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Wonder Woman hasn't ceased to wow me since issue 601. The book has a seriousness to it that almost makes it feel like we're reading something adapted from Greek tragedy. It's helpful that JMS has put together a great host of mythology and mashed them all together. Wonder Woman #603 breaks into the the mythological realm even further, making for one of the most interesting comics out there.

Wonder Woman is barely a superhero tale. Sure she's got her powers and her name, but beyond that, JMS has turned this alternate-reality version of Diana into something else entirely. This book reads more like an epic than a comic, which separates the books from the comic field.

The issue begins with Diana leading her group through the desert like a modern day Moses, on the run from the evil armies of men who are pursuing them. They've enlisted help, but their colleagues get torn up in combat, and their souls get stolen to an underworld. Diana is the only person who can see this spirit realm among the Amazons, and she fights some very creepy looking flying creatures before she's brought to hell herself. We learn some interesting mythology about the river Styx and the underworld, and then Diana treks back to our world.

I find the fact that the mythological elements are so heavy, yet the story still is fast paced and action oriented to be a great plus. JMS' storytelling is perfect for this, and his ability to craft long term storylines with short term payoffs plays out very nicely here. Playing on mythology, "gods" and the like, it makes one nostalgic for Babylon 5, which is only a good thing.

Diana is confronted with the root of this evil at the very end, and I'm happy to see the lasso, which was set up with a nice anticipation earlier on in the issue. As much as that's a silly element to her costumes, that is a large part of the Wonder Woman mythology, and she's not Wonder Woman without it. The fact that a man has the lasso spells big trouble for our heroine. A nice cliffhanger for issue 604.

The art has been phenomenal on this book since the beginning. I really love what's being done with the various demon monsters, the way that the underworld was portrayed with the people writhing in pain, and pretty much everything else. Even the costume feels natural here, with Wonder Woman feeling much more like a real warrior than some sort of objectified Barbie doll. It's very nice, and the action scenes are done just as well as the heavy dialogue ones.

Overall, I loved the issue, and love this storyline. I can't wait to see how it concludes and how this reality merges back with the "real world" of the DCU. JMS said at ComicCon that each issue of this series would step up the danger and step up the level of nasty mythological creatures Diana would have to face, and so far, he's held true to that. I'm only wondering how he's going to make for a more exciting and fast paced comic from here?

9.5/10