This week's release of Wonder Woman #31 brought with it the arrival of a new creative team in writer James Robinson and artist Carlo Pagulayan. Titled “Children of the Gods,” the pair's story will pick up threads established over a year ago, when DC's New 52 was at its dusk and DC Rebirth was just beginning. Not only will the storyline finally give us answers regarding the mystery of Diana Prince's long-lost twin brother Jason, it will also feature the return of a fairly recent, albeit quite massive, addition to the DC Universe. Grail, the infamous daughter of Darkseid, has returned.

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Although she hasn't been seen since we caught a glimpse of her in last year's DC Rebirth Special #1, the importance of Grail's introduction and impact on the DCU can't be overstated. She's kept quiet for a while, but now she's back, and it doesn't bode well at all for Wonder Woman, considering the trail of death and destruction Grail left in her wake the last time she surfaced. The last time Grail interacted with DC's heroes was in "Darkseid War," a Justice League event that was published over two years ago, so it's understandable if you've forgotten some details about who Grail is, or if you're simply unfamiliar with the character at all.

Before DC entered the current Rebirth era, the New 52 essentially came to a close with Justice League: Darkseid War. Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by the likes of Jason Fabok and Francis Manapul, the event not only featured Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor battling it out, it also saw many members of the Justice League take on brief roles as actual gods. For example, Superman became the opposite of himself as the god of Strength, Batman became the god of Knowledge, and the Flash became the god of Death. But, at its center, the story was about Diana Prince and her never-ending struggle of balancing her own existence as a creature of myth, a god, and a person.

Grail was the instigator of the entire event, having made her first appearance in the Free Comic Book Day issue Divergence, via a short story by Johns and Fabok that told her origin. As it turns out, just like Diana, Grail was born on Themyscira. Not only that, the two were born on the very same night, at the very same time. On one corner of Paradise Island, Hippolyta gave birth to Diana (and her twin brother Jason), and on the other, Myrina gave birth to Grail, a gray-skinned creature with red eyes -- unmistakably Darkseid's offspring.

Years later, mother and daughter resurfaced, scorned by Darkseid and ready to declare war upon him. Raised to despise and defeat her father, Grail is both New God and Amazon, a warrior as fierce and deadly as any dark god. She took out the entire Justice League without breaking a sweat and brought the worst villain in the universe to help in her cause: the being named Mobius, aka the Anti-Monitor. Since the Anti-God was fused with the Anti-Life Equation, she used him to destroy her father, and later took the powerful Equation for herself, effectively becoming the goddess of Anti-Life.

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Even though Grail only had one goal as she grew up – to kill her father – thanks to Batman (in his role of the god of Knowledge) she came to realize that she was more like her father than she had previously believed. She craved power. There is a darkness inside of her, one she couldn't maintain control over. With the Anti-Life Equation now a part of her, she became aware of a secret prophecy that involved the first man to step foot on the Amazon's island. Believing that man to be Steve Trevor, Grail took Wonder Woman's friend and transformed him into her own weapon. What she didn't know was that Steve wasn't the first man to step foot on Themyscira. That person was actually Wonder Woman's twin brother Jason, born on the island the same night as Grail and Diana.

Using the newborn child of Crime Syndicate member Superwoman, Grail combined the power of the Anti-Life Equation with an ancient Amazon ritual to bring a dead enemy back inside a new host to create a new Darkseid that she could control. While the Justice League would eventually turn the tide of battle, it was Grail herself, at her mother's behest, who would destroy this Darkseid. Using the power of her own Omega Beams, Grail transformed Darkseid into an infant. She then took him to raise as her own, choosing to try a different approach from her mother's: Love. Vowing to raise her father, she swore that she would come to learn to love, rather than despise, Darkseid.

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Grail next appeared in the previously mentioned DC Rebirth Special, telling her son/father the story of Jason, and the power Wonder Woman's twin possesses. Though she remained out of sight until her return in Wonder Woman #31, we saw the infant Darkseid again in Dark Nights: Metal #2. Released a few weeks ago, the issue by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo saw Batman attempt to use the Omega Sanction so that he could be sent back through time once again in order to prevent the Dark Multiverse from gaining access to the DC Universe. Even Batman knew that his time frame for using Darkseid's power was short, as he stated that Grail would undoubtedly be looking for her child.

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Considering that the last time she made her presence known, Grail started a war between two forces of ultimate destruction, Grail's return once again brigs with it the threat of doom for the DC Universe. Both she and Wonder Woman share a bond with the as yet unseen Jason, since all three were born on the same island on the same night. We might not know which side Jason will find himself join gin once he enters the story, but it's likely he'll find himself in the middle of a battle between sisters, one the paragon of what we should aspire to, and the other an example of what we should all strive not to become.