
George O'Connor zeroes in on the god of War and the tensions between Zeus and his children in this seventh action-packed installment of his Olympians series.
He first contrasts Athena--a strategist of war, "of training realized and wisdom applied," rendered in a calming gray-blue palette that matches her cloak--with Ares, motivated by bloodlust and attired in sanguine vestments. However, both siblings come off as warmongers here, as O'Connor chronicles the events leading to the fall of Troy. The author-artist first flashes back to the beauty contest in Aphrodite, in which she promised Paris, prince of Troy, the hand of Helen, queen of Sparta, if he selected Aphrodite over both Athena and Hera as most beautiful. His choice made him no friends among the other gods. After Aphrodite interferes in a duel between Paris and Menelaus, king of Troy and Helen's husband, all of the gods pile on, playing out their own personal conflicts on the poor mortals' battlefield. (O'Connor brilliantly draws enemy lines around a kind of game table in Olympus, exhibiting a mock-up of Troy.) After Thetis begs an apathetic Zeus to spare her son, Achilles, she then appeals to Hephaistos, husband to Aphrodite, who gives her impenetrable armor, and also (in a dramatic sequence of panels) bests Scamander, god of the river of Troy, on behalf of Achilles.
In the kind of surprise twist that characterizes this outstanding series, O'Connor does not make the entrance of the Trojan Horse his climax. Rather, he concludes with a thought-provoking scene between Zeus and Ares. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness