Trial of the Amazons is a 2021 Bat Family Crossover event published between the Wonder Woman titles. It is written by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Stephanie Williams, Vita Ayala, and Joelle Jones.
After the events of Nubia & the Amazons, the dangers of Doom’s Doorway have found their way to Man’s World and garnered the attention of not one, but all three Amazonian tribes. The Bana-Mighdall consider it to be a weakness in the current regime and have decided to return to the shores of Themyscira to stake their claim over the island. Little do they know, the Esquecida are not far behind, but instead are looking for help to combat the evil unleashed.
Tempers rise and swords are brandished as the women argue about the best course of action. Now Queen Nubia must show them all the way to peace by calling for one of the most famous Amazon traditions…the Contest. Who among them is worthy of leading them into the future? Find out as the bravest, wisest, and fiercest warriors compete to be champion of all the Amazons!
The storyline is composed of two Trial of the Amazons specials, the main Wonder Woman book note , Nubia and The Amazons, and two Wonder Girl specials
Main Storyline
- Trial of the Amazons #1
- Nubia and the Amazons #6
- Wonder Woman #785
- Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #1
- Wonder Woman #786
- Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #2
- Trial of the Amazons #2
Tropes in Trial of The Amazons include;
- Amateur Sleuth: Cassie volunteers to be the one to investigate who Hippolyta's possible murderer was.
- Animal Motifs: The three Amazon tribes are represented by a separate animal; a lion for Themyscira, wolf for the Bana-Mighdall, and a jaguar for the Esquecida. Diana however is represented by the eagle, separate from her native Themysciran tribe.
- Bat Family Crossover: Between the Wonder Woman, Nubia and The Amazons, and Wonder Girl books.
- Big Bad Ensemble: When Nubia questions Medusa over just why monsters are having an easier time getting out of Hades all of the sudden all she can say is that she could hear "many" voices trying to guide her out and decided to follow the most sinister. Over the course of this event we see Altuum The Survivor and the protogenoi Chaos both seeking to open Doom's Doorway. Altuum as part of a plan to kill all of the amazons, starting with their would be champions, while Chaos wants to destroy the island itself to spite Diana. After their plans fail the two seem to become aware of each other and entertain a Big Bad Duumvirate, though Diana vows to track down Altuum before he can do anything else. Even then though, there's more forces at work than the two shown to us during this "trial".
- The Big Guy: Mena of the Esquecida is easily the tallest of all the members of her tribe seen so far and she mainly serves as muscle.
- Big Entrance: The Esquecida bypass the "official" portal to Themyscira and take both tribes completely by surprise; Yara in particular with the way her proximity is exaggerated, befitting her hammy nature.
- Bittersweet Ending: Chaos is sealed, the Doom's Doorway is secured and Themyscira is saved, but Hippolyta, Antiope and Atalanta are dead, while Artemis is on the run and Diana realizes Altuum is unaccounted for. On a more positive side, Diana officially names Yara the newest Wonder Girl, the three tribes are finally united and Nubia is going to be crowned as Queen of all the Amazons.
- Boisterous Weakling: Downplayed: In that none of the Amazons are truly weak, but throughout the event everyone aside from Phillippus and Cassie Sandsmark seem to be forgetting who among them won the Super Power Lottery and who lost it. Faruka is especially guilty, at one point decreeing that Themyscira not use the Asteria armor or sandals of Hermes to gain an unfair advantage while seemingly unaware how many people present don't need them, her own champion included!
- The Bus Came Back: Altuum the Survivor returns in Part 3 for the first time since Cloonan and Conrad's first Annual the previous Fall.
- Part 5 brings back Echidna, Mother of Monsters, who hadn't been seen since 2019.
- Canon Immigrant: A minor one but Asteria and her golden armor from Wonder Woman 1984 is brought up as a part of Themysciran history, with the same backstory from the film
- The Champion: Each of the Amazon tribes must choose a champion to decide who will guard the Doom's Doorway. The Bana-Migdhall choose Donna Troy, the Esquecida choose Yara Flor and Themyscira chooses Philippus. Diana enters the tournament as a champion of not just one tribe but all of them.
- Character Death: Hippolyta in the opening one-shot.
- Character Shilling: In a private conversation Diana gives Yara Flor a lot more credit than she deserves, but considering Yara's circumstances she does deserve a pep talk.
- The Clan: All three of the Amazon tribes are focused here; Themyscira (Diana, Hippolyta, Nubia), the Bana-Mighdall (Artemis, Faruka, Atalanta) and the new tribe of the Esquecida (Yara Flor).
- Conflicting Loyalties: Donna Troy has been adopted by Diana and Hyppolyta of Themyscira and also welcomed with open arms by Gaboymila of the Esquecida. In the contest she chooses to represent the Bana-Mighdall, with the goal of establishing equality between all three tribes. Diana also has conflicting loyalties, being of Themyscira but being the one to convince Themyscira to recognize the Bana-Mighdall as amazons. She doesn't want to undo that effort or alienate Faruka, who she still considers a friend in spite of everything and ends up refusing to pick any side.
- Covers Always Lie: Among other things they depict Yara Flor using the sword she shattered against Hephaestus's hammer back on her own book and ignore that she's been fighting primarily with her fists and Golden Boleadoras ever sense.
- Culture Clash: The Esquecida are "amazons" by very loose technicalities. Aella, an amazon who left the tribe before the Themyscira/Bana-Mighdall split, joined their ranks and started raising a child among them. After Aella's death they've allowed free passage to adopted Themyscira amazon Donna Troy, who stumbled upon the Esquecida's hidden city Akahim while searching for Cassie Sandsmark, as they were planning an assault on Olympus and needed all the help they could get. The Esquecida have very little in common culturally with the Bana-Mighdall or Themyscira, with Donna being the only reason they even reach the latter. Religiously their relations are especially distant, as while Aella had taught her new tribe good things about the Greek gods all interactions the tribe has had with them have been negative, beginning with Hera ordering Aella's execution for having that child in the first place, and eventually leading to the aforementioned retaliation against Olympus. Gaboymila advises Portira to take Yara Flor with them, her being the closest thing to a genetic link, but Yara is a less than ideal ambassador and almost sparks war between The Esquecida and Bana-Mighdall within minutes of arriving on Themycira. When Hyppolyta is found dead The Esquecida, who have the least connection to her, immediately order The Contest to be postponed until a criminal investigation is concluded but are overruled by the other two tribes. Atalanta, the whitest of the White Sheep aside from Diana herself, being the first to shoot Potira and Yara down.
- Double-Meaning Title: Upfront the "trial" refers to "The Contest" to determine the next guardian to Doom's Doorway, but it also refers to the fact several Amazons are murder suspects in an ongoing investigation and the fact there are three outside forces working together to destroy the three amazon tribes in one go. A triple meaning title disguised with a singular "the".
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Lasso of Truth is unsurprisingly taken out of play in Wonder Woman #785 to prevent the investigation into Hippolyta's murder from being solved too early and quickly. Diana's vow to use it on each and every Amazon until she finds the murderer causes understandable political blow-back with the Esquecida, the Bana-Mighdall, and even the Themyscirans. Nubia says she'll consider Diana's suggestion on the grounds it's logical but that it will not be her first resort. A "ghost"(Antiope) convinces Diana to surrender it to Nubia, making her confront the fact Diana can't trust herself to wait for Nubia's clearance, but this causes further problems when the island comes under attack due to Revenge Before Reason and Diana is forced to try and placate the enemy with only her words.
- Easily Forgiven: Considering the initial reaction of both Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall to discovering a lost amazon from an unknown tribe was to send assassins after her, it's remarkable that the Esquecida's first official meeting with both tribes is only meant to be a peaceful exchange of information(though the Esquecida were willing to "punish" whoever they found if the Doom's Doorway attacks were found to be intentional). The target of those assassination attempts does immediately butt heads with Queen Faruka, who ordered the Bana-Mighdall's, but she successfully forms a positive connection with former queen Hippolyta, who ordered Themyscira's.
- Event Title: The titular "Trial" refers to the new version of the Contest (typically a part of Diana's origin) only now one composed off all the Amazon tribes rather than just Themyscira.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: The crux of Hippolyta's murder mystery. All three Amazon Tribes are all gathered on Themyscira for the Contest and were present when Hippolyta was killed. Any one of them could have done it for a variety of motives (revenge upon Hippolyta, an attempt to delay or stop the Contest, etc.).
- Everyone Has Standards: Artemis is perfectly willing to instigate war at the Themysciran embassy when the Bana-Mighdall are asked to leave their weapons before taking the portal to the island, but once there she is perfectly cordial when Queen Nubia proves much more welcoming and is shocked that Faruka continues to instigate after their hosts announce a feast. She's even more shocked when Faruka almost starts a war with the "new" tribes of amazons almost as soon as they arrive. It goes to show that if not for Atalanta Artemis would be the White Sheep of her flock.
- Exact Eavesdropping: The Esquecida Moon God/Goddess has changed once again, and she's stealing secrets from the Greek Protogenoi Gaea! It is suggested Yacy overheard Gaia whispering about the well of souls and decided to take a draw from it, to strengthen the Esquecida's connection to the old world Amazons.
- Fair-Play Whodunnit: A major subplot is Cassie (Wonder Girl II) trying to discover who Hippolyta's murderer is.
- Fantastic Racism: The longstanding enmity between the Amazons and the Bana-Maghdall is alive and well.
- Genre Blind: The Champions don't realize The Contest has gone off the rails even after they've been Lured into a Trap, and only get the message after a second trap follows in case of the first's failure. The organizers of the Contest immediately realize something is wrong, but then delude themselves into thinking everything is fine until they literally cannot any longer. Only Cassie Sandsmark recognizes the Contest as a farce from the beginning, that fickle gods were going to prioritize screwing with mortals over their own rules, as they do in pretty much every Greek myth, but she had (seemingly)more pressing issues to deal with, still underestimating just how dire things are going to be.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Faruka. She cares less about the real dangers posed by Doom's Doorway and more about using the Contest as a means of regaining the Bana-Mighdall's immortality, seizing the Throne from Nubia, and revenge upon her sisters for the ideological divide that got the Bana-Mighdall cast out of Paradise Island.
- Grand Finale: For Wonder Girl (Infinite Frontier), The book was cancelled before the event and unlike Nubia, it did not receive a spinoff (although, the Artemis one-shot could arguably, if technically, count as one given her prominence in Wonder Girl).
- Hate Plague: The Amazons begin to suffer from one of this as soon as the Trial begins, with the three queens trying to keep order before things get worse.
- Hellgate: Doom's Doorway, a direct gate to Hades, and it seemingly being breached is the kick-off to the event.
- Laughing Mad: Diana accidentally breaks into the throne room, finds it empty, and thinks she's too late. She vastly underestimates her own speed and finds most of her allies are still alive, bewildered at how she got there first, given the circumstances gave them a massive head start.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
- Chaos is targeting the Amazons in revenge for Diana imprisoning it in the Graveyard of the Gods during the events of Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad's Afterworlds arc.
- Potira is indirectly responsible the death at the feast. Her safety advice to the "tourists" back in Wonder Girl (Volume 3) so thoroughly explained how things in the jungle kill people that she went past
deterrence and into inspiration.
- Not Helping Your Case: Cassie points out to Artemis that threatening her for asking if she's the one who killed Hippolyta, isn't making her look less suspicious.
- The Reveal: Artemis is revealed as Hippolyta's killer in the second Wonder Girl special.
- Rise from Your Grave: A grave as the contestants discover a mass grave predating the amazon settlement of the island. It caves in after a fight with Echidna, who lured them there as a Death Trap if she couldn't beat them. Diana holds it up long enough for the other contestants to escape, then digs her way out.
- Settle It Without Weapons
- Tensions between Diana and Faruka come to a head, and when Faruka suggests they arm themselves to duel, Diana mentions that she "won't require weapons". They begin grappling, but are interrupted before things progress, and Faruka mentions Diana owes her a "proper fight."
- In a larger example, all the trials of the contests will decided without weapons and the tribes seal away their weapons for the duration of the event.
- Spanner in the Works:
- While Themyscira and the Bana-Mighdall knew of Yara Flor, only Atalanta and Artemis were vaguely aware of the hitherto unknown Esquecida tribe by way of Atalanta finding one of their abandoned outposts, and Artemis having accosted Potira while hunting Yara. Portia arriving on Themyscira with a small army of Esquecidas in tow and expressing interest the Contest thus takes the sisters of both tribes completely by surprise and upends all their assumptions and plans (Faruka especially).
- Diana herself becomes this in Wonder Woman #785 by entering the Contest as an independent champion. She's representing all the Amazons and not just a single Tribe, which is poised to throw the entire Contest into further chaos.
- Summation Gathering: Most of Wonder Girl #2 comprises Cassie giving one. Faruka says she's "playacting detective".
- The Resenter: When Diana hears of The Esquecida's arrival she correctly predicts the entirety of the Bana-Mighdall, sans Atalanta, are going to resent their very existence.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Queen Gaboymila tells Potira to represent her in Themyscira, Potira is honored and happy to. When Gaboymila suggest bringing Yara Flor along would be a good idea Potira agrees without enthusiasm.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Artemis being the one who poisoned Hippolyta was all but revealed when one-shot about the character was announced in DC's July solicits.
- Turn in Your Badge: A variation in Wonder Woman #785 when Diana surrenders the Lasso of Truth to Nubia for the duration of the Tournament and murder investigation. While Nubia didn't actually order Diana to do this, Diana surrenders it because she knows herself too well...and she had been pushed to, half unknowingly, by Antiope. In her grief at her mother's death, Diana knows she's emotionally compromised and can't trust herself to obey Nubia's orders not to use the Lasso on their fellow Amazons.
