Comics Reviews: Wonder Woman 47, Green Arrow 38

Wonder Woman #47 – “Common Ground” – George Perez/Jill Thompson/Romeo Tanghal

As you can tell from the cover, this story features Donna Troy (aka Troia) as a guest star. In post-Crisis continuity, Wonder Woman had nothing to do with Donna’s origin; in fact, they haven’t even met yet. And we’ll have to wait a while before they do, since they start off on opposite sides of the world. Diana is in the sewers of New York, trying to find out why she feels a sense of familiarity there, while Donna is in Greece, visiting the island of Dianata (which is populated by a bunch of people who blindly worship Wonder Woman, even after she smashed their statue of her). Apparently, Donna has been having weird dreams lately that suggest a connection between the were-creatures the Titans fought recently and the creatures created by Circe on the island of Cephalonia. Unfortunately, the inhabitants (especially the leader Katina Leikos) don’t like visitors and make Donna and her husband Terry leave. And Wonder Woman has also been having dreams about Cephalonia and the Titans’ battle in the sewers, so she went there to check things out. She finds a creature lurking in the shadows. On Cephalonia, Donna discusses the situation with Terry and another friend and tells Terry to head off with the guy to Budapest while she stays there. In Boston, a school therapist tells Julia that Vanessa’s mental state is fragile since Lucy’s suicide and recommends she not spend any time with Diana anymore, since Diana’s life is so full of danger. Speaking of which, Wonder Woman is attacked by the were-creatures and forced to fight them in a more brutal manner than usual. She uses her lasso to capture one of them, but it incinerates and the others run away. Wonder Woman realizes the voice she heard in her dreams that led her to this place doesn’t belong to Morpheus, but to Circe. One of the creatures (or bestiamorphs as they apparently call themselves) named Anna witnesses the fight and goes to warn her lover. It kinda sounds like they’re looking for a way to be fully human again, but they don’t think Wonder Woman can help them. Diana shows up on Cephalonia just in time to stop the angry villagers from going after Donna and the two of them bond immediately. They’re interrupted by a car crash outside and they find Gregori Davalos in the wreck. As they’re helping him, they’re menaced by one of the were-creatures, who Gregori claims is really a local named Andros.

Green Arrow #38 – “Hunters and Killers” – Mike Grell/Rick Hoberg/Bill Wray

This one starts with someone tipping off Reggie Mandell on where Green Arrow is hiding. Arrow and Eddie Fyres are still having their stand-off from last issue, but Shado shows up to stop them from killing each other. Once they start talking, they realize they’re being manipulated into going after each other, with Green Arrow thinking Fyres set everything up and Fyres thinking it was Arrow who shot at him last issue. (It wasn’t, but Green Arrow does put one in Fyres’ chest right now, just to prove his hunch that Fyres is wearing body armour.) Mandell’s goons attack and the trio make short work of them, but they figure out someone put a tracer on Fyres’ jacket. Green Arrow makes some calls to get the three guys who set him up (CIA, DEA, FBI) together and crashes in on them. He lays everything out about how the government made a deal with drug dealers to regain power in the Panama Canal region without starting a war. The CIA agent admits it and claims they would’ve found a way to exonerate Oliver, but he kows that’s bullshit and says he never would’ve made it to trial. He’s proven correct when a sniper shoots him from across the street, but Oliver was expecting that and borrowed Fyres’ body armour. Shado kills the sniper and the DEA agent (who wasn’t in on the deal) promises to let the public know the truth. Later, Oliver returns the armour and Fyres gives him a present … Reggie Mandell, the guy who had Oliver tortured. Oliver wants to kill him but can’t bring himself to do it, so Fyres kills Reggie instead.