Superman vs. Wonder Woman

After some work-related interruptions, and a brief detour to read Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, I got back to Adventures of Superman: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and read this treasury book from 1977, which is featured on the cover of the collected edition. Most of the creative team is the same as in the Superman 3-parter from this same HC that I reviewed about a week or so ago, i.e., the writer is Gerry Conway and the artist is Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN), while the inks this time around are by Dan Adkins.
A quick plot summary: the setting is Earth 2 during the Second World War (1942 to be precise). Both Superman and Wonder Woman, while helping with the war effort separately – Supes in the Pacific theater and WW in Washington, DC – learn about the Manhattan Project. Wonder Woman in particular is horrified by the idea of nuclear weapons and initially sets about destroying the facilities where they’re being developed. This leads to a throwdown with Superman. Meanwhile, the Axis powers are also trying to get their hands on the nuke technology, so that Baron Blitzkrieg and a super-powered samurai called Sumo are sent by their respective governments in Berlin and Tokyo to procure it by any means necessary. This leads to them tussling with our two heroes as well.
Overall, this isn’t a bad story, but it’s not without its rather serious flaws. I liked that way it’s framed, like a classified US government report, and I also liked that the initial fight between Wonder Woman and Superman was some contrived mind-control situations, rather they were really at odds with each other. However, I didn’t like that after the initial tussle they decided to settle their differences with another big fight – on the Moon (?!). The resolution of their conflict, and WW’s justified horror over nuclear weapons, is rather unsatisfying as well.

Moore clearly fails...see The Killing Joke (though even he says it's pretty bad).  But, looking at J.K. Rowling as a person, and digging deep in to the subtext of Harry Potter, it's way beyond dire.  And I say that as someone who tolerated Potter because my kids loved the series (thankfully they've outgrown that).  Unfortunately my daughter-in-law hasn't outgrown it and I have to hold my tongue a lot.  

I appreciated the soap opera aspects of Harry Potter, myself, but was pretty irritated by the series' often nonsensical and contradictory plots that apparently got a free pass from "serious" book critics. I was also annoyed when the same critics (who usually wouldn't be caught dead reading a fantasy book) praised Rowling's imagination when she was merely recycling old material that readers of Burroughs or Le Guin were pretty familiar with.

As a person, I quite respect her; she overcame difficult conditions, then managed her IP in such a way that it hasn't yet jumped the shark. I may not be a fan of her work, but she seems to know what she's doing and she got a lot of kids reading books, for which I'm grateful.

I've always thought it superior to The Dark Knight Returns, though I do enjoy that comic too. But I hear you on it not aging especially well.

Bolland's artwork is always good, of course (I first encountered him in 2000AD when I was 9 or 10 years old), but he really knocked it out of the park with The Killing Joke. Even by his high standards, the art in that comic is in a class of its own.

Blasphemous, Icctrombone? Add me to the list. I’ve read it - twice - and it didn’t appeal to me, story-wise or art-wise.