Wonder Woman #30

May 2009 · DC · 2.99 USD

📊 ~33,360 copies sold its debut month

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“Rise of the Olympian, Part 5: Songs My Sisters Will Sing”

★ 1st appearance — The Olympian

About this Issue

Wonder Woman (Vol. 3) #30 is the first appearance of Achilles Warkiller, the divine male champion created by Zeus to serve as a counterpart — and intended replacement — for Wonder Woman herself, making it a genuine character-introduction milestone within the mythology Gail Simone was constructing. The issue also delivers the in-story origin of Genocide, the monstrous new villain assembled from soil taken from sites of historical atrocity and empowered by dark science and sorcery, a concept that pushed the horror register of Wonder Woman's rogues gallery into unsettling new territory. Together, these two debuts crystallize the central thematic argument of the 'Rise of the Olympian' arc: that Zeus's paternalistic impulse to 'honor' the Amazons by replacing them with a male warrior culture is its own form of violence, a question Simone framed in explicitly gendered terms that gave the arc cultural resonance beyond standard superhero spectacle. The issue thus stands as the pivot point of one of the more ambitious mythology-driven Wonder Woman storylines of the 2000s.

writer Gail Simone · artist Aaron Lopresti · inker Matt Ryan · colorist Brad Anderson · letterer Travis Lanham · cover Aaron Lopresti

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 19 in census $20

CGC 9.6 · 7 in census $20*

CGC 9.4 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The issue was written by Gail Simone — at the time working to establish a consistent, long-form vision for Diana after years of editorially fragmented runs — with interior art by Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan, and coloring by Hi-Fi, the same core creative team that carried the 'Rise of the Olympian' arc from start to finish. Simone has described her guiding intention for the arc as a reaction against the 'shotgun' approach DC had taken to Wonder Woman event stories, wanting instead to build toward a single large mythological confrontation that rewarded readers who had followed her run from 'The Circle' onward. Editor Liz Marsham and associate editor Sean Ryan oversaw the issue, which went on sale March 25, 2009, with a variant cover by Josh Middleton alongside the standard release.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Achilles Warkiller (the second DC character to use the name 'Olympian'), created by writer Gail Simone and artist Aaron Lopresti; the character debuts in this issue as Zeus uses divine fire and the heart of the slain Hawaiian god Kane Milohai to forge him.
The issue is the fifth chapter of the 'Rise of the Olympian' arc (issues #26–33), titled 'Rise of the Olympian Part 5: Songs My Sisters Will Sing.'
Genocide's origin is fully revealed here: the Secret Society of Super-Villains, aided by T.O. Morrow, animated a magical corpse using soil samples drawn from multiple historical genocide sites, empowering it with the accumulated evil of those acts.
The creative team for the issue is: writer Gail Simone, penciler Aaron Lopresti, inker Matt Ryan, colorist Hi-Fi (Brad Anderson credited in story), letterer Travis Lanham, editor Liz Marsham, associate editor Sean Ryan.
The issue was published with two editions: a standard cover and a variant cover by Josh Middleton; on-sale date was March 25, 2009 (cover date May 2009).
Achilles is appointed king of the Gargareans (also called the Olympians or Thalarions) — Zeus's newly created all-male warrior race — making the issue the first appearance of that group's leadership structure.
The issue has been reprinted four times: in the Wonder Woman: Rise of the Olympian trade paperback (2009/2010), twice in that same collected edition's subsequent printings, in the Wonder Woman by Gail Simone Omnibus (DC, April 2020), and in DC Finest: Wonder Woman: Origins & Omens (DC, 2024/January 2025).
Simone publicly framed Achilles as a thematic 'anti-Diana' — a well-intentioned but deeply misguided champion whose existence implicitly challenges Wonder Woman's role and relevance, a dynamic that continued through the subsequent 'Warkiller' arc.