Wonder Woman #26 - DC

I absolutely love Gail Simone's writing. But I gotta' tell you . . I've never seen her write a story as dark as this one. It was an incredible story. I just don't know that I've ever seen this side of her before. First of all, the Gods have finally returned to Mount Olympus. I was wondering when they'd be back. Catwoman and Harley Quinn set them free from Apokolips before the Countdown to Final Crisis ended. I guess it's just been a long journey. But when they arrive home . . it looks as if somebody has been using Mount Olympus for a frat party or something. Zeus' statue has been tagged and it says, "Happy homecoming diseased weakling gods . . Darkseid spits on your grave." After doing a quick reconnaissance, Mercury informs Zeus "There . . there is a throne room. They have used it as . . as a . . . they have befouled it." Also he has news about Athena, " . . she say her last remaining champion has abandoned her and is going to fall, she say there's no reason for her to go on. She, Athena, Lord . . she's given back her immortality. She's fading. She's going to die Zeus. She's half there already." It appears that TO Morrow and Dr Minerva have created a being of some sort. I think it's the foe that Wonder Woman is fighting throughout this issue. But it has Dr. Morrow terrified. First of all, he's thinking that the idea for this creature must have come from Satan himself. Dr Minerva asks him, "Did you not plot the murder of millions, more than once? Did you not actually plan to destroy the world at one point?" To which he responds, "Yes, yes, dammit, I did. I did all that. But that . . that . . that . . that would have been kinder." I do have a couple of questions about this Olympian character though. First of all, it appears to be a woman. Not that that matters to me, I was just surprised. Secondly it has red hair. So, I'm going out on a limb here . . . could it be Grace from the Outsiders? It's just a guess. And finally, just what is the purpose of this character? It seems to be able to think of nothing more than murder and mayhem at this point. Princess Diana makes an observation during their encounter, "Where . . . where is it? It's . . . teleporter. Strong. Stronger than . . . than anything. And something else. No! It can't be. It's a God! I fell it. But what God . . why would any God do this? It smells of an abattoir. What has it been doing with the people in here, alone?" By the way, abattoir means slaughterhouse. So to answer Diana's question, it's been doing murder and mayhem. My final question . . at the end of this issue, Tom and Etta find Wonder Woman battered and beaten. So beaten, that this creature took her lasso. If it could do all of that . . . why didn't it just kill her? Not that I wanted that to happen, but . . I'm just wondering. Anyways, I thought it was a fantastic issue. It was even more so because of Aaron Lopresti's art. It was absolutely fantastic. Isn't there something we can do to get this guy to stay on this series? He gives this book such an incredible look and feel. I wish he could stay here forever. I can't wait to see what happens next issue.