Jack Kirby's Deep Six Part of Wonder Woman's Brother's Origin

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Wonder Woman Features The Return of the New Gods' [SPOILER]

By Ian Cardona

Published Dec 4, 2017

Last week's Wonder Woman #35 focused on Jason's flashback, and happened to feature a very particular and noteworthy return from the New Gods mythology.

WARNING: This articles contains spoilers for Wonder Woman #35 by James Robinson and Emanuela Lupacchino.

For the past five issues, Wonder Woman has plunged head first into the mystery of Diana Prince's mysterious twin brother Jason. The character's existence had been teased over the past two years, first in Justice League: Darkseid War and then the DC Rebirth Special, but only now are we finally starting to get answers to the questions established a good while ago.

Of course, after having Jason and Diana meet for the very first time, we came to learn that Jason issn't exactly the friendly sibling he was pretending to be -- he's actually pretty villainous, and in league with Diana's new enemy, Grail, the duaghter of Darkseid and an Amazon.

After the two villains defeated Diana in battle in the previous issue, Wonder Woman #35 did not follow on that story thread, which instead dives back into the past to focus on Jason's early days, shining a light on his background and what could have possibly turned him resentful of his Amazon sister. The issue revealed that the boy had been taken in and raised by Glaucus, an original crewman of the Argo and a member of the fabled Argonauts. After raising Jason as a fisherman. Glaucus eventually left, leaving Jason as captain of his own fishing crew.

Out at sea, while Jason was still searching for purpose and his own identity, his crew comes under attack by a group of monsters who emerge from the waters. While it's understandable that fans might not immediately recognize them, this is a group who has quite a bit of history in DC Comics: the Deep Six.

A team of amphibian, humanoid-like creatures who hail from the planet Apokolips, the Deep Six were created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in New Gods #2 in 1971. The six go by the names of Slig, Trok, Shaligo, Pyron, Jaffar and Gole, and each is more vicious than the next. They obey the commands of Darkseid, and they have faced off against the likes of Aquaman. They have been killed before, but even if they die, Darkseid simply orders the lab-grown creation of a new version of them. The Deep Six haven't had many appearances throughout the years, their last notable showing being well into the pre-Flashpoint days. There had been no sign of them during the New 52, nor in Rebirth -- until now.

The story of Diana, Jason and Grail is one that is steeped in both Greek and Fourth World mythology, a true epic story of different races of gods. Grail is on the hunt for any deity she can find, stealing their power to restore her father -- currently relegated to a child state -- to his former glory, and the Deep Six are only the latest Fourth World addition to deepen this godly story.

The issue ends on a cliffhanger, so we will have to wait for the next chapter to see how Jason fares against the six monsters from the deep, and if the team's return is short-lived, or simply the start of something much bigger.