Trial of the Amazons encompasses Trial of the Amazons #1, Nubia and the Amazons #6, Wonder Woman #785, Trail of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #1, Wonder Woman #786, Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2 and Trial of the Amazons #2 with the talents of Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala, Joelle Jones, Jordie Bellaire, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Romulo Fajardo Jr and Pat Brosseau.
What an EVENT, eh? I’m happy to return from my leave with a recap and deep dive into the Trial of the Amazons event. There have been some great lead ups to it between Wonder Woman, Nubia and the Amazons and Wonder Girl, and I’ve been itching to see what’s in store for these wonderful women in the trial.
The Queens
Tensions run high between Queen Faruka and Queen Nubia as they discuss who’s at fault for the monsters that have seemingly been released from Doom’s Doorway. Faruka also has a bone to pick with Diana for leaving to help Man’s World. As Queen Nubia welcomes all of the guests from Bana-Migdhall and the Amazon, she explains the rules to determine who will be the new champion to protect Doom’s Doorway and Queen Faruka thinks the winner should then rule all of the Amazon tribes. But then Nubia discovers Hippolyta dead in what seems like another bury our gays trope.
While it was incredibly refreshing to FINALLY see Phillippus and Hippolyta’s love confirmed with an on panel kiss, I was pretty disappointed to see the former queen of the Amazon’s immediately killed. Our writing team would no doubt know that killing off Hippolyta would be hard on any Wonder Woman fan; seeing it immediately after their kiss really hurt. There’s always hope that a character will come back in comics, but this one felt harsh.
Each of the queens give their words and parting gifts to honor Hippolyta at her funeral. They discuss whether they should cancel the contest to find the murderer. They agree to find the murderer and continue the contest. Medusa (released and reformed in previous issues of Nubia) talks to the Queen about the voices they have both heard coming from the doorway. Nubia doesn’t like the idea of forcing everyone to the lasso and knows a proper investigation is more honorable. They decide to lock up all weapons before the Trial.
The Champions
Heartbroken by her mother’s violent death, Diana asks to take her lasso to everyone and find them out. Queen Nubia cautions her against giving into anger. When denied the use of her lasso, Diana yells at the gods over what’s happened. A cloaked figure appears, notes they’ve been rather silent, and suggests Diana become a champion on her own behalf.
Look, I’ve been there. I spent probably a good three months after my dad’s early death randomly shaking in anger over the events he’d not get to be a part of in my life anymore. But it’s never a good idea to take advice from random mysterious cloaked figures. Sensing some of this, Diana surrenders the Lasso to Nubia and declares she’ll be champion on behalf of ALL Amazons.
After the funeral, Donna accepts the role of champion for the Bana-Migdhall.
Phillipus, miserable after her lover’s murder, announces she’ll be champion of the Themyscrians.
Yara may be considered the stepchild of the Themyscirans, but she is the clear representative of the Esquecidas. She was taken in by the Esquecidas in Brazil and they were attacked by a boar like the Bana-Migdall were attacked by the Manticore and also suspect the Themyscirans. In a flashback to the previous night, all Amazons blow off steam together, but Yara goes off alone. Hippolyta finds her and tells Yara she has fond memories of her mother.
At long last the Trial is finally set in motion. Yara Flor is gifted a bow and arrow, Donna Tory a lariat, Phillipus a compass by their oracles and Diana chooses her own sword to compete with in the ring. But Altuum shows up and blows up the arena, with the contestants buried below. They decide to band together with their talents to figure out what happened. They run into Echidna, who reveals she was brought back by the sound of Chimera’s horn. The women work together to push her through Doom’s Doorway but Diana hears a voice warn of her promise for redemption … Diana screams it’s Chaos as the other three make it safely back to the surface.
Cassie
Cassie Sandsmark, one of the Wonder Girls, declares she’s going to take on finding the murderer of Hippolyta. She doesn’t think the murderer would enter the contest for Champion and starts her investigation. The night of the funeral, Cassie suspects Artemis. She interviews several of Wonder Woman’s enemies; Cheetah, Dr. Psycho, and others days later by retracing steps.
A cute little issue where Cassie gets to play detective noir reveals our murderer. She rules out Phillippus, Faruka, Atalanta and Potira.
Joelle Jones really loves to draw a screaming face, huh?
Cassie recognized the smell of the poison from the sap of an enchanted tree in Brazil. Cassie points out that Artemis was also in the jungle when she learned about the poison. Queen Nubia has Artemis arrested, and Artemis confesses it was her, but she won’t reveal why she killed Hippolyta.
The Champions of the Amazons
We get an interesting montage of the four champions running back to warn the queens that Chaos is on the loose with scenes of Diana crashing through rocks, floors and walls to cough and laugh alone in an empty throne room, until she realizes she’s under the palace.
This part had some interesting visuals, but I think the way it was done was a bit confusing. It’s been several weeks at this point since we left Diana alone as the walls crumbled and the other three made it out, so I’d forgotten what was going on. It’s times like these that make me feel like folks are writing more and more towards that trade. Because the goddesses know that Comixology sure doesn’t make it any easier to flip back through your old issues to remember what happened that long ago.
Diana pleads with the others to leave as she faces Chaos, who accuses her of leaving him to rot. Nubia and the others insist on fighting together. Diana begs him to leave and return to Olympus, but Chaos laughs. The women all fight against him while he starts to poison their minds. Antiope appears and fights with them. Meanwhile, Magala shows a secret room to Queen Nubia, where the most sacred weapons are stored under Nike’s statue. (The golden armor, Invisible Jet, and movie sword and shield design make a cool appearance here along with other relics from the previous eras of Wonder Woman).
Cassie finds Artemis locked below before the building begins to collapse and insists she fight alongside them to defeat Chaos. Queen Nubia comes to fight while they are seemingly overwhelmed. They head with Artemis to Doom’s Doorway. Antiope and Atalanta position themselves at the doorway and let Chaos into them and contain him by sealing themselves behind the door. Faruka is distraught at the loss of Atalanta. We might have yet another case of loved ones being separated *yawn*. It’s hard to even get anything other than annoyed with it now.
It seems like the enemy is contained for now, though Diana knows Altuum is still out there. Queen Nubia advises her not to give in to her anger again over their many lost loved ones. The three tribes bond as they rebuild the city.
There’s a pretty great scene of Diana dispelling the tension between herself and Yara as she shows her the Tiar-mory. She notes that her tiara was given to her by Hera which then led to uniting the three tribes. Diana takes her old one, breaks it, and replaces it with one of 3 stars and dubs her Wonder Girl. Yara and Diana quibble over whether that’s insulting or not and jokes that she’s like Batman and his Robins with Donna and Cassie as the other Wonder Girls. You know, I’m on board with that, as a fan. The more the merrier to the Wonder Woman family. I loved getting to see Cassie again and really wished we’d spent more time with Donna as she, Yara and Phillipus made their way back to Nubia. It’s a shame they didn’t get much more than a running montage!
Days after, Nubia addresses the crowd and expresses her admiration at everyone from all three tribes as they display kindness and strength, while Artemis speeds down a railroad with glowing red hands. I realize this is the attempt to lead into the Artemis spin off but what the heck!? I need more here!
Faruka addresses the crowd and while accusing Nubia of honeyed words, she recognizes the truth and strength in her heart. We see Altuum on a submarine with a piece of Chaos’ oil on his hands. Queen Faruka pledges to continue the sisterhood and gives Atalanta’s helmet to Queen Nubia, who says she’ll try to be worthy of the gift. Everyone chants Long Live the Queen!
THEMES
This huge team of writers and artists did a wonderful job of tying all the pieces of the puzzle together when it came to themes like the rotted sludge seeping out of Doom’s Doorway across all seven issues. The repetition of the crumbling statues of Justice as well as Themysciran buildings was a great way to show not only the destruction that Chaos was causing, but the discontent between all three tribes of Amazons and then the shedding of their old ill will towards each other.
The ending decision to not have a Champion for the doorway with a possibly dead Atalanta and a definitely dead Antiope on the other side felt like a missing piece of the puzzle though, or at least one that doesn’t quite fit in smoothly with the other pieces. I’m also disappointed with how little Altuum had to do with any of this? The last annual left me excited to see what his justifiable anger at his people’s displacement meant for Diana and Themyscira. I really hope this plotline picks up again soon.
Overall Trial of the Amazons was an ambitious and delightful project! I can’t remember the last time there was a Wonder Woman event and seeing so many well fleshed out women characters in all their flaws and strengths and ideas and motivations brought together was a breath of fresh air in the comics world. It’s certainly left me eager to keep following what these teams have in store for all of these wonderful characters in the Wonder Woman universe next!
Cat Purcell is a Career Services Librarian, cosplayer, artist, and massive coffee consumer.
