WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL: WONDER WAR – THE MATRIARCH #1 REVIEW: HELL GOT RECEIPTS

Yo, when your destination is the Phlegethon, the River of Fire in HELL, Expedia ain’t giving you points for that trip, fam. Wonder Woman Annual: Wonder War – The Matriarch #1 snatches Lyssa up, takes away the swagger, the Green Lantern ring and all that “I control my destiny” talk, then basically tells shorty, “That’s cute. Get in the damn boat.” Stephanie Williams and Leah Williams could’ve spent 48 pages telling us how dangerous the Matriarch is. Nobody got time for that. Instead, they toss her straight into the consequences of becoming who she chose to become. And wouldn’t you know it? Hell remembers EVERYTHING.

That’s where this joint gets real interesting. Lyssa is convinced everything belongs to her. Her decisions. Her power. Her worthiness. Her destiny. Even with the Fates yapping in her ear, she’s basically like, “Nah, I got this.” Meanwhile, I’m reading this thinking, shorty, clearly you do NOT got this! Williams and Williams don’t pull that cheap move where we’re suddenly supposed to love Lyssa because she’s the POV character either. She’s arrogant, hurt, smart, stubborn and occasionally full of absolute mierda. Good! Let her be complicated. Watching the Phlegethon slowly strip away all that armor is the fun part, especially because the people waiting for her aren’t random monsters somebody dropped into the level for a boss fight. These are receipts. Names. Faces. Consequences. Oh, you thought Hell forgot? Nah, mami.

When this thing starts throwing hands? Aight, NOW we talking! Eduardo Pansica and Belén Ortega make Hell feel like someplace Lyssa can’t just overpower because she got a mean look and a résumé. The River of Fire owns these pages, glowing red and pink while bodies, memories and all kinds of bad business keep crawling into her path. Best part? Lyssa gets ROCKED. Thank you! None of that superhero nonsense where somebody gets punched through three buildings, gets up and their eyeliner still perfect. Nah. Bodies bend. Faces hurt. People eat floor. And every time Lyssa fights back, you can feel the desperation underneath that tough-girl energy. She’s still trying to convince herself she’s running the show while Hell is basically standing behind her like, “Mami… you sure?”

Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Triona Farrell deserve some love too because this book is juggling Hell, memories, fights, quieter moments and enough red to make your eyeballs file a complaint, yet somehow it never turns into visual arroz con culo. Hell burns with these radioactive reds and pinks, then the quieter scenes pull everything back before the next nightmare starts swinging. That’s the good stuff. The colors aren’t just making the pages pretty, they’re separating the war happening around Lyssa from the one happening inside her head. Sometimes that little boat looks like the only damn thing holding together while anger, regret and bad decisions surround her. The art ain’t just showing us Hell, fam. It’s showing us Lyssa’s Hell.

What got me is how much I dug the quieter stuff, especially when the book starts peeling back who Lyssa was before “The Matriarch” became her whole damn personality. Childhood, friendships, insecurity, ambition, all those little choices that eventually became something much uglier. And thank God the writers don’t pull the tired “she had a rough life, now everybody feel bad” routine. Nah. Understanding somebody doesn’t erase what they did. Lyssa made choices, and this book keeps sliding those choices back across the table like, “Remember this? Yeah, that’s yours.” That’s where the story gets some real weight instead of feeling like filler between Wonder War chapters. That whole battle between conviction and doubt is sitting right there, chewing on her the entire issue.

Now listen, this annual is DENSE. Lyssa gets into these philosophical loops where even I was like, “Aight, shorty, WE GOT IT. Fate. Freedom. Choice. Keep rowing before the boat catches fire.” Some caption boxes could’ve caught the express train outta here and nobody would’ve missed them. But once everything starts coming together, I understood why she’s constantly arguing the point. Half the time she’s not trying to convince anybody else. She’s trying to convince herself. My bigger issue is anybody walking into this cold is gonna feel like they showed up halfway through somebody else’s Thanksgiving argument. You’re sitting there holding a plate like, “Yo… who are we mad at?” This is Wonder War connective tissue, fam. Definitely not your clean little jumping-on point.

But as a Matriarch story? Yeah, this joint works. Stephanie Williams and Leah Williams take somebody who could’ve stayed “future Wonder Woman villain with a Green Lantern ring” and actually start digging underneath all that armor. Pansica, Ortega, Ferreira, Fajardo and Farrell make that journey ugly, mythological, violent and sometimes straight-up gorgeous. And you know what? Diana doesn’t need to run in and hijack the book. This belongs to Lyssa. Her anger. Her excuses. Her fear. Her victims. Her choices. Hell doesn’t magically fix her, hug her or hand her some corny redemption coupon before she leaves. It just takes away all the titles, all the power and all the bullshit, then puts a mirror in front of her. Fam, sometimes getting punched in the face would’ve been easier. WEPA!

CRUSADERS SCORE:
4/5

Writers: Stephanie Williams & Leah Williams
Artists: Eduardo Pansica & Belén Ortega
Inker: Julio Ferreira
Colorists: Romulo Fajardo Jr. & Triona Farrell
Cover Artists: Daniel Sampere & Tomeu Morey
Publisher: DC Comics