King’s run on Wonder Woman can go in any direction. First up, a multi-issue detective story involving Batman and the Greek gods. Wonder Woman #20 is a nice change of pace as the series swings back to its Greek roots while playing off the dynamic between Batman and Wonder Woman. At the same time, it’s always good fun to see Batman interact with things that are not very grounded in reality.
Wonder Woman #20 is told entirely with nine-panel grid layouts save for one full page splash. A favorite of King’s comics, the nine-panel grid allows for a consistent pace and small cutaways to character reactions. Guillem March does a grab job maximizing each panel and at times playing with the form like three panels connecting, in one example. The steady rhythm of the panels suits a detective story like this one, keeping you invested and your attention up.
The story opens with Wonder Woman doing some weight lifting while her mother, speaking through a goat, reveals she woke up with Ares dead in her bed. She’s living amongst the Greek gods these days, but murdering a god is forbidden and could get her in a lot of trouble. Who better to help Diana with this mystery, even if she’s unsure if her mother did it, than Batman? Soon, we see Wonder Woman meeting up with Batman at Crime Alley, and the two are headed to Mount Olympus.
Getting the dynamic duo back together.
Credit: DC Comics
The reveal of Mount Olympus is quite cool, with the city coming into focus ahead of the Batmobile. March also colors the issue and does a great job with the purple glowing light of Batman and Diana in the Batmobile in the scene prior to the location change.
From there, the two meet with Zeus, the King lays out the rules of the game, and our heroes embark on questioning anyone who might lead to new clues. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here regarding their interactions, from Wonder Woman revealing her feelings about the gods to Batman being wooed by Aphrodite. Batman adds a human and grounded feel to the interactions, while Wonder Woman shows a different side of herself.
By the end of the issue, March and King establish a new status quo for Wonder Woman in regard to this mystery, with fairly large stakes in play tied to Batman. It means a whole new direction for the detective story in the second part and further exploration of the Greek roots of Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman #20 is a sharp tonal shift that feels refreshing. It merges mythological stakes with a detective structure while spotlighting a compelling Diana-Bruce dynamic. Tom King’s precision storytelling and Guillem March’s structured visuals make this issue a strong, cerebral breather with plenty of intrigue to come.
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