Warning: contains spoilers for Wonder Woman #772!
Wonder Woman may be trapped in Valhalla, but she just found a through line between Marvel and DC Comics’ vastly different yet similar Norse mythology lore. And fans thought Marvel's version of Thor had the market cornered on that kind of thing!
Continuing the story of Wonder Woman’s journey back to the DC universe proper after the crisis-level event that was last year's Dark Knights: Death Metal displaced her entirely, Wonder Woman #772 by Michael W. Conrad & Becky Cloonan and Travis Moore, shows Diana determined to get to the bottom of the strange predicament that sees the life tree of Yggdrasil -- backbone of Norse mythology and root of all realms -- dying, as well as the coming of Ragnarok -- or the end of the world -- not far behind it. Realizing that something is off in a Viking heaven that is all battles, blood and getting hammered off of mead day in and day out ad nauseam, Wonder Woman has taken it upon herself to find a way to infiltrate the Valkyrie stronghold and hopefully get some answers on the eerily twisted world she’s living in.
Coming out of the giant serpent known as Nidhogg with the key to said Valkyrie fortress in tow, Wonder Woman is met by DC’s resident ghostly hero, Deadman, after succumbing yet again to the sweet embrace of death on Valhalla’s ever-constant battlefield. Revealed that it’s been him helping her along in this odd version of heaven ever since she arrived, Diana reiterates her need to save the dying life tree and prevent Ragnarok from ever happening…or at least delay it for a while.
Not known to lean heavily into the Norse mythology since Wonder Woman is affiliated with Olympus and the Greek pantheon of gods, DC Comics has usually played second fiddle to Marvel’s vastly different and more fleshed out version of Thor, Odin, Asgard, Yggdrasil and the annihilation event that is Ragnarok. Loosely combining Marvel’s lore with a few twists and turns that only DC can provide, Wonder Woman adds yet another wrinkle to DC’s Valhalla that is as interesting as it is revealing.
Responding to Diana as she continues to push her heroic agenda to save Yggdrasil, Deadman says, “If she dies, it is because the Parliament of Trees has deemed it so,” immediately tying together a long standing element of DC lore to this new world: The Green. Usually only heard in relation to the leafy hero known as Swamp Thing, The Green is a place that controls – and quite literally is – the embodiment of all plant-life, an interesting line thrown in that effectively combines not only the idea of Yggdrasil and Norse lore from Marvel comics, but the literal roots of DC’s universe in The Green as well.
Marvel and DC might have markedly different takes on their own versions of Norse lore, but with Wonder Woman successfully finding a way to combine the two, their differences are much less apparent. Now if DC Comics’ version of Thor and Odin could just keep up with Marvel’s version of the characters, fans might have a brand new nerd argument to bring up at the comic shop very soon.