WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League #60 by Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, Tamra Bonvillain and Josh Reed, on sale now.
With Black Adam and Naomi having already been introduced to the roster of the Justice League, it was only a matter of time before Wonder Woman’s unofficial replacement made her appearance to round out the team’s new members. In a happy coincidence, Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mom and the former Queen of the Amazons, was also attacked by the League’s newest villain, Brutus, giving her a firsthand demonstration of just how dangerous he is in Justice League #60.
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While that attack gave her a natural reason to start working with the team, this isn’t the first time Hippolyta has worked alongside the Justice League. In fact, she’s had several opportunities to be a part of the greatest superhero team on Earth, both recently and in the past.
Following the restructuring of the DC Omniverse, Hippolyta was left in a state of grief due to not knowing where Wonder Woman is after her victory over the Batman Who Laughs, unaware of her journies through the Norse mythological corner of the DCU. She decided to honor her daughter by filling in for her during her absence, but before she could leave for man’s world, the threat came to her.
Brutus invaded Themyscira, looking for a new, more stable land to conquer. Unfortunately for him, it’s also the most heavily defended. Brutus ended up on the wrong end of an Amazonian charge, which Hippolyta led. But Brutus is a villain who relies on common sense and recognized that he was in over his head. He opened a portal to Central City, but it remained open long enough for Hippolyta to follow through. Brutus however, did not stay long enough for her pursuit to make much of a difference. He returned to his home dimension, leaving Hippolyta to be brought up to speed by the Justice League.
But even though she recognized how much of a threat Brutus was, she could not abide by joining the League due to the presence of Black Adam. This is an understandable, yet unfortunate reaction. Though she left the League behind, Hippolyta will likely return to help the League out in their time of need. After all, she’s done it before when the world really needed her.
Hippolyta worked alongside the Justice League of America in the past, having also been forced to take up the mantle of Wonder Woman when Diana was accepted as the new Goddess of Truth by the Olympian gods in the late ’90s. But this act of service was as penance for Hippolyta betraying Artemis. In time, she found that she enjoyed the freedom and adventure that came with being a hero. So much so in fact that when Diana finally returned as Wonder Woman, Hippolyta did not wish to return to Themyscira, meaning the world now had two Wonder Women.
This would cause friction between mother and daughter until Hippolyta sacrificed herself to stop Imperiex from destroying the Earth. Of course, she came back later, but it was still a noble deed worthy of the Queen of the Amazons. But this meant that Diana was now the only Wonder Woman again and that Hippolyta’s time working alongside the JLA had come to an end. More recent events helped her work alongside her daughter again.
When the Frost King awoke during the Endless Winter event, Hippolyta joined the Justice League in battling him because she had defeated him in the past. But in the process in the process of learning the true motivations of the Frost King, Hippolyta learning a lesson from her daughter and her friends.
Now, she seems to only want to honor her daughter and what she believed in. And above all things, Diana was a believer in the truth. But facing the truth can be a hard thing, even for a hero as strong as Hippolyta. It may take her some time to accept that, despite her distaste for current members of the League, she would better honor her daughter by fighting alongside them instead of apart from them.
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