Yes, every bad review you've read is true. She treats the character like a complete fish out of water even though Diana's been underground pretending to be a regular person for an entire year, and before that had been around for years and gotten her lumps in during Perez and Messner-Loebs runs.
Beyond that, she's being vain and petty and existential and it makes me roll my eyes. Why does Wonder Woman give a flying fuck about being "cool"?
And why is Nemesis suddenly acting like Xander Harris?
It might be the first comparison, the milkshake replacement with a Black Canary milkshake, bothered me and set the tone wrong. Even though Diana didn't display overt jealousy, using the Black Canary replacement (and then driving it home with a mention by Nemesis) implied competition. Diana's from Themiscyra, where women can excel without tearing each other down. It also smacked of the Black Canary replacing Wonder Woman in the post-Crisis JLA recon, which irked me.
Still, even taking that into account, the plot was a stock plot (And the art seemed rushed. Drew Johnson is better than this) and the characters were too far off-base to make up for that. Diana's still supposed to be savvier, Tom's supposed to be more competent. This is a fresh off the boat story for an entrenched character.
I've read a lot of stuff that I've been iffy about on the first reading. I've read stuff that was entertaining but not particularly good on the second reading. I've read stuff that was mediocre but still had charm. I've read stuff that was decently plotted and timed but relied on cliched characterization and stereotypes, and therefore ruined my experience.
This issue was just plain bad, and I don't say that about a lot of things.
To be fair, the whole Black Canary replacing Wonder Woman thing was the one part of the issue that I actually liked, since that's what happened with the Post-Crisis Justice League.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, everything else? Pretty horrible.
Chris -- I'd like to give her that, but I can't credit this writer with that much cleverness.
ReplyDeleteSo poor Diana is being written more like
ReplyDeleteWonderella?
Yeah, any chance we can have Will Pfiefer back?
ReplyDeleteAnd can he stay?
I don't care. I'm going to continue to buy the effin thing to show DC that if I buy each issue on a monthly bass, they're have an incentive to put out a MONTHLY Wonder Woman comic!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Justin Pierce would write the best Wonder Woman story ever!
Ya know I'm starting to suspect that the problems with Wonder Woman have absolutely nothing to do with gender. This occurred to me today as I was pondering the fact that I am more likely anymore to not buy the main titles with the "Big Three" than to buy. I'm only doing the Donner/Johns Action because I have a fondness for Dick Donner. I love Busiek but the only reason I'm even bothering with any of "Camelot Falls" is for the glimpses of the future, (even knowing that when all is said and done that future will not come to pass).
ReplyDeleteOver in the cave, Detective is less than awe inspiring, and Batman is very far from Grant Morrisons best work.
Now never having read word one of Jodi Picoults work, I'm not going to offer a defense. For all I know her regular prose sucks as much as you are saying her first issue of WW does. But I suspect that even if she were brilliant it wouldn't matter, because at some point she'd run afoul of editorial mandate, which seems to be what drives and controls the big three. So long as that is the case, even when there are good writers and artists they will be hampered, and no organic alteration of the status quo will be permitted. Rather it will be an endless cycle of over dramatic psuedo events that once over may as well not have happened, couple with periodic over arching change in style, characterization, and/or continuity because of the demands of the latest movie, tv series, cartoon. Case in point? How much Superman in Action looks like Brendan Routh right now.
Peace
And
Long
Life
Toriach
I thought that it was just me. Man, that is one WHINEY Wonder Woman.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to Drew Johnson, I think it was more that he was playing with his style rather than rushing it. And I actually thought it was OK.
ReplyDeleteOther than the art, though, this issue was Bruce-Jones-"You're-GASP-METAHUMAN!"-Nightwing bad.
I actually didn't hate this comic as much as most people, but I have been pretty underwhelmed by the series as a whole. I at least appreciated the attempt at humour in this issue.
ReplyDeleteI do realize that having Wonder Woman be completely clueless about humanity and its strange customs ignores decades of continuity. It's definitely a weird approach to a new Wonder Woman title.
Maybe she was mind-wiped by Zatanna?
Ragnell -
ReplyDeleteUGH. I bought this issue the MINUTE the comic book store on the first floor of my office opened, and went back and exchanged it after I read it. It was making me furious just keeping it on my desk.
Chris -
The cover of JLA #75 where Black Canary has kicked the crap out of everyone and asking "NOW Do You Think I Can Replace Wonder Woman?" is one of my favorites. Batman kind of looks like he likes it.
-casey-
i desperately want to enjoy a monthly WW comic, because i think she's an important part of the culture at large and the DCU in specific, and i think we need to spread the love a little not give it all to Supes and Bats.
ReplyDeletebut, jeez, i was disappointed with this issue, and the series on a whole. can't even get this thing out monthly? storylines that stop before they end? sheesh.
as dull as it was, at least the journeymen WW artists and writers like Gerry Conway and Jose Delbon were able to crank WW every single month, on time...
oops, i meant Delbo! (he was a former teacher of mine, gotta make sure to get the name right)
ReplyDeletei'd like to see Sean McKeever write WW, myself.
I don't object to the premise of this approach- I like the idea of giving the character a flaw that's not really debilitating and more of a quirk. But there's something very off about the writing, the dialogue in particular. It seems very forced, and the meta references are very awkward indeed.
ReplyDeleteOkay, yes, this issue was awful. The last issue was fairly awful to. And the first four were okay; they stood up okay against the Jimenez and Rucka runs, but I don't see what all the excitement was about. Heinberg's issues were just mediocre, and when you make someone wait more than two months, you owe 'em more than mediocre.
ReplyDelete(Picoult on a fish-out-of-water WOnder Woman, by the way, would be fineif she were writing Wonder Woman: Year One and not, you know, Wonder Woman: Year 12.)
But what's been reaally bugging me: What's in a Wonder Woman milkshake? Is it like Superman icecream and milk (man, I used to love Superman ice cream!). Is it just strawberry to match her top and boots, or blueberry to match her trunks?
And what's in Black Canary one, which sounds awful. Is it chocolate? Is it black cherry or black rasperry? Licorice? Black snacks tend to be terrible.
Also, in the DCU, what's the liklihood of Black friggn' Canary eclipsing Wonder Woman? Why not Supergirl or Mary Marvel? Since BC's been all espionagey for so long, she doesn't seem like a hero Joe Sixpack would be all excited about, you know?
Yeah. It lost me on the coffee shop scene.
ReplyDeleteSimply because - it's a cliche hack trick now to officially show a person as being "out of touch" by having them go into a Starbucks and not be able to order in a fashion as to please the undergrad behind the counter with their selection. (We do not have SMALL coffee... we have TALL coffee.)
I can accept the Black Canary thing since Dinah has become a bit more overt, what with the JLA and all. I can believe that she's become the next big thing...
... except Diana is on the JLA as well, in costume, and everything in JLA seems to be ignoring everything else in the DCU...
But hey... what else is new? :)
I read the preview on Newsarama and dropped the book on my pull list the next day. I'll resume it as soon as Picoult is off the series. I'm disgusted by what I read, as tame as it really is. I think what stupifies me most is how anyone could be allowed to step in on a big-three title with ZERO research into the character's recent story arcs, say in the past year or two. Whoever Picoult is writing is not Wonder Woman, and since comic books are fictional works in a flimsy chronological timeline I refuse to accept this arc as canon. So there.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat related, Picoult has a HUGE banner advertising her latest novel in the window of my local Borders Express. Hmm.