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Wonder Woman has just discovered where the gods of the DC universe go when they die, as well as the terrifying entity who watches over them.
The gods are powerful immortals, but even they can be killed, a fact that Wonder Woman knows better than most. Having been raised on the island of Themyscira, the Amazon princess had a personal relationship with the Greek Gods of Olympus. They blessed her with their divine gifts, granting her supernatural abilities. When Wonder Woman recently learned that the Olympians had been killed, she set out to resurrect the pantheon.
In Wonder Woman #775, by Michael W. Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Andy MacDonald, Nick Filardi, Travis Moore, Tamra Bonvillain and Pat Brosseau, Princess Diana’s quest took her to the Graveyard of the Gods, where she came face to face with a being more powerful than she could ever imagine, the Keeper of the Grounds.
Deadman and the squirrel Ratatosk accompanied Wonder Woman to the Graveyard of the Gods after the Roman god Janus murdered the Olympian pantheon. The Amazon had previously traveled there with Aquaman to meet with Poseidon. On this latest visit, the place looked almost unrecognizable to her. She said it had changed, but Deadman corrected her, explaining that she was the one who had changed, and as such, the Graveyard looked different to her. This time, the site appeared as a cemetery overcrowded with headstones and mausoleums.
The group meet the Keeper of the Grounds, an ancient being strong enough to keep the gods in place. Wonder Woman knew she could not overpower him, so challenged him to a game of wits, answering three riddles in exchange for the release of the Greek gods. She won, and then spoke a riddle to the Keeper that he could not answer, thereby winning freedom for herself and her companions to leave as well (since this wasn’t part of the original bargain). These riddles fit within the rules of magic common to many religious, folkloric and magical traditions.
However, she also had to leave one god behind as payment–similar to the coin given to Charon at the River Styx. She chose to leave Chaos, binding the eldest of the gods for eternity. This payment is another tradition, showing that even gods escaping death must obey certain rules. But since the Keeper of the Grounds is charged with keeping gods in the Graveyard, it appear that the rules have some flexibility.
Dead superheroes frequently return to life. It should not be surprising that the gods, whose powers far exceed those of mortal heroes, can do the same. Humans who died tend to go to an afterlife associated with some divine realm. Wonder Woman has spent time in different polytheistic afterlives, including Hades and Valhalla. Both Barry Allen and Oliver Queen went to the heaven of Abrahamic religions, while other characters have gone to hell. But for dead gods to have their own burial place suggests that they too must obey an even higher power. Some possibilities for this power include The Endless, Anti-Life, the Hands of the Omniverse, and the Source–all of which have their own complicated legacy within DC cosmology.
As she leaves the Graveyard of the Gods, Wonder Woman noticed a headstone was being carved with her own name, showing she was to one day rest among the other dead gods. This raises the important question of whether the Amazonian princess is destined to end up interred there, or if the power she possesses as Wonder Woman will allow her to write her own fate.
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