[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Tom King
Art: Daniel Sampere and Belen Ortega
Colors: Tomeu Morey and Alejandro Sanchez
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Wonder Woman faces off against her rogues gallery as recruited by Sarge Steel and Trinity can’t sleep in another adventure in babysitting with the Super Sons.

Positives

The best thing about Wonder Woman #6 and this series is the art by Daniel Sampere.  That’s about all that’s good about this issue.  I mean, there are a lot of aspects that Sampere excels at, but it’s important to know that his art is not only THE best thing, but perhaps the ONLY thing as well.

Negatives

It’s hard to know where to begin….  Six issues in and almost nothing has happened in this series.  To say that the pace has been glacial is an understatement.  We should’ve been at this point in issue #4.  King has spent so much time on set up and developing The Sovereign that this has become one of the most tedious and boring series I’ve ever read.  Like Brian Michael Bendis’s run on Superman King has a faulty premise and his execution of that faulty premise is not only going nowhere fast, but the approach is slowing the already slow plot down.

Even if you believe the idea that Amazon’s make up a large enough demographic to be a threat in America, and somehow the people of the United States would turn against Wonder Woman because of the actions of a single rogue Amazon and the hatred and bigotry in America stems from the machinations of a shadow monarchy, it doesn’t make up for the fact that the narration of this tale by The Sovereign drags the decent ideas down.  Wonder Woman #6 is a perfect example of this.  As a big action issue with Diana battling all the rogues that were recruited last issue, the narration takes all the excitement, tension and fun out of it.  It’s a story that should rely on Sampere’s story telling and art.  However, King is too in love with the sound of The Sovereign’s voice and he HAS to talk over the entire conflict.  It’s not even exciting narration!  The Sovereign is reflecting on his mistakes as he narrates to Lizzie in a future time, and it’s a very dry and from his perspective disappointing sequence of events.  King definitely makes this come through, because it’s wholly uninspiring.

King has the ability to write a gripping and engaging story.  Human Target for all its faults in characterization of the Justice League International characters is a tight, intriguing noir-style mystery.  For that it’s quite good, but the personalities are so far afield, the JLI characters are like actors cast in a movie playing roles and they clearly aren’t themselves.  In Wonder Woman, the characters are off, but the story doesn’t even hold the reader’s attention.

Negatives Cont’d

This run, the story and even the execution by King has made me think of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”  In that story, an emperor is told by some con men that these “new clothes” will make him look great.  Of course, there are no clothes and the emperor goes before his people completely naked.  For whatever reason, many people want to believe Tom King is writing a great comic here.  King believes it and he’s telling us how great Wonder Woman is as he brainwashes the reader with The Sovereign’s narration.  Unfortunately, there’s nothing beyond the beauty of Sampere’s art.  Every aspect of the execution is slow and downright boring, and most of the set up just doesn’t work in the context of Amazons in the DC Universe.  Readers want to believe the analogy is deep and meaningful, but it just doesn’t line up.  It’s a poor analogy.  

If readers aren’t actually familiar with Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor and the Wonder Girls then I can understand why those readers might be drawn to this sort of thing.  It all sounds very dramatic, but there’s no real drama in last issue’s showdowns between Diana and the Wonder Girls.  That whole bit made no sense.  It’s not just Diana’s problem, ALL Amazons have been targeted, it’s natural for the Wonder Girls to be involved.  Additionally, not everything on Themiscyra is decided by rite of combat.  That whole bit demonstrates how little King understands Diana’s relationships with the people she’s closest to.  This goes hand in hand with her awkward dialogue with Steve Trevor at the beginning of Wonder Woman #6.  King writes Diana like she’s new to Man’s World and English.  Let’s just forget that Amazons know a multitude of languages, but she’s been around for a while…she shouldn’t have stilted dialogue.  Plus, recapitulating her “No thank you,” response in this issue doesn’t work as King thinks it does.  It’s another example of style over substance, as if saying “no” is somehow emblematic of Diana’s persona.

The adventures in babysitting with the Super Sons backup in Wonder Woman #6 is no different than the other chapters.  Jon and Damian don’t seem to have matured and there’s no endearing quality to Lizzie because we know how she turns out from her first appearance in Wonder Woman #800.  As we learn why Lizzie is a brat, it doesn’t do much for creating anticipation for her appearances as an adult.  King killed any hope for Trinity to be likable in her first appearance and he’s not changing anything with these stories.

Verdict

The appeal of this series is to readers who are easily impressed by superficial ideas and manufactured drama and for those who aren’t really familiar with Wonder Woman and her supporting cast and world, readers who are just familiar with the idea of Wonder Woman.  I guess that describes King as well, since that’s what he’s given us.  For those fans of Wonder Woman who know what a Wonder Woman story is supposed to be like I recommend the previous run by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad or the post-Crisis George Perez era.

The post Review: Wonder Woman #6 appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Kelly Thompson
Art and Colors: Arist Deyn
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Sin and Dinah come face to face with Megaera and have a tense discussion…while the rest of the players try and hold off the Megaera controlled Amazons.

Positives

The standout aspect of this issue is the tension that Kelly Thompson creates as Sin and Dinah attempt to talk their way out of Megaera’s belly.  They are literally inside Megaera and there’s a long discussion about Megaera’s motivations, Sin’s feelings of uselessness and Dinah’s possible solutions.  This doesn’t sound all that interesting as described, but the story itself manages to build the tension between the opposing sides.  Some of it is a bit cliched, but overall this aspect works quite well.

We don’t have Leonardo Romero on art for Birds of Prey #5, and yet Arist Deyn does some interesting things, especially with the color.  There’s some solid dynamic design and textural nuances that stand out.

Wonder Woman is controlled by Megaera by the end of the issue and it becomes clear this should’ve been the approach from the beginning.  All the nonsense about what’s going on in her book while seeming to address the larger world of the DC Universe just felt misunderstood in these pages.  Just having Diana mind controlled works as a much better reason for Diana fighting against Dinah and Co.

Negatives

The obvious negatives are that Harley is still alive.  She brings nothing to the book, and even when it seems like she’s supposed to it just feels contrived.   Thompson wants Zealot to seem really cool, but she’s too much of an unknown quantity to give her subplot any sort of weight.  There’s something going on beneath the surface with her, but there’s too much going on in the story for it to be anything more than surface level.  It’s not going anywhere.  Playing the long game is fine, but there has to be more than one breadcrumb to provide a trail to follow.

Arist Deyn while bringing some interesting aspect is a huge stylistic shift from Leonardo Romero.  It’s a shame Romero couldn’t be present to provide a consistent look for this chapter.  Deyn’s approach to figures doesn’t fit the genre, unfortunately.  Leonardo Romero is missed, but personal preference will determine how much you enjoy the visuals in Birds of Prey #5.  However, Deyn’s work does fit the particular magical aspects of this issue.

Negatives Cont’d

While there is a good building of tension in the conflict in this issue, Megaera’s choosing of Sin feels a little out of nowhere.  It’s a pretty weak reason for her to be chosen.  That’s to say not that Sin’s feelings of inadequacy are not real problems that could provide some interesting storytelling, but it’s such a common thing that it doesn’t make Megaera’s choice of Sin particularly special.  There should be something deeper or more unique at play for Megaera to choose her to posses. 

Additionally, Sin’s been out of the picture for a while and it’s weird that Dinah seemed to have forgotten about her until she was going to be “chosen”.  For Sin to have had these feelings and the lonely life she is shown to have there needed to be more set up.  When did Sin go to Themiscyra?  Has this been addressed and it’s just not memorable?  There’s something missing that would complete this aspect of the plot and give it a stronger overall foundation from a narrative perspective.  There’s something off about Dinah as well, but it’s clear that it’s there just so Harley can be the wild card and provide something useful though contrived to the story.

Verdict

Overall, Birds of Prey #5 is a better issue than #4.  It may not seem like it when breaking down the details, but there’s a stronger through line with the plot and the conflict building.  This is still not a Birds of Prey comic by any stretch of the imagination despite the title.  If anything, with Megaera it would be more at home as a Wonder Woman or Zatanna story, or perhaps Justice League Dark or Madame Xanadu.  The mystical/ godlike elements would be more in keeping with those characters/ concepts than Birds of Prey.  It would also lend itself well to Zealot’s suggested subplot.  If Dinah knew it was going to be this type of conflict instead of Harley, Barda and Cassandra, she should’ve chosen Zatanna, Constantine and Madame Xanadu…and maybe Dr. Fate!  It’s sort of like she took a knife to a gunfight.

The post Review: Birds of Prey #5 appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Kelly Thompson
Art: Leonardo Romero
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Dinah and Co. meet Diana and the Amazons in battle…and OOOPS- it’s all just a big misunderstanding.  This leads to a breakthrough in the plot however….

Positives

About halfway through Birds of Prey #4, the comic becomes somewhat intelligible and the actual plot is finally revealed by the end.  This makes about 1/3 of the issue pretty good from a writing standpoint.  Once Diana listens to what Dinah has to say about the mission, it feels believable.  It’s also nice to know that the Amazons have been trying to contact Dinah, but “couldn’t get through.”  Gee maybe ask Diana her longtime JLA teammate to reach out?  Additionally, Harley plays a much smaller role in this issue than in the previous three, and that’s a huge relief.

Leonardo Romero and Jordie Bellaire continue to make this an entertaining book visually, despite the erratic nature of Kelly Thompson’s writing.  Romero’s figures just plain look good as does Bellaire’s choice of colors.  Romero also does a nice job with the storytelling that helps the book flow narratively as best as possible with the given script.

Negatives

It’s odd to me, but clearly not Thompson, that Wonder Woman identifies this group of characters as “the Birds of Prey” when they are clearly not recognizable as such and the fact that this is the first time as we saw in issue #1 when Dinah assembled them for the first time that this group has ever worked together.  I think Thompson is the only person who upon first seeing this group together would say it’s the Birds of Prey.  It’s funny in a meta-way and sort of stupid within the story itself. 

The first third of this issue is a battle between Dinah’s faction and Diana’s faction and narratively it’s tedious and boring.  This is mainly due to the fact that it is completely nonsensical for Dinah and Diana to be fighting against each other.  If anything a quick message from Black Canary to Wonder Woman would’ve made all this unnecessary.  Essentially, if Thompson had written the characters instead of trying to fit characters into a story she wanted to tell, the first three issues wouldn’t have been necessary to get the plot to where it ends up by the end of issue #4.

Negatives Cont’d

As mentioned in the review for last issue, the reasoning  for not contacting Diana directly is confounding.   What was stated in issue #1 does not seem to line up with what’s presented in issue #3, and ultimately Birds of Prey #4 still doesn’t clarify things.  It’s certainly possibly that editorial didn’t communicate things clearly to Kelly Thompson about the events in Diana’s own title.   It’s a real mess over there, so that’s somewhat understandable.  What’s not understandable is why Dinah didn’t just reach out to Diana and ask for help?  Oliver was right there in D.C. with her and could’ve said something.  It’s makes no sense and seems only to be there because Thompson wanted to construct a conflict that was not naturally occurring.  It’s so poorly developed that it really does make the first three issues superfluous and a complete waste of time.

Had Dinah made attempts to contact Diana, but was unable to reach her that would’ve provided a reasonable situation which required Dinah to act.  Had she gone in looking to talk instead of fight and be secretive, that would’ve fit with the fact that these characters have a longstanding friendly relationship.  There’s no reason to think that Diana wouldn’t listen to Dinah, even if the United States military is waging war on Themiscyra at Tom King’s behest.

The mystical nature of the big bad revealed in the final few pages of Birds of Prey #4, push the genre further away from what one expects in a Birds of Prey comic.  It also makes some aspects of Thompson’s line up feel contrived.  Gee, sure glad Barda’s there when the “mega rod” is of Apokoliptian origin.  Zealot seems like she may be of use … but, I still don’t know anything about her, Thompson hasn’t developed her much.  At one point she says she hates this mission, and I have to agree with her.  That reveal of Megaera certainly appears to be be a job for Wonder Woman.  However, Harley the Wild Card will probably be able to bash her with her mallet in order to save the day.  I don’t know….

Verdict

If you’ve spent money on issues #1-3, you may feel really cheated with the plot developments in Birds of Prey #4.  It not only exacerbates the lack of reasoning on Dinah’s part in not even attempting to contact Diana for help, it just becomes clear that Thompson literally lost the plot for this arc in the very beginning.  Things just don’t make sense from a character standpoint, and there are just too many things that just are because Thompson wants them that way instead of them making logical sense based on character and the known world of the DC Universe.

The post Review: Birds of Prey #4 appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review CONTAINS spoilers]

Writer: Tom King
Art: Daniel Sampere and Belen Ortega
Colors: Tomeu Morey and Alejandro Sanchez
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Diana confronts Sgt. Steel at his office in Washington, DC and Jon Kent and Damian Wayne babysit a 5 year old Lizzie Prince.

Positives

Daniel Sampere continues to be the best thing about this run of Wonder Woman.  Sampere delivers beautiful pages and it’s a pleasure to look at his work.  Belen Ortega does a good job on the second feature, as well.  The second feature is definitely different tonally and Ortega lands it, actually better than the script.

Negatives (we could be here for a while)

The longer this story arc goes on, the less and less it makes sense.  There are a number of problems that get larger with Wonder Woman #3.  Most significant is the idea that the Sovereign and his ancestors have been behind the American government for 300 years.  It’s a riff on the Illuminati conspiracy theory and as such makes it difficult to imagine as part of the DC Universe.  There’s so many aspects to the DC Universe that have been explored that it doesn’t fit with what already exists in the DC Universe.  More importantly, using the Sovereign’s machinations as a scapegoat on which to place the blame instead of real perpetrators of bigotry, minimizes what King is trying to achieve.  The mindset King is attempting to critique is a real world issue and moving the blame to a villain with a magic lasso takes away the gravitas not only for the real world, but in the fictional world of the DC Universe.  If the Sovereign had just popped up as a villain it would work better, but introducing him with a 300 year legacy makes it more and more difficult to believe this is taking place in the DC Universe that we know.  It would function better as an Elseworlds story, or even as an original story in the vein of science fiction dystopian future independent of the shared DC Universe.  I’m reminded of Ahoy Comics’ Happy Hour from a few years ago. 

Happy Hour presented the reader with a mystery.  What was going on in this society?  How did it get this way?  Who was behind it?  It allowed for effective social commentary like many science fiction stories, too.  King has not so cleverly already revealed the villain and the method by which he has affected the thoughts and beliefs of Americans.  This takes away all the interest in what should be a significant aspect of the story.  Already knowing these answers forces the story in a direction of resolution, and yet King remains focused on the Sovereign’s rhetoric.  At times, it’s difficult to read the Sovereign’s narration because it is all from his point of view and focuses on his philosophy instead of anything that actually moves the story forward. 

In Wonder Woman #3, King attempts to address the immigration of Amazons to America, but it remains under developed as a story point.  To simply say it happened isn’t quite enough for such a significant element of a story that takes place in a DC Universe in which the Amazons are a known quantity.  When did Amazons decide they wanted to leave Themiscyra in such numbers to be statistically significant as an immigrant population in America?  That’s not a throwaway idea.  

Negatives Cont’d

With Wonder Woman #3, it becomes more and more apparent that King is writing Diana as if she is recently new to America.  Her dialogue is a bit stilted, and she doesn’t seem to have the respect of all  the people she encounters.  It’s erratic at best.

Additionally, King continues to focus on Diana as a fighter.  There’s a scene in an elevator that King seems to want to connect readers minds with the elevator scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  It’s just one other person in the elevator with Diana, and she feels she needs to kick the gun out of his hand.  More in character for Diana would be a bullets and bracelets moment.  Kicking the gun is an overreaction, especially considering what’s already been shown in her retrieval of Steel’s office number.

King has stated in an interview that he sees Diana core character trait as a rebel.  This seems to inform this story greatly.  I think King has this assessment of Diana flat out wrong.  She’s not a rebel.  She may be headstrong and self-directed, but she doesn’t rebel against her own people.  She’s an AMBASSADOR of her people.  She only appears to be a rebel in America because she is from a different culture.  She’s not an American.  Her main character trait is therefore that of a cultural ambassador.  King understands this on some level because the Sovereign rails against the Amazonian culture in his narration far too much.  King seems to want to make Diana’s world view rebellious when it’s really a story about the clash of cultures and philosophy.  Perhaps, King will clarify this aspect of her characterization as the series goes on.

Negatives Cont’d

The Sovereign reveals to Lizzie in his narration that blood found at the scene of Emilie’s attack showed that the individual was pregnant.  This seems to indicate that Emilie was pregnant at the time she attacked and killed the men in the bar.  As the Sovereign has already made comments in Wonder Woman #3 about Lizzie’s parentage, this seems to suggest a few possibilities:

1.  Emilie is Lizzie’s biological mother
2. Diana was at the bar as well and was pregnant with Lizzie
3. Diana is the real killer (because #2 is also true)

The last one is most likely incorrect, but King has a track record of having heroes  act wildly out of character including becoming the villain as was seen in Strange Adventures and The Human Target.  As this story is clearly in continuity, it’s still probably not what King is suggesting.  What does seem to be most likely is that Emilie is Lizzie’s biological mother.  This suggests something more when one considers that we don’t know who Lizzie’s father and the nature of her assault on the men in the bar.  I had a fear when she was first introduced that she would be the child of a rape.  Without trying to guess if King is going to work in a commentary on abortion, this does perhaps inform how Lizzie’s is being characterized in the interaction with Jon and Damian from Wonder Woman #800.  If this is the story of Lizzie’s conception, once again it feels very out of place for a Wonder Woman story, but of course not much of this tale feels like a Wonder Woman story anyway.  It’s just another example of King needing an original independent character to really tell the story he wants to tell.  Diana still feels tertiary to King’s saga.

Negatives Cont’d

Speaking of Lizzie, we get to see her at the age of 5 as Jon and Damian are assigned babysitting duties.  This means this story takes place about 6 years in the future.  Tonally, it doesn’t quite land.  It’s not nearly humorous enough to just be a funny interlude and King doesn’t quite get Jon and Damian.  He writes them as if their relationship hasn’t developed beyond their initial adventure together.  Damian should also be a bit older if this takes place when Lizzie is 5.  In fact, they should both be written more maturely than King does here.  Although, he didn’t get them right in Wonder Woman #800 either.

All of this continues to make Lizzie an unappealing character.  If the reader is to infer a rape backstory for Lizzie’s conception then this type of back up tale has a darkness to it.  Jon and Damian may not know all the details, but they are certainly old enough to know and understand how to approach the situation with sensitivity.  Damian’s own conception is tinged with this, as well, unless that has been changed.  For the record, I’m terrified with the prospect that the Sovereign is in fact Lizzie’s biological father and the rapist.  Ugh.  Gross, Tom King.  I can see how a 13 year old would be intrigued and shocked at such content in a comic, but I feel like we should’ve moved beyond the sensationalism and salacious plot elements that plague comics like The Killing Joke.  I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.  King’s track record speaks for itself.  If not an original character, this would definitely have a more fitting place in a Black Label Elseworlds series instead of the regular Wonder Woman title.

Verdict

Tom King continues to tear down the heroes of the DC Universe one character at a time.  He’s clearly more interested in showing the terrible aspects of human nature and the world instead of the optimism and hope that heroes are designed to elicit.  I don’t think King actually likes heroes or believes in heroes.  Or, at the very least believes that anyone’s heroism can ever be separated from the totality of their nature.  Humans aren’t perfect, but to constantly focus on how human frailty and weakness can be overwhelm the good things about people is not only depressing, but the exact opposite of what super-hero fiction is supposed to be.  Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons showed us with Watchmen that there can be another side.  King isn’t Alan Moore.  Moore was able to depict subtlety, nuance and complexity whereas King is motivated by a desire to use his comics as therapy and he has to lay it all out so that he can get all of the guilt off his chest.  The DC Universe truly does seem to be a dark and terrible place when depicted from the pen of Tom King.

The post Review: Wonder Woman #3 appeared first on DC Comics News.

One can’t blame those writers for following the entertainment trends of the era, it only makes sense.  Except when it doesn’t; when the approach doesn’t fit the core essentials of the character.  Those writers were crafting tales that fit popular trends because it’s what they thought would sell, they were not, however, focusing on the elements that had made Batman popular to begin with.  And, this is where we are today.

It’s not hard to see how many of today’s comic book writers are  writing for the time and not for the character.  It’s not easy to always balance that.  You can’t write Batman like he’s still in 1940, unless it’s a period piece of course.  The trick is to keep the character grounded at his core while exploring relevant issues that make the story feel contemporary while losing nothing of what makes Batman who he is.  Unfortunately, it seems many writers in comics today are making these same mistakes.  DC Comics as a whole seems to not understand the difference at times.  There are some recent examples we can look at to see what’s going on as we explore what makes a character that character especially ones with a long publishing history.

Alan Scott, The Green Lantern  

There are different kinds of changes that can be wrought on a character, marriage, children, death of a loved one, loss of powers, etc…..  Sometimes, characters can be reinvented, though it seems that it’s rarely for the better as a reworking that eliminates the core elements of the character most likely will alienate fans of the character.  There’s a lot of this going on at DC Comics in a number of titles, and the most recent example is Alan Scott, The Green Lantern.  This is easily the most incendiary topic in this editorial.  It would’ve been such even had writer Tim Sheridan not gone on X (formerly known as Twitter) to essentially call anyone who did not support the book as a homophobe or bigot.  He has actually completely overlooked the larger issue, which is the topic here- Is Tim Sheridan actually interested in the character of Alan Scott and his 80 year history?

Alan Scott first appeared in All-American Comics #16, cover dated, July 1940.  That first story presents the origin of The Green Lantern.  While there was very little deep or nuanced storytelling during the Golden Age for the character, writers did eventually pair up Alan with an adversary, the Harlequin, a criminal who would not only match wits with the Green Lantern, but who was also interested in his romantic affections.  This should be familiar to readers as Batman and Catwoman have had a similar relationship since their first meeting back in Batman #1 (Spring 1940).  While Bruce and Selina never dated or got married in the Golden Age, the two flirted with Selina even trying to put aside her criminal ways at times .  Batman let her go on more than one occasion because he was so enamored with her, including that first appearance.  It wouldn’t be until the Bronze Age that Bruce and Selina got together, got married and had a daughter in continuity.  It was the continuity of Earth-Two, but it’s a very similar situation to Alan Scott and Molly (The Harlequin) Mayne.

Like the Bat and the Cat, Alan and Molly finally got married in the Bronze Age.  Both pairs of characters had a similar dynamic as hero/villain/love interest.  Bruce and Selina’s marriage resulted in daughter, Helena Wayne, the Huntress, but ended in tragedy as Selina died trying to protect her family after a false claim by a former confederate.  Devastated, Bruce was never the same and died in action a few years later.  Alan and Molly got married only after Alan learned that his first marriage had resulted in the birth of twins that his wife had hidden from him.  When Alan and Molly got married in their twilight years (Infinity, Inc Annual #1) they had a ready-made family.  Not to say it was always easy (Alan had to rescue her soul from Hell at one point), but the couple remained happily married until Flashpoint and the launch of The New 52 in 2011 when all previous DC continuity was restarted.

By the time The New 52 launched, fans of Alan Scott had more than a costume and power set to like about the character.  Heck, even more than just the fact he was a traditional hero!  During the Bronze Age, writers, chiefly Roy Thomas filled in the gaps between the Golden Age and “the present” to develop a more complex Alan Scott with compelling story elements in his long life.  Not only had Alan been duped into marrying Rose Canton (the Golden Age Thorn) but he’d fathered two children with her in their short marriage whose existence she’d hidden.  It was a surprise to Alan when he found out and it provided a whole new avenue of stories and character nuance to explore.  Alan’s relationship with his children Jennie-Lynn (Jade) Hayden and Todd (Obsidian) Rice were central to Alan’s character from the mid ’80’s until Flashpoint in 2011.  When Todd was revealed to be gay, it provided a whole other level to the friction between father and son that had been present since their first meeting.  Even if it wasn’t intended by creators Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway, it was a natural interpretation of his character that writer Marc Andreyko seized upon when he outed Todd in Manhunter Volume 3 #18.  This insightful reading of the character by Andreyko was not only a contemporary element for inclusion, but yet another addition to Alan Scott’s story that grew the character deeper and more complex.  Scott is a man of the 1940’s and homosexuality was viewed very differently than it is today, or in the ’80’s when Rice was first created.

Even outside those aspects of Alan Scott specifically related to his sexual orientation, he was shown in the Bronze Age and beyond to have a very close friend in Jay Garrick, the original Flash.  Their bonding extended to their respective wives as well.  This was 80 years of storylines and character development when all was seemingly thrown away when James Tynion IV retconned Alan’s sexuality in the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary issue.  

With the launch of The New 52, DC Comics presented a new take on the concept of parallel Earths and the multiverse which had played a significant role since its introduction in The Flash #123.  In Earth 2 #1 (2012) we meet Alan Scott, a young man unencumbered with any history as he is a brand new version of the character who has yet to become Green Lantern.  This Alan Scott is gay.  Writer James Robinson wanted to have a gay character since Obsidian had been wiped from existence with Flashpoint.  Making Alan Scott this new gay character makes sense in a metatextual way. 

The New 52 Earth 2 characters were last seen with any sort of significance in Earth 2: Society #22 in 2017.  In a matter of five years, the New 52 Alan Scott was obsolete as DC had already launched the Rebirth initiative with the promise that the original Justice Society of America would return “soon.”

After a time travelling appearance in Justice League #32 (2019), the Justice Society of America including Alan Scott and Power Girl (more on that later) returned not only to continuity, but the present in Doomsday Clock #12.  It would’ve seemed that the original Golden Age Green Lantern was back with his history and character intact.  It was then a surprise that raised many questions about Alan and his history and family when the aforementioned Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super-Spectacular retconned Alan’s sexuality.  

With the publication of Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1,  this mini-series serves to re-contextualize Alan’s history.  With that being the purpose, how much are DC Comics interested in the substance of the character of Alan Scott?  When you eliminate a character’s history and motivation, relationships etc, what’s the interest in the character then?  All that’s left is the superficial aspects, a name, a costume, a power set?  Is Alan Scott: The Green Lantern writer, Tim Sheridan actually interested in the attributes that made  Alan Scott a founding member of the JSA?  The stories that have shaped him?  The substance of his character as a founding member of the JSA and one of the first heroes of the DC Universe?  The established history with his teammates, and family?  Or, is Sheridan interested in the idea of Alan Scott?  Is he just a JSA character that can provide representation?  Is he invested in the established history and depiction of Alan Scott or simply writing the story of a gay man in the 1940’s?

If the substance of Alan Scott’s history and character attributes are changed is it really still the same character, or is it the substance of a new character wearing the superficial particulars we associate with Alan Scott?    We can’t see how much history has changed, because very little has been done with that so far.  We’ve seen Jade and Obsidian in Infinite Frontier, but there’s no guarantee they are still in play.  The same goes for Molly Mayne-Scott.  Is that marriage still something that’s part of these characters’ history?  In this recontextualization will we learn that Alan lied and misrepresented himself to both his wives?  Is this an heroic action? We’ve seen a retcon in Justice Society of America and The New Golden Age that indicates Molly had a son who has grown up into a character known as The Harlequin’s Son.  This is new, so what else has changed?  A quick examination of Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1 depicts what we do know has changed.

In this first issue, Alan is blackmailed by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover in joining the JSA.  This is a massive change from the established origin of the JSA.  The JSA formed when British Agent Intrepid asked The Flash, Green Lantern (and Batman in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity) to help with a mission in Europe which was first told in DC Special #29 (September 1977).  It led to all the founding members coming together with a final save of Washington, DC from a special Nazi bomber and stopping the assassination of U.S. President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Is this still the JSA’s origin?  If so, was Alan Scott involved?  

While some of the ideas that Sheridan introduces are compelling and fitting for the story of a gay man from the 1940’s, it doesn’t fit Alan Scott ‘s 80-plus year history.  Changing something about a character that fundamentally changes the character’s history and make up does not honor the substance of the character or engage the fanbase that’s built up around the character over the years.  For Alan Scott, that’s 80 years.  There have been so many stories with so much consistency in Alan’s portrayal, changing things doesn’t  genuinely fit.  He’s now a reluctant hero not that interested in using his power to fight evil and and is being controlled through blackmail.  It’s a change that seems to be there for other reasons and is not pertinent to the core of the character.  What if Superman was Superman only because he was being blackmailed over the fact he was an alien.  What if that was the mitigating factor in his decision to be on the JL and/ or to be a hero at all?

It’s this that raises my question about Sheridan’s interest and even DC Comics’ interest in the character.  It doesn’t make sense to move a character away from the aspects that brought the character appeal over the years.  Ignoring these established things in favor for traits that are topical would logically turn fans away as seen with Batman in the ’50’s and ’60’s.  It’s something we’ve seen recently with another well established character that has since changed back.

“Ric” Grayson

The reasons behind the “Ric” Grayson era of Nightwing may be different from the motivation for changing Alan Scott’s sexuality, but the results are the same.  When Nightwing was struck with amnesia he developed a new personality that severed all his relationships with the Bat-family- Bruce, Alfred, Barbara Gordon, his brother Robins, etc.  Not only were these relationships severed, but “Ric” forgot his history and his personality shifted somewhat.  Without Dick Grayson as part of the Bat-family, memory of his history or friendships and his past as a blank slate…he was no longer the character people liked.  He was no longer the character that appealed to readers.  “Ric” was a different character, with a different outlook on things and different relationships.  While this direction may have garnered new fans, and kept some, readers were ecstatic to have Dick return. 

Essentially, everything people liked about Dick Grayson was gone with “Ric.”  Dick is a character that has a long history and to eliminate that takes away what people like about the character.  It’s no different than what’s being done with Alan Scott.  The change to “Ric” was an in-story change, but the results were the same.  This situation is different when compared to Alan Scott because it doesn’t appear that DC or the writers didn’t care about him.  Instead, it felt like they wanted to either kill time or have a reason to change his name from “Dick.”  It’s important to remember, however, that like Batman before him in the 60’s, readers lost interest in Nightwing because he was divorced from the elements that had made him popular.  There are some other DC Comics characters that are suffering the same treatment as Alan Scott.

Power Girl … Paige Stetler ?

Alan Scott isn’t the only JSAer suffering an identity crisis that suggests the writer isn’t really invested in what made the character popular.  Power Girl has recently been relaunched in a new eponymously titled ongoing series from DC Comics.  Power Girl has been around for nearly 50 years, like Alan Scott, the New 52 resulted in a new version of the character.  Unlike Alan Scott, the New 52 version had minor changes to the character.  Especially notable is that Power Girl maintained her personality, attitude and a very similar history with one of the most significant aspects being retained, her friendship with Helena Wayne, the Huntress.  This is of course the New 52 version of the Huntress who managed to be very similar to her original incarnation with all the essential elements intact.  While there is now a third version of Helena Wayne appearing currently in Justice Society of America, it’s her bestie Power Girl who’s suffering at the hands of writer, Leah Williams.

The chief element of Power Girl’s characterization that fans point to for liking the character is her personality.  From the outset, she was portrayed as a brash, confident, outspoken young woman.  She’s always wanted to be her own and make her own way and not rely on her cousin, Superman.  More than anything this has defined her character.  Her history after the Crisis on Infinite Earths suffered, but her original origin was returned to her in 2005.  Through it all she maintained her personality that had won her fans.  It is very perplexing then that despite professing that the Power Girl in current continuity is this original version when the most glaring inconsistency is her personality in this new series by Leah Williams.  It’s diametrically opposed to what readers have come to love about the character.  It’s like seeing Batman as a snarky, wise-cracking, bombastic street acrobat.  It just isn’t who the character is.  Furthermore, the writing itself contradicts the stories that are referenced in the comics themselves as well as the official DC Comics blog that servers as a primer for readers on the character and this series.

The blog states that this version of Power Girl is the original pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-Two version.  It references her first appearance in All-Star Comics #58, her changing back story and return to form in JSA: Classified.  What’s confounding is that while these new stories by Leah Williams reference her past, including the Karen Starr identity and supposedly her job as a Tech company entrepreneur, Williams doesn’t appear to understand the substance of them.  

In the back up stories from Action Comics #1051-1053, PG is being attacked by Johnny Sorrow.  He claims that he and Power Girl are the last two survivors from their universe.  If PG is from the original Earth-Two, this doesn’t make any sense.  It’s well established that Psycho-Pirate is the only other survivor from Earth-Two as well as the only one who remembered the Multiverse for decades after the Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped out the multiverse.  Furthermore, Johnny Sorrow was never an Earth-Two character.  He appeared in Earth 2: Society, but the blog makes it clear that the Earth 2/ New 52 Power Girl is a different character, and these new stories aren’t about her.  In fact, Johnny Sorrow made his first ever appearance anywhere in New Earth continuity (post-Crisis, post-Zero Hour) in Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80 Page Giant #1, (December 1999).  He would have no memory of any life on Earth-Two, since he never appeared in that continuity.

The blog explains that Power Girl was raised in a simulation on her symbioship, however the title scrawl from Power Girl #1 says she was sent to Earth to watch over baby Kal-L.  Both Kryptonians were sent as infants so PG could certainly not look after baby Kal-L as she was a baby herself.  Her ship took longer to arrive, and thus she was raised by it arriving on Earth as a young woman when it took longer than anticipated.

The blog states that she doesn’t wear the “S” symbol because she didn’t work long with Superman on Earth-Two.  This is patently false for a number of reasons.  Her reason for not wearing the “S” can be found in All-Star Comics #64, her 7th appearance ever as seen in the image below.

And interestingly, the blog clearly indicates that the All-Star Comics stories are part of her past, a past that did include time together plus she made the decision about the “S” BEFORE she revealed herself to the world.  Also, the title scrawl mentioned above claims she DID work along side Superman.  

One of the most curious and off-putting aspects of Power Girl’s portrayal in this series is her 180 degree personality shift.  The blog claims the biggest thing for PG is her identity:

“A Power Girl so far removed from her point of origin, so many worlds and continuities away, that anyone would have a hard time telling who she’s really supposed to be—much less herself. This is a Power Girl who needs to undergo some serious soul searching to find out what she’s really about, which is where we find her today.”

It’s not clear how PG got to this point.  We have the Karen Starr identity referenced so we know that part of her history is intact.  The blog says she has returned with the rest of the JSA during Doomsday Clock.  The quote from the blog above tries to make readers believe that she’s having some sort of identity crisis, but as it states elsewhere in blog, that was resolved in Infinite Crisis and the JSA: Classified storylines.  Leah Williams suggests these identity issues in her stories, but never explains how PG went from a confident, independent woman insecure, unsure of herself and dependent on Superman for an identity (she wears the “S” now).  When did that happen?  It’s diametrically opposed to how she’s always been portrayed.   It doesn’t make sense and it appears that Williams (and blog writer Alex Jaffe) isn’t aware of the substance of the character.  To Williams she’s just an alternate Supergirl, instead of a distinct character that has always behaved differently from the main universe Supergirl.  In fact, it appears that is the length and breadth of Williams’ understanding of Power Girl.

There’s another bizarre quality to Williams’ portrayal of Power Girl.  She writes Power Girl like she’s new to Earth, like her rocket landed, she met Kal-L and a few days later found herself lost and showed up on the main DC Earth.  She seems wholly unconnected with her past with the JSA which is currently on display in Justice Society of America which is currently publishing.  That book acknowledges Power Girl’s past and provides a depiction that is in line with her established personality.

The question remains: Is Leah Williams actually interested in Power Girl as a character?  Does she understand anything about her history or personality?  These are the elements that won Power Girl fans over the years.  Williams seems to be ignoring them outright, or she’s just ignorant of them to begin with and has made no attempt to make them make sense.  Either way, it points to a lack of interest in the character other than the most basic superficial description, simply an alternate Supergirl, like Sheridan’s Alan Scott, a version of the character that doesn’t utilize the history of the character and shows no interest in the substance of the character.

And, There’s More…

This situation isn’t confined to Power Girl and Alan Scott.  The new Wonder Woman series from Tom King’s pen indicates much the same.  King is known for his controversial takes on characters, more often that not bending characters to fit the stories he wants to tell.  The new Wonder Woman is no different, and in this case the intent from the outset seems less rooted in an interest in Wonder Woman, but a desire to tell a story that requires great leaps in status quo and characterization to make work.  When did all those Amazons emigrate to the U.S.?  Are there even enough Amazons on Themiscrya to be statistically significant even if they ALL moved to the U.S.?  Why would Diana sit by and wait if the killer was identified as an Amazon immediately?  Why wouldn’t she investigate immediately?  The real reason is that that is not the story King wants to tell.  He doesn’t even seem to want to tell the story from Diana’s POV as The Sovereign is narrating the tale.  Very little so far indicates that King is interested in Wonder Woman outside the broadest definition of her.

It’s not new though, Human Target depicted all the Justice League International characters wildly out of character except for Guy Gardner.  He was already broken so King didn’t have to break him.  Strange Adventures turned the hero, Adam Strange into the villain.  King does it in nearly all of his stuff, the most notable outlier being Superman, “Up in the Sky” which perfectly depicts the Man of Steel.  If a writer has to change the fundamentals of a character is his/her interest really in the character or the idea of the character?

Even the new Birds of Prey comic doesn’t seem to really be interested in the core concept of the Birds of Prey.  Kelly Thompson is approaching the book like the concept is just a team of women.  She isn’t including founder Barbara Gordon, or centering the series on the relationship between Barbara, Dinah (Black Canary) and Helena (Huntress) Bertinelli.  In fact, Dinah is the only one of these characters in the comic.  Combined with the fact that the series reads like Thompson was looking for an excuse to write Harley Quinn, a character who has zero business being involved with the Birds of Prey, it again appears that the writer isn’t actually interested in what the made the Birds of Prey concept popular to begin with.  Instead, it’s being rebranded as something else, which would indicate that this rebranding is what Thompson is actually interested in and not the substance of the concept as it was developed over the years.  For Thompson, Birds of Prey is just a team of women characters, and again that’s the absolute basic definition of the concept with no substance.

The Balance Between Character and Story … Both Matter

I won’t say that some of the the stories mentioned above don’t have compelling aspects.  However, the big question is whether or not they work for the characters with which they are associated.  At one point comic book writers understood they were writing characters.  Characters that had histories, personalities, ways of operating….  Readers were following these characters because of how they had been built up and developed over he years.  Readers followed the continuing stories because they were invested in the substance of the characters.  Like people in the real world, we are attracted to substance, not color, gender or any other superficial element.  It’s the person inside that matters, and if that changes, that’s when relationships break down.

Even Alan Moore when writing Watchmen created his own characters instead of using the recently acquired Charlton characters that he had originally intended to use.  That story would have destroyed them for further inclusion in the DC Universe.  And, that’s what a lot of these writers are doing.  Adam Strange can’t be used in the DC Universe if Strange Adventures is “in continuity.”  The same goes for the characters in Human Target.  Everything readers liked about Power Girl has been removed from her characterization.  Fans just want to forget this run already, especially since they are getting the Power Girl they love over in Justice Society of America.  Alan Scott is completely out of step with his history and characterization and Sheridan’s aspersions about the JSA make this series inaccessible to existing fans of the team and Alan Scott.  

Creating new characters is the best option if one is not actually interested in existing characters but just the ideas of the characters and not the substance of the characters that have been developed through the years.  There’s got to be a balance.  Create a new character if necessary to tell a story, but don’t destroy or bend existing characters unrecognizably in order to tell a story.  We can only hope that some of these takes get cancelled and return the characters who were beloved to begin with.  We can also hope that writers will have the opportunity and means to tell their stories in a manner that will allow them to be judged on their own merit.  With long standing characters it’s difficult to separate the quality of the story, the writing, the themes if they do not fit the character.  It’s a balance, and the pendulum is swinging away from the importance of the substance of characters to simply the broadest definitions of them leaving the stories that MADE these characters left out in the cold.

The post Are Today’s Comic Book Writers Actually Interested in the Characters They Are Writing? appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers: Tom King and Josie Campbell
Art: Daniel Sampere and Vasco Giorgiev
Colors: Tomeu Morey and Alex Guimaraes
Letters: Clayton Cowles and Becca Carey

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

Steve Trevor tries to talk Diana into standing down before Sarge Steel launches a U.S. Army attack against her.  Plus, a prologue to Amazons Attack redux.

Positives

Like Wonder Woman #1, Daniel Sampere’s art is gorgeous.  There’s no denying this book looks great.  Sampere’s storytelling is excellent as he mirrors two separate stories in this issue.  From a technical perspective Wonder Woman #2 is well done for the most part.  In the back up story, it’s great to Yara Flor.

Negatives

Wonder Woman #2 doesn’t move the plot forward.  Last issue suffered from a fast forward for the set up of King’s premise, while this issue spends way too much time on Tom King explaining how competent and effective Diana is as a warrior.  While it’s great to see that King sees Diana as a powerful and competent character it leaves the issue unbalanced.  And while the dual narratives between Diana in the present and the past is well executed artistically, the two battles go on far to long for an outcome the reader can see coming from the second page.  The reveal could’ve been presented in a different manner leaving more time for the plot to advance, or even have been utilized for a more effective explanation of how we got to this situation to begin with.  Just when did all those Amazons move to America?  And why did they leave Paradise?  

Overall, the conflict still feels over the top.  There are no believable stakes, because there’s no way that the outcome will contain anything permanent or even sustainable for more than a year.  This makes everything feel very dull and pointless.  

Along these same lines, I have a hard time imagining Steve Trevor actually delivering this speech to Diana.  It’s written almost like they are recent acquaintances instead of longtime friends, allies and lovers.  He would never doubt what Diana could do.  His attitude about it seems off.  It’s hard to tell if he’s under the influence of the Lasso of Lies or if this is how he truly feels.

Negatives Cont’d

It doesn’t make sense that Steve Trevor would be unaffected by the Lasso of Lies considering what the Sovereign is perpetrating.  How would this be possible?  Is Steve immune to the Lasso? Wouldn’t other heroes also be immune, and if so wouldn’t they step up and intervene?  It’s unclear exactly what’s intended.  King could be setting something up, but past experience with King’s work shows that sometimes King just writes characters “off” because it fits his story instead of fitting the character.  This is also seen with how Steve is interacting with Steel.  He comes off like he’s Sarge Steel’s bitch.

The narration indicates that Diana believes love can turn any conflict around, and yet she doesn’t try anything like that with Steel or his forces.  Furthermore, instead of allowing them to attack after telling Steve that the soldiers will get hurt she just waits.  A proactive surgical strike against Steel would’ve made more sense to stop an unnecessary action and saved injury and possibly lives.  Is Wonder Woman killing here?  This is more evidence that King isn’t really interested in the characters, just his story.

Negatives Cont’d

In the back up story that serves as a prologue to the forthcoming Amazons Attack, the Oracle of the Esquecida has a vision of the destruction of all the Amazons and she claims that “all three must be united” which seems to suggest all three tribes must be united- didn’t this happen in last years “Trial of the Amazons?”  It could be something else, but it’s not clear.

Wonder Woman #2 also seems to place an over emphasis on Diana as a warrior.  While Diana is a trained warrior, her mission is not to fight or defend, her mission is to demonstrate a different way of life, a life rooted in a feminine perspective as opposed to the masculine approach that is prevalent in “man’s world.”  The focus on Diana’s warrior aspects pull the character from her core.  

Verdict

Diana seems to take a back seat as it’s all seen through the Sovereign’s point of view.   Any appeal for this series is like a car crash- you want to see the outcome with the hopes that some people will survive.  Nothing really feels new or interesting, and the characters are already twisting into unrecognizable versions.  King hasn’t put in the work to get the reader to this point in the story to make it believable.

The post Review: Wonder Woman #2 appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Tom King
Art: Daniel Sampere
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Clayton Cowles

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

An Amazon has gone on a killing spree and all Amazons are banished from the United States; where does this leave the most famous Amazon, Wonder Woman?

Positives

If you’ve been seeing the preview art for Wonder Woman #1, you know how beautiful Daniel Sampere’s work on the issue is.  This book looks great whether or not you like Tom King’s story.  Even though this run of Wonder Woman relaunches with a new #1, it’s nice to see DC Comics incorporate the Legacy Numbering on the cover making this also Wonder Woman #801.  It’s important for these high-numbered series to reflect the historical significance of the characters and titles and the legacy numbering does that.

King’s plot for Wonder Woman #1 answers one question from the tease of this run  in Wonder Woman #800.  In Wonder Woman #800, Trinity, Diana’s future daughter, is seen talking to a mysterious older man with royal heritage.  This issue reveals the identity of that person, and he’s a new character at that.  

To Be Decided

At this point, this revelation falls somewhere between positive or negative.  There is a parallel that King is trying to set up and it places this new character- the Sovereign- as a stand in for Donald Trump.  The Lasso of Lies he carries is simply the lies Trump has told and continues to tell.  It’s hard to determine at this point how this element will play out in this run, but it’s quite heavy handed and seems like it’s just King grinding his axe against Trump.

Leaning towards the negative is the fact that so far as we can tell the modus operandi of the Sovereign is identical to one of Wonder Woman’s earliest enemies, the Duke of Deception.  This makes the Sovereign redundant in Diana’s rogues gallery.  Furthermore, the last year of Wonder Woman written by Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan included a heavy dose of misogyny from Dr. Psycho which played out in a brainwashing scheme at the behest of Hera and other gods in the Greek Pantheon which…seems to be what the Sovereign has been doing to America .  Why recycle the plot points from the previous year’s Wonder Woman comics?

Negatives

Tom King’s plot for Wonder Woman #1 is contrived, forced and hurried.  It comes off as if King had this idea to make Wonder Woman an outlaw and the story that gets to that point doesn’t really interest him.  It’s clear that this issue sets up some moral dilemmas, but it doesn’t feel organic.  From the opening incident of the Amazon killing spree the situation escalates to an expulsion of all Amazons from the United States with the direct campaign against Diana led by Sarge Steel.  This brings up one of the odder points of the approach to this issue.  Diana doesn’t feel like the lead character in this issue.  For most of it Sarge Steel feels like the focus and the lead.  Diana feels like a secondary character in her own comic.  The story is being told by the Sovereign to Trinity whom we met for the first time in Wonder Woman #800.  This makes the story the story of the  Sovereign.  It’s a different and could be an interesting approach, but it does make the reader feel distant from Wonder Woman and her role in the story.  It also gives the impression that King is more interested in the Sovereign than Wonder Woman as a character.

We don’t get a believable explanation as to why all the Amazons are being expelled and why Diana’s standing doesn’t bring her more credibility with the U.S. Government.  It also doesn’t make sense that Wonder Woman wouldn’t have been on top of this situation from the outset.  Part of it may be that the story focuses on Sarge Steel from Sovereign’s point of view.  It not only contributes to the marginalization of Diana in her own book, but it takes away her agency as well.  She seems to be a pawn in Sovereign’s plot rather than the lead character.  There’s nothing wrong with Diana feeling like a pawn in the villain’s plot, but to experience it from a distance is awkward and further removes Diana from the centrality of the story.  Does King even want to write Wonder Woman or does he just want to write a Trump analog story?  Maybe this isn’t the best place for that.  King does have a history of putting characterization second, or even third to his plots and story concepts, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.  He may write Diana in character in this storyline, but she may end up being secondary.  I want to read a Wonder Woman story, not a Donald Trump story.  This could end up being a good comic, just not a good Wonder Woman comic.  Strange Adventures was a great comic, but a bad Adam Strange comic.  Human Target was a great comic, but a terrible JLI comic.  If you’re not here for the character, why are you here?

Negatives Cont’d

It’s clear King needs these elements in play for the story he wants to tell to be able to take place, but for it to be compelling the lead up has to be believable.  Readers won’t actually believe Wonder Woman is involved in any wrong doing and it’s not like she will become persona non grata in the United States within the DC Universe.  The story is suddenly tedious as it’s just a waiting game until the resolution.  There can be no real stakes for Wonder Woman based on the extreme nature of the set up.  It’s not hard to imagine that King is using this story as a metaphor for how minorities are treated in the United States, but once again the reaction against the Amazons is so extreme it just isn’t believable.

The story of Trinity’s conception is teased in Wonder Woman #800 as well, indicating that it is somehow connected to the story that begins in Wonder Woman #1.  While there are no answers in this issue, the tone of the issue leaves an uneasy feeling about how Trinity will be conceived.  There’s a lot of unwarranted aggression against the Amazons as a people that falls somewhere between racism and misogyny.  Sarge Steel is at the center of this though there other vignettes of average citizens with similar attitudes.

Verdict

The art is so good, one can easily flip through the pages and just admire them regardless of the story being told.  Unfortunately, the forthcoming story that is suggested by this issue is pretty boring.  Even with the mystery surrounding the identity of Trinity’s father that is wrapped up in all this, Trinity’s first appearance was disappointing enough to bring no added excitement to the beginning of the story in Wonder Woman #1.  To enjoy this issue, you may need to forget this is a Wonder Woman comic and tell yourself it’s a dystopian tale of a world you don’t really know.  If you go in thinking it’s about Wonder Woman, you will most likely be disappointed.  Overall, it’s not a strong start to this run outside of Sampere”s exceptional art.  Lastly, was the killer supposed to look like Cassie Sandsmark?

The post Review: Wonder Woman #1 appeared first on DC Comics News.

Writers and artists discussed their upcoming books including Nicole Maines, Sina Grace and Jeffery Brown.  Maines, known to most fans as Dreamer on Supergirl, was there  to talk about Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story.  Sina Grace shared his excitement over his upcoming book Superman: The Harvests of Youth.  Penelope and Jerry Gaylord chatted about Diana and the Hero’s Journey and Clark & Lex. Jeffrey Brown was there to talk about the hit Batman and Robin and Howard. Bestselling author Jim Benton got fans hyped for Fann Club: Batman Squad.

With all that star power there were bound to be some special announcements, and the panel did not disappoint! Jeffrey Brown is writing a sequel to his Batman and Robin and Howard middle-grade graphic novel, it will be called Batman and Robin and Howard: Summer Breakdown. It will be a 3-issue comic book series and will arrive in March of 2024.

To top it all off, Sherri L. Smith showed up as a secret guest. She will be writing her first DC graphic novel. it will be aimed at middle schoolers and will be titled Lightning: Changes. Lily J Allen will be doing the art. Lightning: Changes will focus on a  young Jennifer Pierce as she deals with a rough summer. Safe to say the rest of the Black Lightning family will be involved! Lightning: Changes will hit stores in the fall of 2024!  Check out a few preview images below!

The post DC Young Readers Panel At SDCC 2023 appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers!!]

Directed by: Jeff Wamester

Written by: Jeremy Adams, Ernie Altbacker, & Josie Campbell

Starring: Stana Katic, Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Matt Bomer, Frank Grillo, John DiMaggio, Teddy Sears, Troy Baker, Ike Amadi, Robin Atkin Downes

Reviewed by: Joshua Raynor

Summary

Who are the mysterious gunslinger with a golden lasso, the barbaric warrior with a dark knight’s helmet, and the mild-mannered, bespectacled G-man? More importantly, how are they the key to rescuing Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman — who disappeared from Earth — from the waking hell that is the omnipotent battle planet Warworld? Their disparate fights for survival in seemingly unrelated time periods could lead directly to unraveling the fate of the entire Justice League itself — as well as a looming crisis in the DC Universe.

Positives

Justice League: Warworld made some fascinating choices, both aesthetically and from a storyline perspective. I love the look of the “Tomorrowverse” films, with their sharp, clean lines and soft, yet vibrant colors. Even the films that I wasn’t the biggest fan of recently (namely Green Lantern: Beware My Power) still looked great, and that has continued into this film.

And as far as the story goes, let’s start off with the three, almost anthology-like, segments that make up the majority of this 91-minute film, all three of which are fantastic in their own way, and are very different from one another, which I loved.

Wonder Woman In The Old West

It starts off with Wonder Woman in the Old West as essentially “The Woman With No Name”, which was an obvious reference to Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”, which was a series of spaghetti western films starring Clint Eastwood, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

We get to see her go toe-to-toe with the infamous DC Comics outlaw, Jonah Hex, voiced by Troy Baker. I love that they took this opportunity to use a character like Jonah Hex, who I believe is criminally underutilized in all media. He’s ruthless, yet charming, and Baker plays that perfectly. I was also pleased that they didn’t change his backstory, keeping him as a former Confederate soldier. It’s something they could have easily left out or changed, but didn’t.

This first segment had the task of setting the tone and expectation for the rest of the film, and I think it did a great job of that, at least as far as showing the audience that this isn’t your average story, and isn’t told in the standard way. It also did a great job of utilizing the R-rating with some brutal kills from both Jonah Hex and Wonder Woman. Seeing her shoot bad guys in the head was a little off-putting, to be honest, but it fit the setting, and even though she’s a hero, she’s also a warrior and kills when she needs to.

This is her first time back in a Tomorrowverse film since Justice Society: World War II, and Stana Katic returns to voice the Amazonian, though, technically, they are different versions of the character, with this one being from Earth-1 and the Justice Society version being from Earth-2. Katic does a great job voicing this character, even though I had forgotten about her using an Eastern European accent and was a bit thrown off at first.

Barbarian Batman And His Sword

The second segment features the Dark Knight (voiced by Jensen Ackles) in a Conan The Barbarian/Dungeons & Dragons-type fantasy setting where Batman is a mercenary sent to kill The Warlord. I was shocked to see The Warlord in this, as he is a character I haven’t even thought about in years, but hopefully, this will inspire people to go back and read his comics and learn more about this fascinating character.

This segment gives viewer their first hints that something more is going on. What that something is, we find out toward the end. This was a perfect setting to put Batman in, as it allowed him to showcase his strength and abilities without the suit on. And seeing him with long hair was just an added treat.

Unlike the first segment, we get another Justice League member in this when Wonder Woman shows up, but it’s not the Wonder Woman we just saw. We begin to see that these aren’t just separate stories centering on one member, and that surviving takes you to the next “level”, so to speak.

Superman Vs. 1950’s Xenophobia

The final segment before the films third act sees Superman (voiced by Darren Criss) — or in this case, Clark Kent — as a 1950’s G-Man who’s in town investigating a UFO siting, alongside his veteran partner Agent Faraday. It’s a classic 50’s black & white sci-fi story, akin to Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Twilight Zone.

This is definitely more of a classic, mild-mannered Clark Kent than his confident and ready-for-action counterpart, Superman, but he fits perfectly in this story. And he gets to play off of the more confident Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince, who both show up in this segment. It quickly shifts into a who’s-the-hidden-alien tale, leaning on the xenophobia and group fear that was heavily prevalent during the 1950’s because of McCarthyism and the Cold War. And, of course, Wonder Woman’s foreign accent makes her a quick and easy target for this anti-foreigner sentiment.

The story unravels even more as they begin to experience flashes of memories that they just don’t understand, and we even get an appearance by an unexpected visitor… Martian Manhunter. Remembering  back to the great Justice League animated series, and the episode they did about Warworld, I had hoped to see him appear in this, but wasn’t really expecting it.

Which leads directly into the third act of Justice League: Warworld…

Mongul And Martians And Mayhem… Oh My!

The wayward members of the Justice League have finally escaped their mind prisons and awaken on Warworld where they learn an imprisoned Martian Manhunter is being forced to create these intricate illusions. But he’s been fighting to reach the heroes and bring them back to save him and themselves. It was a great surprise to see J’onn J’onzz in this, even if his fate isn’t what I would have hoped for.

The third act is actually filled with surprises. We get Lobo back for the first time since Superman: Man of Tomorrow (voiced by John DiMaggio), and he’s working with Mongul to help him find the key to unlocking the full potential of the weapon that is Warworld. But this key is tied directly to Martian Manhunter and the White Martians, and Mongul will do whatever it takes to get it, even creating a Matrix-like system of pods to hold prisoners for these Westworld-like scenarios. But, unfortunately for Mongul, his plans don’t go quite the way he expected.

A Looming Crisis?

The film ends with an unexpected appearance by Harbinger, setting up the recently announced Crisis On Infinite Earths adaptation that’s coming out next year. I’m curious if this version of Crisis will encapsulate the entire, nearly 20 years of animated films, which started with 2007’s Superman/Doomsday. It would be incredible to revisit some of those worlds as the multiverse collapses into one universe.

Also, I feel like this will need to be their very first three-part film, as it will be the biggest story they have ever told, and that way they can really dive into all the different worlds and give this story the respect it deserves.

Negatives

Alright, this film, while I really enjoyed it, has some definite flaws.

I would have loved the segments to be longer. I would’ve definitely watched all three of them as their own, full-length, Elseworlds story.

Maybe I’m just being nitpicky about this next one, but I was a little put off by Jonah Hex’s willingness to murder an innocent child. The Jonah Hex I’m familiar with always had a code of honor to protect the innocent, and this just felt like a big deviation from that.

The third act with Mongul and Warworld felt very rushed. We never got to see the classic gladiatorial fights that are synonymous with Warworld. I understand that they went a bit more cerebral with the battles, but it would’ve been nice to at least see a shot of some random people being forced to fight it out in the pit, showing that Mongul can utilize different forms of battle.

And lastly, and certainly least, the voice DiMaggio used for Lobo was a bit too close to that of his Futurama character, Bender, and it occasionally took me out it. Wasn’t that big of a deal, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Special Features

The Blu-ray release for Justice League: Warworld includes two featurettes breaking down the events of the film.

Illusions on Warworld – Go behind the scenes and inside the process of designing and creating three distinct genres for the Justice League to inhabit on Warworld.

 

The Heroic, the Horrible and the Hideous – Dive deep into the origins and histories of the key players on Warworld and learn how the filmmakers brought them to life.

While I enjoyed them both quite a bit, I was disappointed that this was all we got. They didn’t even include any episodes from the vault like they usually do, and they could’ve easily included the aforementioned “War World” episode of the animated series Justice League, which they even mention in one of the featurettes.

I also miss the days when we got a sneak peek at the next film coming out. Now, I know the next Tomorrowverse film is the recently announced Crisis On Infinite Earths adaptation coming out next year, but there is still at least one more non-Tomorrowverse animated film coming this year with Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen – Part 2 (which comes out on Halloween), so they could’ve put a little sneak peek of this film at least.

Verdict

Overall, this was a solid entry into the DC animated universe. The three segments where hands down the best parts of the film. I absolutely loved them. But the lackluster third act definitely hindered what could have been an all-time great. I’d still recommend it, as the first 70 minutes or so is some of the best stuff they’ve put out, and you don’t want to miss that.

Score: 4/5

The post Blu-Ray Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE: WARWORLD (2023) appeared first on DC Comics News.

Writer and Lead Penciller: Phil Jimenez
Additional Pencillers: Travis Moore, Brandon Badeaux
Inkers: Andy Lanning, Lary Stucker, Marlo Alquiza, Kevin Conrad, Jose Marzan Jr.
Color Artists: Patricia Mulvihill, and Tom McCraw with Heroic Age
Letterer: Comicraft

Reviewed by Steve J. Ray

Published by DC Comics – ISBN Published by DC Comics – ISBN 9781779524379

Available from Penguin Random House

Summary

Last month I had the great fortune and privilege of reviewing the all-new version of Paradise Lost, now the great folks at Penguin Random House have been kind enough to send me the equally amazing follow-up collection, Wonder Woman: Paradise Found (2023 Edition).

Just like its predecessor, this great book collects a seminal arc by Phil Jimenez. It recounts one of the greatest Wonder Woman sagas of all time, as well as being one of the inspirations behind the forthcoming Paradise Lost Warner Bros. TV project.

Here’s the book synopsis from the Penguin Random House Website:

Wonder Woman’s world is falling to pieces. Her home of Paradise Island has faced a devastating civil war, and her mother, Queen Hippolyta, has abolished the monarchy, ending Diana’s status as a princess.

 

Acclaimed writer/artist Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman: Historia) is joined by inker Andy Lanning and cover artist Adam Hughes for one of the most difficult chapters of Diana’s life. This story reveals that a dear friend of Diana’s has been transformed into a deadly enemy, we see an intergalactic war and the return of an arch-nemesis that may spell doom for all the superheroes of the world.

 

With battle after battle facing Wonder Woman, is there any hope that Diana can once again find paradise?

 

Collects Wonder Woman #171-177, as well as selected pages from Wonder Woman: Secret Files #3.

Also featured are all the Adam Hughes covers and character bios for Diana, Hippolyta, and the Amazons, plus a recap of the events of Wonder Woman: Paradise Lost.

Positives

First and foremost, this is a book written and penciled by Phil Jimenez. This is an extreme positive, in and of itself. The rest is pure gravy. We also have guest pencils by Brandon Badeaux and a very young Travis Moore. Now, anyone who knows me at all knows how much I love Travis’ work. To my mind, he’s one the best artists working in comics today. Seeing his early work here was wonderful. Even though he was clearly new to the game at this point, you could already see the makings of a great artist in these early pages.

This is a comic to really sink your teeth into. Most of today’s comics hardly give you anything to read, while this book’s fairly word heavy, by comparison. To me, this is a plus as I feel like I’m getting more entertainment for my money. Don’t worry, though. This isn’t 90s/90s Claremont X-Men, but there’s still more text here than you may be used to.

Comics fans know that every now and then, a big cosmic event comes and takes over the stories going on in your favorite books. Sometimes this can be a nightmare, as whatever ongoing plot threads and character arcs going on are sometimes cast aside, or even completely ignored for the event’s sake.

The end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003 saw DC publishing the alien invasion epic, “Our Worlds At War, and, of course, as one of the publisher’s flagship characters, Wonder Woman had to be involved. Phil Jimenez, rather than ignore the amazing work leading into the book and that would follow after the crossover, deftly weaved his narrative and that of the saga together, almost seamlessly. You will not need to track down the many OWaW collections to understand or love this book. I fact, if I hadn’t mentioned it you may never even have noticed.

What this means is that within this epic graphic novel, we get gods, aliens, war, terror, death, tragedy, and more action than a summer of blockbusters. This book clearly inspired the now legendary Snyder cut of Justice League, but there’s so much Amazon Lore, DC characterization, history, and world-building going on too that all fans, old or new, will pick up a book that will thrill and entertain them from cover to cover.

Think about it! A new Cheetah, the second Silver Swan (what a shock that was!), Imperiex, Darkseid, Circe, The Joker, and Lex Luthor feature as the villains of the piece. Then we get stellar appearances from Superman, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Cassie (Wonder Girl) Sandsmark, Tempest, Jade, Donna Troy, Artemis, The Titans… and the list goes on.

Negatives

Are you kidding me? Reading this book was a complete blast. Yes, I was viewing it through nostalgia-tinted sunglasses, but I’ve re-read newer stories that have aged far worse than these ones. This is vintage comic book entertainment and the most fun you can legally have for 20 bucks.

Verdict

Historically, this saga clearly shows when Phil Jimenez stepped out of George Pérez’s shadow and proved that he was now a creative talent as rounded and as brilliant as his mentor could have hoped he would ever become. That’s about the highest praise I can give.

The only thing that could be better than buying yourself a copy of this gorgeous new edition of Wonder Woman: Paradise Found would be to get it at the same time as you pick up Paradise Lost. This is vintage, high-octane comics entertainment; but with heart, soul, character, tragedy, and true depth. We see Superman cry, get a tribute to the fallen from 9/11, and a true reminder of just how powerful comics can be.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment. Review Copy Courtesy of Penguin Random House.

The post Book Review: Wonder Woman: Paradise Found (2023 Edition) appeared first on DC Comics News.