Wonder Woman Has Officially Given Up Her Role As A Greek Goddess

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Wonder Woman #774!

Wonder Woman has been replaced as Goddess of Olympus by the female half of Janus, Roman God of transitions, beginnings and endings, of whom there is no Greek equivalent. This explains why Diana went to Valhalla when she died instead of Olympus.

Diana learns the horrible truth in Wonder Woman #774 by writers Jordie Bellaire, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad and artists Andy MacDonald and Paulina Ganucheau. Upon her arrival at Olympus, she finds the kingdom in absolute ruin and overflowing with the blood of the Gods. The only survivor is ironically the male half of Janus who reveals that Hermes had originally allowed him to live in their world as a guest, most likely because Hermes had grown weary of delivering messages back and forth from the Roman Gods.

Although inconvenient for Diana, the Gods of Olympus now face an even worse fate than Wonder Woman’s current predicament. Before ascending to Diana’s position among the Greek pantheon, the female half of Janus who foresees the future convinced her male counterpart that they should split into two beings to prevent a violent premonition from coming to pass. She claimed that the last warrior to ascend to Olympus would “drown Olympus in a sea of fire” and that she could prevent this by claiming this warrior’s spot. The male Janus had no reason not to trust his other half, as his specialty was facing the past and her premonitions were never wrong. Meanwhile, the Greek Gods must have believed her as well because she was allowed to assume the only vacant seat among the Gods — Diana’s. It turns out that the female Janus was the warrior from her own premonition and quickly fulfilled what she had foretold, burning Olympus to the ground and slaughtering the Gods.

Janus’ appearance is baffling for two reasons. Firstly, she looks like what Wonder Woman’s evil twin would look like if she had one. Secondly, Janus shares an uncanny resemblance to the dark version of Diana that appeared to Wonder Woman in Valhalla. The latter realization is especially troubling because Wonder Woman’s newest companion, a squirrel named Ratatosk, revealed that Dr. Psycho had created the bloodthirsty Diana as part of an elaborate illusion. But how can that be the case if the illusion looks exactly like Janus? Could it be possible that Ratatosk was wrong? In the ostensible illusion, the evil Diana revealed that she represented everything Wonder Woman could be if she stayed in Valhalla. If this dark version of Diana had, in fact, been Janus, then what she said could still be true if she had also been referring to herself. After all, Janus just replaced Diana as a Goddess of Olympus so she could have been referring to herself as the new Wonder Woman. So the “evil Diana” could have been saying that she represented everything that Janus could be if Diana stayed in Valhalla because Diana wouldn’t have foiled her plans.

Does this mean that the “illusion” wasn’t actually an alternate version of what Diana could have been? If so, then there’s no longer a possibility that Wonder Woman could ever become such a hideous creature, making her character even purer than before. This is important because many mistake Wonder Woman to be a hero who is quick to kill, when in reality Wonder Woman represents justice, love and peace.

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