DEATHSTROKE versus BIRDS OF PREY

Perfect Pitch Part Five (DC)
Where: Birds of Prey #90 When: March 2006 Why: Gail Simone How: Paulo Siqueira & Adam DeKraker

The Story So Far...
Calculator has become the central nervous system behind unionized villains of The Society. Marshalling a network of criminals, information and intelligence, he helped create the ultimate force in organized crime -- but his online dominion is challenged by one white hat hacker: Oracle!

New incarnations of Hellhound and Black Spider failed to bring down Oracle's associates, The Birds of Prey, after torturing Savant, but one of the perks of The Society is having access to a near limitless army of super-villain back-up!

Deathstroke has his sights on terminating Black Canary and Huntress while they attempt to evacuate casualties of their last battle!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Deathstroke 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Savant 5 (Professor)
Speed: Deathstroke 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Deathstroke 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Black Canary 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Deathstroke 7 (Living Weapon)
Energy: Huntress 3 (Explosives)
Total: Deathstroke 26 (Metahuman)

Calculator called in one of The Society's best available mercenaries to provide back-up! Deathstroke showed just how deadly he can be when he impaled Phantom Lady during a Society hit on the Freedom Fighters in Infinite Crisis #1!

Being deployed alone against a group of heroes shouldn't be an issue. He was largely able to manage the X-Men alone when they crossed over in Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans. He also famously and single-handedly set about dismantling the Justice League in Identity Crisis #3!

The Birds of Prey are: Black Canary, Huntress, Lady Blackhawk, Creote, and Savant.

The Identity Crisis battle still hangs over Black Canary in this encounter. He tied an airtight rubber mask over her head to silence the canary cry, and cuffed her to prevent any hand-to-hand reprisals. He utilized thorough tactics to beat the odds and systematically work his way through the likes of Flash, Zatanna, Hawkman, and Green Arrow.

We saw Green Arrow win his rematch with Deathstroke in Green Arrow #62, which highlighted the benefits of knowing the enemy and changing up the play.

Her sonic canary cry remains her best advantages over Deathstroke. We saw its power bring the Marvel Family to their knees in Crisis on Infinite Earths #6, and dissipate Shadow Thief in Justice League of America #15. She also defeated Giganta in the latter issue, using agility, and Cheshire, with fighting technique.

After their last battle, The Canary will know not to rely on her sonic attack. Like Green Arrow, she'll look to use her own tactical and combat skills to match The Terminator as best she can, while working to undermine his meticulous style.

In Underworld Unleashed #3, we saw Huntress help turn the tables against a cadre of super-villains with reckless abandon. Her improvised use of explosives seemingly endangered Black Canary, but it was a calculated risk that also got her out of harm. That ruthlessness could compliment Canary during this fight!

Lady Blackhawk is en route at the start of the fight and could provide air support to clear Deathstroke if things go bad. Savant is wounded from being tortured, and Creote will likely stay with him.

The Tape: Birds of Prey Ranking: Black Canary (#38)

What Went Down...
On a lonely rooftop in Gotham City the Birds of Prey drag their wounded topside to await transport. When they get to the rain spattered roof they soon find The Society had a third man watching over proceedings: Deathstroke!

With a drawn sword already in his hand, Deathstroke offers the Birds a chance to leave the injured Black Spider and go freely. Black Canary spits the offer back in his face and shows him the difference between the last time he humiliated her in combat and now -- this time there aren't any Justice Leaguers in the way!

Huntress fires off three bolts from her crossbow while Black Canary launches into a leaping kick that catches Deathstroke by the side of the head.

Internally, Canary knows she was allowed to strike first so Deathstroke could show he won't be so easily hurt. She keeps him busy, talking trash about finding a way to beat him after their last encounter. In her mind, she remains trained on one thought: the three seconds of distraction that will allow her victory.

Deathstroke fires back with an uppercut that sends the Canary airborne and reminds her just how hard his super-soldier enhancements can hit!

Huntress jumps back into the fray, but Deathstroke blocks her punch and effortlessly swats her away with the backhand of his sword-wielding fist! The deals are off the table. Now he's playing for keeps!

Without warning -- Creote rushes across the rooftop at Deathstroke!

With no regard for his own life, the Russian special forces soldier attempts to grapple with Deathstroke. He seeks only to hurt the mercenary for the pain he and The Society inflicted upon his beloved Savant!

The impassioned assault tangles Deathstroke up for a moment, but is soon remedied with a backwards rolling judo toss.

Black Canary takes the opportunity to rush in and feint for the canary cry, allowing Deathstroke a pre-emptive strike that snaps the bone in her arm. It would've choked the voice in her throat -- if that were her true intent...

The gambit was merely providing distraction while Huntress snuck up from behind and attacked his vertical base with a low strike! The low blow provides the three seconds needed to extend two fingers, cut across Deathstroke's blind side, and thrust her digits into his good eye!

Blood spurts from The Terminator's mask and he recoils, swinging his sword wildly to push Black Canary back! She dedicates the strike to Phantom Lady.

Deathstroke pivots toward the edge of the rooftop and resumes a prepared stance. Canary's eye poke of doom didn't puncture the eyeball. It will heal -- not that he needs to actually see to kill any of them. Canary knows it, too.

Canary threatens to blast Deathstroke from the roof with her canary cry if he goes for his gun, but he's not convinced she'll be fast enough. The stand-off is suddenly interrupted by Lady Blackhawk, who appears on the fire escape behind Deathstroke with pistols drawn. She under estimates his ability!

Blackhawk's warning gave Deathstroke a location. He expertly twists his body around, disarming her with a twisting kick that carries him from the roof edge, onto the target and iron ledge. In seconds his hand is around her throat, dangling the pilot precariously over a multi-story drop!

The pouring rain tests his gloved grip and Black Canary has no choice but to concede to Slade's leverage. "Dammit. He wins. He always wins", she thinks spitefully. He commends her for almost beating him. Then: the unexpected!

Gunfire sprays the air, catching Deathstroke by surprise! The discharge sends him falling backwards over the fire escape rail with Lady Blackhawk!

The Canary throws herself forward to pull Lady Blackhawk back to the safety of the rainy rooftop. There, Savant sits worse for wear wielding one of Black Spider's smoking pistols. A favour to end his association with Oracle.

The Hammer...

It looked like a done deal when Deathstroke literally had them on their knees, but Savant managed to exploit the hard work of the Birds of Prey to pull out a slightly dubious last minute win!

This is essentially one of the follow-up battles to Identity Crisis #3, which drastically increased the stock of Deathstroke, and set up about a half a dozen legitimate rematches with various heroes.

Green Arrow in particular came out of Identity Crisis poised to become one of Deathstroke's new arch-rivals (or vice versa). This consequently made their rematch in Green Arrow #62 all about GA taking the master mercenary down. It established the pair as equals by flipping the script on Deathstroke's tactical foresight, showing Green Arrow could match him in planning and execution.

Not so in Birds of Prey #90, which delivers Deathstroke to Black Canary in overlap with events already unfolding in the series, and DCU at large. Primary is Calculator's obsession with besting Oracle, while the expanding influence of The Society also plays out, as it was in various other titles.

Both issues do a good job of juggling the lead protagonist's credibility against the newfound status of Deathstroke, but Birds of Prey dares to allow its hero to all but fail in service of the villain. Black Canary took him to the very edge, but with a broken arm and her allies in peril, she was forced to tap out.

For the purposes of our record: Savant will go down as victor, but he functions more like an exit strategy for the story. His eleventh hour gun spray credibly takes Deathstroke off the board without undermining his win. It was a fluke, but at least nobody got hurt (or killed).

It probably would've been more satisfying to just see Black Canary pull off the win, and really get justice for Phantom Lady's death in Infinite Crisis #1, but there's something to be said for the tenacity of the hero who comes up short, and keeps trying. They had a much toothier fight a year later in the Green Arrow & Black Canary Wedding Special, but that's a battle for another day.

Late last month we saw Black Canary and Huntress fighting together in Underworld Unleashed #3, but this is the first time looking specifically at the Birds of Prey series. A pretty ingenious way of getting the most out of a group of Gotham adjacent characters like Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle.

A callous summary might have called it DC's answer to Charlie's Angels, but that doesn't capture the texture of the series, helped in part by the storied history behind leads Black Canary and Oracle, and the growth of the series. It isn't really 'the chick book' either, although it might be a fashionable compliment to say that it is. There's a fairly natural congregation of female acquaintances that makes good use of the platform, incorporating the likes of Lady Blackhawk, and building logical relationships between various heroes. Good stuff.

The world is now discovering a version thanks to the theatrical release of Birds of Prey featuring Harley Quinn. If you'd like to discover the comics, you can check out today's featured fight in Birds of Prey Vol. 5: Perfect Pitch. Use the Amazon link provided and you'll help support the site at no extra cost!

You can find more from the characters featured by following links throughout this post, or by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights by publisher, series, and issue number.

You can also get daily links to fights by following Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook. If you like what Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is about and want to see it prosper you can now support the project via Patreon.

Winner: Savant (w/ Black Canary, Huntress, Creote & Lady Blackhawk)
#332 (new) Savant
#38 (--) Black Canary [+1 assist]
#180 (+151) Huntress [+1 assist]
#574 (new) Creote [+1 assist]
#575 (new) Lady Blackhawk [+1 assist]
#78 (-7) Deathstroke

GENOCIDE versus WONDER WOMAN
Rise of the Olympian Part 7:
Compound Fracture (DC)
Where: Wonder Woman #32 When: July 2009
Why: Gail Simone How: Aaron Lopresti

The Story So Far...
Created as a living weapon of pure malevolence by Cheetah and the scientists of The Society, the creature known as Genocide has successfully bested Wonder Woman and her Justice League allies in their every encounter.

As a dark mirror to the Amazonian warrior for peace, Genocide has spread death and destruction to everything she touches, using the Lasso of Truth as a weapon of negative psychic energy to manipulate and disorientate Wonder Woman and her friends.

Having fought off the advances of Zeus' new chosen warrior, Achilles, she now returns her attentions and fury to the evil mirror using her own gifted Lasso as a weapon against the ones she loves. Having learnt the dark truth about Genocide, only one Amazon can survive, but will it be Wonder Woman?

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Genocide 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Wonder Woman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Draw 5 (Superhuman)
Stamina: Genocide 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Genocide 7 (Living Weapon)
Energy: Genocide 3 (Explosives)


- The creature called Genocide was designed as a weapon of pure malevolence, fashioned by T.O. Morrow and the most brilliant and deranged scientific minds within the membership of The Society. Approved during Libra's reign over the union of villains, and overseen by Cheetah, the golem-like creature was created using a similar mystic ritual to animate clay with life that gave birth to Wonder Woman. By collecting samples of soil from the darkest corners of the Earth, the taint of genocidal attrocities committed over the past one hundred years embued the creature with vile inclinations when given life by the magic of Felix Faust.

From this tainted Earth was born a creature as powerful as Wonder Woman, only as despicable as she is kind. Genocide possesses abilities additional to Wonder Woman's strength, speed, and endurance, including using the Lasso of Truth as a conduit to amplify negative psychic energy. Through this technique Genocide can channel concussive blasts, amplify negative emotions, and cause erratic behaviour.

- Commanded by the Greek gods to carve a child from clay; the Amazonian Queen, Hippolyta, bore witness to the animation of this child as her daughter, Diana. The child was enchanted with abilities comaprable to those of the gods themselves; fantastic speed, strength, agility, and endurance. With the teachings of Gaea and the peaceful Amazon warriors to guide her, Princess Diana grew to be their greatest champion, as powerful as she was gentle -- Wonder Woman!

When the Princess was of age she was the natural choice of the warrior women of Themyscira to carry their message of of peace and harmony to the world of man. There, she served not only as a diplomat, but as a founding member of the Justice League whose legend grew to be one of the greatest heroes on Earth.

Math: Genocide Ranking: Wonder Woman (#13)

What Went Down...
Crash landing in the busy streets of Washington DC's business district, Wonder Woman leaves a streaming crater from her crash landing. Responsible for her sudden descent - Genocide - a twisted version of herself tainted by the dark magics of Ares and her deadliest enemies. With only a moment's pause, Wonder Woman compells local law enforcement to clear the area, doing her best to protect the innocent from the carnage that will be unleashed.

Moving at incredible superhuman speeds, Wonder Woman charges along the main street with the conviction of a hero out of patience. She brings both fists colliding into either side of the head of a flat-footed Genocide, following rapidly with an elbow to the jaw, and raking nails that rip Genocide's spiked visor from her face.

Urbana crumbles as Wonder Woman charges Genocide's body through cement and ponders the necessity death might play under the stakes at hand. Genocide is not ready to go down without a fight, however, reversing the momentum with a swing of Wonder Woman's hair! The evil creature defies any expectation of stupidity, denying Wonder Woman's ability to out-think her. References to the torture of Etta Candy - WW's friend - and knowledge to be used to hurt others become Genocide's weapons in a secondary psychological assault.

With superhuman strength, the creature tosses Wonder Woman like an overgrown discus with sufficient force to penetrate a nearby bus. The toss leaves a clump of the Amazon warrior's hair clutched in Genocide's hand, held with a grim boastful prophecy of Wonder Woman's death.

Genocide's actions had made as many enemies as Wonder Woman's had friends, inviting the interference of Agent Tom Tressman and TO Morrow pilotting an invisible helicopter from the Department of Metahuman Affairs. With the best of intentions they fire a missile into the empty street, but even unconventional weaponry, such as a probability bomb invented by Amos Fortune, proves grossly inefficient against the evil Morrow helped to conceive. The dust stirred by the explosion helps to obscure Genocide's retrieval of a populated city bus -- which she hurls as her own missile toward the copter!

Before Wonder Woman can take flight to save her fellows, Genocide snags her ankle and drags her back down to Earth. The grappling, however, serves to bring Wonder Woman into close quarters, where she unleashes a fierce left-right hook combination. With the beast staggered, she pulls the tiara from her head, using the sturdy metal to slash violently at Genocide's throat!

While Genocide clutches her gushing throat - Wonder Woman leaps to the aid of the bus full of people, forsaking the helicopter to crash. The Shield emerges to help evacuate bystanders to safety, but a recovered Genocide is able to retrieve Tom Tressman from the chopper wreckage. She uses the stolen lasso of truth to force upon Tressman revelations about Wonder Woman's true feelings toward him, crushing hopes of romance.

Wielding her tiara as a weapon once more, Wonder Woman charges, slashing Genocide's arm to break the tendons that control her grip on Tressman. With the Agent freed, Wonder Woman delivers an uppercut that props the monster into the air. From there, she clutches the stunned beast and flys hard and fast for the Earth's outer atmosphere. It is the beginning of her end game!

Flame engulf Amazon and abomination alike as they burn on a pointed reentry.
Fighting on the way down, the duo crash through the Earth to the subway system below, where serendipity brings a speeding train to collide with the monster.

Unrelenting in her follow through, Wonder Woman takes full advantage of the train, catching the airborne creature to fly it back toward the streets. A fist provides the punctuation to drive the fiend through layers of concrete to the surface. Even so, such a blow is still insufficient to finish the power concerned.

Genocide strikes back with another blow, fighting as if the stakes were of a terran fist fight, rather than the high speed airborne struggle they are locked in. They continue to trade blows, a choike hold, a polish hammer, an elbow to the nose, and a headbutt that finally puts the beast on the back foot.

Emitting a regret detected by the creature's tainted use of her lasso, Wonder Woman leaps around onto Genocide's back and in spite of the terror and conflict inflicted upon her and her friends, apologises. With storm clouds gathering to provide a dramatic backdrop, Wonder Woman clutches the lasso of truth in her fists and rips it from Genocide's body, reclaiming it from the tainted golem.

The agony, or perhaps even mythic implications, of the lasso's removal is enough to send Genocide's limp body hurtling toward the ocean depths below. Wonder Woman could save her, but chooses not to. It is a revenge fitting for a monster whose sole purpose was to spread the evil it was born from. This, however, is not the end for Genocide. Eventually Wonder Woman attempts to recover the body, but finds none, for it has already been claimed in the name of Ares.

Genocide will return.

The Hammer...
Well, for the second time actually, I give you your winner: Wonder Woman!

Yes, I actually already wrote the last third of this article a few days ago, but a nasty mishap with a loose sleeve, a touchpad mouse, and Blogger's auto-save function, meant I faced the demoralizing task of doing it all over again. As you can imagine, the first version was much better.
Still, in taking some time to find the positive, I realise it's given me opportunity to reflect more upon the details of these closing thoughts.

As tends to be the case, there was a bit of a patronizing tone to the original discussion I wrote. It's a bad habit I'm sure I share with many other commentators who feel the need to constantly discuss Wonder Woman like it's a puzzle that needs solving, rather than a comic series to be reviewed.
What probably doesn't help is the fact that: Wonder Woman needs fixing.

She isn't necessarily broken, but as a franchise, WW just isn't performing to a standard that you would expect of a character generally sharing banners and lunchboxes with Superman and Batman -- DC's superhero holy "Trinity".

There's a tendency to look past the on-going series toward fabled projects like Adam Hughes' All-Star Wonder Woman, or Grant Morrison's promise to make-up for Wonder Woman's diminished role in Final Crisis with a story of her own. Like a lot of other readers, I'm thrilled by the prospect of a special project like those, (particularly Morrison's), but is this really the tactic to elevate the character to the status she deserves?

I wouldn't say there's been an excess of pressure on Gail Simone, but it's difficult not to look at her work with added scrutiny. Like every writer who tackles the character, [Simone] shoulders the baggage of previous attempts to revamp the series for a modern audience. Though not in the echelon of A-list writers, Simone's work has garnered cult fandom sufficient enough to make her appointment to the series feel like a statement. It hasn't appeared nearly as conceited a shift as recent efforts, like the ill fated white bodysuit secret agent escapades in Allan Heinberg and the Dodsons' relaunch, but there's a feeling that Simone has been given the opportunity to elevate her own status off the back of recentering the Wonder Woman title.

Aaron Lopresti's clean and (usually) attractive artwork might not boost the book into the top ten sales as instantly as other names, but he does well to serve the return to good old fashioned superheroics that defines this run.
There's a sense that maybe Simone (and/or DC editorial) is trying to hang the hat of the title on an epic that balances elements from various periods, combining mythology with superheroes. I don't know how successful the story is at building the gravitas it aims for, but it feels so much more productive by investing in this type of basic forward movement, rather than sitting, waiting for the short-lived fruits of a messiah like Hughes or Morrison. In this respect, Simone has arguably been the writer picked to oversee the most successful incarnation of the series in recent times. One that doesn't indulge an unhealthy obsession with creating the next important 'graphic novel' or Dark Knight Returns for Wonder Woman.

It isn't all glowing praises, however...
Genocide, the character who stars in this particular issue, is just a little too ridiculous to be the kind of heavy-hitting villain Wonder Woman has lacked. Like some of the worst characters to come out of the nineties, Genocide boils down to spikes, a gaudy costume, and a bad attitude. She is to WW what Doomsday was for Superman, and Bane for Batman. Not that this character had the misfortune of actually being sold as indefinitely successful against her prospective foe, unlike those villains that killed and crippled DC's other leading heroes. I guess there are some advantages to being the struggling icon, particularly when your creator had the foresight to mandate a regular publishing schedule.

Time will tell if Genocide becomes one of those wacky creations that finds artistic balance through later context, or is damned to the annals of shame like the many burly harbingers of doom that came before her/it. [I'm still a little unclear on the revelation of the whole future-tainted-Wonder-Woman situation...]

I like Wonder Woman as a character a great deal, so it's nice to at least feel compelled to buy the comic. From our pseudo-sports league perspective, Wonder Woman's finally fighting her way into the top ranks, but you need only look at our archive of reviews to see how little of that has come from the Wonder Woman series itself. It's a predicament that speaks to the nature of Wonder Woman's struggle as a marketable hero, always present by association (ie; JLA), but never quite successful as a solo presence. Who knows if we'll ever actually get to see that long promised Wonder Woman feature film, or if it'll avoid the pitfalls of being mindless drivel with Hollywood's latest 'hot young thing' in an invisible plane and star-spangled panties. You'll forgive me if I consider Megan Gale a massive Australian bullet dodged, pretty though she may be.

I don't know if Rise of the Olympian will be the trade paperback [*ahem* "graphic novel"] that everyone will have to have on their shelf, but it's produced some of the better issues I've seen in recent times. It might be a bit of an underhanded compliment, but by being slightly less ambitious than previous revamps, it feels like things are finally heading in the right direction. It'll take time before I look at Wonder Woman as a must-read from month to month, but it's been fun at least indulging in some Amazon fisticuffs with super-villains. More than I could have said of other recent tales. [Don't tell Greg Rucka I said that!]

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 4.5

Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti continue their run on Wonder Woman monthly. Unfortunately, at the time of this posting, I was unable to find any collected editions containing this issue, but you'll find previous chapters of "Rise of the Olympian" in the trade posted to the right (containing issues #20-#27). You'll also find plenty of other stories, including a few with Wonder Woman in them, in the Infinite Wars Amazon Gift Shoppe. If Wonder Woman were to endorse any online store, I'd like to think Amazon.com would be the most fitting. Not only that, by using purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor truth, justice, and future reviews! Check out the Secret Archives or character tags at the bottom of posts to navigate your way to more materials.

CHEETAH versus WONDER WOMAN
Rise of the Olympian Part Four:
A Changed World (DC)
Where: Wonder Woman #29 When: April 2009
Why: Gail Simone How: Aaron Lopresti

The Story So Far...
With the machinations of the evil New Gods thwarted, the deities of Mount Olympus return from capture to find their ethereal home tarnished by dark ruin. Recognising their increasing obsolescence, Zeus uses his remaining powers to create radical change in the world. After retiring the Amazons, he creates a new army of legends to champion peace in the world of man, the Gargareans.

Wonder Woman is far from ready to concede her position, however. While Zeus rallys against WW's newest godly sponsor; Kane Milohai; the warrior princess herself battles against a horrific new villain created by the evil masterminds of a newly reformed Society. Genocide is a creature created by the brilliant madmen of a newly reformed Society who, upon gathering the soil of locales marred by humanity's darkest moments, gave birth to Wonder Woman's ultimate evil counterpart -- a mythic monster lusting for destruction.

Capable of utilizing the golden lasso of truth as part of a destructive psychic weapon, Genocide lays waste to the heroine and her allies at the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Green Lantern (John Stewart), Donna Troy, and others, are able to help minimize the destruction of the attack, but when Wonder Woman redirects her focus from a disturbed Troia, to a rescue effort, she finds lurking beneath the rubble the mastermind behind her troubles -- Cheetah!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Wonder Woman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Wonder Woman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Cheetah 5 (Superhuman)
Stamina: Wonder Woman 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Cheetah 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting Ability: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy Power: Draw 1 (None)


- Before becoming a super-villain, Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva was an anthropologist who travelled to Africa to seek the secrets of a tribe whose guardian is said to possess the mystic powers of a cheetah.

When this guardian is killed by marauders, Minerva steps up to the mantle, but details of the mystic process mean the recipient must be a virgin, which she is not. The irregularity means the mystic powers of the Cheetah become a curse, as Minerva finds herself wracked with pain, and bloodthirsty when in the form of a human-cat.

As Cheetah, Minerva possesses strength, speed, agility surpassing any ordinary human, approaching the levels of the creature from which she takes her name. Her senses are also heightened to comparable levels to the animal.
With guidance from her eventual Society teammate, Hunter Zolomon, Cheetah was able to attain a new level of super-human speed far exceeding her natural skill.

- Commanded by the Greek gods to carve a child from clay; the Amazonian Queen, Hippolyta, bore witness to the animation of this child as her daughter, Diana.The child was enchanted with abilities comaprable to those of the gods themselves; fantastic speed, strength, agility, and endurance. With the teachings of Gaea and the peaceful Amazon warriors to guide her, Princess Diana grew to be their greatest champion, as powerful as she was gentle.

When the Princess was of age she was the natural choice of the warrior women of Themyscira to carry their message of of peace and harmony to the world of man.There, she served not only as a diplomat, but as a founding member of the Justice League whose legend grew to be one of the greatest heroes on Earth.

Math: Wonder Woman Ranking: Wonder Woman (#15)

What Went Down...
Descending into the cavernous darkness of the collapsed Department of Metahuman Affairs building, Wonder Woman seeks the hope of survivors of Genocide's lethal blast. Instead, she finds herself ambushed by Cheetah!

The feline villainess tugs at her arch-rival's hair, before unleashing the slashing terror of her cat-like claws. The Amazon defends well, returning the favour with a superhuman left hook that sends Cheetah hurtling through the air!

A verbal assault puts an already concerned Wonder Woman further on the back foot. Utilizing her fantastic speed, Cheetah disappears into the darkness of the collapsed rubble, forcing her foe to question whether or not she can fight in such confined space. The speedy Cheetah punctuates her mental assault, emerging from the dark in a blur of orange to strike the disoriented Amazon.

Support from the DMA arrives to aid the embattled Princess, but Cheetah's speed continues to bedevil, making any clear shot with weaponry almost impossible for the mortal men. With their attempts rendered moot, the villainess is left to run free, slashing from side to side across the flesh of Wonder Woman's face.

Disappearing into the dark again, Cheetah mocks her nemesis. The space she allows, however, gives Wonder Woman the opportunity to put into action a cunning plot. She summons her allies to fire their missile, using her unbreakable bracelets to ricochet the weapon toward her target in an unexpected assault directed toward the sound of the taunting voice.

Finding faith in her skills as an Amazon Warrior, Wonder Woman catches Cheetah in the air! Snagging her tail, Wonder Woman vaults the villain into a wall with superhuman strength!

Cheetah remains undeterred, despite the physical dominance. Instead, she pokes at the emotional imbalance being felt by the Amazon. Gleefully, she reveals Genocide to have Etta Candy in her posession; wife of Diana's former love-interest and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Steve Trevor.

Enraged, Wonder Woman warns Cheetah that any ill fate to fall on the woman will be paid for. With that, she delivers a final knock-out blow to Cheetah.

The Hammer...
If you're a regular reader of the Infinite Wars, you've been here for our many occasional musings on today's winner, Wonder Woman.

Despite being one of DC's leading icons, the heroine so frequently fails to match the sales quota of her fellows in the famous "Trinity". Such is her struggle with success that Wonder Woman typically meets appearances only out of obligation, joining the JLA in feature events as a broad concept, while more notably kept to a contractual mandate of monthly appearances that keep her own title afloat where others might have drowned.

Claiming the Trinity represents the cream of the DC crop is open to debate. The heroine's role as a totem in the DCU feels very right, but when an event like Final Crisis rolls the character out in an inconsequential manner, one has to wonder exactly where Wonder Woman stands.

After our many visitations to the subject, it's very nice to finally be talking about a current issue of 'Wonder Woman.' Despite ranking in the top fifteen characters in our cumulative account, most of those reviews came from guest-spots and team obligations. Never before have we really had the opportunity to sit down and look at Wonder Woman on terms dictated by the character herself.

Thus far, Season 2009 of the Infinite Wars has been focused chiefly on the releases of each week. This approach gives us a chance to rank the contemporary involvement of characters based on reviews of significance week to week. Our budget isn't exactly impressive, however, and it's very likely the system will revert to matters less relevant to the current reader. Weekly sections are narrow and often dictated by reluctance as much as any keen favourtism.

This is relevant because I cannot claim to have any grand insight into the goings on in Wonder Woman at this point. I am largely ignorant to the specifics of Gail Simone's current run as writer-slash-saviour on the Wonder Woman title.

With that in mind, I'm not about to make any grandious declarations, one way or the other. I really can't tell if this is the touch to finally restore the percentile balance of significance to the Wonder Woman character, or if it's just another walk in the park. I want to say it's all a bit too wishy-washy to be noteworthy of any kind of revival, but, I also feel compelled to reiterate that it's an absolute joy to want to buy a Wonder Woman comic, and actually enjoy it, too!

It's difficult to seperate the influences of DC Editorial and Gail Simone.
That's not to say there's any imposing sense of pressure on the script, (like Dwayne McDuffie's Justice League of America), but the lines of direction seem to plausibly be shared between the writer's story, and a grand design for the character. Rise of the Olympian is very obviously challenging the mythology of Wonder Woman, even though the direction of the character seems to feel very familiar and unadventurous. It seems unlikely this will be the story upon which Wonder Woman fans can finally hang their hat, far from memorable in a context comparable to the classic Batman or Superman stories.

Unremarkable to the superhero landscape, though it may be, it's not really what I would consider worthy of criticism. In many ways, attempts to contrive revamps and epic tales within these pages have only led to their further deterioration.
Striking a balance between action and plot, it seems Simone is more than suited to at least raising the game of Wonder Woman to a standard that makes it a consistently noteworthy monthly title. I know I've been watching with interest, and am glad to finally have had reason to jump on in.

The art team really deserves recognition for the title.
While Aaron Lopresti's pencils sometimes veer into mediocre staging, they are more often than not, superb. Matt Ryan's inks are as confident and bold as the titular character herself, while Brad Anderson provides a colour palette that's cool and developed, offering gradients of depth without overly burnt highlights.

Lopresti's Wonder Woman falls at the centre of a visual triangle of muscular power, raven haired beauty, and functioning superhero, in a way many recent artists have failed to. The action creeps away from the penciller ever so slightly, but figures that are neither too hard, nor too soft, make up for that.

If I had a pet peeve, it would be an issue of characterization.
Personalized takes on superheroes and villains are nothing new in comics, but Simone's phrasing takes the book in some slightly uncomfortable directions. Bold and vaguely poetic overstatements feel a little awkward in the hands of different characters, but particularly Cheetah, who is a character I've grown very comfortable with over the past few years.

Simone's Cheetah, by necessity of the story, is perhaps a fraction more sinister than I'm accustomed to expecting. Recent turns in Catwoman [#78], Final Crisis: Resist, and JLA [#15], have eased me into regarding the villain with a vein of humanity that feels slightly absent in these issues. Her role in the plot feels like a reversion into a much less substantial character, reminiscent of classic and interchangable supervillains. Whether or not that's just my baggage, or a disappointing element of the story, I do not know. It certainly isn't the Cheetah I've come to look forward to, but the departure isn't so far that she's rendered unrecognisable. Actually, she's probably not altogether dissimilar to Loeb's casual reinvention of the character [from When in Rome], meeting the others.

It's slightly ironic that Grant Morrison's brief liason with the character in Final Crisis probably numbers among my favourite recent appearances, given his apparent difficulty with the character. The domination of his Wonder Woman wasn't terribly auspicious, but the heroic distance I read into the character felt somehow suitable. Simone's Wonder Woman doesn't have that natural sense of aloof stature, perhaps partly due to the effects of Genocide's attack, but also a script that interprets her role with clunky proficiency; "My cursed duty. My damnable priorities."

Sharing a third (or more) of the book is a B-plot centered on Zeus and the reclamation of Wonder Woman, presumably in the interest of opposing her as part of his initiative to employ men in the role of the retired Amazons. Usually I'm not especially interested in the mythological aspects of Wonder Woman, but this actually played rather nicely. Resonances between events effecting Wonder Woman and Zeus seemed wanting for a connective resolve, but weren't so far apart that the conclusion crumbled.

All in all, I'm sorry I didn't get to this sooner! As a book coming out in the week of Feb. 25, it was an all together good read!

The Fight: 4.5 The Issue: 4.5
Winner: Wonder Woman

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