InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "we did it all"

bluefall (bluefall) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-24 12:20:00

Entry tags:

char: achilles of thalarion, char: alkyone of themyscira, char: ares/dc, char: hippolyta of themyscira, char: wonder woman/diana of themyscira, char: zeus/dc, creator: aaron lopresti, creator: gail simone, publisher: dc comics, title: wonder woman

Wondy 33
Four pages from today's Wondy.

So, the sea monsters from the preview attack the island. The amazons fight back. Ares shows up.

WHUT. She won't kill Genocide, but she will kill Ares? She can kill Ares? Since when? He's the god of war. The whole point of him is that he outclasses her as much as Clark outclasses Jim Gordon.

They're on Thalarion at this point, and Zeus shows up and is all "be a wife and mother, and oh I killed Kane."

When WML does a better Polly than Gail, something is badly wrong with the universe.

... yeah.

On the plus side, I've had to cut back on luxuries recently and I've been waffling over what titles to cut, and this makes that decision easier at least..

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batcookies
2009-06-24 05:45 pm UTC (link)

Hoo boy. This issue. This issue...

Some thoughts.

1. I'm thinking of the mythic/heroic cycle. Hero ends up separated from hearth and home, hero faces a series of trials, the hero gets torn down and suffers, but then the hero rises, there's atonement, and finally the hero returns home. I think Gail's aiming for something like that here, and this is the start of an ugly period in Diana's life that she will triumph over before returning home.
1. B. The last time I remember thinking "the writer is trying to do something Epic, in the mold of the heroic cycle" was Devin Grayson's Nightwing, with Blockbuster dying and everything. So I really hope Gail doesn't linger for too long in telling this story.

2. Ares went down way too easily. I know that part of the impact was meant to be just how abruptly he was taken out, but... he's Wonder Woman's oldest and most powerful foe. And yet killing him was as easy as killing Maxwell Lord. I think Wonder Woman's foes badly need to be built up, and I don't think this makes Ares look like a particularly dangerous foe. And since I wasn't wowed by Cheetah or Psycho in this arc either (oddly I thought Cheetah's appearance in Secret Six used her better), I don't think this did a good job building up her existing foes.

3. I'm really not loving the Hephaestus cannon, sorry. I don't get why it deserved the name "Hephaestus cannon". It was an unusually large and fancy gunpowder and cannon-ball canon. I preferred the Amazons that could fight an army of OMACs.

That said, there are definitely some things that I liked in this issue.

But... that ending. I just don't know about this. I'm completely with bluefall in saying Wonder Woman needs her gods like Captain America needs America. We're dealing with "Nomad" here. I just don't know.

Photobucket

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bluefall
2009-06-24 06:08 pm UTC (link)

The last time I remember thinking "the writer is trying to do something Epic, in the mold of the heroic cycle" was Devin Grayson's Nightwing, with Blockbuster dying and everything. So I really hope Gail doesn't linger for too long in telling this story.

This is part of my concern, but for me a larger part is that... we had the Heinboot, we had Shamazons. We had the Goddess of Truth living a lie. We had the gods and amazons lost in exile and Diana not caring. She was broken already. She was ready to be built back up. Or, barring that, to be brought to the absolute low of *that* "new status quo." But this arc has resolved a majority of that crap solely to reestablish it. The amazons are gone? Okay, now they're back. But Diana's in self-imposed exile, so basically they're gone. Diana's a superspy rather than a diplomat and emissary of her gods? Okay, well, her agency blew up and she's hanging with deities again. But she's disclaimed her heritage and gods and is has nothing left to do but generic superheroics, so basically nothing's changed. She has no real ties to Donna or Cassie? Okay, we'll bring them into the book. But then we'll have them get hurt and split from her during the Genocide fight, so basically they're still not regular supporting cast. She's got this weird dubious love interest, so we'll make that official and have them actually court and kiss. But then we'll have her sort of maybe break his heart but want to go back to him, so basically they're still uncertain and going to dance around each other. It's like, why bother? What's different now in practical terms for Diana's journey than when the title first changed hands? Even if the upswing of the Hero's Journey starts next month, that's still a very long time to spin the wheels of the epic cycle.

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	batcookies 2009-06-24 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	I can't blame her for wanting to do a big arc from beginning to end on her own terms, not just cleaning up someone else's mess. But still... yeah, there's a lot here that bugs the hell out of me. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	unknownscribler 2009-06-24 06:44 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, so very very much this. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	batcookies 2009-06-24 06:43 pm UTC (link)
	Let me just say, because that all sounds so negative, there definitely were bits I liked. The "Jason and the Argonauts" nods especially. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	warpedhand 2009-06-24 07:57 pm UTC (link)
	The Hephaestus Cannon is a pun on the Vulcan Cannon. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	batcookies 2009-06-24 08:11 pm UTC (link)
	It might be. Or it might be that fans are seeing a pun that the author didn't intend. Either way, it could have been improved a lot if it was more like a Vulcan Cannon. (Reply to this) (Parent)

jlbarnett
2009-06-24 09:48 pm UTC (link)

this has been mentioned a couple times in this post. I'll admit I never read the issues. But considering Steve volunteered for the job of Cap, couldn't Nomad have been that Steve DIDN'T need the flag. I mean he remained a hero. But in the end the flag needed him, to save the day. Couldn't it have been a message about how it's the people, not the flag, not the colors that makes America great?

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	runespoor7 2009-06-25 05:34 pm UTC (link)
	1. B. The last time I remember thinking "the writer is trying to do something Epic, in the mold of the heroic cycle" was Devin Grayson's Nightwing, with Blockbuster dying and everything. So I really hope Gail doesn't linger for too long in telling this story. I am so relieved that I wasn't the only one being reminded that. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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