So, David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman TV show wasn’t picked up by NBC. Who cares?  We all saw the costume. Do you honestly think we would have seen some quality stories coming from that production?  As a Wonder Woman fan, I would love to see some more appreciation for the Themyscirian princess, but not like that . . . (*whispers* not like that).  Nothing like what the show looked like it was going to be but now is not (thank Zeus) IS the graphic novel The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka. [Editor’s note: Is this even a sentence?]  Rucka delivers an incredibly moving stand-alone comic that finds Diana Prince as she should be: powerful, kind, and beautiful, yet as an ambassador to modern day America from the ancient island of Themyscira, hopelessly mired between the rituals of the past and present.

Hiketeia is a ritual in which one person begs the protection of another, and, once this bond is granted, only the supplicant may end it by releasing supplicator.  We follow a conflicted young woman, Dany Welles, who has supplicated herself to Diana while evading the law.  Having accepted her, Diana struggles with her personal desires to uphold the ritual and her moral obligations to the law and order of the society in which she resides.  As the story grows deeper and darker; however, we only see a muddying of the idea of right and wrong and are left asking more questions than are answered.  What is more important than the need of society as a whole?  Personal moral obligation?  Family?  Friends?  What is justice?  What is it worth?  Batman provides an amazing foil to Wonder Woman and several times the two come to blows with completely satisfying results.  The penciling by J.G. Jones is good, at times a little odd, but certain panels hit hard, by turns utterly terrifying and ridiculously satisfying (take a look at the cover and you’ll know kinda what I mean).  It’s a compelling comic that can be a fairly quick read, but with a complexity and maturity you’ll really want to savor.  A masterful story, The Hiketeia weaves ancient culture into a modern setting as an exploration of the basic human desire for justice and leaves you asking this one question of DC:  Would the real Wonder Woman please stand up?