The “Heart of the Amazon” arc has had its ups and downs for Wonder Woman.  It started very strong with a meaningful and emotional first issue, but then petered out when its attempt to build on top of that with action couldn’t quite bring it together.  It finally seemed to get a handle on itself in issue #29, where they managed to have both an action/adventure setting while still retaining the friendship and family connections.

Unfortunately, despite having a very satisfying main body, issue #29 of Wonder Woman closed with a “twist” that was severely wanting: Hamilton Revere, the man behind Dr. Crawford’s attempt to grant herself superpowers using Diana’s blood and also behind the bounty hunters sent after her, works for the US Government.  That twist — if you even want to call it that — didn’t make sense, and it lacked any sort of emotional punch.

So now we are on to Issue #30, part 5 of “Heart of the Amazon”.  This is the last issue of this story-arc, and let’s see if they manage to pull out a victory.

Recap

At the Evil Lair

Wonder Woman speaks to Hamilton Revere and the various soldiers under his employ, and Revere reaffirms his statement from the last issue.  He is an operative of the US government, and what’s been going on is a sanctioned mission to gain superpowered soldiers.  The surrounding guards aren’t mercenaries or villains-for-hire, but soldiers who have been personally inspired and saved by Wonder Woman who volunteered to gain powers themselves in the hopes that they can help the world.

What was a lie was the claim that the research would be immediately applicable to diseases and medicinal cures, which is why Diana had walked into this “trap” willingly.  Though he says that it might lead to medical breakthroughs eventually, Revere admits that the goal of their research was purely about the combat side of superpowers.  His previous talk about how their research would help the world referred to his belief that all other nations would surrender to their authority and they would have “peace” once the US had an army of super soldiers.

Obviously, Diana wants no part in this plan, so there’s the obligatory fight scene.  It turns out that the soldiers present have already been given superpowers, so they can fight Wonder Woman on even terms, although some of them still use their plain olds guns as well.

Eventually their numbers overwhelm her, and Wonder Woman is strapped down for Evil Medical Experiments.

At the Picket

At the beginning of the issue, Etta Candy and Steve Trevor were sullenly sitting at the Picket after being ordered to reman there as Diana goes off into who-knows-what danger.  They idly swat at some of the ants crawling on the table (Again?  Seriously, what is up with the ants in this arc?), and then Sasha Bordeaux asks to see them in her office.  She explains that General Thomas (Aha! His name is General Thomas.  It only took five issues to get this) has been ordered to keep them there, lending credence to Revere’s “we are the government” bit.  In a parallel to her conversation with Etta in the preceding issue, Sasha says that she has picked her side and helps them sneak out so that they can go help Diana.

Etta and Steve race to the Evil Lair, scope out the defenses (Steve even recognizes one of the soldiers on guard), and then launch an attack/distraction.

Wonder Woman manages to break out of her restraints, and with Etta and Steve’s assistance (Plus the help of one of the soldiers who regrets her involvement) they defeat and disable all of the super soldiers.  Just as with Dr. Crawford at the beginning of the arc, Wonder Woman removes all of their superpowers through the use of the Lasso of Truth, since it can separate the lie of their powers from their true beings.

Aftermath

When Revere is being carted away by the cops, he again claims that he works with the military and the police say that they checked with the Pentagon and they claim they never heard of him.  I’m assuming this is the military disavowing his actions rather than a reveal that it was a lie all along, because if he knew nobody at the Pentagon would back him then why would he still play the role when it will just make things worse for him?  Before the cops put him into a car he is intercepted by two EMTs who say they need to check him over, only to be revealed as two of his soldiers who abscond with him so that he can give them powers again.

Diana, meanwhile, is recuperating at Etta Candy’s apartment with Steve and Destiny, Etta’s niece that Diana had bonded with at the beginning of the arc.  They talk, laugh, and love, and that brings us to a close.

Review

Let’s get this out of the way: The Villain in this issue just torpedoes any attempt at drama or complexity that the story tries to offer up.  From any perspective the Evil Plan makes no sense, and is actually self-defeating.

The Evil Plan

The first problem is the premise that this is an official government operation and not a rogue operation aiming for Revere’s personal wealth or advancement.  I’m not saying that I have a problem with a story concept of the government running unethical medical experiments to try and bring about superpowers (That kind of thing happens in real life, Project MKULTRA being the one that first springs to mind), but I do have a problem with them deliberately  shooting themselves in the foot like this by.  Diana is already willfully working with them, so why are they trying to force her compliance at gunpoint?  Why not just say “We think studying your blood can give us cures for diseases, will you agree to a regular blood draw once a month for research and application?”  They obviously considered that point and they believed it would work, since that is the lie they use to lure her in, so why not just do it?

Then there’s the fact that the soldiers they’ve recruited are deliberately all personal fans of Wonder Woman.  One of them talks about how Diana inspired her to believe that a woman could accomplish great things despite being opposed by the patriarchy, and another says her life was personally saved during combat in Iraq.  Since Revere lied to them about Diana being a willing test subject, indicating that he knew that they wouldn’t go along with attacking their hero, why didn’t he get soldiers drawn at random?  Or even people with a grudge against Wonder Woman?  There’s got to be plenty of soldiers who are envious of her powers, or resent the fact that she hasn’t gone into all of the combat zones and single-handedly taken out all of the enemy combatants.  Why surround himself with people that he specifically knew would have moral oppositions to his plan?

This all means that Wonder Woman is going to fight against him instead of politely acquiescing, and she is going to have help from his own side once they realize that she is there under duress (Only one of the soldiers actually does change sides, but still).

A lot of this could have been avoided with the simple reveal that Revere had gone rogue and was operating outside of his orders.  That would cover why he has to steal Diana’s blood, because he’s going to use it for his own ends and not the government’s.  It would also explain why his underlings are all Diana fanboys, since he had to work within a structure that honestly thought it was helping Diana.  “Rogue government agency” isn’t exactly a new or unique plot, in fact it’s been done a half-a-dozen times with Wonder Woman herself, but at least it would make internal sense.  As it is, I spent the entire issue shaking my head.

The Rest of the Comic

Okay, leaving aside the villain’s plan, the rest of the comic is…well, it’s “okay”.  Not groundbreaking, but not horrible.

They finally named the as-yet-unnamed General that has been hanging around the Picket.  It’s nice to finally attach a name to the face, especially with the way he had been introduced at the start of the arc as a Reasonable and Benevolent leader before being ordered to obstruct Steve and Etta here.

Even though she wasn’t involved in the fight itself, they managed to include Sasha Bordeaux in the narrative by having her help Etta and Steve sneak out.  By having her state that she picked her side, a direct quote of what Etta had said to her in the previous issue, it manages to include why she is helping them without bogging the action down in a page of dialogue.

It’s brief, but there was also a very quick panel of might-have-been flirtation between Etta and Amelia Medina, the one soldier who turned against Revere and assisted them.  It’s a lightning fast exchange, just a single panel of Etta telling Amelia that she can call her by her first name instead of “Commander Candy”, but I’m going to grab onto that and hold tight.  Ever since they introduced ‘Marc’ in the first issue of the arc, combined with the complete lack of any mention of Barbara Ann Minerva, I’ve been dreading the day when this new creative team might try to introduce a boyfriend for Etta.  The inclusion of her flirting, no matter how small, is a little reassurance that the new creative team hasn’t forgotten that she is a lesbian, even if they haven’t shown what happened to her girlfriend.

The one thing I don’t get is the continued inclusion of ants at the Picket.  This has been an ongoing event since the first issue of the arc, with references to the building being fumigated and renting temporary office space.  I keep expecting it to become a critical plot-point (Are they alien ants?  Mind-control ants?  Spy ants?  Demon ants?), but they keep just being ants.

What’s the story here?