Amazons Attack #2

Where a fighter jet is taken down by an arrow. Phillipus and Artemis also show up lacking their usual characterizations. They do state the obvious about this series.

Phillipus: I cannot help but question our queen's judgement.
Artemis: I agree. This war makes increasingly less sense with each passing moment.


It's as dumb as it sounds and what makes it worse is Dinah showing it to Roy in amazement. These are supposed to be ordinary arrows not specially designed ones like Roy makes. No mention of magic and the Amazons stab the defenseless pilot to further the strawman writing. Despite the fact Dinah is supposed to be the JL leader at the time this was written Batman is barking orders and at times defers to Superman.

This series has tie ins making story elements feel pointless like the Sarget Steel stuff. Also...Steel says "you're all fired" then orders them to put his double Everyman in a cell? Make up your mind man. Yeah he's actually Nemesis but it still doesn't make sense and I still don't care about this plot. Batman continues ordering others and despite years of working together doesn't know what side Diana is on.

Donna Troy arrives for a pointless cameo that's only present to get the readers to read another series, Countdown. Hippolyta tells her to bring Diana to her and Donna just does as she asks. Jason Todd arrives but the art doesn't make that clear. Neither will be in this series any longer.

Phillipus and Artemis arrive making this plot ridiculously stupid...well...more so. When Hippolyta stepped down from being queen they took over representing the Themyscrians and Bana-Mighdalls respectfully. The two groups of Amazons were having trouble co-existing and needed people they trusted in command. Why did they--especially Artemis--just agree to step down and let Hippolyta become queen again? Artemis was very vocal about Hippolyta being biased against her people and didn't see her as her queen. In fact Artemis called her out repeatedly for her poor decisions (including setting Artemis up to die) and wanderlust.

Artemis does question an attack but Hippolyta is wrong, she is not in fact Artemis' queen. While Artemis and Phillipus do guess right that it's Circe's doing I don't like how toned down they are. Why is Artemis even dressed like a Themyscrian? Hippolyta thinks she killed Circe because of events in another book. Phillipus and Artemis know Hippolyta is wrong but won't do anything to stop her. Artemis' inclusion will make even less sense later on.

Diana shows up for five panels, six if you want to be generous with part of a silhouette. Batman questions her loyalty she confirms she's not with the Amazons attacking and Batman gets over his sudden crisis in trusting her. When we cut back to Batman after a brief panel of Hal Jordon and Red Tornado suddenly Diana is gone and replaced with Superman. No one notices she's gone and Superman leaves because all of Kanasas is on fire.

While the first issue was dumb it was also boring. This one ups what makes it bad with its pointlessness, more horrible characterizations and bad canon. All the women are useless in this. Despite the fact Black Canary is supposed to lead the JL Batman does. Wonder Woman has barely been involved despite her mother waging war.

This is not a self contained story so if you don't get the tie in issues it looks like: Diana went to speak to her mother. Then she is suddenly gone when Donna arrives and is told to find Diana. Then Diana is just with the JL for no reason. Sarget Steel has a double, then Steel stops his double but the Steel who won isn't Steel either.

If not for Phillipus and Artemis I would have thought Circe brainwashed all the Amazons except Diana. But they know what Hippolyta is doing is wrong and act out of character by refusing to do anything. That's mind blowing out of character especially for Artemis. It's weird to realize this is the first time (at least that I'm aware of) that Jason and Artemis were in the same book. At least Jason got out before it gets worse, Artemis is not so lucky.