- You couldn't win... but I can. With your help. Love can be real and true, we all know that... it doesn't have to be tainted and corrupted.
Wonder Woman Annual (Volume 5) #2 is an issue of the series Wonder Woman Annual (Volume 5) with a cover date of August, 2018. It was published on June 6, 2018.
Synopsis for "Love is Lost"
Zamaron, Home of the Star Sapphires
Five Dark Gods were awakened by Diana when she desired for the return of Gods on Earth, without realizing how dangerous her dream could be. She inadvertently took five of the twelve Dark Gods of the Dark Multiverse out of their dimension, manifesting them on Earth. Now they will try to transform Earth to a planet that resembled theirs: a planet where all worship them in fear. One of these Dark Gods though decided to manifest himself on Zamaron: this god is called Karnell, god of a twisted kind of Love. He represents the conditions behind love, the violence, the jealousy. While trying to face him, many Star Sapphires, including their now former leader Dela Pharon, died as Karnell can exploit the flaws in their love and, using them, destroy a member of the Sapphires with some sort of power overload.
Being that Wonder Woman helped the corps before, Miri and Miss Bloss decided to take her there and give her once again a Star Sapphire Ring: Diana decides to fight then, and learns from Karnell the entity of her mistake. She also learns though that Karnell planted in the Sapphires the idea of bringing Wonder Woman to Zamaron, and this means that the Dark Gods want her away from Earth. As she is the one who took them from their home dimension, she probably has the powers to send them back as well. As Karnell demonstrates to be an hard foe to defeat, Diana learns of his backstory: just like the Greek gods, there were Titans before the Dark Gods. Then, the first Dark God, King Best, became ruler and time after time selected a mortal to transform into another of his new Pantheon. Using the energy of a planet, he would transform this mortals in gods themselves, setting them as part of his group.
Karnell was once a kid growing up with a deranged father that abused his mother, making her prostitute herself. When his father killed his mother in abrupt violence, King Best sensed him and decided he would be worthy to transform into the god of love, in Dark Multiverse fashion. Learning his origins, Diana feels compassion for him and guesses that if he strikes him with enough love and care, he will be defeated. Asking the rest of the Star Sapphires to project their love into her, Diana hits Karnell with her sword full of pure, unconditioned love: this deeply injures Karnell, making him flee to Earth where he will confront Diana once again together with his four brothers. As the crisis on Zamaron passed, Diana asks her sisters to send her back to Earth. With the promise of coming to help her if the need arises, the Sapphires salute Diana, telling her she will be welcome as a full-time member of the Corps anytime she wants.
Back on Earth once again and trying to find her brother Jason, Diana now faces King Best himself, awakened from his sleep. As Karnell said, this time she will have to handle all five Dark Gods at once.
Appearing in "Love is Lost"
Featured Characters:
- Wonder Woman/Star Sapphire (Diana of Themyscira) (Also in a vision)
Supporting Characters:
- Star Sapphire Corps (Flashback and main story)
- Dela Pharon (Single appearance) (Dies in flashback)
- Fatality (Yrra Cyrnil) (Cameo)
- Miri Riam
- Miss Bloss
Antagonists:
- Black Lantern Corps (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- Maxwell Lord (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- Dark Gods (Dark Multiverse) (Flashback and main story)
- God With No Name (Unnamed) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- Karnell (First appearance) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
- King Best (Real name revealed) (Flashback only)
- Mob God (Unnamed) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- Savage Fire (Unnamed) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Other Characters:
- Cheetah (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Darkseid (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Giganta (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Jason (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Sear Group (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Shaggy Man (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Steve Trevor (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Unnamed scout troop (In a vision) (Cameo)
- Zamarons
- Amazons of Themyscira (Mentioned only)
- Queen Aga'po (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
- Barbatos (Dark Multiverse) (Mentioned only)
- Gods of Olympus (Mentioned only)
- Justice League (Mentioned only)
- Karnell's father (Dark Multiverse) (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
- Karnell's mother (Dark Multiverse) (Unnamed) (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
- Star Sapphire (Carol Ferris) (Mentioned only)
- Titans of Myth (Mentioned only)
- Titans of Myth (Dark Multiverse) (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Dark Multiverse (Flashback only)
- Dark Gods' Realm (First appearance; unnamed) (Flashback only)
- Karnell's Unnamed Earth (Single appearance) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- God with No Name's Earth (Unnamed) (Destroyed) (Mentioned only)
- King Best's Earth (Unnamed) (Destroyed) (Mentioned only)
- Mob God's Earth (Unnamed) (Destroyed) (Mentioned only)
- Savage Fire's Earth (Unnamed) (Destroyed) (Mentioned only)
- Multiverse
Items:
- Bracelets of Submission (Flashback and main story)
- Lasso of Truth (Flashback and main story)
- Karnell's Swords (First appearance)
- Star Sapphire Central Power Battery (In ruins)
- Star Sapphire Rings (Flashback and main story)
- Tenth Metal (Mentioned only)
- Wonder Woman's Sword
- Wonder Woman's Tiara (Flashback and main story)
Concepts:
- Barbatos' Invasion (Mentioned only)
- Blackest Night (Flashback only)
- Magic
Notes
- The story continues from Wonder Woman (Volume 5) #47 and is continued in Wonder Woman (Volume 5) #48.
See Also