Showing posts with label The Legend Of Wonder Woman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Legend Of Wonder Woman. Show all posts

Saturday, May 28, 2016

I'm Not Dead Yet, Perhaps Undead

Though I sure feel like it with this unbearable heat and working on the house repairs.

I watched The Flash season finale. Honestly as much as it pisses people off I'm glad Flash saved his mom. I expect torches and pitchforks now. With how low the last episodes were, it felt like my birthday all over again getting the ending I wanted in the first season all along. I'll get to my Season 3 theories and observations in another post.

After all was said and done, I finally bought my months worth of comics on my pull list and I finally read DC Universe Rebirth #1 beyond all the spoilers and I busted out my neglected Legend Of Wonder Woman run and marathoned it before bed. Tonight I'll read the last three issues of Justice League 3001. I'll admit I've not kept on top of of these two series because of their finite nature and I haven't read any of Waid and Samnee's Black Widow because I never found a first issue in any of my local comic shops so next time I do Amazon (because Ebay failed me hear too) I'll buy it with shipping because nothing else on my wishlist free shipping fulfilled through Amazon matches the lowest price with shipping through individual seller. The perils of liking vintage and out of print books, cd's, records, dvd's and vhs's records like the loser I am.

Quick Reviews

DC Universe Rebirth #1

I'll just say now, that Rebirth exceeded my expectations and it made both of my brother and I cry, especially Wally's arc and the lost love between Ollie and Dinah. Sorry Babs/Dinah shippers. I like where they're going with younger Wally's turn to Kidflash especially in light of him being an actual new character instead of being a repeat of old Wally with a personality change. That bothered me. I loved the Atom and Blue Beetle subplots and yay for Dr. Fate and Johnny Thunder showing up. Even Jay Garrick gets a small blink and you'll miss it cameo where Wally talks about first taking The Flash mantle after Crisis. Even Saturn Girl is showing up in the present. I know Geoff Johns won't be writing a comic for awhile, but I feel optimistic that when he does it will be Society or Legion since no other writer employed by DC apparently cares about them or is trusted to do anything with them.

The three things I don't like, Baby Darkseid and Grail (an unoriginal repeat of Zeus/Zeke raised by Athena/Zola), WWINO's twin and the reinforcement of Azzarello's canon and Little Shit Who Must Not Be Named's decision to form the new Teen Titans.

I don't have problem with either Watchmen or the Three Joker's. I know it's perverse, but come on, a Night Owl/Blue Beetle or Silk Spectre/Black Canary team up are the dreams fanfanfiction are made of. Also if this means we can have one Joker that's classic and didn't either shoot Barbara or skin his face off, I'm happy. Those other Joker's suck and they seem to still exist too, but oh well, you win some you lose some.

Legend Of Wonder Woman # 3-6

Finally we get to have nice things. I've heard the criticisms that Diana doesn't smile. Perhaps that would bother me if I was reading this serialized weekly and I kept it in mind while reading the collected floppies. Honestly it makes sense for a someone who left her island while a political upheaval's going on, is traveling to an unknown land on journey wrought with peril and comes to America thinking her passenger died and is culture shocked, thinks her mom is in danger because a guy with illusion powers has her mom's stuff and then finally enlists into the nurses ward to see the horrors of war to not smile. It makes the first smile earned because of Steve no less.

I love this series. All the little retcons and bigger deviations from Marston are simple and not overly complicated or unnecessary like the Perex reboot, all the expansions included work towards her journey. I love Etta, a loyal true friend with personality and her own dreams and problems modern Wonder Woman is doomed to never have. I love Steve and his comment that he loves to fly, but admits he's not as good on ground when it comes to fighting is adorable. He really is cut from the same cloth as Steve Rogers (without the Hydra shit though, grr...) with a dash of Hal Jordan (not the sexist pig version, writers like to default to). I'm also glad to see Duke Of Deception again even if he looks like a Final Fantasy character (Reno, Axel, any Nobody really, take your pic) combined with Constantine. It's growing on me. Knowing I get to see Priscilla Rich Cheetah in the future has me excited.

Etta mentioning that her little brother's in the Justice Society Fanclub. I doubt that little mention will payoff with how little time's left in the mini-series, but maybe it will play a part in the second series. Just knowing they exist at all in the same universe makes me happy. I want Diana to meet, Jay, Alan and Carter again soon. Those were her real buddies before she was forced to play Robin for Superman and Batman Post-Crisis.

Why can't we have this Wonder Woman as canon and in the shared Universe?

Friday, February 5, 2016

Thoughts On Justice League 3001 #8 And Other Comics

I had been late in picking up my pull list for last month, JL3001, the final issue of This Damned Band, Invader Zim for my brother and now The Legend Of Wonder Woman. My mother died last Saturday after a sudden month long deterioration from her cancer. It having come back with a vengeance spreading to her liver. Before that I had attended a memorial service to a departed friend that Thursday and a Record Collector's show the Sunday before that where I bought 15 dollars worth of records and a DVD. That's about as much as I spent on this week's comics. I got to watch my money more carefully. With all that's been going on there wasn't a much room for me to care about my weeklies until I was ready for a distraction other than Star Wars: OT fanfic.

To the review:

Justice League 3001 #8

I'm still of mixed opinions on the direction, but as always just the sheer ride alleviates my worries. Scott Kolins has given the book a different look that I much prefer even if it isn't as packed of details as Howard Porter. His art is sketchy, but bright and cartoony. I like.

I'm glad to see Supergirl rally the troops after almost a whole issue of moping. I love her messy short hair, it suits her. Remember when she had short curly hair for all the fifties and sixties until long straight hair was in and suddenly Power Girl looked revolutionary with a bob? Yeah I wasn't alive at the time, but I'm used to seeing Plastino Supergirl with the short cut in various reprints. It's not a doppelganger tribute if she had it first. Just saying.

Flash has PTSD and Wonder Woman's is frustrated by the retreat. So is Tina who takes her armor out to battle scullions, robots that regenerate. Not a wise move on her part if they're to keep undercover. I'm relieved Tina's obnoxious behavior is called out by Supergirl and Wondy who make time to call each other out as well. That Tina gets as much criticism as the others makes her slightly bearable, she may learn yet.

Fire and Ice address the issue of being outsiders amongst the group while looking around the ruins of Paradise Island, the League's hideout. Guy reminds them they share a past and assures them he has their back. Awww. I don't want his mind to be erased by Shiryalla Tome, but I don't see the story going any other way. Perhaps the dysfunctional team does need a traditional motherly type with sound advice and a level head, but is not afraid to slap a hysterical woman once in awhile.

The last part of the issue sets up Lady Stryx a pre-52 character introduced in 52 or at least a version of her as she doesn't resemble her quite. She's working with a version of the Legion of the Superheroes if Imra Ardeen didn't tip us off. I'm a bit uncomfortable with this plot. I'm by far not a fanatic of that side of the DC Universe, but heroes are heroes whether they're living in a crappy dystopia or not, and I don't trust Giffen's reinventions of these characters. Maybe Dematteis will reign him in, but as Stryx's lackeys or allies I don't have hope. Unless they're part of some cabal to overthrow her, or Stryx is meant to be a benevolent despot in which we're back into deconstruction territory and I won't be too happy. If a deconstruction is on the horizon where the protagonists are in the wrong and the antagonist is ruling the citizens for their own good then I'll probably hold out and then quit in frustration because I want to give the writer's a chance to wow me with a twist I tend to get bored of in Fantasy fiction. I get it vigilante rebellion is bad. The establishment and secret police is good. How many times do modern cape comics have to stress this? And under a guise of flipped traditional white hats vs. black hats skewed and subverted. I get it already.

Terrence Magnus's fate is revealed where he was cruelly lobotomized (just give him a mercy kill, sheesh) before he is zapped by Stryx and is reborn. Whatever that entails, Stryx wants to use him against his sister and the League bringing one backburner plot back to the forefront.

This Damned Band #6

This is a mini-series I probably want to reread in order in one sitting because after a month I can't remember everybody's name each time. Satan makes his appearance and reveals his plan and punishment. The rest of the band getting screwed over manage to make a counter deal and sacrifice the member who sold them out, or at least I think that's what happened. It's sort of hard to keep track of what's going on. When I get around to reading it all as a whole I may do a proper review of the series. There's many interesting observations I'd like to talk about throughout the issues, but I'll leave that for later.

The Legend of Wonder Woman

The book has a lot going for it because it's not connected to the crap in the main universe. We see the history of the Amazons. Why the Gods turned away from man's world, which probably correlates with the gradual disbelief of them by modern man. We see Diana's childhood on Paradise Island and her frustrations with her lot in life as a do nothing Princess while she senses something off about the Island. It turns out she isn't the only one, but her mother's in denial.

I have a few quibbles about this one. Why grant the top official Amazons immortality to rule over the mortals of the tribe? Seems misguided. In theory a long lived ruler would collect all the experience, but in reality experience corrupts and corrodes idealism and justice, or maybe I'm bitter about politics. My other quibble is that Hyppolyta doesn't fashion Diana out clay herself, Diana just forms from the clay beach of the Island or something and Hyppolyta's hope. I guess this is to make the old tale less about playing god or whatever offends people about classic Wonder Woman these days. It's certainly a step up to the many offenses done to Wonder Woman since the reboot and knowing that it could be a lot worse.

That's it as I've not caught up with Invader Zim and we still haven't found an issue of number 3 though we have the rest from day one.