Wonder Woman #10

I love the cover. More covers should let the image speak for itself instead of saying stupid shit like "WONDER WOMAN IN HELL! ALL GUNS BLAZING!"

Last issue had the biggest cliffhanger of DC's entire New 52 Television Season so far: The Wedding of Wonder Woman! It's so romantic! I could hardly wait for this issue when Wonder Woman finally slips her head through the noose of her Magic Lasso and declares her love for Hades! Bliss!

True love!

Once Wonder Woman has proven her love, Hades commences with the ceremony. But forcing Wonder Woman to prove her love has now given her the right to appear indignant when the vows suggest she be "bound" in holy matrimony by proof and not trust. Hades may have made a mistake here. Although, truly, it would just have been a matter of time before he did or said something that Wonder Woman could use as an excuse to shit all over him. While this is often some major bullshit seen in most relationships where one person is unhappy and twists anything they can so the blame for the argument or the break-up falls on the other person, Wonder Woman needs to make whatever happens Hades' fault since this situation is such a diplomatic minefield. She needs to get out of this somehow without Hades being able to still claim Zola as his wife.

But then again, Wonder Woman does have the Lasso of Truth around her neck. And perhaps that's why it's all falling apart. Because Wonder Woman can't help but act as a True Amazon would act. She can't be bound by Hades' whims. Again, Hades fault by demanding the Lasso around Diana's neck. But what did Hades expect would happen? The idea was Strife's idea and that, by definition, can only end in conflict!

Of course Hades isn't going to make it easy for Diana to escape Hades. But the endless wall of souls fails. And the Gorgon daughter attack fails. And the drowning in the river of blood fails. So Hades decides to stop her himself.

Unless this is just another construct of souls. I don't think the little candle-headed misfit could stop Wonder Woman on his own.

At this point, even Strife comes to her rescue. But Wonder Woman just wants everyone else to stay out of the fight. She needs to best Hades on her own if she has any chance of him leaving her alone forever. Hades can't understand why she's fighting against the inevitable. She can't leave hell without his permission.

The Lasso isn't very good at stopping people from using semantic loopholes.

At this point, the fighting is over. Now it's just a matter of convincing Hades that Cupid's guns will never be able to force someone to love Hades until Hades learns to love himself. At this point, Diana has removed the Lasso from around her neck, so I'm pretty sure this is just after-school special bullshit to get Hades depressed enough to just let them all go. He begins to pout and when Wonder Woman approaches him again to console him and assure him that she does love him, he can't take any more patronizing and demands that they all just leave Hades and leave him alone.

Before leaving, Hephaestus gives Hades the wedding gift he brought with him and says, "Don't let it go to waste." It's in a box so I don't know what it is yet.

That's what I said last commentary! That Hephaestus had his own agenda!

Hephaestus comment about plans is right on. Unless you're a villain in a Scott Lobdell comic book and then the most ridiculous chain of events can happen and you can claim it was all part of the plan. But Hephaestus plan really wasn't much more than Hephaestus giving the Love Guns to Wonder Woman and hoping it would get him into Hell to give his gift to Hades. Hephaestus has an issue with his family and how their isn't enough kindness and love amongst them. This is because he was treated cruelly and abandoned by his mother Hera. It's also why he takes the male children of the Amazons as his own instead of seeing them drowned in the sea by uncaring mothers.

On their way out of hell while riding with Charon on the River Styx, Diana takes one of Cupid's guns and fires a longshot across Hell.

And ever after, masturbating was referred to as Hadesing.

Wonder Woman #10 Rating: +1 Ranking. A nice set-up with great dynamics and just more stellar character interaction. And I can only imagine that a Hades who loves himself will just be a different kind of pain in the ass than a Hades who hates himself.