Wonder Woman #23 - DC

This is another title that continues to improve. Gail Simone has been doing a tremendous job with these stories and characters. She does a fantastic job of handling all the details while at the same time infusing just enough humor into the story to make it believable. On top of that, Aaron Lopresti did the art for this story-arc. He's already a very accomplished artist, but then with this story they have a 'sword & sorcery' focus, which is really his forte. This whole story-arc has been stunning looking. Everything wraps up this issue and we find Diana is a heated battle with D'grth. Stalker had requested her help in subduing him, to which she brought in Claw and Beowulf to help her with the task. It seemed that Stalker was up to more than he was letting on, but we didn't know what it was. The thing about Stalker is he can't be killed, and he has no soul. He's lived for centuries that way. It turns out that he was actually working in league with the Oracle. He thought that if he offered these 3 warriors up as a sacrifice to D'grth, in return he would let him keep Diana's soul. But to his surprise Diana actually ends up beating D'grth. She gets her soul back, and when the Oracle and Stalker leave she also returns to normal. You know the whole Claw and red-eyes thing. I liked the whole 'Sword & Sorcery' themed story with Wonder Woman. She's the type of character that can transcend many different genres and seem at home there. I like that Gail seems to be experimenting with her a bit. It's a nice change of pace. But we also get a glimpse at what's been going on in the real world. Donna gets involved when Sgt. Steel sends Tresser out to survey Prince's apartment. Or course he finds the magical apes inside, and reacts accordingly. But Donna involvement settles him down and he manages to not unveil Diana's secret. Even he doesn't know. Yet! At the end of the issue we find out that it appears as if Sgt. Steel has gone off the deep end. He's becoming seriously paranoid and seeing conspiracy's everywhere. The future of this book seems to be in very capable hands. I really think the best is yet to come.