YES YES YES!

(incidentally, I'd still love to see the return of the OLD read-a-thon).


And, as a comparison and reference, here's my own take on this run: classiccomics.boards.net/post/22251/thread

Though far less entertaining for us

Wonder Woman #2
written by Greg Potter and George Perez, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson




Synopsis: We meet Steve Trevor, an Air Force officer and Vietnam vet who has been sidelined due to blowing the whistle about his warmongering superiors. One of those dudes sends him out on a secret mission. Steve is uneasy, and we quickly learn he has reason to be - the general is actually a pawn of Ares.

Meanwhile, Diana - decked out in her battle armor, which we see here for the first time, and which looks awesome - is waiting for a sign from the gods, who have promised her a new weapon to battle Ares. In Olympus, that weapon is being forged; it's the lasso! Hermes takes the finished product down to the island and whisks away a startled Diana.

He takes her to Ares' abandoned home so she can start her search for the missing god of war, who threatens both Earth and Olympus. She enters a cave and meets Ares' daughter, who gives Diana a magic talisman that can track Ares.

Just then! Hermes alerts Diana to a danger back home. It's Steve Trevor! Or, more to the point, it's his co-pilot, who is a pawn of Ares. The whole mission was a ruse to get the plane inside Paradise Island's defenses. The co-pilot drops a giant bomb on the city, intending to destroy all the Amazons! But Diana shows up, flies in, grabs the bomb and hurls it away just in time. The plane then crashes in the ocean. Diana dives in and rescues Steve.

Meanwhile, back at the hidden ranch, the general who sent Steve on his mission is found dead, apparently blasted to atoms by some strange force. Hmm. I'm guessing Ares might be involved here. Call it a a hunch.

On Healing Island, the Amazons debate what to do about Steve. Philippus, who seems to be Hippolyte's general or bodyguard, wants to toss him back into the sea. But Diana argues against this, as she was instructed by Neptune to save him. She also points to the similarity between her costume and the symbols of the American Air Force as some sort of sign from the gods (nice touch there).

She's pretty much proven right immediately, as Athena shows up. Athena is like, "hey, sorry I haven't talked to you guys for 3,000 years, but now that we desperately need someone to save us, I suddenly find the Amazons way more interesting." She explains to Diana that there is a second half to the medallion, and Diana needs to get that first before she can use it to find Ares. And that means... going to the world of man. Diana scoops up Steve Trevor and takes off, following Hermes to America!

Meanwhile! Her every move is watched by Deimos and Phobos, the twisted sons of Ares. They vow to destroy her! TO BE CONTINUED!!


Notes: It's really jarring just how much story Perz and Potter and packing into these comics. Perez is doing 10+ panels per page at some points here. As a result, they can really fit in a ton of story into a short space without it feeling rushed. Overstuffed, maybe a little. But hardly rushed, and this is about as far from decompression as you can get. Why readers these days settle for 1/10th the story for five times the price is beyond me.

The first couple pages with Steve Trevor, which are from his point of view, are interesting, and they also very quickly and efficiently establish a bunch of things about him. First off, he's older - a Vietnam vet, which in 1987 puts him around 35-45 years old. Perez does a pretty good job drawing different faces, unlike a lot of major artists; as a result, Steve actually looks like he's 40. It also makes me happy at the possibility thatthere may not be a romance between him and Diana this time around. If that's the case, maybe he'll be more interesting.

Also: Etta Candy is his attache.

There's a lot of mythology in this issue, but we also finally get to spend some time with Diana and get to know her personality. So far, they have a good grasp on her - she's wise beyond her years and compassionate, but she's also brave and acts decisively. She's still being played as young and inexperienced. I actually have a feeling her reaction to the world of man - and how that world changes her - is going to be the main focus of the series from a character perspective. At least, I hope so. That's what I would do with this setup. 

She also looks badass wearing her armor, which reminds me of something I forgot from issue #1: Ares looks really cool. As great as he is, George has designed some pretty godawful costumes in his day, but he's hitting on all cylinders so far here.

And finally, when Hermes first appears, he mentions in passing that he gave Diana the gift of flight when she was born. So we're not going to mess around with any weirdness about flying, which sometimes cropped up in the original series, where she occasionally flew for no apparent reason and on other occasions would use her magic lasso to somehow fling herself into the air or whatever. Just giving her the power of flight makes things much simpler.

My Grade: A-. So far, so good.

When I read those issues a few years ago, it struck me that Perez may have written them in "Year One" fashion, and just like with "Hawkworld", editorial messed things up a bit by bringing them into the present. The result was Diana not being a founding member of the JLA and all kinds of continuity glitches.

Wonder Woman #3
written by George Perez and Len Wein, art by George Perez and Bruce Patterson



Synopsis: Diana arrives in... Boston! None of that "Central City" type nonsense for Wonder Woman, no sir. She covertly deposits a still unconscious Steve Trevor at the hospital at Hanscom Air Force Base. Needless to say, the Air Force people there are surprised to see him. They also immediately arrest him for murder, thanks to the suspicious death of his commanding officer (who we know was actually a pawn of Ares).

Meanwhile, Hermes leads Diana to Harvard University and leaves her in the company of Professor Julia Kapatelis, an expert in Greek studies. After a confused introduction in Greek (Diana does not yet speak English), the professor gets a hold of Diana's magic amulet and it gives her a mystic hoodoo whammy. She realizes something weird is going on, so she invites Diana over to her home.

Meanwhile, meanwhile! Deimos and Phobos both make plans to defeat Diana. Phobos takes the direct route, creating a figurine of pure evil and mailing it to the Kapatelis residence. Deimos is trickier; he holds a rally where he manipulates a bunch of fearful, self-proclaimed "patriots" into serving evil in the name of America. In other words, he's holding the first Tea Party rally. He then goes to an identical rally in the Soviet Union. Hmm. This looks bad.

Back at the Air Force base, the guy who arrested Steve now tries to kill him! Yes, this guy is also a servant of Ares. Steve escapes, but the officer shoots some guards and frames Steve for their murders as well. It lokos bad for Steve. He only has one potential ally: His attache, Etta Candy. Steve goes to her to ask for help.

In Boston, both Diana and the figurine arrive at the Kapatelis home. The professors daughter, Vanessa, is there and she's not a fan of having a house guest. The professor begins teaching Diana English and discovers that Diana is some kind of genius savant, picking up on stuff really way too fast. Unfortunately, they don't get too far in their studies, however, as the figurine comes to life and turns into a hideous monster named Decay, who drains the life out of Vanessa, turning her into a pitiful, withered old shell of a person.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

Notes: A lot going on in this issue. Firstly, Steve Trevor's story is actually interesting, which is the first time anyone has ever said that in history. So right there, the gang gets major kudos. Secondly, in a strange way this is kind of the first issue of the series, in that it sets up Diana's new status quo: Boston base, the Kapatelis family, her interactions with man's world, etc. Thirdly, both Deimos and Phobos set up plans that are sure to be the major focus of the next few issues. Plot wise, there's a lot to take in.

There are also some character bits that are equally interesting. Diana's reaction upon meeting Vanessa, who is a teenager, is very interesting. Diana gets a big smile on her face and her thought balloon says "I've never seen another woman quite like her... she's so young... so vulnerable... so beautiful..."

When you think about Paradise Island, you realize that two out of three ain't bad. Diana literally has never seen another woman who is so young. As the only child born on the island, every other woman she has met has been over 3,000 years old. And as a result, she certainly hasn't met anyone vulnerable either; pyhsically, most of the Amazons are warriors, but even those that aren't surely have a certain level of self confidence and self possession born out of millennia of experience.

So someone like Vanessa really is a whole new thing for Diana. The beautiful part, though, is probably what most Wonder Woman fans focused on at the time. I'm just guessing. From my brief ventures into the Wonder Woman fan community, it's clear that a large percentage - or at least, a very vocal percentage - of the fan base is from the LBGTQ community. The idea that the Amazons would have to be lesbian or bi-sexual is a pervasive one within the Wonder Woman fan community, and it makes some sense, as it's hard to believe that these women would go three millennia without any sexual activity. Of course, this starts to get into some murky waters here when you start to think about the question of what percentage of people are actually gay. I don't think anybody really wants to discuss nature versus nurture in the context of homosexuality - anybody except Wonder Woman fans, that is.

All of which is to say that regardless of whether Diana is actually a lesbian, she would have grown up in a society where that was the only type of romantic relationship, so her reaction to meeting the young, attractive and - from Diana's perspective - unique Vanessa is totally understandable. It's still also kind of surprising that they would actually bring that subtext into the story, though. I suspect that the combination of how bad the sales were on the previous series and what a big star Perez was at the time gave him latitude that other creators on other titles might not have had.

Speaking of which. Here we are on issue #3 and we've already had a shakeup in the creative team. Out goes Greg Potter, in comes Len Wein. Though, I think, in somewhat different roles. Potter was actually on board the title before George joined, and after George joined, they co-plotted the story. Now, however, Wein is just doing the scripting for George's plots. I haven't been able to find what caused this, but it seems likely that Potter and Perez had some creative differences over the direction of the book and since Perez was the star, his vision won. That's just speculation, of course.

Finally, I want to discuss the new setting of Boston. As a lifelong Massachusetts man, I'm pretty excited about this. Even without my own personal connection to the area, though, I think it's an interesting idea and one I wish more comics took. In the DCU, traditionally the stories have taken place in fictional cities, while in the MU, just about everything happens in New York, with occasional forays in San Francisco. Setting the stories in another location open up different storytelling opportunities. Even just getting a different flavor from all the NYC stuff in the MU is a breath of fresh air; the 400th time someone fights on the Statue of Liberty is not as interesting as the first time someone fights near the statue of Paul Revere.

Of course, there's always the question of getting those details right. I'm not picking nits, because the mistakes don't bother me at all, but of course I'm very interested in just how they use Boston in the stories. There are a bunch of little details they spice in here right off the bat to establish the setting. Some of them they get right, some they get... well, almost right.

For instance, the front cover is set in Boston Common. In fact, here's a photo taken from almost the exact spot Diana is landing. You can see George was working from a reference photo, because he even has the buildings correct on the left side:



On page 2, there's a woman reading the Boston Globe. The back page has the front page of the sports section, with a headline reading "Bruins Game Delayed By Bomb Scare." I'm not sure what time of year this takes place; there's no snow on the ground, but the people are wearing heavier coats, so it could be during a part of the year when the Bruins were playing. However, the Boston Globe was not then, nor has it ever been to my knowledge, a tabloid. There is a separate sports section. The back page of the front section of the Globe is either news articles or ads. What this lady is reading is actually the Boston Herald, which is a tabloid and which does have the sports stuff on the back page. Small detail, but changing the name of the paper would have gotten it just right. Not that I would have wanted to be caught on panel reading a rag like the Herald either.

Hanscom Air Force base is a nice touch, it's in Concord. I've driven by it a number of times but have never been on base, so I don't know how accurate the rendering of the hospital is. On page 12, though, there's another detail that they almost got right, but not quite. The caption reads "Boston at rush hour, where Route Two, as ever, has become a parking lot for the duration." The picture George has drawn isn't actually Route 2, though, it's Storrow Drive. Storrow runs parallel to Route 2 along the Charles River.

Also, the Kapatelis house is said to be on Beacon Hill. Couple things here. First, the picture George drew of this on page 15 is not Beacon Hill. No way. Secondly, the professor must be a professor of gold, because even a Harvard professor would have a hard time getting the coin to buy a house on Beacon Hill. And thirdly, this is just a matter of personal preference I guess, but gosh, if I lived on Beacon Hill and worked in Harvard, I would probably not drive there, I'd take the T. It's only 3 or 4 subway stops away. Driving in Boston would just not be worth the hassle. Hell, getting parking in Beacon Hill isn't worth it. I'm not sure I would even own a car in that scenario.

All very minor details (though George really could have done a lot better with the depiction of Beacon Hill). I'm stoked that this is set in Boston and so far it's adding some neat flavor.

My Grade: A-.

I think everybody knows that "prison gay" exists. And it exists in several ways: While the vast majority of men who engage in sexual intercourse in prison (willingly) do not and will never identify as gay, sometimes the relationships get more than just physical.

Well, maybe not. This is just an impression of their first meeting, I don't know where they are going with it. I'll take your word on how it develops.

But I don't think it's a crazy first impression for a reader to get. The difference in their relative ages is not obvious to me. Given how young and inexperienced Diana is being portrayed as at times here, my impression from this issue - again, just from their initial meeting, which was only a couple panels - is that they are close to the same age. With Diana being, say, 18? And Vanessa 16? Some of this is hard to guess, though, thanks to changing fashions. However old Vanessa is supposed to be, thanks to her hair and clothes, she now looks like she's about 35. Only in the context of a later panel where she's on her bed surrounded by stuffed animals does she look like a teenager. And Diana's age is vague as well. She might be as old as, what, 20? 22? Obviously, if she's 18 and Vanessa is 16, that's very different from Diana being 22 and Vanessa being 14. But the art and characterizations aren't clear.

Also, this short meeting is immediately followed by Vanessa calling her boyfriend, which felt a little like the writers setting up future tension - you know, Diana is interested, but Vanessa is straight! What will happen?!

Frankly, I'm glad to hear they aren't going there with this.  Still, here's the panel in question. Given the thought balloon and the look on Diana's face, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume romantic interest from this panel and sequence, even if later events eventually prove this impression wrong. :