The Not So Many Loves of Wonder Woman: Aquaman

I never really got into Wonder Woman until Morrison's JLA (fortunately, the old TV series was in reruns on the scifi channel so I didn't have to just settle for the Byrne issues at the time) so the first love interest I ever saw for her was...



Aquaman.

Honestly, I'm one of Those Fans who only found Aquaman stomachable during the 90s when he ran around barechested and bearded with a hook hand. I think part of it was his role on the JLA, though. He was this grumpy anti-social complainer surrounded by optimists. Even though he was completely out of his watery element in most stories, he seemed to fit, seemed to serve a purpose.

And I did enjoy the little ongoing plot with Wonder Woman, where the two seemed to be old friends but he was secretly attracted to her. It had a few things going for it. One, it gave Aquaman a reason to be cranky but still come along. Two, it was the only dynamic like that: Morrison didn't really develop sexual tension between Diana and Superman or Batman, and while he had Flash and Green Lantern discuss how attractive she was they never really fixated on it. Three, it was almost completely one-sided.

I liked it because it added a bit of character to Aquaman but had no chance of going anywhere. Diana didn't seem to think of him that way, and his own storyline wasn't open to pursue this. He spent time suppressing his attraction to her and she rolled her eyes at him and told him to stop being such a pompous all the time. It was a touch of melodrama in the background of an action-driven series.

Of course, Diana's had a lot of admirers like this, where she's the love interest for some curmudgeonly dude who won't get anywhere with her for various reasons. It was the first one I ever saw, though.

It was also the first time I ever saw a scene where I thought "That simply doesn't work." That was in the Mark Waid storyline with the Queen of Fables.



There's a scene where Diana is discovered to be asleep, Snow White-style, and Wally and Kyle are standing over her trying to figure out who should kiss her. Aquaman steps up, pushes them aside and tells them it's a job for a prince. Then, in a lovely splash page, he kisses Diana.

It's meant to be one of those great moments, those little bits that justify Aquaman being on the league and drive home his personality but... it seemed wrong.



And I don't mean wrong as in "I have consent issues with this fairy tale" wrong, I mean wrong as in "Hey. Wonder Woman should not be kissed awake by Aquaman" wrong.

Really, it's the exact same wrongness that makes the Queen of Fables a great villain for Wonder Woman. This villain thinks Diana is Snow White, and Diana is as far from Snow White as possible. Yes, black-haired white princess known for being the "Fairest in the land", but in a narrative role? Diana's not a princess who is tied to the kingdom and rescued. She isn't someone who is the daughter out on a specific quest to end a curse. Diana is the character who leaves home to seek fame and fortune. She's supposed to find love, her destiny, and make a name for herself before she returns home to take the throne.

Yes, Diana is a princess who's a superhero, I cannot emphasize this sort of girl appeal enough. But in a fairy tale character role? Diana's not the princess in this setup. Diana's role is that of the prince.

Wonder Woman doesn't get kissed by to life. Wonder Woman is the one who kisses the cursed character back to life.

And I enjoyed the storyline, and I like the villain who caused it, but that moment did change something for me. I didn't like Aquaman and Wonder Woman sexual tension anymore. His "stepping up to the plate" moment really suited his character but just jarred with Wonder Woman's natural place in the narrative. It broke the entire dynamic for me. It just seemed wrong.

I think, actually, it would have seemed less wrong with Wally or Kyle because neither had the same tension prior. Wally or Kyle would have just been "Oh man, I hope this works" with some teasing from Diana after. With Aquaman, it was this opportunity he'd wished for the entire series. The chance to swoop in and be Diana's Prince. It was basically his shot at being a man and winning her, and really Diana isn't a character you "Win" by being a traditional male hero who saves the girl. It would be disservice to her if that were to work. Fortunately, I think the editors and writers who thought this would be cool looked at that and went "Yeah... let's try Wonder Woman and Batman instead."

A typical flight for Col. Trevor

From Wonder Woman #107, Gunslingers of Space!

I don't know how the industry at the time showed enough restraint to pass up a Silver Age team-up of Lois Lane and Steve Trevor, but if they were to appear in the same panel could anything less than the complete and total destruction of the DCU be the result?

This is not an effective way to recapture the Golden Age appeal of Wonder Woman

Dustin Nguyen's Generation Lost #22 variant:



I'm not particularly angered by this. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it, but I'm long past outrage in this category. There's a long tradition of covers where Diana or another character is tied up with the lasso, that's just the nature of a story where the main character uses a lasso as a weapon.

And, of course, there's the infamous "bondage theme".

Honestly, I hate to address the "bondage theme" because the Internet and the Comics Industry have the same weakness here. A lot of people out there don't understand nuance and complexity. A lot of people out there don't understand that sexuality was simply an element of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, and that her appeal and her effect went far beyond crackshit pop Freudian analysis. A lot of people don't understand that yes, this character was intended for little girls, and that the bondage play elements had symbolism beyond the puerile ideal that everything that with a wink or a nod indicates that sex is the foundation.

So I'm going in here today, and possibly in the next few posts, and I'm going to say flat out that acknowledging a sexual element does not mean the same as reducing everything to sex, that acknowledging sexuality in a female character does not mean that the character is intended solely for the male gaze, and that if you respond to any of my posts with anything along the lines of "hruh, hruh, bondage means she's there to get tied up" couched in pseudointellectualism I'm going to save myself the time and right now call you a shallow, posturing idiot and unworthy of my time. That will be why you don't get a response from me.

Now that that's out of the way, yes there was tying up of people and all sorts of giggly subtext in Wonder Woman. Yes, there was a sexual element--her freaking patroness is Aphrodite--and it was part of the fun. And yes, I think it is absolutely absurd that a follower of Aphrodite who started out with such a bright and playful subtext back in the 40s is consigned to Eternal Virginity in the modern era.

Here's the thing, much as we see Diana in perilous situations where she gets tied up, if you wait a couple panels she always ALWAYS breaks free. It was a not-so-subtle commentary on women in society, how they allow themselves to be restrained and restricted by men. Wonder Woman breaking free of her enemies was symbolic of women finding their strength and breaking free of patriarchal rule. Every misstep, every capture, every humiliating and titillating position was to reinforce that, which is why it always ended with her breaking free before she or her friends got hurt.

And every time I see some moron argue that bondage covers are a tradition and were just there as a sneaky-sexy to sell a female character, I want to scream at everyone: THE BONDAGE IS A GIANT METAPHOR FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS, YOU GAPING SIMPLISTIC MORONS. IT IS NOT JUST THERE FOR YOU TO WANK OFF ON.

That is, of course, not to say that you can't wank off on it... That's your business and yes, there is an element of sexuality to be found in many stories (about everything, not just Wonder Woman and not just superheroes). I'm saying if you do, keep it to yourself and don't insist that we all see that as the end-all-be-all to it, or that greater themes should be sacrificed in the service of sexualization. Fetish material is not the foundation, the point, or all there is to Wonder Woman.

In the DCWKA thread, someone said that cover looked like something Marston would've submitted, and while I initially agreed I'm going have to take that back. It looks considerably more humiliating and mean-spirited than anything from the Golden Age. Danger and restraint in a Marston story served to set up the triumph at the end and there was a hint of that optimism in the Peters art.

Of course, I may just look unkindly upon it because there are other elements to the stories and covers of the Golden Age that we'd be guaranteed if we saw Wonder Woman tied up with her own lasso. Elements that would drive home the true theme. We'd have Diana breaking free of the trap, through her own wits and strength. We'd have a group of women who are oppressed by the villain, and we would know that Diana would inspire them to join forces and overtake the villain. And we'd have the main male character in the story trapped and humiliated right along with her, to show that men are oppressed by the same worldview that constrains women. (Key point here: He doesn't free her, she frees him.)

As Generation Lost is a Judd Winick story, I expect to see none of that in this book. And there's no power and joy in this image of Diana here.

Really, that's one thing that seems to have been cut from Wonder Woman covers and appearances all around. Power and joy. She's supposed to be a woman in charge of her life who loves the universe and everyone in it. Even bound up with her own weapon, she's supposed to carry that effect. Seems everyone remembers they can tie her up, but few remember that in the end she's supposed to take control. She's supposed to win in the end. (Also, she's supposed to be the Dom.) Thing is, lately in the writing she often doesn't win in the end. This has gotten so pervasive that nowadays we don't really trust a Wonder Woman story to be uplifting, and we certainly don't trust the covers to carry any message other than "this is hot".

How big was Dwayne McDuffie?

This big.

I'm speechless

CBR:

CBR News has learned that comic writer, animation producer and respected industry veteran Dwayne McDuffie passed away. The cause of death and specific details are unknown at this time.

This is a huge loss. He was behind some of the best animation we've seen in recent years and one of the most creative minds in the industry.

A Pitiful Pool of Prospective Paramours

Steve Trevor wasn't the only Silver Age love interest, but he was honestly--even in 1958 when they actually let him almost outsmart her--the most likable. Our other options were usually villains or...



Mer-man.

He's Diana's teen romance from when he was Mer-Boy. He used to try to protect her underwater and she would save his ass. He used to fight with Bird-boy over her. He used to follow the dumbass advice of dumbass Mermaids about how girls were all alike and fuck up courting her because Amazons are immune to that shit. Of course since Wonder Girl became Donna Troy, I guess the Mer-Boy and Bird-boy fighting over her experience went to Donna. Maybe? And I think post-Crisis they've all been replaced by Aquaman, but I'm not sure.

What I am sure of is that I fucking hate Mer-man. Mer-man's sole purpose is to create a Lana Lang-style love triangle and have them fight over Wonder Woman like a prize. (The lead story in issue 125 is actually called "Wonder Woman--Battle Prize") He also tries to rush in and save her from situations she's perfectly capable of handling herself. I'll give you that Steve does this too, but he seems a lot more inclined to sit back and just keep within eyesight. Mer-man actually tells her not to do things like he knows better. Then he gets his ass saved by her.



Really, just take all of Steve's Silver Age Rough-Around-the-Edges Macho Flaws and multiply them by 10. That is Mer-man.

And when Steve encounters Mer-man, take his competitive pigheadedness and watch it multiply all of HIS flaws by 10.



Then add pissed off Hippolyta telling them they're a bunch of idiots.



Mer-man does suffer from a problem Steve doesn't, which is that he doesn't appear often enough for there to be many stories to offset when he acts like a jackass. Steve can be a pushy jerk because he's around next story being loyal and supportive, and telling her how awesome she is and that she always saves his life. We get to see Steve remember that Wonder Woman is more capable than him often enough that it actually seems endearing when he tosses himself into danger to help her. Mer-man... just acts like an asshole, and seems to not ever remember that she is considerably more powerful than he is.



Really, because of this pigheaded arrogance the competition stories have the option of being very funny. For example, in #125 Mer-man (without asking) grabs Diana and (without asking) jumps into the ocean to show off underwater because he has the advantage there. Steve gets annoyed and follows. Diana watches Mer-man fight a swordfish, then sees Steve is losing oxygen and consciousness looking for her and rescues him. Mer-man follows them to land where Steve beats up a gorilla, and Mer-man gets captured by a giant bird. Diana saves his ass. That's... actually pretty funny.

Except at the end of the story (and all of these stupid competition stories with Steve and Mer-man or Mer-Boy and Bird-brainboy) she doesn't tell them they're idiots and send them packing. She tells them she likes them both, and then looks at the audience and asks how she could possibly choose between the two. Which is bullshit. They both suck in these stories.

"How can I choose?" Don't. Send them both packing, then go to the Superman franchise and ask Lois out. Maybe you'll hit it off and give Clark a break from this sort of shit too. At the very least you'll get a nice meal and some entertaining company while Steve follows you around with his adorable pilot's hat in his hand begging you to talk to him again.

The Mirage Mirror

The backup story in Wonder Woman #130 is a simply amazing secret identity story. It features Diana, Hippolyta and Steve behaving without a shred of logic between the three of them. It may be one of the most enjoyable things I have ever read.

It starts out with a sequence about Diana asking Steve out on a date. Now, think about these three panels for a minute.



Each time Steve answers that he has a prior engagement with Wonder Woman. Diana actually went to the trouble to make a date with Steve and then change into her alter ego to ask him out at the same time.

This would make sense if she just wanted to see if he'd break a date with her, but no... she actually wants him to break a date with her and go out with her.

Eventually he does accept a date (probably because she asked when she hadn't already made plans with him) but doesn't put out any illusions about actually being interested in Diana romantically. Instead, he hangs out with her and talks about how awesome Wonder Woman is.



This really bothers her, because she feels like he's ignoring her... as he talks about awesome she is.

And I know some people read this and go "Wow, what a freaking jerk, going out with her and talking about another girl the whole time" but you gotta remember... he is actually dating Wonder Woman and she knew this before she asked him to spend the afternoon with her. Hell, as far as he knows, she is his girlfriend's best friend. Either he and the princess are in a very open relationship (which is likely) and he's Silver Age style tactless (which he is anyway, and it is hilarious), or he thinks that they are just spending time together as friends (which is also pretty likely when you take into account Steve Trevor's incredible mental density).

See, Secret Identities are a great idea to protect your loved ones but the way Diana is set up she doesn't need it. Her mother is on Paradise Island and she is openly dating Steve in her superhero identity. So in the Silver Age, the Diana Prince identity exists to try and convince Steve Trevor to cheat on Wonder Woman with Diana Prince.

And when he doesn't... she gets upset.

And when he does go out with Diana, but proceeds to be completely honest with both women about who he really loves... she gets upset.

Now, there's a few ways to simplify her life here (and for all I know they've all been addressed in those parts of the archives I haven't had a shot at) based on what she really wants. If she wants Steve to love her in the Diana Prince identity, she can simply turn down his romantic invitations as Wonder Woman and catch him on the rebound in her Diana Prince identity. She has no problem with saying no to a marriage proposal, but for some reason she is always meeting him for walks in the park and going for drives in his car.

If she wants Steve to love her for her true self, she can stop asking him out in the Diana Prince identity and just date him as Wonder Woman, which is her real self, the way she met him, the persona that's associated with her actual family and history and not a purchased or completely fabricated false identity. The Diana Prince identity can be used to give her a break from celebrity, give her access to information she needs to fight evil, and give her a chance to watch over her boyfriend and best friend incognito. (This is how they pulled it in the TV show, and Diana was simply flattered when Steve went on about Wonder Woman to her and Etta.) But she doesn't do that, she fixates on getting her to love her with glasses.

If she just suspects he's shallow... Well, this isn't going to help because the two women are identical with the exception of glasses. (Kalinara's theory is Steve assumes he's imaging the resemblance because he loves Wonder Woman so much. I must admit, this is a stupid enough thought that Steve Trevor might be thinking it.)

For some reason (the writers) she decides not to simplify her life. Instead, she decides to teach him a lesson. How dare he be totally upfront with two women! How dare he go on about how much he loves her!

To that end, she goes to her mother for help. It turns out that Hippolyta pulled the same thing when she was dating Hercules. (Yes, Silver Age Hippolyta dated Hercules.) It must be some weird Amazon ritual for hazing male suitors.

And because Hercules, when dating a no-name Amazon warrior who never took her helmet off, went on and on about how beautiful the Queen was Hippolyta decided to fuck with his head a bit. She produces a magic mirror that will temporarily change her appearance when she and her suitor look in it together. Hercules is sufficiently weirded out that he focuses on the no-name Amazon warrior afterwards.

In the meantime, Steve has tickets to a charity carnival and can't find Wonder Woman. So he, making clear that he's only asking because his girlfriend isn't around, asks Diana to go. She's so happy she calls off the trick.

And that's when we get to a sequence that has made me love Steve Trevor and his dense, tactless, clueless Silver Age love interest brain forever.



"I'll have to wiggle out of my date with Diana Prince" He doesn't think that. He says it out loud on the phone with Wonder Woman. (And "mistake her voice for Wonder Woman's"? What the fuck? Is the writer as confused by the dual identities as Diana and Steve are?)

And she gets mad, but doesn't let him know.

Still, they are clearly in an established open relationship. He'll tell her right to her face that he's made dates with other women, and she doesn't yell at him for it. (And no, she's not afraid to tell him when she's mad at him. See issue #127 when he tells her his dream about being married to her was horrible.)

And that's not the best part... Look at what Steve thinks "wiggle out" means:



That's right, to Steve Trevor, wiggling out of a date means telling the girl up front that he found a date with another girl that he thinks is prettier. Bear in mind, before he asked her out (and judging by Diana's pleased reaction this was the first time he'd ever taken the initiative and asked Diana Prince out) he said it was because he couldn't find this girl and he had those tickets.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Most Honest Man in Comics.

And yeah, that was a pretty fucking tactless way to break a date. It's more clueless than mean, though, because it seems like he thinks he's going easy on her. "EVERY woman looks bad compared to this girl, not just you." This man does not suspect for a second that these two women are the same person. (Unlike Lois.) He is really just too dumb to hate. (And he's so cute in his little pilot outfit. I love how he wears that everywhere in this era.) I suppose I should feel bad for Diana... if this whole thing weren't something she set up. I love Diana but honestly, she's being pretty bad in this issue. Besides, she's getting upset at hearing how awesome she is. It's pointless to pity that. (I don't feel sorry for Clark either.) She's just not cut out for this secret identity thing.

So anyway, he ditches her.. for her... and goes to the carnival where Diana's set up the magic mirror in the fun house. She makes herself look very fat, Steve is bothered but polite about it, and then some villains attack so she kicks their ass as a fat lady. Then she turns back, and he's relieved. Then she makes herself very tall and thin and long-necked. He's freaked out now. Bad guys attack, she fights them off.



Steve's weirded out and pretty scared by the whole thing, so he walks away. She gets mad. Clearly he left her because she was ugly and not because he needs to lie down for a bit or get his eyes checked out.

Or even because he's in trouble, because god knows he doesn't get knocked out and kidnapped every time she's not watching.

To be fair, Steve is shallow. That kind of goes with being not smart. He's also tactless as hell. That also goes with being not smart. I think it's pretty funny, because just about everyone is pretty dumb and tactless in the Silver Age.

Really, the big thing to be annoyed at is how PRESUMPTUOUS he is. He just assumes Wonder Woman and he have a standing date. Of course, in other issues when she lets him know she's mad he is instantly apologetic so this is something she could take care of if she wants to. That's writers forgetting Diana comes from a society where women get to speak up when they're offended. It's a character flaw of Steve's, but something correctable in-story.

Anyway, I will give Diana that she ends this story on the best possible note. Lucky her, she has a friend who understands the need to screw with your significant other's head from time to time.

This was actually a good love interest for the embodiment of truth.

So rather than do anything productive I've been picking through my pre-Crisis Wonder Woman reprints for Steve heavy stories, trying to pinpoint exactly what made Steve so unlikable to other fans. I mean, my first exposure to the character was reruns of the television show, where he was this smiling (everyone on that show smiled a lot), sweet, optimistic man without a shred of malice or deceit. Maybe that had tinted my view of the old comics.

Thing is, I have yet to come across a particularly assholish piece of behavior. (And yes, this includes the famous dream sequence in #127 where he thinks of all the downsides to marrying a career superhero.) There's a storyline where they have a fight in the 70s because he just came from the dead and thinks she's babying him too much, and some sprinklings of the sort of sexism you see from EVERY male character in the Silver Age but ultimately, I still like him a lot. This is another one of those characters that makes me smile every time he is onpanel.

I will give you, there is one very weird story where he's about to go on a dangerous mission and won't see Wonder Woman before he leaves... so he asks Diana Prince to pretend to be her so he can make believe he had a last day with his girlfriend. It is the sort of crazy that comes about solely because they need a secret identity story, with him not giving her a chance to slip out of his sight during the story. I also think it came about because he's just not as smart as Lois Lane, so they couldn't do a "I will PROVE that you are really Wonder Woman" story. So instead, they have him completely oblivious to the secret identity. And rather than be suspicious of Diana Prince, he likes her as a friend and wants her to share his love of Wonder Woman with her. So he talks to her about his girlfriend, and insists she come with him to see Wonder Woman in a parade, stay to meet her and other things until we get to this level of weirdness.

In general, I like Steve a lot more than the other male characters embroiled in Secret Identity soaps, probably because he's not the one playing the game. He doesn't have an inkling there's a game going on. So while we see Superman and Lois Lane caught in this web of mind games and paranoia and deceit, Wonder Woman is trying to handle a completely honest and enthusiastic person. Even when they take him over the edge to contrive some situation where she can't hide, they don't have it be suspicion or manipulation like with Lois. He is dragging his best friend along while he takes care of his problems. Poor Diana can't curb his pushiness without betraying her true self so she plays the part of his beleaguered army buddy that he's dragged to the park to see a show.



I think this is one thing that really worked, though. The story of the Amazons has Hercules deceiving them as their greatest shame. Ares, a deity not known in mythology for mind games, is often cast as a "Prince of Lies" style enemy who tricks men into warring against each other. She has villains in Dr. Psycho and the Duke of Deception. These things are still there post-Crisis, with the added pressure of Diana being a living lie-detector that wields the lasso of truth.

Deceit is a bad thing in this franchise, and an especially bad trait for a male character in this franchise. Diana's grown up being told that evil is spread through lies and that the greatest violence of men is preceded by lies. The ultimate expression of wickedness in men to her is lying. Any male love interest of Wonder Woman must be an honest man. Pre-Crisis, she had the most honest man in comics.

This level of openness added to his endearing naivete, which in turn added to his charm to a protector/nuturer like Diana.

Post-Crisis... well... Her most recent male love interest was Nemesis, the master of disguise. This was interesting, pairing the embodiment of truth up with a guy who's heroism is based on deception, and I enjoyed it but it didn't work for too long. I'm not sure why Simone broke the couple up, (ETA: Okay, now I know) but I do think the match would've been stronger if Nemesis were a more open and honest person. Also if he weren't so jaded about everything.

What worries me, though, is this is another thing they missed in the animated movie. Steve's mostly straightforward in that, but there's that fucking bar scene. He's your horrible stereotype of a deceitful man who only seeks sexual conquest in that scene, and that takes away what makes Steve a special enough man for Wonder Woman. All so that we can have her angry at him and saying her mother was right to warn her about men... and then have her turn around a couple scenes later and forget just how fucked up what he tried to do was.

God, I hate that bar scene.

Please do not make this character into Hal Jordan

And DC just found the surest way to get me interested in Flashpoint.

Yeah, if you didn't catch it DCW has it bolded.

I am aware that I may be the only genuine Steve Trevor fan on the Internet, but I'm going to go ahead and take this moment to do a little dance in my chair.



Now that I've done that I'm going to go ahead and worry, because things never really seem to work out the way I want them to. Off the top of my head they have passed on three good opportunities to restore Diana's love interest since the Perez reboot. Zero Hour just got us backstory of Hippolyta selling out the Amazons to Hercules. John Byrne's mucking around in the timestream got us Donna Troy as a magic mirror clone, Hippolyta as WWII Wonder Woman and six months of JLA compressed into 3 days. Infinite Crisis gave us Donna as an official baby sister, a secret identity and the little twirl effect. Three perfect opportunities to write Steve back in, three times they passed it by.

However, they are at least playing with the idea in their time-line miniseries, and this IS shaking up Diana. And Steve was still the love interest in the animated movie and the planned love interest for the TV series. He's the only male character that's been in the franchise since All-Star Comics #8. Eventually, they are putting him back in the love interest place and this is probably their best opportunity.

The other thing that worries me is how he'll be when he comes back. The Steve in the animated movie bugged me. He was too much like Hal Jordan. (Though honestly, if someone tried that bar scene with Hal I'd be screaming bloody murder about them portraying Green Lantern as a rapist. There are ways to make her disillusioned and angry at her boyfriend without muddying the consent waters further and perpetrating rape culture in a Wonder Woman movie by suggesting getting a woman drunk so that he can con her into bed is somehow not a villain-only behavior.) I think they just took the fighter pilot idea and built the personality based on the job, without realizing he only has that job as an excuse to get him to the island. That's why they can make him an intelligence officer or a secret agent or even a lawyer (but how the fuck a lawyer is getting washed up on Paradise Island is for David Kelley to explain) if they want. His career is a plot convenience, not part of his characterization like Hal being a pilot, Lois being a journalist or Kyle being an artist.



Beyond the idea he should be some sort of fighter jock, there's the idea that he should be some uber-macho traditionalist to properly match Wonder Woman. I've heard this from some writers and fans, and I really hope that's not what they pull either.

See, there's two things about portraying Steve Trevor, two items that make him the most viable male love interest for Wonder Woman and if you forget them you're going to screw him up:

1) He'll step in to save Wonder Woman if he can help her at any chance, but he's well aware she is super and he is not, and that does not make him feel like less of a man.

It is vitally, vitally important that Steve not be the slightest bit threatened by Wonder Woman being more powerful than him. As a concept he's attracted to the beautiful woman who regularly saves his ass when he's in over his head, and doesn't feel a need to prove that he can handle the situation without her. He thanks her for her help and tells her it's why he loves her. He's one of those chivalrous guys who thinks he should put himself in danger before he allows a woman to, but he's not even vaguely attracted to a woman he thinks needs his protection (this is why she could never get his eye as Diana Prince).


2) Wonder Woman is believably attracted to this guy.

Allow me to repeat that: Wonder Woman is believably attracted to this guy.

This is also really important, and I wasn't worried about it until the animated film. Steve Trevor was Hal Jordan in that film, and I couldn't for the life of me get why Diana liked him. (In the Carter TV show and pre-Crisis comics I get why she likes him, but in that movie I was mystified.) I know we have some stupid Silver Age panels floating about but I don't know how we get fratboy seeking sexual conquest from them.

Hitting on Wonder Woman constantly pre-Crisis wasn't the "You're gorgeous, we should hook up" sort of come on, but the "You and I should get married" sort of come on. Yes, this is born of pre-Crisis innocence when they couldn't say he wants to sleep with her, but it is still a completely different priority level from "I want to screw that hot chick" and you fundamentally change the character when you shift the focus from wanting a long-term relationship and family to wanting to sleep with Wonder Woman. Pre-Crisis his life's ambition was to marry and raise a family with a woman who could bench press an F-15. That does not properly translate to a fratboy attitude, no matter what point you want to make about people learning to respect women.



So why shouldn't they just change it? It's a new setting, right? A new era, all characters get updated... Well, again this is supporting Point 2. If he's not genuinely serious about her and he carries on like he's in High School and trying to get someone out to the van with him then he loses some of his appeal. And we all watch it and wonder why the fuck she's attracted to him.

In the pre-Crisis comics, we know why she likes him. He's selfless, brave as all hell, charitable, kind, and resilient. In his off-duty time he'll do volunteer work, like mentoring local children who can't afford summer camp. He'll offer to fight off sharks while he's injured. He'll dive into the ocean to follow when he sees her get pulled underwater by a merman. He'll get shot by spies while carrying important paperwork and manage to give her the briefcase before he loses consciousness. He'll be tied up and threatened with torture and still make smartass remarks. When she rescues him and asks if he's okay, he gets that sort of starry-eyed smile and says he's fine as long as she's around.

When you look through the pre-Crisis stories you see him constantly bugging her for marriage and calling her an Angel and beautiful, that's the most known stuff. We also see he's pretty dense and sexist at times, as you see when he tells Diana and Etta that certain things are man's work. So I can kind of see how someone would update him by emphasizing rather than minimizing these particular flaws, but that just loses the sense of the relationship.

I know the temptation to make a point about Diana teaching a man to be a decent human being is very strong, but that's something you can do with the scores and scores of guys she doesn't give a shit about. Having her teach her main male love interest to be a decent human being is a terrible idea. The relationship can't just be about what he gets from her. She needs to get something out of this.

What worries me the most is that they'll return him, and miss one of these two things and they'll lose the appeal of this relationship. I'm worried they'll want to teach some sort of lesson about masculinity and respect using Steve as the learner, and they'll destroy what makes the character unique and attractive to Diana. Then we'll have a guy who is just there and everyone will wonder why.

Or worse, we'll have a guy who acts like an asshole just because the writers genuinely believe women are attracted to handsome assholes.

Perez managed to capture a good Steve Trevor personality, a gentle thoughtful man with a real respect for other people and a desire to do good. The only problem was that he made him a father figure and the love interest for the wrong character. I trust Hester to go ahead and write this guy younger if he gets to introduce him.

I'm worried, though, that we'll get a Steve out of Flashpoint or a later crossover, written by a writer who thinks he should be a fighter jock jackass like Hal Jordan. I enjoy a good Hal Jordan story, but there should be only one Hal Jordan and under no circumstances should Wonder Woman date him. Steve Trevor should probably be the anti-Hal. Maybe even a little inexperienced with women and dating, on account of being so picky.

I would even go so far as to make it so that Steve and Hal knew each other as pilots in the Air Force, and show them contrasting each other in flashbacks.

We have a name and a face now!

They cast Wonder Woman.

Adrianne Palicki



I've never seen her in anything (I understand she was Kara in Smallville but I haven't watched that episode), but she is not on my list of nightmare casting choices so I am cautiously optimistic.

Even if they are making Steve a lawyer, and there's a guarantee of at least one depressed at night eating ice cream scene.

On the bright side, someone already tracked down Lynda Carter for an interview about it. She sounds quite optimistic.

What do you think of the casting?

"I think it is an amazing role to play. I know she is going to be really nervous about it, just because you would be. But I have a lot of confidence in [writer] David Kelley and what he's going to come up with. David Kelley's so talented, and that's really where it needs to be, is in the writing.

I spoke with David yesterday, and he's really really excited about it.

I think the story needs to be retold. It needs to have a fresh look at it. It affected a lot of people. I think it's time, I think it's important to have it out there again.

Is there any advice you'd offer her?

[Laughing] Gosh, I would never offer her any advice. Nor would she probably want any. If she wants to talk to me, that would be a whole different thing. But I would never offer, 'Now let me tell you how to do this.' She's an actress and she's a good actress and she's beautiful and I hope she kicks butt.

What makes Wonder Woman Wonder Woman?

A lot of you don't seem to get why this Superman #708 sequence is such a stupid idea, so we're going to have to go over Wonder Woman again.

Pre-Crisis, Diana is the sole daughter of the Queen of the reclusive Amazons who shunned the world of men because they had been deceived by men (Golden Age) and wished to avoid violence and conflict (Silver Age). She's trained from birth in their ways and philosophy. When a man, the very first man she ever sees, is hurt on the island she finds herself attracted to him and wants to learn more about him. Her mother realizes she's fallen in love and is susceptible to the charms of men. She tells Diana how dangerous men are, forbids her from seeing him, and says he's going home. When a contest is held to determine who will escort the man back, Diana enters in disguise because her mother won't approve and wins. She goes to man's world and pursues a romantic relationship with this man while fighting crime and inspiring women to take control of their own lives.

Post-Crisis, Diana is the sole daughter of the Queen of the reclusive Amazons who shunned the world of men because they had suffered violence at male hands. She's trained from birth in their ways and philosophy, and is the only woman on the island never to have seen or been hurt by a man. When a man, the very first man she ever sees, is hurt on the island she finds an opportunity to leave the island and seek her fortune. Diana's mother forbids this, but the goddess Athena tells her that it's her destiny to go to man's world. The contest is held. Diana enters in disguise because her mother won't approve and wins. She goes to man's world, gets a couple crushes on other heroes while fighting crime and inspiring people to take control of their own lives.

Throughout her history and her reboots, no matter what the motivation UNTIL NOW, there has been one common theme. Disobeying her mother and entering that contest incognito. Pre-Crisis, she did it because she was in love, post-crisis she did it because she wanted to explore the world. But nearly every version of her origin, there is the authority figure (her mother), the desire to leave (awakened by the injured man), and the means to do so (the contest). The important thing is her disobedience. She CHOOSES her own way in the world.

This is what makes the Greek Myth background so effective. Diana is a hero against the inevitability of ancient Greek tragedy. She is surrounded by the Gods and Fates, holding tight to her autonomy while adrift in a sea of predestination.

People might bash the pre-crisis story as a man inspiring her and say Superman #708 isn't as bad, but they're wrong. The injured man, Steve Trevor, doesn't awaken her sense of adventure, or her desire to heal and compassion for others (she feels compassion for him but this is not a new reaction to an injured person for her), or her courage. He doesn't set an example for her to follow. He doesn't SHOW her the way. He awakens her curiosity. He is what she desires, whether that be sexual desire or just an unknown person symbolizing an unknown world and a greater destiny.

The most consistent and important part of Diana's origin story is THAT CHOICE. It is SELF-DETERMINATION. She could stay on Paradise Island/Themiscyra and be a great hero in the Royal Guard there, saving her sisters from the animals and monsters known to populate the island. She doesn't need to leave to help people. Don't get me wrong, being the first woman in three thousand years to leave IS a heroic feat, but it is not the sort of heroism Superman represents. Diana as a teenager was the sort of hero Superman was.

What makes Wonder Woman special, and it is VERY specific to women who are raised to be sweet princesses who stay in the tower and make a good kingdom, is that she takes the road less traveled by her culture and by women in society. She steps out into the world and plays the part of the Prince/Knight Errant. She seeks love, honor, and glory far from home, and betters the lives of everyone she meets as she does so.

Honestly, this is what was missing from the JMS-scripted issues that Phil Hester has managed to capture. JMS had her like a leaf tossed by the wind. She made one real decision, to see the Oracle. After that she was guided from point to point by other characters, She wasn't moving herself. Once Hester took over, he did flashbacks to her self-determination in her childhood and showed her trying to balance her personal concerns (that family she was caring for) with her duty as a princess and the whims of fate. Without changing the plot, he fixed the character because he brought back the most important character trait, her self-determination.

That Superman #708 was set up as a story point by JMS just proves that he doesn't get Wonder Woman. Looking to Superman for hope and help is one thing, something everyone does in the DCU at some point. Looking to Superman to show her the way, to be the person who tells her how to be a hero? That strips Diana of her most important characteristic, which is that she is solid in her self-image and chooses her own destiny based on what she feels is best for her. She MAKES her path, she doesn't follow Superman's.

And I don't think I can put into words how important making your own path is for a woman. If you don't understand, and you don't see this as integral to Wonder Woman, I don't have the communication skill to help you understand why I do and why this decision undermines her.

Really only one book catches my eye.

DC Solicits are up for May.

I'm underwhelmed. The Flashpoint crossover starts and while I do like the whole "Alternate Timeline that is just wrong" concept, I am not particularly interestest in it. In the meantime, we draw closer to the War of the Green Lanterns which I am also not particularly interested in. I might sit out both sets of books.

And can anyone guess the quickest way to get me to drop a book? If your answer is "Put Judd Winick on it", give yourself a treat. You know why I'm dropping Batman and Robin this spring.

I'll believe Batwoman #2 is out when I see it.

And this brings me to Wonder Woman #611, which has unexpectedly become the book from DC I'm now most looking forward to. I read 605-606 this week. (I will be ignoring Superman #708, and I advise you do the same.) Hester has Diana acting like Diana. She's fighting to save people all her life, and not just her Amazon sisters. Hester's fight sequences are engaging. Hester's characters seem like people making decision, not just items that are moved from one place to another in order to set up a plot. Even knowing this timeline is temporary, I am actually worried that one of these characters will die next issue. His scripting actually got me to give a shit about some of them.

Yes, we still have JMS plot. Yes, we still have that stupid costume. Yes, I fucking hate what they are doing to the Morrigan but I think Phil Hester has achieved his goal. Wonder Woman is readable and enjoyable again. I recognize Diana again. I want to see what happens to her. I'm looking forward the May issue, because I now WANT to see the big reveal, and the big villain, and the whole point of crossing Simonson's plot with "Age of Apocalypse."

An Amazon Princess Kneels Before No Man

Okay, Steve... I know this is distracting...



Steve? Steve? Over here. Now that she's pulled away, I'm going to need to listen very carefully to what she says...



Steve, you really don't want to miss this one.



Don't miss it.... Don't miss it...



You missed it. Good god, man. You've been asking HER that question for forty years at this point! How could you miss it?!

Fortunately, Diana knows him well enough that one epic (and I mean that in the traditional Greek sense) battle later she brought up the subject again. She had greater success this time.



--Wonder Woman #329 by Gerry Conway and Don Heck.

I'm really looking forward to Avengers Academy 9

They've put out a preview for this one, so I'm optimistic it will ship on time. It's the book this week I'm looking forward to the most, because it continues my favorite Avengers Academy subplot, Quicksilver and Finesse.

Finesse really is my favorite new female character. You know that Data stereotype, with the robot who wants to have feelings and understand humans? How super-played it is? Well, Finesse is the opposite of it, being a human being who can't seem to understand feelings. She can't even get her own behavior at times. It's really interesting to watch.

In addition to that, she is pretty much perfect at everything else and so tends to be a bit overconfident. I love that we have this hypercompetent woman who is a failure at the stereotypically feminine area of intuition and empathy. It makes her very unusual.

Her entire motivation is she wants to learn new things. At every turning point, Finesse's thought is "Can I learn something from this person? Can I learn something from this action?" If she can't better herself from the action or interaction, she doesn't see the point of it. She is not altruistic or sympathetic towards anyone, but she's also not vindictive or actively malicious.

She has a fixation on Magneto that will probably bite her in the ass later on.

Plus she may be a villain's kid (and this issue is what promises to confirm or kill that possibility), and they have her tangled up with my favorite teacher on the team. Hell, this has actually redeemed the horrible Lie storyline for with the blackmail angle. Finesse, not understanding or empathizing with anyone, is constantly trying to test things so she can manipulate others into behaving the way she wants. (So far there's no indication this is for control, but because everyone else can do it and she can get people to teach her new things) She tries a little schoolgirl gushing on Hank, for example, and is disappointed it doesn't work. So for Quicksilver, once she figures out he lied about being a Skrull she decides she's going to blackmail him into teaching her everything Magneto taught him.

This is insanely amusing to me for two big reasons:

1) In the last Finesse issue, #2, she observes an argument between Pietro and Hank over appropriate training methods. Hank doesn't feel it's right to use the methods Magneto used, even watered down and with the safety on. Hank wins, but Finesse wants to learn the Magneto lessons. So... she is blackmailing him to teach her things that he already wanted to teach her.

2) She is an amateur at manipulation, and really doesn't understand how to do it. Contrast that with Magneto, who has practiced manipulation as the leader of a terrorist cult, the leader of his own country, convincing one of his sworn enemies to become romantically involved with him, and in a multi-decade struggle against a TELEPATH for the most powerful followers in the mutant community. Magneto is a master at social relations. Since he was a teenager, Quicksilver has found himself playing delicate manipulation games with Magneto where they do things like try to convince each other they are on the same side and see who double-crosses the other first. And judging by how pissed off Magneto was over the last game, documented in House of M... Quicksilver won. (And yes, I am prepared to argue over this one.)

Even discounting that last one, the fact that Pietro can play at all on Magneto's field means Finesse is in for one hell of a lesson here.

Gage has said that one of the kids will definitely go bad, and maybe others. I hope Finesse stays good because she's a real departure from the typical hero. I guess a lot depends on what happens in this issue, how the Taskmaster reacts to her and how she reacts to him. Maybe it'll open her emotions. Maybe it won't, but she sees a logical reason to follow one path or another.

The setup here is she only has Quicksilver for framing, but that might be the best chance she has. Hank, Tigra, and Justice have been mentoring the other kids and they are very touchy-feely teachers. Finesse just can't comprehend that, she needs a much colder and harsher perspective. Quicksilver is one of the most emotional members of the team, but he protects his heart well. We know he's capable of a lot of caring and kindness if she does have an emotional awakening here and needs sympathy. And if she doesn't, Quicksilver can strip away any appeal to pure heroism and present a brutal picture of reality. He can take it down to her odds of survival and success on either side of the moral divide. Every other teacher will come down to "This is the RIGHT way to act," but Pietro's much more cynical. He's bickered over right and wrong with his father, he knows that villains think they're in the right usually. He can make a good case for "this is the best way to act" and not tie it to mushy goodness.

Paperless Dolls

Rather than do anything productive, I've been goofing around on dollmaker/dress-up games. Someone on Tumblr linked this fairy tale shrug girl, and I've been on that dolldivine site all week creating people. I also like the elemental ones, but I was a bit disappointed with their superhero maker.



Other sites have superhero makers, but none so far have had the variety and interface that the Fairy Tale one on Dolldivine has. (I did make a nice girl speedster with this one, though.)



(Yeah, that second one is totally an AU design for a female Quicksilver.) Even the weaker ones are pretty addictive, though. Has anyone seen any really good superhero dollmakers out there?

Women in the Warriors

Today a coworker got us all to watch The Warriors, a 1979 film about a New York street gang. (It seems they're doing a remake, set in Los Angeles, and he wanted us to understand why he was so pissed off about the location change.) The gang itself was all male, as were most of their enemies, but I was really struck by the main plot points that involved women in the movie. Each encounter is just such a perfect example of how women are treated by macho all-male communities.

And yeah, I'm gonna spoil the shit out of this if you haven't seen it before. Also, there's a lot of sexual assault threats in the movie and I don't get too detailed with those but if you find that triggering you should consider this a warning.

There's four major portrayals of women in the movie. The first we meet is a disc jockey who passes encoded information to street gangs during her radio show. The most powerful gang in the city, the Gramercy Riffs, have set up a network of gangs that are aligned with them. The Warriors are in that network, but they've been framed for murdering the leader of the Riffs. Through this woman, the Riffs tell their entire network that the Warriors are the perpetrators, where they are, and that they want them dead. Throughout the movie she cuts in and tells the network where they were last seen and who they fought. We only ever see her mouth, but her voice is the voice of the universe aligning against our heroes. She's a powerful, removed, anonymous celebrity.

The second is Mercy, who follows and eventually joins the Warriors. She was initially involved with another gang--the Orphans (who are not part of the network and not trying to kill them), and purposefully turns a peaceful situation into a confrontation between the Orphans and the Warriors. For this, Ajax--the biggest, strongest member of the gang--seizes her from behind and threatens to rape her. The gangleader Swan tells him to let her go, then grabs her and threatens to have the entire gang rape her. Then the Orphans show and the Warriors avoid a major fight by blowing up a car. Duly impressed by the explosion as well as her own capture and their threats, she goes with them and somehow ends up following them the entire way to Coney Island despite Swan telling her he doesn't like her or approve of her way of life. Naturally, she and Swan end up together.

Okay, I actually rather liked Mercy. She actually gets to be a person, stands up for herself, takes as many stupid risks as the boys, and ends up arming herself for the final confrontation. She's the girl who joins the male clique. And while they do have good reason not to like or trust her, they still attack and threaten her. She suffers threats and insults based on her gender, but if she's persistent, sticks around and proves she has the same values and macho toughness as the men she gets to be a fixture. (But she doesn't get a vest. That's significant to me.)

The third and fourth women are both Odyssey-style traps, our Circe and our Sirens, I suppose, even though our Circe is the dispenser of justice.

At the beginning of the movie, we see scenes of the gang on the subway spliced with them exchanging exposition in pairs. Here we meet Ajax (played by James Remar) who immediately establishes himself as a homophobic asshole. He says something about hopefully meeting and bedding strange women during their trip to Gramercy, and when the other member suggests they have more important concerns he uses a gay slur. It's his go-to insult, and it along with his attitude towards women and his challenging Swan for leadership make me figure we're suppose to hate him and hope he dies first. (He does not die first, and there is a point in the movie where I actually blurted out "You killed the wrong one.")

Ajax, however, is the best fighter of the group (barring probably Cleon at the beginning) and gets a really great line and fight scene. Thing is, he knows he's a great fighter and he thinks that as the most manly man in the group he should get leadership and wimmiz. Lots of wimmiz, whenever he wants them. He's the strongest and the fiercest but gets taken down by his own entitlement and his disregard for other people's boundaries. Passing through a park they walk by a woman on a park bench. Ajax wants to go back and pick her up, the others want to move on. He separates from the group and sits next to the woman, who flirts with him.

Flirting wasn't enough for Ajax, though, and he moves on to sexual assault. She struggles and tells him at least twice to stop, then she handcuffs him to the bench, jumps away and shows him her badge. Then she whistles for a police car. Ajax, of course, starts ranting and trying to break free and actually pulls the bench towards her when the uniformed officers arrive.

And he won't calm down, so they whack him with a nightstick.

It is immensely satisfying to watch.

Ahem... Disappointing as it was not to see further police brutality against this character (All the cops in this movie seemed to be decent hardworking people removed from the plot who didn't escalate any of the encounters themselves), I was pretty happy to see that the homophobia and misogyny were leading to this guy's downfall.

The policewoman is obviously our Circe analogue, but she's also the unknown woman. And even to Swan and Co, she's not spoken about as a person. The argument is whether Ajax can stay and claim her as a conquest, or if it's more important to move along to the next station. If Swan or the others feel rape is wrong, they are prevented from admitting it by their bullshit macho code. The unknown woman is just a piece of meat on a park bench, and that attitude takes Ajax off the board.

And last we have the all-girl gang. This was easy to see coming, because they were grouped and posed just like a gang, and all wearing a matching article of clothing just like the other gangs.

Of course our heroes follow them home, hoping to get laid. That's where things get weird. The camera lingers on a female character dressed in blue overalls (rather than the tye-dyed T-shirt so I think that meant she had a leadership position) and smoking. It travels around the room and points out images of women posed in masculine poses, moving in masculine ways. As time passes, two of the women start to dance together very suggestively. When asked what the girls call themselves, one of them answers "the Lizzies."

I think at this point we can abandon the sub and safely call it text.

Either way, all of the lesbian implications and masculine posture are framed as warning signs. You get the intense feeling (and only one of the Warriors, Rembrandt, seems to get this) that something is wrong, that these guys are not going to have a relaxing night of sex, smoking and sandwich service. In fact, you get the feeling that the "dudes" they said were up in the Bronx don't really exist, and that someone's going to do something OH GOD SHE LOCKED THE DOOR AND THERE'S THE KNIFE. Yeah, that's a lesbian gang that wants to kill you RUN! RUN!

Lucky for our heroes, the girl with the gun is a shitty shot and they escape with their lives. I will give the Lizzies this, though. Out of all the casualties in the movie? The cops were the biggest danger to the Warriors. The Gramercy Riffs, who are super-intensely-tough-and-scary took out their leader Cleon, but after that no gang touches them with the exception of the Lizzies managing to cut poor Rembrandt. This makes them the most effective antagonistic gang after the Riffs.

But out of all the women in the movie, I found the Lizzies scene the most intense reveal about how a group of men might view women. Because here is a group of very like-minded women that have formed a community of their own, and it is portrayed as very suspicious and very dangerous. There are lesbian overtones all over the place, and the atmosphere is a dreamy haze of welcome that just stands to be ripped away when the women surround and destroy the men.

And that was when I looked back at the movie and saw Fandom, the military, the technical communities wrapped into one hypercompressed macho unit called the Warriors, acting out my life and the lives of my peers on the screen with gangland violence. But I like stuff like that, so it made the movie instantly much cooler to me.

Well, that and a cop smacking Ajax with a nightstick. Man, he deserved that.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

So... Does anyone remember this post where I ranted about the Perez reboot taking Wonder Woman off the JLA founder's list?

As a result, Wonder Woman was younger, less experienced, and less wordly than her former contemporaries. Again, this may not seem like a big deal to you, but it sure as hell does to me. Seniority is a huge deal where I work. These men were her colleagues before, and now, when she had been an equal when it came to age, experience and wisdom, she was now behind the curve. She went from looking to them as friends and co-workers to looking at them as examples and possible mentors. When they were veteran heroes she was a rookie. She was originally meant as an inspiration specifically to women, but now, when she came on the scene, it was littered with female heroes anyway. Her own sidekick, Donna Troy, had been recast at the beginning of the timeline and was, as Wonder Girl, more experienced than Wonder Woman when she first arrived.

And why? So that Diana, originally conceived as a teacher could be recast as an innocent setting her first feet on Man's Shores and learning the harsh lessons of life. They couldn't do it like Batman: Year One or Man of Steel and write her origin in a miniseries set at the beginning of the timeline. No, they put her at the beginning of Crisis so that we would watch her new life unfold in real-time. They rewrote her supporting cast to fit. Where she'd been a mentor and friend of a group of young girls, she was now surrounded by older women (Julia Kapetalis, the new Etta Candy, Myndi Mayner) who were there to guide and mentor her. She'd previously had a love interest, an adorable Navy pilot with a cute butt she followed all the way from Themiscyra, a man with old-fashioned ideas about womanhood who found Wonder woman strangely intriguing. She used to roll her eyes at him, try to subtly teach him lessons, and save him from danger when he got in over his head. Now, he was aged over twenty years ahead of her, and instead of a cute guy she wanted to come around to her way of thinking she had an older man to act as a father figure and guide her in this new world because she was now so fucking young and naive.

Or any of the other posts where my point is that as the most recognizable independent female superhero in the genre she should be the equal of Superman and Batman in experience, status, and ability and treated with the same respect?

If not, go read those. That way you'll know why I'm so pissed off at this.

And I'm going to remain pissed off until they X-men: Omega out this fucking reboot and restore her to the same experience level as Superman and Batman. Because they've shoe-horned her in as the doe-eyed novice of the Trinity once already.

My evening.

Today I got a couple backlogged shipments of comics, which brings me actually up to this week's order. Yay!

This will combine with the last month's backlog and another greatly anticipated reading acquisition for one glorious binge-reading session...



...on some other night. I have responsibilities.



It's all so deeply depressing.

How do I not own this?

I just found out this trade existed:



So it has the Magneto War, which is the storyline where Joseph kicks it, as well as my personal Magneto Rex which is just this crazy Magneto, Rogue and Quicksilver story and a must-have for any connoisseur of 90s superhero soap or Rogue awesomeness. It is sadly discontinued, but fortunately just about everything in it is available online if you're up for dealing with Marvel's confusing digital strategy. I'm just amazed it's out there and I never saw it. Those storylines are two of my favorite rereads in X-men comics.

This new knowledge of my own fallibility brings another question to mind: Have they ever collected Dark Seduction, the Magneto in Genosha-focused storyline that involves Polaris and Quicksilver, in trade paperback? That one isn't up in digital comics, and unlike Magneto War and Magneto Rex I wasn't able to read it when it first came out.

Happy Birthday, Kalinara!

So, today is Kalinara's birthday, and I've been racking my head for a gift.

Maybe she'd like a Guy Gardner: Warrior figurine?



Hmm... doesn't look to be for sale. Ooo, how about an ice sculpture?



Naw, that might get dusty. Maybe I should be more creative. Set up an event, like a visit from a relative who hasn't lived nearby for a while.



That could backfire. Back to traditional gifts. Umm... Everybody likes guns?



On second thought, that looks complicated.

Hmm... OH! I know! She just got a new cat. I'll get her a kitty bed, just like...



Or not.


Y'know what? Think I'll buy her some ice cream next time we get together. Yeah. That's it.

In Defense of Peter Bishop

If you're not caught up on this week's Fringe episode, "Concentrate and Ask Again", don't read any further. Spoilers for the series up until the end of that episode.



There are two things that bug me about this Altlivia fallout.

One, remember back when there was a story with the Chameleon in Spider-Man, and it looked like he pretended to be Peter and slept with his roommate? And how we had a big discussion on rape and consent as a result.

Well, this is the same situation. Peter slept with Altlivia, but his consent was based on the thought that this was HIS Olivia, a woman he trusted implicently and had grown to love over the past two years. Peter didn't really give consent.

The writers, especially in the last episode, have chosen to not explore this at all. In fact, rather than treat this as a violation they have chosen to treat it as a romance and actually set it up so that they can not treat this as a violation or else an entire universe will die.

And maybe I'm in the wrong part of fandom, but few fans seem to have remarked on this at all. I mean, I even saw a few posts discussing that what happened to Olivia was a form of rape, that then go on to talk about what a self-absorbed jerk Peter is. What the hell, fans? If this were Peternate and Olivia (or a show with Patricia and Oliver?) they'd be screaming to high heaven from every blog but instead we're going to constantly talk about how Peter should have known better? Come on, fandom.

And speaking of whether or not he should have noticed, I think people are being really unfair to Peter there too.

The thing about Peter is that he's a social person, which actually puts him in the unique position of being the one to fall for this hardest. Why? Because you don't really get to understand people as well as he does without observing them and altering your judgments based on how they act differently in certain situations. He's not someone to go "Oh, this is weird behavior, she must be an imposter." He's someone to go "Oh, that's weird. Either something's going or this is something new I learned about them. What's different for this person that's causing this?"

It looks like he's stupid for not knowing what with everything that's going on, but this guy is still getting used to the weirdness. It's just not human nature to seek out parallel universes and shape-shifters as an explanation for every time someone does something different or unepected. Human beings are not consistent creatures, and they do alter their behavior from time to time.

It's second nature for Peter to observe people, take all their normal behavior PLUS the odd behavior into account when he makes judgments, and con the crap out of them based on that. Even though he knows there's shapeshifters and alternate universes out there, this is a guy who made his living based on his skill at dealing with people for the vast majority of his. The only way he can do that is to watch people, and accept what they do as part of their personalitiesAnything new with Olivia he had to rationalize away BECAUSE he's spent his entire life paying attention to people and has seen them change this way before.

His rationalization? "This is how she acts in a romantic relationship." He's never seen her in one before, let alone been in one with her. And That's not something that a couple years and conscious knowledge of weirdness will erase. And all his life this guy has had to adjust his impressions--not challenge--when someone acts differently.

Even in the setting, we're asking way too much of Peter to expect him to have figured this out earlier than he did. It's one thing for Olivia to be upset, she's got a ton to be upset about. But as awesome as she is and much as we identify with her, we're not Olivia. We didn't just come back from that shit to land into this shit. Give Peter a break, all right. Dude still hasn't worked out his issues with Walter yet.