Originally published on Patreon
The Trial of the Amazons has come to a close, Nubia is travelling the world as the new Queen of the Amazons, and Diana is having her adventures as Wonder Woman. So there's only really one thread left to clear up from the huge Wonder Woman cross-over event; what happened to Artemis?
When we last saw her Artemis had murdered Queen Hippolyta by poisoning her, and was released from jail to help the Amazons fight Chaos; but she managed to sneak away in the confusion after the battle.
The Artemis Wanted one-shot picks up with the rogue warrior travelling through America, trying to find somewhere where she can hide and lay low, whilst Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark are on her tail. Artemis finds herself in a small town, where a mysterious girl asks her for help, knowing who she is. Whilst Artemis at first ignores it as not being her problem, she's shocked to learn that the townspeople change into monsters at night.
Investigating further, she learns that a former member of the Ban-Mighdall who left years before is living in the town, and that her daughter is the girl Artemis has been seeing. The only thing is, the girl is in a magical coma. Artemis agrees to help, but when Donna and Cassie catch up to her she gives herself over to them for judgement; but when a new god appears before the Amazons, the truth about what Artemis has done is finally revealed.
I have to be honest, I did not like the fact that Artemis was the one who murdered Hippolyta. It felt out of character, especially because of the method of the killing. This issue corrects a lot of that. It gives a reason that not only makes sense, but changes the way you're going to look at the events of the previous event book. So, spoiler time, Artemis killed Hippolyta because she was ordered to do so, by Hippolya. It seems like the former queen hatched a plan to get herself elevated to godhood so that she could give her people some hep from the heavens, but in order to do so she needed to have someone kill her, and the reasons had to be kept quite.
Artemis was quite literally doing what she was told by her queen, in an attempt to help her people. Now this fits with her character a whole lot more. The build up to the reveal is great, with Cassie begging Donna not to kill Artemis, whilst Artemis quietly accepted her fate. All three characters were displaying some of their best qualities, and this book actually ended up being a great showing for all of them. When Hipployta visited from Olympus she even she goes on to tell the three of them how they're exemplars of the Amazon people and their best qualities.
The rest of the issue includes some flashbacks to Artemis' background as a girl, which gives us an insight into why she's so dedicated to duty and honour. We also get some cool action as the trio stop the curse that's afflicting the town, and a lovely wrap-up as Artemis is forgiven by her queen and reinstated to her place amongst them.
Whilst this issue seems to have put this matter to bed the only thing that feels missing is Diana, and her reaction to this revelation. I'm hoping this is something we see at some point in the future, as I feel its an important piece that needs to be seen.
Overall, I really enjoyed this issue. It took one of the last hanging threads from the cross-over and neatly ties it off, centring characters whilst doing so. I've really been enjoying all of the Amazon focus recently, and find it more entertaining that Wonder Woman's solo adventures. Hopefully, we'll see more of these characters in the future.
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